Lawmakers Question Nuke Cleanup Plan

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@EARTHLINK.NET>]

Index:



Lawmakers Question Nuke Cleanup Plan

Belgium split by U.S. plutonium recycling bid

Portugal police arrest man for uranium smuggling

Entergy may drop Vermont nuclear power plant buy

Preparing ``America'' for a Nuclear Emergency Campaign Launched 

========================================



Lawmakers Question Nuke Cleanup Plan



WASHINGTON (AP) - Senators and several state officials said Thursday 

they fear an Energy Department attempt to speed the cleanup of waste 

from decades of nuclear weapons production may leave the sites still 

contaminated.



The Bush administration, in an attempt to accelerate and cut the cost 

of such cleanups, announced earlier this year it would give 

preference in distributing money to locations that agree to commit to 

a quicker cleanup.



Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham wants to use $800 million of the 

$6.7 billion annual cleanup budget as incentive for these accelerated 

programs. Critics have voiced concern that while some facilities will 

get more money, others will see money syphoned away.



But at a Senate hearing Thursday, state officials from Washington, 

New Mexico and Idaho expressed another worry: That the incentive to 

push for faster cleanup may leave some sites less clean in violation 

of long-standing agreements with state and local authorities.



``It's not cleanup to leave waste behind,'' Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., 

told Energy Department officials at a hearing by the Senate Energy 

and Natural Resources Committee on the plan.



Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., the panel's chairman, said the 

administration approach ``could be viewed as an incentive to 

encourage state regulators to relax site cleanup standards.''



Jesse Roberson, the DOE's assistant secretary for environmental 

management, testified that the new approach is an effort to give 

priority to the most high-risk environmental problems and deal with 

them faster and at less cost.



``It's not our intent to avoid compliance with any of our regulatory 

agreements,'' said Roberson.



Nowhere is the waste problem more challenging than the Energy 

Department's Hanford reservation in central Washington state, where 

there are 177 underground tanks - some of them with an unknown mix of 

radioactive material and leaking - threatening to contaminate the 

nearby Columbia River.



About half of the special $800 million fund has been earmarked for 

Hanford.



But Christine Gregoire, Washington state's attorney general, told the 

committee she is concerned that along with a speedier cleanup, the 

Energy Department will renege on past promises to remove from the 

site at least 99 percent of the tank waste.



``We want it all out,'' she said.



Despite DOE assurances, Gregoire said there have been ominous signs 

that under the accelerated cleanup plan the department will 

reclassify some of the tank waste as something less than ``high 

level'' waste, meaning they will not have to remove it.



She said the DOE also has decided to build only one, instead of two, 

plants to solidify the waste in glass, suggesting the department may 

now be planning to remove less waste.



Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., tried to press Roberson on the issue, 

asking that she give assurances that 99 percent of the waste in the 

Hanford tanks be removed and that wastes not be reclassified.



``We have a commitment to move as much waste as feasible,'' said 

Roberson, refusing to be pinned down on a percentage.



Kathleen Trever of the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, 

also expressed concern about whether the program will mean more 

pollution being left behind at the DOE's Idaho National Engineering 

Laboratory.



Peter Maggiore, head of New Mexico's environment department, said the 

program will mean more money for cleanup at the Sandia and Los Alamos 

weapons research labs. While he said he doesn't think it will mean 

less cleanup at those two sites, Maggiore acknowledged some 

uncertainty.



``It is imperative that accelerated cleanup not be interpreted to 

mean less cleanup,'' he testified.



An environmental group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, is 

arguing before a federal court in Idaho that the Energy Department 

plans to reclassify waste now held in tanks not only at Hanford, but 

at the Idaho facility and at the Savannah River complex in South 

Carolina.



Geoff Fettus, an NRDC attorney, said the suit charges that such a 

reclassification would violate federal law because this waste comes 

from nuclear reprocessing in past weapons production and therefore 

must be treated as high level waste. Under the law, any high level 

waste must be put into a deep geological repository, presumably the 

Yucca Mountain facility in Nevada that has yet to be built.

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



Belgium split by U.S. plutonium recycling bid



BRUSSELS, July 12 (Reuters) - A U.S. request to Belgium to recycle 

weapons-grade plutonium under an arms reduction treaty split the 

country's coalition government on Friday.



President George W. Bush's administration has asked Belgium to 

recycle 80 kg (176 lbs) of the highly fissile material into low-grade 

nuclear fuel under a deal with Russia to reduce each side's deployed 

strategic nuclear warheads to between 1,700 and 2,200 from about 

6,000.



Belgium and France have the technology to convert nuclear weapons-

grade material into MOX fuel that can be used in civilian nuclear 

power plants, while the United States does not.



Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, who heads a three-party coalition of 

his centre-right Liberals, the Socialists and environmentalist 

Greens, supports the request but the Greens wrote to him last month 

urging him to reject the request.



The row has been conducted in an exchange of letters thus far but a 

government spokesman said the cabinet would discuss the issue on 

Friday. He declined further comment.



A U.S. embassy spokesman said Washington planned to licence the 

technology to build two similar plants in the United States, but it 

first wanted to ship a small amount of plutonium to Belgium or France 

to simulate the procedure in a test facility.



"The only thing that would come, would be a test amount to build the 

test assemblies, process them, send them back to the U.S., run them 

through a plant and say here's what we get, here's how much it costs, 

here's what the process would be if we build this plant and here's 

what we get as a result," Joseph MacManus told Reuters. "That's the 

whole package right there."



