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A quarterly newsletter for Sierrans interested in problems posed by the escalating accumulation of nuclear waste. Compiled, condensed, and edited by Ellen Winchester for the Sierra Club National Nuclear Waste Task Force, tel. 850-576-0954. Editorial: Nuclear Waste - Not! Domestic USA Editorial: Nuclear Waste - Not! (Christian Science Monitor, 4/07/97) Proposals for a national disposal site, prospectively at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, face stiff political opposition. With these plans on hold, it seems obvious that the nation should not be doing anything to add to the billions of pounds of radioactive materials in need of safe disposal. Yet that's just what the Department of Energy (DOE) has in mind. DOE has embarked on a program to restart the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel at Savannah River, S.C., a site that for decades was devoted to the production of plutonium for nuclear weapons. That production was shut down with the end of the cold war, but its legacy is a vast, costly waste problem the federal government has only begun to tackle. Reprocessing was resumed at Savannah River in 1996 to take care of some spent fuel that had been left in the reprocessing "canyons" and was corroding. Having fired the plant up again, however, DOE and the operator of Savannah River, Westinghouse, are inclined to keep it running, and have in mind reprocessing fuel tubes from foreign reactors too. DOE also is hoping to continue a newer reprocessing project at national laboratories in Idaho and Illinois. The technique used there, "pyroprocessing," is thought to be more advanced, but it too will contribute to the waste problem. There might be economic and even environmental arguments for pursuing these projects, but they don't wash. The economics are local. South Carolina's lawmakers, like those in other parts of the country, don't want to see jobs lost. They've fought to keep Savannah River open. Any environmental pleas for reprocessing as a means of recycling nuclear materials to produce fresh nuclear fuel are overwhelmed by the additional radioactive wastes generated by the process. DOE also wants to start up a project to turn the military's excess plutonium into fuel pellets to be used in commercial nuclear power plants. These MOX (mixed oxide) pellets would represent the first commercial use of plutonium by the US - and end the longstanding policy of keeping that volatile, weapons-ready material under tightest control. Nuclear weapons experts in the government oppose the MOX project, recognizing that it presents an enhanced danger of plutonium getting into the wrong hands and a terrible example for other nations, notably Russia, with excess supplies of the material. A better way to deal with the oversupply of plutonium is to ready it for long-term safe storage by conversion into a glassy, immobile state through a process called vitrification. DOE should stop coming up with ways to keep its nuclear operations going and get on with the task of cleaning up after them. DOMESTIC USA Plutonium, Tritium, and Depleted Uranium DOE MOVES AHEAD ON RECYCLING PLUTONIUM FROM NUCLEAR WARHEADS as fuel in commercial nuclear reactors. It has said it prefers a consortium approach such as Project P.E.A.C.E. (Plutonium Excess Arms Converted to Electricity) formed by British Nuclear Fuels, Comm Ed, Electricity de France and Duke Power. Their plan is to use a Cogema-owned French facility to begin producing MOX fuel for use in Comm Ed and Duke Power reactors until a U.S. fuel fabrication facility is built and licensed. The first MOX fuel would be placed in U.S. reactors as early as 1999. DOE is soon expected to announce an "Implementation Plan" for the "acquisition of mixed oxide fuel fabrication services and reactor irradiation services." The facility will be Government owned and either newly constructed or the modification of an existing facility. (The Nuclear Monitor 2/97 and 4/97) SCIENTISTS SLAM ARGONNE PYROPROCESSING PROGRAM as harmful and wasteful. In a letter to key members of Congress, scientists Frank Von Hippel, James Warf, Peter Johnson, and Thomas Cochran state their belief that the principal purpose of the pyroprocessing program is to hold open the possibility of reviving the Advanced Liquid Metal Reactor (ALMR). They also asserted that pyroprocessing produces unfamiliar forms of radioactive waste that are not likely to be suitable for emplacement in a geologic repository. (Nuclear Control Institute, 3/20/97) DOE PLANS TRYOUT OF LOS ALAMOS MOX IN CANADIAN