[ RadSafe ] Colorado Residents Win $554M in Nuke Suit

[Sandy Perle]

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Index:

Colorado Residents Win $554M in Nuke Suit
Radiation Detectors Tested in Nevada
White House Eyes Atomic Illness Cost Cap
Will County prosecutor opens investigation into radioactive leaks
Dutch minister urges debate on nuclear energy
US Bodman: Nuke Waste Plan Would Address Security Concerns
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Colorado Residents Win $554M in Nuke Suit

DENVER (Feb. 15)  AP - Two companies that ran the Rocky Flats nuclear 
weapons plant exposed neighbors to plutonium through their 
negligence, endangering people's health and contaminating their 
property, a federal jury concluded.

The jury recommended Dow Chemical Co. and the former Rockwell 
International Corp. be ordered to pay $553.9 million in damages, an 
amount that is likely to be lowered by the judge but still be in the 
hundreds of millions.

"This isn't a windfall, this is making up for what these people 
lost," said Bruce DeBoskey, an attorney who spent 12 years on the 
case.

Dow said it would appeal.

Defense attorney David Bernick said the judge wrongly allowed some 
testimony, including claims that the Energy Department was a 
conspirator. He also questioned a juror's dismissal after 
deliberations had started and said the jury was allowed to award 
damages if it determined the companies were responsible for even one 
atom of plutonium on the plaintiffs' properties.

The lawsuit was filed in 1990 on behalf of 13,000 people, claiming 
the weapons plant contaminated neighboring land, lowering property 
values.

The now-defunct plant made plutonium triggers for nuclear warheads 
for decades. The lawsuit claims the companies intentionally 
mishandled radioactive waste there and then tried to cover it up.

During the four-month trial, attorneys for the landowners presented a 
study showing higher rates of lung cancer near the plant. Bernick 
dismissed the cancer claims as "junk science," saying the study 
didn't indicate how long the patients had lived near Rocky Flats.

Jurors deliberated for 18 days before determining that the damage 
from the radioactive material might never go away. They concluded the 
two companies damaged private property around the site through 
negligence that caused "class members to be exposed to plutonium and 
(placed) them at some increased risk of health problems."

The verdict calls for punitive damages of $110.8 million against 
Midland, Mich.-based Dow Chemical, which operated the plant from the 
1950s until 1975; and $89.4 million against Milwaukee-based Rockwell, 
now known as Rockwell Automation, which ran it from 1975 until the 
plant was shut down.

The jury also recommended $352 million in actual damages.

The final award is likely to be less because of limits in state and 
federal law, but it could still reach $352 million after U.S. 
District Judge John Kane reviews the verdict, said Louise Roselle, an 
attorney for some of the plaintiffs.

The government is expected to cover damages and legal bills because 
the companies were contractors operating the sprawling Cold War site 
near Denver on behalf of the Energy Department, attorneys said. A 
department spokesman did not immediately return a message seeking 
details.

The Rocky Flats site was closed in 1989, and last year, a contractor 
declared a 10-year, $7 billion cleanup project complete. Much of the 
6,240-acre site will become a wildlife refuge.

Rockwell in 1992 agreed to pay an $18.5 million fine for water 
quality and other violations at the site. Rockwell admitted it stored 
hazardous waste without a permit, and that it stored the wastes in 
containers that leaked, and that its actions caused hazardous waste 
to wind up in reservoirs that supplied drinking water to nearby 
cities.

The settlement culminated a lengthy investigation dubbed "Operation 
Desert Glow" in which FBI agents secretly monitored the discharge of 
pollutants into streams and the burning of hazardous waste at Rocky 
Flats.

Federal agents charged in an affidavit unsealed after a 1989 raid 
that Rockwell and Energy Department officials were aware of 
environmental violations and sought to conceal them.
---------------------

Radiation Detectors Tested in Nevada

(Feb. 14)  USA Today - The Bush administration is ramping up efforts 
to prevent terrorists from smuggling radiological material into the 
country that could be used to set off a "dirty bomb" or even a 
nuclear weapon, according to the Homeland Security Department.

Plans call for a new radiation detection test site deep in the Nevada 
desert, more detectors at the nation's seaports and border crossings 
and a 70% budget increase for Homeland Security's Domestic Nuclear 
Detection Office (DNDO).

The initiative comes amid chilling threats made last month by al-
Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden - and some say it can't come too soon.

"Al-Qaeda used vans in 1993 (to bomb the World Trade Center) and 
planes in 2001," says former 9/11 commissioner Tim Roemer. "It could 
be some kind of catastrophic attack next time."

The public has not been alerted to intelligence suggesting terrorists 
have the materials or are preparing to detonate a device that could 
cause chaos - or far worse - in a major American city. But the 
possibility worries the government.

