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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.
Spent Nuclear Fuel, a Storage Conundrum MOBILE CHERNOBYL ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! The idea of shipping all of the nation's high-level nuclear waste to a parking lot in Nevada is BACK! The new bill is HR 45 and nearly identical to the previous version. The new date for opening a centralized storage site for irradiated fuel from nuclear power reactors and the military is 2003. Transport of high-level nuclear waste from reactor sites, 3/4 of which are east of the Mississippi River, would impact 43 states, according to studies conducted by the State of Nevada. 50 million Americans live within a half mile on either side of the likely train tracks and highways this waste would pass by. DOE'S viability assessment of the proposed site contradicts any assertion that Yucca Mt. will isolate nuclear waste from the environment. The constant seismic activity in the area has fractured the soft rock of the mountain, allowing rain to travel through the proposed site. The same fractures will allow radioactive gases to escape as the waste decays. (Michael Mariott, Nuclear Information and Research Service, 1/19/99) INTERIM HIGH LEVEL WASTE LEGISLATION TO BE INTRODUCED SOON according to Andrew Lundquist, majority staff director of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, speaking at a panel discussion hosted by the National Energy Resources Organization on Jan. 26. DENNIS HASTERT, NEW HOUSE SPEAKER, STRONGLY SUPPORTS YUCCA MT. temporary storage dump, HR 45, and incoming Commerce, Energy, and Power Chairman Joe Barton has made the Yucca bill his first priority, vowing to begin hearings in early February. Commerce Chairman Bailey also has made passing the bill one of his top priorities. The Congressmen bear in mind that they lost in the Senate by only two votes last time around. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Murkowski is expected to play his hand carefully. (U.S. PIRG, 1/13/99) DATA IN DOE VIABILITY ASSESSMENT SUPPORTS PETITION OF 219 ENVIROS to disqualify Yucca Mt. "It would be outrageous for DOE to make the decision to go forward with more work at Yucca Mountain when the evidence in their own study--a leaky mountain, leaky containers, and earthquakes--disqualify the site. It is time to move on and stop wasting billions of dollars." (Ann Mesnikoff, Sierra Club's Global Warming and Energy Program.) TEST BLAST TRACES OF PU MIGRATED NEARLY A MILE IN 30 YEARS of moving through groundwater. Scientists at Los Alamos and Livermore national labs found that bacteria thrived on radioactive materials attached to colloids or particles of debris, migrated from an underground nuclear explosion at the Nevada Test Site in the 1950's. Both the mountain and the test site consist of tuff riddled with microscopic pores and fracture spaces through which water can travel. Researcher Annie Kersting said the plutonium levels found by the scientists were too weak to pose health risks, but the finding that plutonium can travel such distances underground is important for engineers designing the proposed high-level waste site beneath Yucca Mt. (United Press International, 9/1/98) NYE COUNTY RESEARCHERS SURPRISED BY HOTTER WATER THAN EXPECTED NEAR PROPOSED YUCCA MT. WASTE SITE. It could be coming from deep in the earth or from volcanic activity. One conclusion could be that water from either source is flowing through fractures in the rock -- indicating a less stable rock structure than originally assumed. Such water could corrode containers that nuclear waste is stored in. DOE plans to include Nye County's findings in its studies of Yucca Mountain. (Las Vegas Sun, 1/27/99) NRC AMENDS RULES OF PRACTICE FOR LICENSING DISPOSAL OF HIGH LEVEL WASTE at a geologic repository. Amendments are intended to allow application of technological developments that have occurred since the original rule was adopted in 1989. (10 CFR Part 2) CAROL BROWNER TELLS NRC NOT TO SET RADIATION STANDARDS FOR THE PROPOSED YUCCA MT. WASTE DUMP. In a letter to NRC Chair Shirley Jackson, Browner said that "It is disconcerting to me" to learn that NRC is considering establishing its own (and probably much weaker) radiation standards for the Yucca Mt. project when the law clearly directs EPA to set these standards -- and is proposing to set its own radiation standards and means of implementing them before the EPA finishes its work on the issue. Browner said that the EPA expects to propose its standards by early next year. (The Nuclear Monitor, October 1998) NEVADA TEST SITE EXPECTED TO BE REGIONAL DUMPING GROUND FOR HIGH LEVEL WASTE left over from the U.S. nuclear weapons development across the country, said Carl Gertz, DOE's assistant manager in Nevada, in January. The Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, was the main location for U.S. nuclear weapons experiments from 1951 through 1992. (Las Vegas Sun, 1/8/99) Weapons Plutonium, Uranium, and Tritium: The Three Musketeers DOE WILL USE THREE TVA REACTORS TO MAKE TRITIUM. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson has acknowledged that the arrangement with the TVA, which is subject to Congressional approval, breaks down a longtime distinction by using a civilian reactor for military purposes. However, he said lining up the TVA's reactors ( Watts Bar 1 and Sequoyah 1 and 2) encouraged nuclear nonproliferation because it eliminated the need for the United States to break ground on an expensive new military plant which might be far larger then ever needed, if new arms control agreements are signed. The department's last reactor for making tritium was shut down for safety reasons 10 years ago. Since then weapons decommissioned under arms accords have been the military's source of tritium and the pace of weapons retirements has been faster than the pace of tritium decay. But unless Russia approves a new arms control agreement soon, the United States will need new tritium in six years to sustain its arsenal. Tritium, used to increase the destructive force of nuclear weapons, is the only one of six radioactive ingredients of nuclear bombs that rapidly decomposes. (New York Times, 12/23/98) DOE SECRETARY BILL RICHARDSON DECIDES SAVANNAH RIVER SITE WILL PROCESS U.S. EXCESS WARHEADS. But with at least six years until the SRS plutonium-processing complex is scheduled to open, the project could be derailed by political change or Russian failure to reduce its own nuclear arsenal. (Tom Clements, Greenpeace, 1/8/99) PLUTONIUM CONUNDRUM WRECKS CANADIAN PLAN TO BURN PLUTONIUM FROM NUCLEAR WARHEADS in Candu reactor fuel bundles. The Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, advised by environmentalists, told the government that they lauded the idea of helping the superpowers get rid of warheads, but the usage of plutonium in Candu reactors would have left Canadians to dispose of the radioactive waste. Environmentalists also said that it could be unsafe to transport plutonium along proposed overland routes. The Foreign Affairs Committee's unanimous recommendation says Canada should work for getting rid of warhead plutonium. The Committee also said that nuclear weapons states should physically remove warheads from missiles, aircraft and submarines and store them away from launch vehicles. (Campaign for Nuclear Phaseout, 10/12/98) DOE SECRETARY DECIDES ON TWO STEP PROGRAM T0 HANDLE excess weapon-grade plutonium. Part of a post-Cold War treaty with Russia, it will take place at the Savannah River weapons site. But with at least six years before the SRS plutonium-processing complex is scheduled to open, the project could be derailed in many ways, most importantly by how Russia goes about reducing its own nuclear arsenal. (The State, Columbia, N.C. 1/8/99) PANHANDLE ENVIRONMENTALISTS WRITE DOE DIRECTOR OF FISSILE MATERIALS DISPOSITION requesting that attention be paid to the possibility of doing "pit stuffing" at DOE's Pantex plant. The writers say pit stuffing is technically and economically feasible and poses no adverse environmental or human health effects. Pit stuffing technology was developed by Los Alamos to deal with weapons deemed unsafe. Pits are disabled by "stuffing a wire through the (pit) tube through which the tritium is "fed" into the primary. The wire fills the hollow portion of the pit and is stuffed so that it is tangled inside. Once the end is stuffed into the pit, the warhead cannot be reactivated except by completely remanufacturing the pit. (Serious Texans Against Nuclear Dumping,12/14/98) NCI REPORT SUGGESTS THOUSANDS COULD DIE IN MAJOR REACTOR ACCIDENT FROM BURNING PLUTONIUM IN SPENT FUEL. The Nuclear Control Institute study says DOE underestimates the safety risks of using civilian power reactors to dispose of plutonium the government no longer needs because of post-Cold War arms reductions. DOE is expected to issue a contract next month to a consortium to dispose of more than 36 tons of plutonium over several decades. The consortium includes Duke Power Co., Virginia Power Co., and the French nuclear fuel manufacturer Cogema. The utilities would burn the fuel, often called MOX (mixed oxide fuel), at six reactors in South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. Energy Department officials say they remain convinced MOX poses no additional safety risk compared with low-enriched uranium normally used in commercial reactors. (AP, 1/22/99) IEER DECLARES WIPP NO TRU SOLUTION! The institute starts with the fact that we can't "clean up" nuclear waste. What we can do is reduce risk, which has three aspects: l) Take urgent action to reduce risk of environmental or health disasters (such as leaks from or explosions in high-level waste tanks) and further spread of irremediable contamination (such as contamination of sole source aquifers). 