HEAVY WATER REACTOR. Two shipments to Chalk River, one of 1.5 pounds, the other of 0.5 pounds (if additional testing is required) will be made as part of a trial run of the proposed cooperative program in which Russian and US weapons plutonium will be used as fuel for electric power generation. Heavy water reactors are more suitable for the job than the light water reactors used for power in the U.S. Governors and tribes along the shipment route, but not the wider public, have been advised that an environmental assessment of the plan will be made. (Tom Clements, Greenpeace, 5/12/97) PLUTONIUM-238 WILL SUPPLY ELECTRIC POWER FOR NASA'S CASSINI PROBE to Saturn. The Cassini power generator contains a very large amount of radioactivity which would present a risk, not only by failure of the initial launch by a Titan IV rocket (which has a record of explosions), but also during a 1999 near Earth fly-by which is needed to gain speed for the long journey to Saturn. Many are urging NASA to develop and use solar electric generators instead of nuclear to avoid risk to Earth by a half million curies of Pu-238 being dispersed into the atmosphere in case of an accident. The so-called Systems for Nuclear Auxiliary Power (SNAP) employ Pu-238 (88 year half-life), a non-fissile isotope that emits alpha particles and causes intense localized heating with virtually no penetrating gamma radiation. Thermocouples of semiconductor materials assembled between the high temperature inside, compared to the cold outside, generate an electric current. A SNAP generator in a 1961 satellite produced 3 watts of electricity for years. The six Apollo lunar launches used larger SNAPs, one for 50 watts using 14 kilograms of Pu-238 (240,000 curies). The Galileo deep space probe, launched in 1989 (delayed from 1982), which recently reached Jupiter, uses SNAP generators. Now a decade later Cassini, to be launched from Cape Canaveral in October 1997, will have 33 kilograms of Pu-238 (560,000 curies) in its generator. The principal pathway of environmental plutonium contamination to humans is by inhalation, especially of finely divided particulate matter, which causes damage to lungs and the immune system and eventually cancer. Of 24 radioactive missions by the USA, 3 have failed, one on April 21, 1964, which dispersed 1 kilogram (17,000 curies) of Pu-238 into the global atmosphere. The USSR has had 6 of 39 radioactive missions fail, including the widely publicized Russian Mars spacecraft crash in November 1996 which spread its 0.2 kilogram of Pu-238 onto Chile, Bolivia, and the Pacific Ocean. (Karl Grossman, 2/03/97 + other sources) NINE UTILITIES SEND DOE PROPOSALS TO PRODUCE TRITIUM for use in nuclear weapons. The Tennessee Valley Authority's Watts Bar-1 reactor has been chosen by DOE to be the site for first testing of the concept. (The Nuclear Monitor 2/97) WASHINGTON MOTHBALLED REACTOR MAY WIN RACE TO SUPPLY U.S. TRITIUM. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has a Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) that it says could be turned into a tritium producer in 2 years for $300 million. However, FFTF proponents face both local opposition based on environmental concerns and South Carolina's political support for long term tritium production at Savannah River (jobs). Then there are those who believe that in view of the tritium contained in weapons slated for dismantling under the START agreement, no more tritium for hydrogen bombs will be needed for several decades. (Or maybe never?) New DOE Secretary Pena says a decision will be delayed until 1998. (Science, 4/4/97) 1.25 BILLION POUNDS OF URANIUM HEXAFLUORIDE WILL COST BILLIONS to store safely over the long haul -- and some estimates run higher. But whose billions or trillions? Depleted uranium, DU, in volatile hexafluoride form left over from years of uranium processing for nuclear bombs, submarine propulsion reactors and civilian power plants. Because nobody wants it, the host states and DOE are wrangling over who should pay for storage. If a use can't be found, it's a waste, and the U.S. must handle it under rules set down by EPA. So host states Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky are trying to persuade DOE it's a waste. If DOE insists that DU's trace of uranium-235 makes it a source, the states are stuck with it. In about two months DOE will issue a draft environmental impact statement listing the options. Meanwhile technicians in Ohio are moving storage cylinders from gravel to concrete and have begun scraping off rust and repainting. Even rust chips are dangerous