DISARMAMENT ROLE FOR BELGIUM



MOX combines plutonium and uranium oxide recycled from spent nuclear 

fuel.



In a letter obtained by Reuters, Verhofstadt responded to the Greens 

by saying Belgium should play a part in disarmament.



"Belgium's agreement in principle would constitute an important 

signal that our country is prepared to contribute to the 

international nuclear disarmament programme, reducing the current non-

proliferation risk and the problems involving the physical protection 

of nuclear material," he wrote.



Verhofstadt said Washington was considering recycling the plutonium 

at Belgonucleaire, a Belgian subsidiary of French state nuclear 

reprocessing firm Cogema, or at a plant in France.



It would take the United States several years to build its own MOX 

plant and Belgian approval of the U.S. request would speed up the 

destruction of weapons-grade plutonium by four years, Verhofstadt 

said.



The Greens advocated storing the plutonium underground in the United 

States. Shipping it to Belgium for recycling would create transport 

risks and went against the government's decision last year to phase 

out nuclear power, they argued.

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



Portugal police arrest man for uranium smuggling



LISBON, July 12 (Reuters) - Portuguese police have arrested a man on 

charges of belonging to an international ring smuggling enriched 

uranium, which could be used to make nuclear weapons.



A statement said that the 46-year-old man was arrested on Thursday 

following an investigation undertaken at the request of French 

authorities, who were tracking a criminal organisation suspected of 

smuggling nuclear material from eastern Europe.



"Three other resident foreign individuals had already been arrested 

in France, in summer 2001, from whom a portion of enriched uranium 

was confiscated, which could possibly be suited to the production of 

a nuclear weapon or a terrorist device," the statement said.



"Countless investigative efforts by the police ... have gathered many 

signs that the Portuguese citizen was involved and even had a leading 

role, in the same (international) ring," Judiciary Police added in 

Portugal's second city, Oporto.

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



Entergy may drop Vermont nuclear power plant buy



NEW ORLEANS, July 12 (Reuters) - Entergy Corp., an electricity and 

natural gas company, said on Friday it may not complete its 

$180 million purchase of a Vermont nuclear power plant because of 

terms set by state regulators.



The company, the second-largest U.S. operator of nuclear plants 

behind Exelon, said the Vermont Public Service Board said on 

June 13 that Entergy cannot keep any excess decommissioning funds, 

money set aside to pay for the dismantling of old nuclear 

plants.



Instead, Entergy said the board is requiring it to pay any such funds 

to the seller -- eight New England-based utilities -- for the 

benefit of their ratepayers. The largest of the sellers are Central 

Vermont Public Service Corp., New England Power Co., Green 

Mountain Power Corp. and Connecticut Light and Power Co.



Entergy said the board on Thursday denied its request for an 

amendment of the June 13 order, which approved the acquisition of the 

Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station.



The company said that an earlier agreement with the sellers and the 

Department of Public Service called for it to retain any excess 

funds if the plant were decommissioned before 2022. Entergy and the 

sellers would share the funds equally if the plant were 

decommissioned after 2022.



Regardless of whether it buys the plant, Entergy said it expects to 

achieve 2002 and 2003 earnings to meet its previous forecasts.



The company has said it expects to earn $3.40 to $3.60 a share for 

2002 and $3.75 to $3.95 for 2003, up from $3.23 for 2001.

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



Preparing ``America'' for a Nuclear Emergency Campaign Launched by 

Anbex Distributing



PALM HARBOR, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 11, 2002--Anbex 

Distributing, based in Palm Harbor, Florida, announced today their 

public awareness campaign to prepare American citizens from the 

harmful effects of radioactive fallout in a nuclear radiation 

emergency.



Anbex, Inc. is certified by the U.S. Government to manufacture IOSAT 

brand, Potassium Iodide (symbol:KI), and is authorized by 

the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market the anti-radiation 

pills to the public. Anbex's IOSAT, is the FDA approved over-the-

counter, anti-radiation pill. No prescription is needed.



Visit: http://www.anbexdistributing.com for more information.



The U.S. Government has identified 104 domestic nuclear power plants 

as targets for terrorist attacks. Over 200 million Americans, 

more than 85% of the population of United States, live within 200 

miles of a nuclear power plant.



Education, knowledge and preparedness are the principles which 

support the campaign "Preparing America for a Nuclear 

Emergency."



The number one cause of death from the exposure to nuclear radiation 

is thyroid cancer. Anbex's FDA approved IOSAT brand, 

Potassium Iodide (KI) acts as a radiation block to protect the health 

of people exposed to radioactive fallout, whether inhaled or 

ingested in contaminated food or water.



The U.S. Government agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) 

has already purchased over nine million pills for 

distribution to several states with nuclear power plants.



Government agencies, military personnel, police and fire departments, 

emergency workers, retailers, corporations, schools, hospitals, 

charitable organizations, summer camps, and all American families 

should be prepared in the event of a nuclear emergency. Every 

American should have a personal supply of Anbex's IOSAT anti-

radiation pills in their homes, offices, and cars and include their 

personal supply in their evacuation, emergency and travel plans.



Anbex's IOSAT comes in FDA approved, individual, foil-sealed packages 

with a 14-day supply per person and retails for about $1.00

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

Sandy Perle

Director, Technical

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Service

ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue

Costa Mesa, CA 92626



Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100  Extension 2306

Fax:(714) 668-3149



E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net

E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com



Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com



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