2) Contain radioactive waste for periods comparable to the times during which they will remain dangerous. 3) Address both radioactive and non-radioactive waste and clean-up problems and cancer as well as non-cancer health risks. (Science for Democratic Action, January 1999) WIPP OPENING DELAY FORCES ROCKY FLATS TO PLAN FOR BOTH LONG AND SHORT TERM OPTIONS FOR TRU WASTE. After short term storage space is filled, additional TRU waste will be stored in tents within the protected area. For a longer term, the site is considering phased construction of modular storage units. (The Advisor, Winter, 1998) WIND MORE MAGICAL ENERGY SOURCE THAN PLUTONIUM REPORTS IEER. The analysis by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research shows that costs of electricity from plutonium-based fuel (MOX) in present day commercial nuclear reactors are about 40% greater than offshore wind electricity. And long term costs of electricity from a breeder reactor system are at least twice as expensive as offshore wind electricity, based on the present state of development of the two technologies. Denmark is already implementing an ambitious plan for offshore and land based wind power development that will supply 25 percent of its total energy supply by the year 1030. (IEER Press Release, 1/13/99) NUCLEAR CONTROL INSTITUTE CRITICIZES DOE PLAN TO BURN EXCESS PLUTONIUM (as mixed oxide, MOX) in civilian reactors to dispose of it. The Institute reports that thousands of additional deaths could result if a major reactor using such fuel has an accident. DOE officials say they remain convinced the so-called MOX fuel poses no additional safety risk compared with the low-enriched uranium used in commercial reactors. The Department is expected to issue a contract next month to a consortium to dispose of more than 36 tons of plutonium over several decades. The consortium comprises two Southern Electric utilities, Duke Power Co. and Virginia Power Co. and the French nuclear fuel manufacturer Cogema. The utilities would burn the fuel (MOX) at six reactors in South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. (AP, 1/22/99) A spokesman for Duke Power has said the National Academy of Sciences has endorsed the MOX plan. Edwin Lyman, an energy physicist and the NCI study's author, using the government's own calculations and risk-modeling techniques, concluded twice as many cancer deaths would occur from a severe accident using MOX fuel than if conventional uranium were used. He said the fuel, processed from plutonium, would release a much larger burst of highly radioactive and toxic materials known as actinides--including plutonium, americium, cesium and curium. AP.1/22/99) KHOSROW SEMNANI, OWNER OF ENVIROCARE OF UTAH, FINED $100,000 for paying off Larry F. Anderson, former director of the state's division of radiation control. Semnani said he hopes to negotiate with the U.S. Department of Energy for a return to Envirocare, which operates one of the nation's three low-level radioactive waste facilities at Clive, 65 miles west of Salt Lake City. (AP 12/15/1998) WYOMING GOVERNOR JIM GERINGER OPPOSES OWL CREEK LOW LEVEL WASTE STORAGE PROJECT despite estimates of 3,000 jobs, nearly $2 billion in local income and $20 million annually to the state over the expected 40 years before closure. Geringer has said, "My stance is rather connected on the front end of natural resource development, not the back end. Why deal with garbage when you should be dealing with overall development?" (AP 1/19/99) AMERICAN ECOLOGY PRESIDENT SAYS NEBRASKA'S DENIAL OF LICENSE to construct a five-state low level radioactive waste disposal site is the latest evidence that the nation's law governing such material is a political failure. American Ecology's U.S. Ecology subsidiary is designated as the builder and operator of the proposed disposal facility to serve generators of low level radioactive material from Arkansas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. "This situation begs political