waste. (Matthew Wald, NYT, 3/25/97) DEPLETED URANIUM IS SUSPECT IN GULF WAR ILLNESS of Iraqi children and U.S. veterans. Pediatricians, anti-war activist Helen Caldicott, and former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark make the claim. Clark says the Defense Dept. will not acknowledge that DU can cause health problems such as liver and kidney damage. DU came into widespread use in the Gulf War because it can penetrate armor very effectively. Clark says there are about l.5 million pounds of depleted uranium present throughout the Gulf Region. "The thing we know is it can't be cleaned up," he said, adding "Much of the uranium was atomized when the weapons were fired and you can't remove it from the soil." In February US fighter planes flying near Okinawa were found to carry 25 mm cannon rounds containing DU. (Navy Times, 5/19/97 and AP 2/11/97) NUCLEAR METALS INC. TO DEMONSTRATE PRODUCTION OF DEPLETED URANIUM aggregate. The Concord, Mass. company says that when combined with cement the aggregate (trade named DUCRETE) will be used to produce low cost radiation shielding with thinner walls and lower weight casks, making handling and transportation easier for spent fuel and other nuclear waste applications. (Nuclear Metals, Inc.) SPARKS FLEW BETWEEN NRC AND EPA AT MEETING ON DRAFT FINAL RULE regarding radiological criteria for license termination of nuclear power reactors, April 21, 1997, Rockville, MD. Decommissioning of a nuclear power reactor leaves a contaminated site that may be returned to unrestricted use if the radiation dose to occupants of the site is not too high. NRC proposes to relax the current dose standard, 15 mrem/year above background and the existing EPA drinking water standards for groundwater, as being too restrictive and proposes a new standard of 25 mrem/year, including dose from contaminated groundwater, and in certain cases 100 mrem/year. Ramona Trovato, Director of EPA's Office of Radiation and Indoor Air, argued eloquently against allowing this increased radiation exposure to the public, restricting public comment and participation in making the decision, and other NRC changes, stating: "We believe that both NRC and the public will suffer." A summary prepared by the NRC Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation concerning the rule (SECY-97-046A) concluded: "This was an unusually high profile meeting with attendance well over 100, but it is unclear as to whether or not any measurable progress was made." (TRO Daily Report on nuclear safety) UTAH PRESSURE BUILDS TO MOVE 10.5 MILLION TONS OF URANIUM MILL TAILINGS from Colorado River bank. Environmentalists and local officials have joined in a public campaign to move the tailings they fear contaminate the river that waters a large part of the west. The pile rests on an earthquake fault some 750 feet from the river. NRC is expected to approve a plan that would let the mill's owner, Atlas Corp. of Denver, cover the waste with layers of sand and dense clay intended to keep radon gas from escaping and to wrap the mound in boulders to protect it from erosion by the river. The agency has said that moving the tailings is an acceptable alternative if someone will pay for it. (Albuquerque Journal, 5/4/97) CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR SUES FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FOR WARD VALLEY low level dump site. California has licensed Idaho-based U.S. Ecology to build the dump 18 miles from the Colorado River near Needles. Filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., the suit asks the court to compel the Interior Department to turn over the land. (Albuquerque Journal, 2/2/97) U.S. Ecology is a subsidiary of American Ecology which is having trouble paying its debts. GAO ASSESSMENT OF NRC EFFECTIVENESS IS DUE IN MAY and expected to be scathing. Sources say that NRC has allowed virtually all of the 110 commercial reactors in the U.S. to operate out of compliance with their NRC approved designs. Plants added to the NRC watch list in January were Maine Yankee, Indian Point Zion, Dresden, LaSalle, Crystal River, Millstone and Salem. (Time, 3/17/97) VIRGINIA CHAPTER URGES REMOVAL OF RADIOACTIVE VESSELS from James River. Two old vessels that once were powered by nuclear reactors and still have reactor compartments containing low levels of radioactivity are in the James River Reserve Fleet. The army's nuclear power barge Sturgis, designed as a portable source of electric power, was shut down in 1976 and placed in the James River in 1978. The nuclear ship Savannah's reactor core was removed