[ RadSafe ] Bush Budget Proposes Boosting Yucca Mtn, Nuclear Spending

[Sandy Perle]

Index

Bush Budget Proposes Boosting Yucca Mtn, Nuclear Spending
Michigan State's bid for nuclear physics center still alive
Ukrainian officials to sell scrap equipment from Chernobyl
Environmental groups question uranium plant's impact on water
Hanford funding falls 10 percent under Bush 2006 budget
Hearing set on e Iowa Army Ammunition Plant
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Bush Budget Proposes Boosting Yucca Mtn, Nuclear Spending

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The Bush administration has asked Congress 
to increase funding of the controversial Yucca Mountain nuclear waste 
storage project in Nevada as part of a 2006 budget proposal released 
Monday that cuts overall Department of Energy funding by about 2%.

If lawmakes approve the budget as is, research spending on nuclear 
energy, coal coal technology and hydrogen fuel cell development would 
get a boost while spending would be slashed for fossil fuel, 
electricity and renewable energy research.

The budget proposal calls for $651 million to be spent toward 
completing the license application process and constructing a 
national repository for nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, up $81 
million from the previous budget, Energy Secretary Sam Bodman said.

"That is consistent with monies we think we can spend responsibly on 
Yucca Mountain in '06 based on the current situation we are dealing 
with," Bodman said in a briefing after the budget proposal was 
released.

Yucca Mountain is hotly opposed by environmentalists and Nevada 
residents, but is seen by the nuclear industry as important to its 
future. Bush has said nuclear power should play a pivotal role in 
attempts to lessen the U.S. dependency on imported oil.

Spending on nuclear research would rise $25 million to $511 million, 
Bodman said.

"We need to recognize the fact that over the past couple decades, we 
really put ourselves out of business in terms of encouraging our 
utilities to use nuclear power, so this is an effort to help 
stimulate the private sector to approach new approaches," Bodman 
said.

The Bush administration's fiscal 2006 budget would cut the DOE budget 
by 2% to $23.4 billion.

The president's plan calls for phasing out all domestic oil and gas 
research and development programs, slashing spending from nearly $79 
million to just $20 million.

Bodman said the government expects the private sector to fund such 
activities. But Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., a ranking member of the 
Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources blasted the cutback.

"There are a lot of disappointments in this budget request," Bingaman 
said, " but the administration's decision to cut off all technology 
support to our domestic oil and gas industry is completely wrong-
headed. Our domestic production is declining, and the geologic 
formations containing petroleum that are left are increasingly 
unconventional. We need enhanced technology in order to access them."
---------------

Michigan State's bid for nuclear physics center still alive

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Michigan State University's quest to win a 
federally funded nuclear physics research center stayed alive Monday.

President Bush's budget proposal sent to Congress on Monday includes 
$4 million for the U.S. Department of Energy to continue preliminary 
work on an atom-smasher called the Rare Isotope Accelerator. It's not 
enough money to complete a development plan, but it keeps the concept 
moving forward, supporters said.

"We were hoping for more money," said Konrad Gelbke, director of the 
National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at Michigan State. "But 
our delegation will continue to work to improve the funding."

Michigan State and Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago are 
considered the front-runners for the project. It would allow 
physicists to explore the makeup of the nucleus of atoms, aiding 
breakthroughs in medicine, national security and nuclear physics.

The $1 billion project likely would add hundreds of jobs to the 
organization that wins it.

The federal government is spending about $9 million on preliminary 
phases of the project this fiscal year. That amount was increased 
from the original $4 million proposed by Bush.

U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican, said efforts to secure 
the project for Michigan State will continue.

"MSU has one of the top nuclear physics programs in the nation and 
would be an excellent site for the new facility, which would boost 
not only America, but the mid-Michigan area," Rogers said in a 
written statement.

A federal task force has estimated the accelerator will take five 
years to build once the project is awarded.
---------------

Ukrainian officials to sell scrap equipment from Chernobyl to help 
pay for operations

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Officials at the site of the world's worst 
nuclear accident announced plans Monday to sell scrap and other 
equipment from the Chernobyl nuclear plant, saying the government was 
not giving it enough money to continue operating.

Plant spokesman Viktor Kapusta said authorities hoped to raise the 
funds by selling things like pumps to maintain the ongoing operations 
such as monitoring radiation levels. He called the decision a "forced 
measure," saying the federal government owes the plant $3.2 million.

About 30 workers are sorting out the equipment and estimating its 
value, Kapusta said. He said the equipment being sold was "clean, 
safe and environmentally friendly."

He refused to say how much the plant operators were hoping to bring 
in.