leadership," Joe Nagel said. "States such as Nebraska, where more more than one-third of public power comes from nuclear energy, cannot continue to stack up radioactive waste on-site." (Business Wire, 12/24/98) TWO DOZEN TEXAS LOBBYISTS BID FOR TEXAS LOW LEVEL WASTE DISPOSAL BUSINESS. Called Waste Control Specialists, the $1 million team includes former top aides to Gov. George W. Bush. Competing with the new team, Envirocare has added two former Texas House speakers to oversee its six member lobbying group. The companies are vying for state approval to dispose of growing stockpiles of low-level nuclear waste, a prize experts say could eventually produce big profits. Waste Control wants to bury the waste at its 1,338 acre hazardous and toxic waste dump in Andrews County on the New Mexico border. Evirocare, which operates a low-level radioactive waste dump in Utah, has purchased 880 acres in Andrews County as a possible dump site. (Dallas Morning News, 2/7/99) MEXICAN LEGISLATORS PASS RESOLUTION TO STOP WARD VALLEY DUMP. Despite claims by Governor Davis that he seeks to improve relations with Mexico to protect the environment, he has remained silent on the dump issue since taking office. (Save Ward Valley, (1/30/99) DOE SETTLES LAWSUIT WITH ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS. Agreements include more information on cleanup activities, a $6.25 million fund for such groups to analyze DOE's activities and an environmental analysis of how DOE plans to take long-term care of cleanup problems. According to the terms of the settlement DOE will set up a data base that contains all information on the contamination of DOE sites nationwide. The information can be accessed via the Internet as well as though hard copies. Two public forums for stakeholders will guide DOE in the process and a $6.25 million fund will provide technical assistance to groups like OREPA in reviewing cleanup activities on the DOE reservations. Groups will apply for the money, which will be available only to organizations not supported by other government money, said Ralph Hutchison, coordinator for the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, who says he thinks it's a pretty big deal for everybody. DOE, working with the public, will conduct a study on the long-term management of its facilities. The environmental groups filed the lawsuit against DOE in 1989, when the agency first began looking at cleaning up the waste. Mary Anne Sullivan, DOE General Counsel said in an official statement, "We are proud of this settlement and believe that it represents a victory for the public and for the environment. (News Sentinel Oak Ridge Bureau, 12/27/98) NRC TO DECIDE SOON ON MOVE OF MOUNTAIN OF URANIUM MILL TAILINGS. Moving the 10.5 million ton Atlas Corp. tailings pile, now 750 feet from the Colorado River, would cost about $155 million. Atlas filed for bankruptcy last September, but the company still plans to spend $19 million to cap the tailings, a move opposed by Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, CA Rep. George Miller -- concerned about contamination of the water supply in his district -- and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, among others. (AP/03/1999) PANTEX NEIGHBORS DISCUSS GROUNDWATER CONTAMINATION THAT COULD AFFECT HUNDREDS OF ACRES OF PRIVATE PROPERTY. High explosives contamination in the perched groundwater layer around Pantex now probably affects at least four landowners, whereas a year ago only one landowner was officially affected. In the past year, toxicity levels appear to have increased in at least one well. Pantex officials still do not know how far water extends in the perched layer or the extent of contamination. Groundwater data collected by the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission in August 1998 show high explosive contamination in one well to be l00 times greater than state of Texas residential cleanup standards. (Save Texas Agriculture and Resources Coalition, 1/18/99) Potential Sources of Alpha Particles in the Environment: l. Nuclear War, 2. Nuclear Weapons Testing, 3. Nuclear Power Station Accidents, 4. Waste products from nuclear industries already discharged into rivers and seas. 6. Existing fuel rods from nuclear reactor storage and safe disposal. 7. Decommissioned stationary nuclear power reactors and marine and submarine reactors. 