decades ago, and the ship was moved to the James River from South Carolina in 1994. The Virginia Chapter is urging the Army to dispose of the radioactive compartments of both ships in the same manner that the U.S. Navy is disposing of its radioactive reactor compartments from warships, by underground burial on a DOE site at Hanford, WA. (Robert Deegan, Chair, Virginia Chapter Nuclear Issues Chairman) SURRY BASED VIRGINIA POWER SEEKS 20 YEAR LICENSE EXTENSION for four reactors. Licenses for Surry and North Anna run out in 1998 or`99 while Surry Units 1 and 2 run out in 2012 and 2013, respectively. (Washington Times, 4/03/97) CREWS COMPLETE THREE MILE ISLAND CLEANUP, truck 150 tons radioactive debris to Idaho storage pools. DOE and Idaho plan to spend $30 million on steel and concrete dry storage casks yet Feds promised to remove it all by 2015. (Albuquerque Journal, 2/2/97) IDAHO ONE ACRE CLEAN UP SHOWCASE RUNNING UP COSTS to more than $300 million. Part of DOE's effort to shift cleanup work to the private sector, Lockheed Martin Advanced Environmental Systems was to design, build and operate a special leaching system to sift through and treat a pit where several thousand 55 gallon drums containing radioactive material and spent nuclear reactor vessels are buried with a plethora of toxic wastes such as PCBs, lead and ammonia. Lockheed now asks for $158 million more than the $179 million originally agreed upon and blames the cost on technical complexities, saying that the project was the first attempt to clean up radioactive waste that had been buried for decades. (AP, 4/22/97) HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM OPERATIONS IN OAK RIDGE ARE IN UNSAFE BUILDINGS, do not meet modern day design standards, and pose significant risks to workers, the environment, and the public. So said the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance (OREPA) three years ago, and so says DOE now after completing a study of highly enriched uranium "vulnerabilities" across the weapons complex. What DOE plans to do about the problem remains unknown. The Oak Ridge Y-12 nuclear weapons plant is responsible for the vast majority of DOE's acknowledged highly enriched uranium, more than 200 tons. (OREPA Newsletter, 2/97) NRC FINES NORTHEAST UTILITIES $650,000 FOR MORE THAN 70 VIOLATIONS at the Connecticut Yankee nuclear reactor, now being permanently shut down since December. NRC said it wanted to send a strong message that the utility will have to do a better job overseeing its other nuclear reactors. The company owns three reactors in Waterford, Conn. which are shut down because of safety concerns and a nuclear plant in New Hampshire. (AP 5/13/97) MAINE YANKEE NUCLEAR REACTOR TO BE SHUT DOWN EARLY. Temporarily down since December and added by NRC to its list of worst run reactors, the anticipated high costs to fix equipment problems when electricity becomes deregulated is forcing permanent closure after 24 years. (NIRS 5/27/97 and NY Times 5/28/97) WHO SHOULD PAY COSTS OF FLORIDA'S CRYSTAL RIVER NUCLEAR REACTOR temporary shutdown? Customers dispute the state's Public Service Commission ruling that Florida Power Corp. may charge more for electricity, generated by higher priced fuel during periods of shutdown. In late June PSC will hear arguments that the fault lies with poor management, so that extra costs should be borne by the company, not rate payers. (AP, in Tallahassee Democrat, 5/27/97) CLUB SOUTH CAROLINA CHAPTER JOINS LOCAL GROUPS to relocate "nuclear laundry." The facility, operated by Interstate Nuclear Services (INS) and regulated by the state Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), has operated in the middle of an African-American neighborhood in the center of Columbia since the early 1970's. It is allowed to "store" plutonium and highly radioactive isotopes of uranium on site--materials that could cause a catastrophic hazard if they were released to the environment. The laundry washes nuclear contaminated clothing in industrial washing machines and dries it in machines that filter out any nuclear contaminants before the air is released. Nearby residents have complained about "lint" from the laundry being deposited in their yards. The Club and a number of neighborhood groups are appealing the renewal of the INS license. The case is expected to appear before an administrative law judge in late spring or early summer. (South Carolina Chapter newsletter, March/April/97) STUDY SUGGESTS THREE MILE ISLAND RADIATION MAY HAVE INJURED NEIGHBORS. North Carolina epidemiologists have concluded that following the