"We have to move aggressively, or the consequences are going to be 
dire," says Rep. Jim Langevin of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on a 
House subcommittee on nuclear attack prevention.

In his fiscal 2007 budget, President Bush is seeking $535.7 million 
for the DNDO, which is responsible for preventing radiological or 
nuclear weapons from getting into the country. That includes $178 
million for new radiation detectors and $100 million for the 
development of equipment used by agents along the nation's borders 
and at events such as presidential inaugurations and Super Bowl 
games.

To test that equipment, Homeland Security is working at the storied 
Nevada Test Site, where the U.S. government tested nuclear weapons 
for more than four decades. Near a cratered area where mushroom 
clouds once rose, construction is underway on an 11-acre site where 
scientists will test weapons needed for this generation's war on 
terrorism.

"We've gone from the offense to the defense," says DNDO chief Vayl 
Oxford.

Workers are building a mock border crossing so testing trucks can 
drive containers of radioactive materials through radiation portal 
monitors. Agents at the $33 million site also will test modern 
versions of Geiger counters.

While the new site is being built, scientists have started work just 
downhill from a highly secured 100,000-square-foot steel and concrete 
bunker where the government stores its nuclear weapons material.

There, Oxford's chief test scientist, Dan Blumenthal, holds a shoebox-
sized radiation detector against the side of a huge metal cargo 
container and waits a couple of minutes for it to tell him what he 
already knows: that there's plutonium-239 inside, potentially the 
makings for a nuclear bomb.

But nothing comes up on the device's small screen. And that's proof 
of what federal agents at the nation's seaports and border crossings 
know: Many of the mobile radiation detectors they use work only about 
50% of the time.

Blumenthal's team is testing 30 mobile detectors against the metal 
sides of a half-dozen cargo containers. Some are loaded with weapons-
grade material; others contain cat litter, ceramic tiles and other 
goods that set off detectors because they contain naturally occurring 
radioactive materials.

"This is the first time the government's been able to do high-
fidelity testing" using actual bombmaking materials, such as 
plutonium and highly enriched uranium, Oxford says.
 
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As tests are finished over the next several years, Oxford's team will 
use the results to retrofit existing equipment that doesn't work very 
well, to buy new equipment for federal agents and to write what 
Oxford calls a "Consumer Reports-style" guide so that state and local 
officials will know what to buy - and what not to buy - with federal 
grant money.

Oxford calls their work "a big leap forward." Among their efforts:

-- Determining where radiation detectors should be set up worldwide.

-- Making plans to better secure the nation's cities, perhaps through 
random highway stops - such as drunken driving or seatbelt checks - 
where officers would check cars with hand-held detectors or check 
trucks at weigh stations, something now done in just 11 states.

-- Creating surge capacity so that if intelligence indicated a 
particular threat, the government could quickly put detection 
equipment in subway stations, at airports or wherever it was needed.
-----------------

White House Eyes Atomic Illness Cost Cap

WASHINGTON Feb 14 (AP) - The Bush administration is taking steps to 
limit costs associated with a benefits program for Cold War-era 
nuclear workers who developed cancer from radiation exposure, 
according to a White House document.

Republicans and Democrats say they are concerned, with one GOP 
lawmaker saying he plans to hold hearings.

The document, obtained by The Associated Press, was written by White 
House budget officials and sent to the Labor Department.

It commends Labor officials for "identifying the potential for a 
large expansion" of a program aimed at compensating thousands of 
nuclear workers. Then, it states that the White House will lead an 
interagency working group to develop ways "to contain growth in the 
costs of benefits" the program provides.

The working group will discuss whether "administration clearance" 
should be required before groups of workers are deemed eligible for 
compensation, the document said. Under the program, created by 
Congress five years ago, workers get $150,000 plus future medical 
benefits.

Scott Milburn, a spokesman for the White House Office of Management 
and Budget, said the goal is better coordination between the federal 
agencies involved in the program. The Labor Department provides 
expertise in claims processing, the Energy Department has records on 
its former workers, and the Health and Human Services Department has 
scientific expertise.

"In calling for better coordination among agencies, the 
administration's goal is to make sure workers get the benefits they 
deserve, that the program works as efficiently as possible and that 
agencies comply with the law," Milburn said Tuesday.

Lawmakers familiar with the White House document were not satisfied.

Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., who chairs a House Judiciary 
subcommittee that oversees claims issues, said he would hold hearings 
on the compensation program.

"The disturbing nature of this information has compelled me to 
schedule a series of hearings to look into the matter," Hostettler 
said. "The American people deserve to know whether or not this 
program is being run effectively and if it is fulfilling the promises 
our government made to these Cold War veterans."

Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., decried attempts to alter the program, saying, 
"Any effort by Department of Labor bureaucrats to limit these 
benefits would be a true injustice to these workers, their families 
and their memory."