8. Nuclear materials already in space or to be sent into space with potential dissemination by vaporization on reentry, 9. Future inputs Known sources: 1. Presence in Nature; 2. Contamination in ignorance - miners and mining before radiation pathology was understood, 3. industrial exposure, mining, processing waste dumping and weapons testing as in Nevada & Pacific, UK in Australia & Christmas Island, France in the Pacific, and the Soviet Union at Chelyabinsk, Mayak, Baley, Semipalatinsk and Novaya Zemlya, 4. Industrial nuclear processing leakage and accidents both military and from power generation: Windscale/Sellafield; Dounreay; Rocky Flats; Three Mile Island; Hanford; Chelyabinsk; Mayak; Baley; Tomsk; Chernobyl; Pickering; 5. Industrial nuclear power and reprocessing effluent discharge policies as at Windscale/Sellafield and La Hague; 6. nuclear waste accumulation (DOE Watch, (2/2/99) 600,000 GULF WAR SOLDIERS COULD HAVE BEEN EXPOSED TO DEPLETED URANIUM according to the National Gulf War Resource Center, a coalition of veterans groups based in Washington, D.C. Last December, nearly eight years after the unexplained Gulf War illness, the Pentagon showed President Clinton's Oversight Committee a map of the Gulf War battlefield that detailed sites where Army tanks and Air Force jets fired more than 300 tons of depleted uranium ammunition at Iraqi troops in 1991. "The map shows that almost every combat unit goes through contaminated areas twice," said Paul Sullivan, executive director of the Center. He said that soldiers traveled on contaminated roads and may have camped on contaminated land for two months. (San Francisco Examiner, 1/23/99) YANKEE ROWE SHUT AND EMPTY EXCEPT FOR 127 METRIC TONS OF SPENT FUEL in its cooling pool, where it will remain while Yankee Rowe's owners sue for damages from the government's failure to dispose of its waste. Other nuclear utilities are expected to follow suit, possibly demanding a total bill from the government of $53 billion. (Washington Post, 11/22/98) Y2K COMPUTER BUG MAY AFFECT ATOMIC REACTOR RESPONSE TO EMERGENCY CONDITIONS. The Nuclear Information and Research Service (NIRS) Executive Director Michael Marriotte says "The Y2K computer problem is greater than most people imagined even a year ago, and it is becoming clear that not every nuclear utility will be Y2K compliant in time for the millennium. Further, the possibility of electrical grid instability and local and regional blackouts cannot be ruled out. Nuclear power reactors require large amounts of electricity for essential cooling even when closed. Moreover, few-if any-utilities have actually tested emergency plans to cope with potential Y2K difficulties. NIRS has submitted three emergency petitions for rule making to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to address Y2K problems: 1. Require the NRC to close by Dec. 1 any reactor that cannot prove it is Y2K compliant; 2. Require nuclear utilities to install additional backup power units to ensure a steady supply of electricity to reactors; 3. Require each utility to engage in a full-scale emergency response exercise during 1999 in which plant personnel must attempt to address a Y2K-related problem. URANIUM PROCESSING PLANT IN TEXAS BACKED BY NM GOVERNOR JOHNSON AND SENATOR DOMINICI who say the plant could bring 1,500 jobs to southeastern New Mexico. The Lea County site, five miles west of Eunice is one of three possible sites. The other two are in the southeastern U.S. The decision will be made in March by U.S. Enrichment Corp, recently privatized in a $l.7 billion stock offering. (Albuquerque Journal, 12/5/98) NORTH CAROLINA POWER AND LIGHT WANTS TO BUILD TWO NEW STORAGE POOLS for spent fuel from three power plants in North and South Carolina. NRC approval will mean SP&L will enlarge its capacity to 8,400 fuel assemblies, more than any other commercial nuclear plant in the U.S. (Raleigh News and Observer, 1/7/99) GERMANY GERMAN CHANCELLOR SCHRODER DELAYS BAN ON NUCLEAR POWER AND EXPORT OF NUCLEAR WASTE for reprocessing because he was concerned that Germany might have to pay compensation if it scraps reprocessing deals with French and British plants, a government spokesman said. The delay was announced a day before utility executives were scheduled to open talks with Schroeder on a timetable for shutting down Germany's nuclear power plants. Nevertheless the German Green Party says it will press to close three or four nuclear power plants in four years. (AP.1/25/99) ENGLAND BRITISH TO REPROCESS GERMAN SPENT FUEL AFTER ALL? Presumably the German decision will encourage British Nuclear Fuels to speed up fixing problems at Thorp, its new reprocessing plant at Sellafield, which was shut down on Dec. 17 following a blockage in the pipe system that transfers the waste "coarse fines" from the dissolvers. It is understood to be part of the same pipe system