March 28, 1979 accident, lung cancer and leukemia rates were two to 10 times higher downwind of the reactor than upwind. The new study involved re-analyzing data from a 1990 report that concluded the nation's worst civilian nuclear accident was not responsible for slightly increased cancer rates near the plant. Dr. Steven Wing said that the several hundred people who reported nausea, vomiting, hair loss and skin rashes at the time of the accident led him and his colleagues to look at the data again. (David Williamson, Phone: 919-962-2279) MINNESOTA STATE REP. ALICE HAUSMAN URGES SPENT FUEL HANDLING CHANGES. She calls for a new state council to advise legislators about what to do with high level wastes in the next century if the feds do not provide long-term storage, and whether to establish a "back-up trust fund" for the costs of handling the wastes. She says an earlier law allowing Northern States Power Co. to store spent fuel in above-ground casks near its Prairie Island plant was created in a "hasty and irregular manner." (Minneapolis Star Tribune, 2/21/97) NRC'S ATOMIC SAFETY & LICENSING BOARD (ASLB) HAS DENIED A LICENSE for the proposed Louisiana Energy Services uranium enrichment plant near Homer, Louisiana. In a precedent-setting decision, the ASLB May 1 ruled that the license application and the NRC staff's review of the application do not comply with President Clinton's executive order on environmental justice. While stopping short (though just barely) of declaring the project an example of environmental racism, the ASLB required the NRC to re-investigate whether racial discrimination played a role in the site-selection process and to re-examine the disproportionate impact the project would have on the nearby African-American community. Louisiana Energy Services is a consortium composed of the European firm Urenco, Fluor Daniel, Duke Power, Northern States Power, and Louisiana Power and Light. If LES does not successfully appeal the decision, this will be the first NRC denial of a license application--for any project of any kind anywhere--since the agency's founding. (NIRSNET@igc.org) WITH REGARD TO YUCCA MT., VIABILITY IS NOT THE SAME AS SUITABILITY. The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board's 1996 annual report, just released in April, reports that while a viability assessment in late 1998 could focus and integrate the program, data determining whether the site is suitable for repository development will not yet be available. So a viability assessment could only mean that DOE had so far not found a reason to disqualify Yucca Mt. but that a lot of work would remain to be done. The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board advises Congress about the management of nuclear waste. (The Nuclear Monitor, 4/97) DOE AGREES TO CITIZEN AUDITING OF AIR EMISSIONS AT WEAPONS LABORATORY. Settling a lawsuit by Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, DOE admits noncompliance of Los Alamos National Laboratory with the Clean Air Act in radionuclide emissions from 31 out of 33 major stacks. The settlement, reached after a 5-year legal battle, is the first time DOE has agreed to citizen auditing of any aspect of its nuclear weapons program. (CCNS Nuclear Reactor, May 1997) WIPP OPENING DATE DELAYED AGAIN, this time because of DOE's failure to submit a complete application to the EPA. DOE must provide additional experimental data and input the new data into its computer models. When complete, EPA will decide within one year as to WIPP's safety. DOE is expected to issue a final EIS in August 1997, but the New Mexico Environment Department must issue a mixed waste (radioactive plus chemical) disposal permit, a draft of which will not be ready for public review and comment until early summer 1998. (CCNS Nuclear Reactor, May 1997) NEW HALFPACK TO REDUCE TRANSURANIC WASTE SHIPMENTS TO WIPP. Designed to complement the existing Transuranic Package Transporter (TRUPACT-II), the shorter, lighter version will be able to transport 21 heavy drums in one truck shipment, while the heavier TRUPACT II containers would allow transport of only 14 drums per truck shipment. (TRU Progress, DOE, winter `97) REMEMBER FUSION? THE TOKAMAC FUSION TEST REACTOR IS BEING SHUT DOWN. Fed budget wranglers have lost confidence in the 50 year dream of generating cheap and inexhaustible energy from hydrogen fusion, the process that powers the sun. But the dream isn't dead, and experiments will continue at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in a smaller test reactor to be completed in 1999. A partnership