In a letter to administration officials, Rep. Mark Udall and Sen. Ken 
Salazar, both Colorado Democrats, argued that decisions about 
benefits should be based on science not budgets.

The advisory board referenced in the budget document is supposed to 
recommend soon whether groups of workers in Colorado, Iowa, Tennessee 
and the Marshall Islands should automatically be compensated under 
the program. Similar recommendations would follow for workers from 
other sites across the country.

To get the special status granting them automatic compensation, 
workers must have radiation-related cancer and must have worked at a 
facility with poor records. Once granted the special status, they 
would not have to go through a lengthy process in which officials try 
to estimate how much radiation workers were exposed to.

The White House document is known as an Office of Management and 
Budget "passback." It is undated, but such documents often are sent 
to agencies before the president's budget is released in early 
February.
-----------------

Will County prosecutor opens investigation into radioactive leaks

JOLIET, Ill. Feb 10 (AP) - The Will County State's Attorney's office 
has begun an investigation into why a nuclear power company did not 
disclose until recently a series of radioactive wastewater spills 
over an eight-year span.

The disclosure of the investigation into the leaks at Exelon Corp.'s 
Braidwood Generating Plant, which occurred between 1996 and 2003, 
came Thursday during a county board committee meeting discussing the 
spills.

Chicago-based Exelon could face criminal charges if it intentionally 
discharged tainted water at the plant about 60 miles southwest of 
Chicago, assistant state's attorney Phil Mock told committee members.


News of the previous leaks from an underground pipeline didn't 
surface until late last year, when Chicago-based Exelon announced 
that an elevated level of tritium, a radioactive substance commonly 
found in groundwater, had been discovered at the plant's northern 
boundary.

The company last week said tests for 28 property owners near the 
pipeline showed tritium levels in all private wells were within 
federal drinking water limits and posed no health of safety risks.

Tritium is more concentrated in water used in nuclear reactors. 
Public health officials have said the elevation poses no threat to 
drinking water in the area.

Exelon officials have denied that the company ever tried to keep the 
spills secret.

An Exelon executive at Thursday's meeting apologized to committee 
members for the company's handling of the spills.

"We did not handle this well," said Thomas O'Neil, vice president of 
regulatory affairs. "We need to do a better job of communicating with 
you all."
------------------

Dutch minister urges debate on nuclear energy, signaling possible 
policy shift

THE HAGUE, Netherlands Feb 14  (AP) - The Netherlands must consider 
increasing its use of nuclear power in coming decades to meet energy 
demand and environmental targets, a government minister said Tuesday.

A report released Tuesday by the Energy Research Center of the 
Netherlands, an independent advisory agency, concluded that nuclear 
energy could save the Netherlands 600 million (US$713.3 million) a 
year, as the country seeks to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and 
power households and businesses.

The Dutch are seeking by 2020 to reduce greenhouse gas output by at 
least 15 percent from projected 2010 levels, in line with European 
Union targets.

Since entering office in 2003, the conservative government has 
adopted a more favorable stance toward nuclear power, which previous 
governments had pledged to phase out. Two years ago it extended the 
life of the only Dutch nuclear energy reactor and called for a public 
debate about keeping the nuclear option open. But the call to expand 
nuclear resources took the public discussion a step further, and 
aroused the anger of environmentalists.

Junior Environment Minister Pieter van Geel said he hoped the report 
would spur long-delayed debate.

"We have avoided this discussion for too long," Van Geel told The 
Associated Press after accepting a copy of the 63-page document in 
The Hague. "We want to meet our targets, and we need to do that one 
way or another. Nuclear energy could play an important role."

Problems of climate change and energy shortages have made the nuclear 
energy option more acceptable in the eyes of the public, he said, 
citing recent polls.

"We cannot say we have seriously debated the issues of reductions if 
we have not taken this option into consideration," he said.

"I'm not here to promote nuclear energy. What I want is that all 
options are taken into consideration," he said. "If the public is 
willing to spend 600 million more a year, that's fine with me."

A major government energy policy paper is due later this year.

Loes Visser, spokeswoman for Environmental Defense, said she opposed 
nuclear plants because they were too risky and because radioactive 
waste would be too costly to store.

High oil prices and the growing awareness of the need to cut carbon 
dioxide emissions have been used as a pretext by pro-nuclear power 
groups to reopen the issue, she said. "The nuclear energy lobby sees 
a chance to get its hands on some money."

Environmental Defense would rather see "a mix" of investing more in 
solar and wind energy technologies.

The Borssele reactor, which opened in 1973 and produces enough 
thermal power for a million homes, has been the focus of protests by 
environmental groups for decades.

If Tuesday's report is any indication, a solution could include 
increased use of renewable energy sources, particularly if the 
government opts to implement reductions in emissions of up to 30 
percent favored by Van Geel.