that was found to be leaking last year as a result of the abrasive action of the fines. BRITAIN'S NUCLEAR WASTE IS DISASTER WAITING TO HAPPEN says English Nuclear Installation Inspectorate in review of nuclear waste compiled for a House of Lords select committee. Worst problems are at Sellafield, the Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment and eight elderly Magnox power stations. (The Daily Telegraph London, 12/19/ BRITS PLAN TO SHIP MOX FROM SELLAFIELD TO JAPAN. Greenpeace says "Clearly the UK, French and Japanese Governments are placing the so-called commercial interests of the international plutonium industry before those of international security and environmental safety." Under terms of the nuclear co-operation agreement between the U.S. and Japan, a transportation plan for any shipment containing plutonium extracted from nuclear fuel originally supplied by the U.S. for use in Japan's power reactors is subject to U.S. approval. All plutonium recovered from Japanese spent fuel reprocessed in Europe originates from uranium which was enriched in the U.S. (Greenpeace, 1/19/99) BRITISH MINISTRY OF DEFENSE CONDUCTING SECRET TESTS INTO DU poisoning of Gulf War veterans. Scientists at defense research center Porton Down are looking into the potential effects of depleted uranium on troops who fought in 1991. In November an Army Medical Corps technician became the first British Gulf War veteran to test positive for uranium depletion poisoning, raising the prospect that thousands more may have been exposed. (The Express, 12/3/98) FRANCE AND BELGIUM FRANCE WILL LOOK FOR MORE NON-NUCLEAR AND "CLEANER" ENERGY SOURCES which could gradually cut down its powerful nuclear energy structure, said Minister of Science Research, Claude Allegre, in a radio interview. THE BOOK "THAT FAMOUS CLOUD . . .CHERNOBYL" ACCUSES FRENCH OFFICIALS of refusing simple precautions after the explosion. Author Jean-Michel Jacquemin claims officials failed to warn the population about the dangers of radioactive fallout from the 1986 explosion because France itself is heavily reliant on nuclear power. (Tallahassee Democrat) FRENCH TO CREATE TWO UNDERGROUND "LABORATORIES" TO STUDY DEEP GEOLOGIC DISPOSAL in granite. The Green Party is upset because it feels this decision does not respect an agreement between it and the Socialist Party which guarantees the retrievability of stored waste, among other points. (Nature, 12/17/98) BELGIUM STOPS REPROCESSING. On December 4 Belgium's Minister of Defense and Energy announced that Belgium's 1990 reprocessing contract is finished. However, 19 tons of a 1978 baseload contract remains to be reprocessed. (Greenpeace, Belgium 12/4/98) RUSSIA DRY TECHNOLOGY FOR PROCESSING WEAPONS PLUTONIUM IS HEATING BUILDINGS in Ulyanovsk, Russia. Specialists at the State Institute of Nuclear Reactors have used the new technology to process 8 kilograms of weapons plutonium and are using the plutonium fuel to heat the institute and nearby residential buildings. The new process does not use the enormous amount of water generally used in work with nuclear components. (The Moscow Times 1/5/99) UKRAINE PLANS EUROPE'S LARGEST RADIOACTIVE DUMP. The dump, with a capacity of 650 tons of waste, is to open next year at the Zaporizhe plant in southern Ukraine. Most of the nuclear waste produced at the plant had been shipped to Krasnoyarsk in Siberia. But authorities there said last November that they would no longer accept the waste because Ukraine did not pay enough. (New York Times, 1/27/99) MINATOM READY TO CONVERT RUSSIA INTO A WORLD NUCLEAR DUMP according to the Socio-Ecological Union, an umbrella organization for environmental groups around Russia and the former Soviet Union. Minatom (Ministry of Atomic Energy of the Russian Federation) has agreed that Switzerland would supply Russia with some 2,000 tons of spent fuel from Swiss reactors, as well as 550 cubic meters of high level waste expected to return to Switzerland from France and the U.K. as part of plutonium reprocessing contracts. If the fuel is not reprocessed, the Swiss will receive the plutonium equivalent, but the resulting high level waste would remain in Russia. In return the Russians would get financial payments plus the opportunity to fabricate fresh uranium fuel for the Swiss reactors. (Anita Seth, IEER, 1/27/99) THE ECONOMIC CRISIS IN RUSSIA IS THE WORLD'S NUMBER ONE PROLIFERATION PROBLEM says William Potter, who heads the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, Calif., and recently returned from an inspection tour of five Russian nuclear sites. He found security equipment that had never