of most European countries and Japan also has hopes for a proposed International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor--if it can get the necessary financing. The Princeton reactor set a record in 1994 by producing 10.7 million watts of fusion power for about one second. (NYT 4/4/97) BOMB TRUCK SKIDS ON ICE AND SLAMS ON ITS SIDE INTO A DITCH during November blizzard in Nebraska. The accident involved a "Safe, Secure Transport" (SST) on a direct route between Minot Air Force Base and Pantex in the Texas Panhandle. DOE plans to ship 14.2 tons of plutonium from Rocky Flats to federal facilities in Texas and South Carolina during the next eight years. Weapons experts say trucks have been delivering about 1,300 nuclear bombs a year to Pantex. (Nukewatch, Spring `97) S.104, PASSED BY THE SENATE, WOULD MOVE 33,000 METRIC TONS OF SPENT FUEL, from storage at power plants in 43 states to a temporary site in Nevada (HR.1270, now pending in the House, would do the same), although the Senate's 65-34 vote will not override the President's promised veto. Interest groups are organizing grass-roots opposition to transporting 300 to 500 shipments of spent fuel across the nation's highways and rail lines every year, warning that community emergency response teams are not prepared to handle accidents involving waste-storage containers. The state of Nevada is also concerned about the possibility of terrorist attack. (Greenwire, 5/13/97, from National Journal, #7) CALIFORNIA OPPOSES NUCLEAR WASTE SHIPMENT THROUGH SAN FRANCISCO and northern California. The CA Assembly voted 56-3 against allowing shipments through the bay, Sacramento and up the state to Idaho. The vote was based on fear that these routes would be over land vulnerable to earthquakes and could threaten the lives of more than 8 million people. The nuclear waste in question is spent fuel from research reactors in countries that were supplied by the U.S. in exchange for the promise not to develop atomic weapons. (UP, 4/19/97) COMPREHENSIVE TEST BAN TREATY AND SUBCRITICAL EXPERIMENTS. As part of its stockpile stewardship program, the DOE wants to conduct six "subcritical" nuclear weapons experiments at the Nevada Test Site. Subcritical experiments involve chemical explosives and nuclear material but are designed not to produce a sustained chain reaction (i.e., nuclear explosion). The "subcriticals" do not technically violate the terms of the CTBT, but they are nuclear weapons experiments conducted to gather information about the possible aging of the plutonium metal used in warheads. They would reinforce some countries' concerns that the United States is not only interested in maintaining existing arsenals but also wants to keep the Nevada Test Site at the ready. Moreover, until the verification system specified under the Treaty is in place, it will be difficult for other countries to determine that these experiments are truly "subcritical." (PSR Monitor 12(1) April 97, Physicians for Social Responsibility) FUSION RESEARCH PROMPTS FEARS OF FUTURE BOMBS. William Broad (NY Times 5/27/97) writes: "Despite the end of the cold war, a quiet battle is heating up in the Federal Government over whether the nation's weapon scientists should be allowed to press ahead with work toward a new generation of hydrogen bombs. The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was written to halt the development of new weapons of mass destruction by imposing a global ban on nuclear detonations. Arms controllers argue that the United States now risks becoming not only the architect of unnecessary weapons but also a nuclear hypocrite in the eyes of the world. The huge laser complex now about to materialize in Livermore, known as the National Ignition Facility, is to be the first machine to generate miniature thermonuclear explosions. It could achieve the dream of controlled fusion. It would also be used for training in the closely related field of nuclear weapons fusion." WORLD NET ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION IS EXPECTED TO INCREASE to 20 trillion kw hours by 2015, a 75% increase from the 1995 level of 11.4 trillion kilowatt hours. To meet the demand the equivalent of more than 5,000 300 megawatt electric power plants will have to be built. (EIA Reports, DOE, 5/6/97) WHY WOULD A FOSSIL FUEL RICH COUNTRY SPEND BILLIONS ON A NUCLEAR PLANT that could not possibly generate electricity as cost-effective as a natural gas plant? Or, to raise a collateral question, since the basics of operating a nuclear reactor apply equally whether the reactor's primary purpose is the