In that scenario, solar and wind and other alternative energy sources 
would become vastly more important in reducing emissions, according 
to figures compiled in the Energy Research Center report.

In calculating nuclear energy's savings, the center did not figure in 
the potential cost of storing radioactive waste for thousands of 
years or securing it from misuse by terrorists. Energy Research 
Center Director Ton Hoff said that would be "a separate political 
issue."
------------------

US Bodman: Nuke Waste Plan Would Address Security Concerns

WASHINGTON - Feb 13 (Dow Jones)- U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman 
on Monday touted the Bush Administration's new nuclear waste 
reprocessing program as a way to address concerns about U.S. energy 
security, global warming and nuclear proliferation.

Under the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, or GNEP, the 
administration plans to cooperate with "responsible" countries to 
promote a process under which highly radioactive material could be 
extracted from spent nuclear fuel without producing plutonium, which 
is used in nuclear weapons.

"GNEP envisions a world in which all responsible nations work 
together to share the benefits of peaceful nuclear power," said 
Bodman, speaking to a nuclear energy industry conference in 
Washington.

Noting growing concerns about Iran's nuclear program, Bodman said 
that although Iran "is not behaving in a responsible fashion," he 
would like the country to change its ways and become "an effective 
participant" in GNEP.

As efforts to reduce energy costs and cut the amount of heat-trapping 
pollutants that enter the air intensify, countries around the world 
are realizing the benefits of using nuclear power as a way to produce 
emissions-free electricity, Bodman said.

He pointed out that, currently, 200 metric tons of separated 
plutonium, produced by nations' civilian nuclear power plants across 
the world, is stored at various sites.


Under GNEP, that material would go back into reactors as fuel, 
thereby reducing the risk that the material could be stolen or seized 
by terrorists, said Bodman.

"Other nations are moving ahead with nuclear power, and the question 
we face is whether we want to stay at the leading edge of this 
development, and help to guide it, or not," said the secretary, 
adding that about 130 new reactors are under construction around the 
world. "Will this interest in nuclear technology - which includes 
states like North Korea and Iran - take place with or without the 
substantial benefits and security that GNEP offers?"

Department of Energy officials have already met with nuclear energy 
leaders in London, Paris, Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo and Vienna on the 
reprocessing initiative.

U.S. energy policy supported nuclear waste reprocessing until the mid-
1970s when concerns grew about the potential of plutonium being 
converted to weapons material.

The new recycling process, Bush Administration officials say, would 
make it hard to develop a bomb and also reduce the amount of waste 
that needs to be stored.

Bodman also noted that nuclear energy could help reduce the country's 
dependence on fossil fuels such as natural gas to produce power and 
reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, which are thought to be the main 
culprit of global warming.

Meanwhile, the secretary also told the group of industry 
representatives that efforts to establish a nuclear waste site at 
Yucca Mountain in Nevada are still underway, although it's unclear 
when the controversial project - which faces opposition from 
environmentalists and U.S. lawmakers - would be completed or how much 
it would cost.

GNEP, he said, will aid the Yucca project by reducing the amount of 
waste needed to be stored, he said.

"I don't see why we should go through so much effort to bury so much 
nuclear fuel under a mountain if there is a better way," he said. "My 
problem with Yucca Mountain is that if we could open it tomorrow and 
put it in shape and ready to go, which we are a long way from ready 
to do by the way, it would be full."

Bodman said recycling spent fuel means that only one national nuclear 
waste storage site will be needed over the coming decades as opposed 
to as many as 10 storage sites if GNEP were not implemented.

Bodman also said the administration remains committed to promoting 
construction of new nuclear power plants.

Some analysts have criticized the administration for proposing the 
$250 million GNEP program while cutting funds for the Nuclear Power 
2010 initiative - a joint government-industry program aimed at 
identifying sites for new nuclear power plants based on advanced 
nuclear technologies.

"GNEP will not interfere with our plans to get new nuclear power 
plants built in the U.S.," he said.

Bodman said the administration's proposal to cut funding for the 
program from $65.3 million in fiscal year 2006 to $54 million in 
fiscal year 2007 reflects some of the progress already made by 
participants.

"I promise you that our administration is dedicated to following 
through on our plans regarding NP 2010, and to overcoming the 
challenges regarding Yucca Mountain," he said. "The President has 
made this pledge repeatedly - and he intends to keep it.

-------------------------------------
Sandy Perle
Senior Vice President, Technical Operations
Global Dosimetry Solutions, Inc.
2652 McGaw Avenue
Irvine, CA 92614 

Tel: (949) 296-2306 / (888) 437-1714  Extension 2306
Fax:(949) 296-1144

E-Mail: sperle at dosimetry.com
E-Mail: sandyfl at earthlink.net 

Global Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com/ 
Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com/