been installed, highly enriched uranium transported on a canvas-topped truck and guards who disconnected security sensors after a series of false alarms. Matthew Bunn, a proliferation expert at Harvard, says that Moscow's central authority is dissipating, salaries are not being paid, and official corruption is endemic, creating conditions conducive to smuggling nuclear materials. The devaluation of the ruble on August 17 slashed meager salaries of nuclear plant workers and guards, the people guarding fissile and other bomb making material. Kenneth N. Luongo, a former DOE official who is now executive director of the Russian-American Nuclear Security Advisory Council, says "I think the situation is extremely dire. We have taken a gigantic step backward to the beginning of the 1990's, when the Soviet Union collapsed and we worried about a breakdown of their security system." (The Toronto Star, 1/23/99 and The Washington Post Weekly Edition, 12/7/98) RUSSIA ADMITS SOME NUCLEAR AND BALLISTIC TECHNOLOGY LEAKED TO IRAN. According to the Moscow Times, Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Maslyukov has said on TV that U.S. fears about the proliferation of Russia's nuclear secrets and ballistic missile technology were "entirely justified." Last week the U.S. imposed economic sanctions on three Russian Institutes--the Scientific Research and Design Institute, the Mendeleyev University, and the Moscow Aviation Institute. The U.S. accused them of failing to prevent leaks of nuclear and missile technologies to Iran. (Savannah Morning News, 1/23/99) 80+ ORGANIZATIONS ASK CLINTON TO STOP FUNDING NEW UKRAINIAN REACTORS. NIRS Director Michael Marriotte writes: "The Stone & Webster study is faulty from beginning to end. It barely recognizes decommissioning costs--which in U.S. experience runs at about initial plant construction costs; it completely ignores radioactive waste storage costs, and its estimate of construction costs will be met only if Ukraine doesn't plan on paying its construction workers. There is little reason to believe Ukraine will keep its promise to close Chernobyl if K/2 and R/4 are built. (Nuclear Information and Resource Service. 12/14/98) "NOW WE HAVE HUGE STOCKPILES OF POORLY GUARDED WEAPONS," General Lebed warns Clinton, comparing the Russian situation today with the revolutionary situation in 1917. (The Defense Monitor, 1998) NUCLEAR WASTE DUMPED BY SOVIET UNION IN ARCTIC WATERS LEAKS through its containers. Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said radiation levels reached up to 100 times normal in Stepovoi Gulf and levels in Barents Sea are also above normal. (Chicago Tribune, 12/16/98) RUSSIAN NUCLEAR POWER MINISTER ADAMOV WANTS NEW LAW EASING RESTRICTIONS on importing spent fuel. The Russian nuclear industry wants the new law to allow it to compete on the lucrative international market for reprocessing and storage of waste and spent fuel. Current laws forbid the import of nuclear waste for reprocessing unless all radioactive material and waste generated during reprocessing is returned to the client country. (Moscow Times, 12/10/98) RUSSIANS SAY $200 MILLION DOE THREE YEAR BUDGET FOR DISP0SITION OF RUSSIAN WEAPONS-GRADE PLUTONIUM will be resisted by activists in both countries. How the money will actually be used, the activists say, is in contradiction to DOE's goal: to take weapons grade plutonium out of circulation by converting it into MOX. Instead, the reprocessing of MOX fuel would lead not to a decrease in the amount of plutonium in Russia but rather to an increase in stockpiles and promulgation of a plutonium economy. Furthermore, a MOX program will produce large amounts of plutonium-contaminated waste, the handling of which is apparently not included in DOE's budget. (Socio-Ecological Union of Russia, 2/2/99. AUSTRALIA DESERT PEOPLE OF AUSTRALIA FEAR PLANS TO USE THEIR LAND AND WATER for more nuclear waste "disposal." The Kokotha and Arabuna people have seen part of their land polluted and ground water consumed by the Roxby uranium mine and British nuclear testing. Already fearful of the establishment of a low level waste dump, they are now shocked by their government's new plan, pushed by an American firm called Pangea, also to use the low level site for the dumping of plutonium from dismantled nuclear weapons. (Felicity Hill <flick@igc.org>) TOP AUSTRALIAN SCIENTIST BACKS US PROPOSAL TO DUMP N-WASTE IN AUSTRALIA but the Australian government dismissed the proposal immediately, saying it had no intention of accepting radioactive waste from any other countries. (Agence France Presse, 2/11/98) Up to Top |
