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Digest 112, originally sent Wed Jun 16 04:51:51 1999
There are 7 messages in this issue.
Topics in today's digest:
1. NucNews-0 Brief 6/15/99
2. NucNews-5 6/15/99 - US- Waste (2); Startech-Japan; Westinghouse-Bulgaria/Sweden; Illinois; Pentagon hackers; US Forces/Urban Warfare (Rand)
3. NucNews-4 6/15/99 - US-Security Report (5); Bush DOE Security
4. NucNews-6 6/15/99 - Israel Missiles; Refugees - Kashmir / Kosovo; China/US; NATO/KLA; Milosevic; Swedish Envoy; Koreas Ships; Australia Spy
5. NucNews-2 6/15/99 - Y2K; Puerto Rico (2); UK (2); India; Kashmir; Pakistan (2)
6. NucNews-3 6/15/99 - German - Energy, G7, Ukraine; Russia; US-DOE, Los Alamos
7. NucNews-1 6/15/99 - Depleted Uranium-NATO; Rand Corp.
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Message: 1 Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 21:37:19 -0400
Subject: NucNews-0 Brief 6/15/99
[Please address replies to articles to the original publisher (with a copy to prop1@prop1.org and NucNews@onelist.com (Archives)). Your help in refuting false information appreciated!]
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NucNews-1 6/15/99 - Depleted Uranium-NATO; Rand Corp. NucNews-2 6/15/99 - Y2K; Puerto Rico (2); UK (2); India; Kashmir; Pakistan (2) NucNews-3 6/15/99 - German - Energy, G7, Ukraine; Russia; US-DOE, Los Alamos NucNews-4 6/15/99 - US-Security Report (5); Bush DOE Security NucNews-5 6/15/99 - US- Waste (2); Startech-Japan; Westinghouse-Bulgaria/Sweden; Illinois; Pentagon hackers; US Forces/Urban Warfare (Rand) NucNews-6 6/15/99 - Israel Missiles; Refugees - Kashmir / Kosovo; China/US; NATO/KLA; Milosevic; Swedish Envoy; Koreas Ships; Australia Spy
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Photo of the month: http://www.humboldt1.com/~lunanews/jbphoto.jpg
[For fellow depleted uranium researchers....]
1. Depleted Uranium, NATO Press Conference, May 14, 1999 given by NATO Spokesman, Jamie Shea and SHAPE Spokesman, Major General Walter Jertz http://www.nato.int/kosovo/press/p990514b.htm ... Question: Since NATO appears to be using depleted uranium munitions in Serbia, are there any plans, once the war is over, to have any kind of clean-up given the reputation which these munitions have got in Iraq?
2. June 14, 1999 Search of http://www.rand.org/search-form.html for "depleted uranium": Health Effects http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.7/MR1018.7.html/mr1018.7.chap2.html -- References http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.7/MR1018.7.html/mr1018.7.refs.html -- Introduction http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.7/MR1018.7.html/mr1018.7.chap1.html -- A Review of the Scientific Literature As It Pertains to Gulf War Illnesses http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.7/MR1018.7.html/mr1018.7.sum.html -- Concluding Remarks and Future Research http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.7/MR1018.7.html/mr1018.7.chap3.html -- Controlling the Flow of Weapon Usable Fissile Materials http://www.rand.org/publications/RB/RB7405/index.html -- Glossary http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.7/MR1018.7.html/mr1018.7.gloss.html -- A Review of the Scientific Literature As It Pertains to Gulf War Illnesses http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.7/MR1018.7.html/mr1018.7.figs.html -- A Review of the Scientific Literature As It Pertains to Gulf War Illnesses http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.7/MR1018.7.html/mr1018.7.tabs.html -- News Release April 15 1999 http://www.rand.org/hot/Press/gulfwar.4.15.html -- New Gulf War Studies http://www.rand.org/organization/health/gulf.html -- PREFACE http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018-6/MR1018-6/MR1018.pref.html -- Oil Well Fires http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018-6/index.html -- A Review of the Scientific Literature As It Pertains to Gulf War Illnesses Volume4 Stress http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.4/MR1018.4.chap1.html -- A Review of the Scientific Literature As It Pertains to Gulf War Illnesses http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.7/MR1018.7.html/mr1018.7.pref.html -- A Review of the Scientific Literature As It Pertains to Gulf War Illnesses Volume4 Stress http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.4/MR1018.4.sum.html -- A Review of the Scientific Literature As It Pertains to Gulf War Illnesses Volume4 Stress http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.4/MR1018.4.pref.html -- 1999 Press Releases http://www.rand.org/hot/Press/index.html -- Military Use of Drugs Not Yet Approved by the FDA for CW BW Defense http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.9/MR1018.9.html/MR1018.9.Featured /index.html -- PREFACE http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.9/MR1018.9.html/MR1018.9.pref.html -- Military Use of Drugs Not Yet Approved by the FDA for CW BW Defense http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.9/index.html -- A Review of the Scientific Literature As It Pertains to Gulf War Illnesses Volume4 Stress http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.4/MR1018.4.chap5.html -- Online RAND Publications http://www.rand.org/publications/electronic/index.html -- Copies of the papers will be posted on the RAND web site (http://www.rand.org/publications/electronic/#new) and on the DoD website (http://www.gulflink.osd.mil). For print copies contact project leader Ross Anthony (202-296-5000 ext.5265) or RAND's Public Information Office (310-451-6913).