"We shouldn't be sitting around twiddling our thumbs," he said. "We 
should try to make money ourselves."

An estimated 7 million people suffer radiation-related health 
problems from the disaster at the Chernobyl's reactor No. 4, which 
exploded and burned in 1986. The radioactive fallout affected vast 
parts of Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and much of northern Europe.

The destroyed reactor was entombed in a hastily built concrete-and-
steel shelter, which Ukrainian experts say is in need of urgent 
repairs. The last reactor at the plant was shut for good in 2000, but 
many call the plant a ticking atomic time bomb.

Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly warned that the previously 
estimated figure of $758 million was far from enough to build a new 
protective shelter for reactor No. 4 by the end of 2008. Officials 
have asked for an additional $350 million.
------------------

Environmental groups question uranium plant's impact on water

HOBBS, N.M. (AP) - In the first of a weeklong series of hearings, two 
environmental groups argued Monday that a proposed New Mexico nuclear-
fuel plant could release uranium-contaminated water into nearby 
aquifers.

Louisiana Energy Services' license application for the proposed 
uranium enrichment plant faces opposition from two Washington-based 
groups: Nuclear Information and Resource Service and Public Citizen. 
LES officials defended its application, maintaining the facility 
would be safe.

LES, a consortium of largely European backers, wants to build the 
$1.2 billion facility to refine uranium for nuclear reactors. It says 
the plant will be a boon for the region's economy, and local 
officials have been largely supportive.

But others worry that the plant could pose environmental risks. Gov. 
Bill Richardson, among others, has raised concerns because the 
process produces a type of waste that cannot currently be disposed of 
anywhere in the United States.

Monday's hearing before the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, a 
three-member panel that reports to the federal Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, marked the environmental groups' opportunity to publicly 
cross-examine LES on data it has submitted to the NRC.

Much of the morning focused on various dirt and rock samples drilled 
on and around the site. Lawyer Lindsay Lovejoy Jr., representing the 
environmental groups, asked if enough samples had been taken and if 
cracks in the clay below the site might be connected.

"There's a lot of data points showing fractures," Lovejoy said of the 
clay above the aquifer. He also questioned why some of the samples 
were moist if there is no seepage, and whether storm water could seep 
into the aquifer.

LES lawyer Roger Perry defended the company's analysis of the area's 
geology, repeating that most water in the area's soil evaporates. He 
also said the aquifer beneath the proposed factory is protected by 
hundreds of feet of practically impermeable clay.

Later in the week the panel will hear arguments on the groups' 
contentions regarding waste storage and the economic need for the 
plant. Another round of hearings in October will address safety 
concerns.

The hearings this week are limited in scope, with the first day 
involving mostly scientific details of the aquifers in southern New 
Mexico and western Texas.

"Is what we are discussing here a well-known phenomenon, namely that 
water flows down hill?" said Charles Kelber, one of the panel's 
judges, after discussion over why or how two of the regions aquifers 
are connected.

Kelber and two other administrative judges can issue rulings that 
require the NRC and LES to change the plant's design or environmental 
impact statement. One issue the judges asked LES to clarify further 
was whether LES monitoring wells were placed where they could detect 
a leak in storage ponds.

LES is made up of limited and general partners Urenco, Exelon, Duke 
Power, Entergy, and Westinghouse, according to the Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission.
-----------------

Hanford funding falls 10 percent under Bush 2006 budget

YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) - Federal funding to clean up the highly 
contaminated Hanford nuclear reservation would decline by about 10 
percent under the 2006 budget proposed by President Bush on Monday.

Under the proposal, money to clean up the south-central Washington 
site, which is managed by the U.S. Department of Energy, would fall 
more than $200 million, from its peak of more than $2 billion in 2005 
to about $1.8 billion in 2006.

In a briefing about the proposed budget, Energy Secretary Samuel 
Bodman cited the agency's successful completion of a number of 
cleanup projects at Hanford as one reason for the decline.

But Bodman also said the Energy Department faces a number of "legal 
difficulties" surrounding the Hanford site and, for that reason, 
agency officials don't believe they can justify spending more money 
there.

The state and federal government have been bickering about Hanford 
cleanup on a number of legal fronts. One battle centers on the Energy 
Department's attempts to reclassify highly radioactive waste stored 
in underground tanks.

Congress approved a measure allowing waste in South Carolina and 
Idaho tanks to be reclassified as incidental, a category that means 
it can be left in the tanks and combined with concrete grout.