production of electricity or of plutonium, when Iran plans such a plant how can the world community avoid suspecting Iran intends to build atomic bombs? And why would Russia plan to send up to 3,000 workers and 7,000 tons of equipment for such a project so close to home? Whatever the answers, the Iranian nuclear program will serve to test tough anti-proliferation measures the International Atomic Energy Agency has developed since the Gulf War exposed Iraq's clandestine efforts to build a bomb. (Scientific American, 6/97) ONTARIO NUCLEAR PLANT WORKERS PLAY COMPUTER GAMES, IGNORE WARNING lights. The problems became known after an Ontario court ordered Ontario Hydro to publicly release "peer review" documents that assess the operations of 19 atomic reactors at the company's nuclear power plants. The company fought the release of the documents for more than a year. (Christian Science Monitor 2/28/97) TAIWAN PLANS TO SHIP 200,000 BARRELS OF LOW-LEVEL WASTE TO NORTH KOREA for storage. South Korea's foreign minister, Yoo Chong-ha has asked 24 European and Asian nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency to try to stop the shipment, which he says would set a "highly undesirable and morally wrong precedent," and will endanger the environment. (AP, 2/26/97) SUNBATHERS ON FRENCH BEACHES SHOULD WEAR GEIGER COUNTERS. Strollers on the beach near the state-run nuclear processing facility at La Hague in northeastern France were exposed to radioactivity 3,000 times higher than usual when a section of pipe carrying waste from the plant was exposed by record low tides. (AP 3/13/97) THOUSANDS PROTEST GERMAN RADIOACTIVE WASTE SHIPMENTS in small city of Lueneburg. Six "Castor" high level nuclear waste casks were traveling by rail from southern Germany to the northern town of Gorleben--an "interim" storage site. Protesters camped along the final few miles of rail routes and the last eight miles of highway. Their goal was to try to prevent the casks from reaching their destination. More than 25,000 police from all over Germany were mobilized to escort the casks--the biggest mobilization of German police since WWII. (NUKEWATCH, Spring `97) MARCH 11 ACCIDENTS AT TOKAI, JAPAN, CAUSED NO IMMEDIATE FATALITIES. They did result in worker and atmospheric contamination at Japan's only active reprocessing facility, led to its shut-down for the time being, and caused a firestorm of criticism from press and public. The two accidents took place in a section of the facility where waste from reprocessing is solidified in a process involving asphalt or bitumen. In the first accident, a fire, 37 workers breathed contaminated air. The second accident was an explosion at about 8 p.m., when no workers were in the building. The plant's managers said some radioactive materials, including plutonium, escaped into the atmosphere and were detected as far as 23 miles away, though at levels the government insisted posed no danger. It was the worst nuclear accident in Japan's history. Japan is banking heavily on conventional uranium based nuclear power and on advanced systems using plutonium to relieve its almost complete dependence on imported oil and coal. The accident came as the country was trying to rebuild trust in its nuclear program after the Dec. 1995 accident in a prototype fast breeder reactor. (Nuclear Waste Citizens Coalition, 3/13/97, and NYT 3/25/97) RUSSIA HAS DISMANTLED ALMOST 50 PERCENT OF ITS NUCLEAR ARSENAL in compliance with international agreements according to its Nuclear Energy Minister Viktor Mikhjailov. Russia's estimated 8,000 to 9,000 nuclear warheads are to be reduced to no more than 3,500 under the START II treaty--which Russia's parliament has not yet ratified. (Interfax News, 4/28) "CUTTING MISSILES BACK AS FAST AS POSSIBLE WOULD BE BEST," says Mae Kirkbride, an Albin, Wyoming rancher when asked her advice for Presidents Yeltsin and Clinton before their March meeting in Finland. While debate over nuclear disarmament fell out of fashion with the end of the cold war, it is not forgotten in Wyoming, which would be one of the world's most powerful nuclear nations if it were an independent country. Nuclear weapons still represent a powerful economic force, pumping an estimated $1 billion a year into the five states with land based missiles, Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and Wyoming. Almost all the missile silos in Missouri and South Dakota are gone, their reductions matched, step by step, by Russia. Currently the U.S., which ratified Start II on January 26, 1996, has about 7,150 warheads. (NYT, 3/19/97) Up to Top |