The change did not apply at Hanford, where about 53 million gallons 
of highly radioactive waste from World War II and Cold War-era 
plutonium production is buried in 177 underground tanks. An estimated 
67 of the tanks have leaked radioactive brew into the soil, 
contaminating the aquifer and threatening the Columbia River less 
than 10 miles away.

The Energy Department maintains that some residue in the waste tanks 
is too expensive to extract. The 1989 Tri-Party Agreement - a Hanford 
cleanup pact signed by Washington state, the Energy Department and 
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - requires the Energy 
Department to remove as much waste as technically feasible, but not 
less than 99 percent.

Last year, a federal appeals court overturned a ruling by a federal 
judge in Idaho that would have barred the Energy Department from 
reclassifying the waste. The appeals court said it was too soon to 
determine if the agency's plans would violate federal laws governing 
nuclear waste.

On another legal front, the Energy Department is fighting to overturn 
an initiative overwhelmingly approved by Washington state voters last 
fall. The measure bars the agency from sending any more waste to 
Hanford until all the existing waste there is cleaned up. It also 
requires the Energy Department to clean up all the waste inside the 
tanks.

Sheryl Hutchison, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Ecology, 
said state officials were still reviewing the proposed budget and its 
effect on Hanford cleanup. However, she said the state would disagree 
with any attempt to reduce funding due to legal wrangling.

"If that is a justification they are trying to use, we would flatly 
reject the notion that legal difficulties are somehow justification 
to slow or stop any of the cleanup at the Hanford site," she said. 
"That's not a valid reason."

U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., also objected to the Energy 
Department's claim that legal uncertainties will slow work.

"The federal government has a responsibility to uphold its legal and 
moral cleanup obligations," Hastings said in a news release.

However, Paul Golan, acting assistant secretary of environmental 
management for the Energy Department, stressed that the funding 
reductions point to completion of some projects. He also noted that 
Hanford still accounts for 27 percent of the agency's entire 
environmental management program.

"We've made a lot of progress in the last three years in reducing 
risks at Hanford," Golan said. "We've made a sizable and significant 
investment in continuing to accelerate cleanup there."

Nationally, the Energy Department's environmental management program 
to clean up and close sites would receive $6.5 billion under the 
proposed budget, down from nearly $7.3 billion in 2005.
-----------------

Hearing set on e Iowa Army Ammunition Plant

BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) - Former workers at the Iowa Army Ammunition 
Plant remain in limbo after federal safety officials said they could 
not determine the amount of radiation the workers absorbed on the job 
without the release of additional classified documents.

In a 35-page report, officials with the National Institute of 
Occupational Safety and Health acknowledged they were unable to 
pinpoint the absorption. They say, however, accurate dose 
reconstruction are possible with the classified information.

A program created by Congress three years ago aims to compensate the 
nation's former nuclear weapons workers who say they contracted 
cancer or other serious illnesses.

About 4,000 workers assembled and tested nuclear weapons components 
at the 19,000-acre plant in Middletown, just west of Burlington, from 
1947 to the mid-1970s.

The workers' have petitioned for special consideration, based on the 
inadequacy of the so-called dose reconstruction. They hope to become 
automatically eligible for $150,000 payments.

The NIOSH Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health is slated to 
take up the IAAP petition on Wednesday in St. Louis. The board could 
recommend scrapping the dose reconstruction and granting the worker 
petition. The board also could suggest opening the classified 
documents, which would allow the dose reconstruction process to 
continue.

So far, IAAP workers' requests for compensation under the government 
program have been stalled.

Laurence Fuortes, a University of Iowa physician overseeing health 
screenings of the workers, said there is another cause for concern.

Fuortes, who helped draft the petition to NIOSH, said the issue is 
not only the information's availability, but also its quality. He 
said the Iowa research team does not believe the classified documents 
contain enough data for fair dose reconstruction.

The advisory board could side with the IAAP workers and recommend 
creation of the Special Exposure Cohort. That recommendation would go 
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, who would pass 
his decision onto Congress.

Should Congress decline to act, the secretary's designation would 
take effect in 30 days.

In a letter last week to NIOSH Director John Howard, Sen. Charles 
Grassley, R-Iowa, said the plant workers have proven repeatedly that 
they handled radioactive materials on the job.

"Based on the compelling information provided by the petitioners and 
the finding by NIOSH," Grassley wrote, "I strongly encourage the 
Advisory Board to swiftly recommend to Health and Human Services 
Secretary Leavitt that the class of workers at the IAAP be added to 
the Special Exposure Cohort."

On the Net: NIOSH Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health: 
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ocas/ocasadv.html

Information from: The Hawk Eye, http://www.thehawkeye.com


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

Global Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com/ 
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