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3. Y2K Test Approaches - 200 Days And Counting 02:13 a.m. Jun 14, 1999 Eastern, By Neil Winton, Science and Technology Correspondent http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???" LONDON (Reuters) - We will soon know if the millennium computer bug is a disaster or an incidental blip as the clocks hit midnight.... Experts say that many of the chilling scenarios predicted when the millennium computer bug first grabbed the public's attention are unlikely to happen. They don't expect planes to fall from the sky and they don't think nuclear missiles will be accidentally activated. But they don't discount some unpleasantness, and governments and medium sized corporations in Germany, France and China have been singled out as being the most likely to be affected....
4. Puerto Rican Government Selects Comprehensive Behavioral Care to Study Impact of U.S. Military Training on Residents of Vieques 09:12 a.m. Jun 14, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???" TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 14, 1999--Comprehensive Behavioral Care, Inc. (CompCare), a wholly owned subsidiary of Comprehensive Care Corporation (OTC BB:CHCR), Monday announced that it has been engaged by the Puerto Rican government to study the psychological and other health-related impacts of U.S. military training and live-fire exercises on residents of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques....
5. U.S. Investigates Navy Firing Range In Puerto Rico 06:22 p.m Jun 14, 1999 Eastern By Anthony Boadle http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???" WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy Monday suspended all land operations at a firing range in Puerto Rico pending an investigation ordered by President Clinton into the risks posed to residents after a man was killed by bombs....
6. First Major Electoral Success For Britain's Greens Updated 12:36 AM ET June 14, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990614/00/international-britain-greens LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Greens, who campaigned against genetically modified food, scored their first national electoral success Monday when they won two seats in the European Parliament....
7. Top scientists back nuclear power ITN Online, June 14, 1999 http://www.itn.co.uk/Britain/brit19990614/061407.htm A report by two inportant groups of British scientists concludes new nuclear plants may be needed to combat global warming. The joint report by the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering says it is essential for the nuclear industry to win back public confidence....
8. India designs advanced reactor using thorium--PTI 11:34 a.m. Jun 13, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???" NEW DELHI, June 13 (Reuters) - Indian scientists have designed an advanced heavy water reactor (AWHR) which can produce about 70 percent electrical energy using thorium fuel, the Press Trust of India (PTI) said on Sunday....
9. Kashmir separatist group cites nuclear danger 04:37 a.m. Jun 14, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???" SRINAGAR, India, June 14 (Reuters) - A Kashmiri separatist group said on Monday that the decades-old dispute over the territory between India and Pakistan needed to be resolved quickly now the giant neighbours were nuclear capable....
10. Pakistan Army Examines India Shells By The Associated Press, June 14, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Pakistan-India-Chemical-Weapons.html ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan accused India today of firing chemical weapons in the battle over the disputed Kashmir region, saying it was testing Indian artillery shells.... -- FOCUS-Pakistan says India using 'chemical' shells 01:58 p.m Jun 13, 1999 Eastern By Scott McDonald http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???" ISLAMABAD, June 13 (Reuters) - The Pakistan military accused India on Sunday of using chemical shells in Kashmir, but the Indian army denied it....
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11. German energy producers urge broad reform deal 08:13 a.m. Jun 14, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???" FRANKFURT, June 14 (Reuters) - Germany's electricity producers said on Monday any agreement with the government on plans to change the way the industry is taxed must come as part of a broader consensus agreement on energy industry reform....
12. Germany holds the annually rotating presidency of the G7 05:39 a.m. Jun 15, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???" Germany holds the annually rotating presidency of the G7 and aimed to remove a passage from the annual economic summit's planned final communique which had been expected to confirm the credits to Kiev.... Instead, Schroeder and the two most senior Greens in his cabinet, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and Environment Minister Juergen Trittin, would seek an alternative solution to Ukraine's energy problems during a long-planned visit to Kiev on July 6 and 7.... -- OUTLOOK-World Business G7 FUNDING FOR UKRAINE NUCLEAR REACTORS News at 0730 GMT, June 15 03:37 a.m. Jun 15, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???" BONN - Parliamentary environment committee meets (started 0600) to discuss German participation in financing two new nuclear reactors for Ukraine as part of Group of Seven (G7) plan to help shut down disaster-hit Chernobyl plant. Anti-nuclear Greens, hold news conference at 0800.
13. German govt seeks duck Ukraine G7 atom row -sources 05:28 a.m. Jun 15, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???" BONN, June 15 (Reuters) - The German government, facing a revolt by its Green coalition partners, wants to stall a decision on giving Ukraine credits to build new nuclear reactors at this weekend's Group of Seven summit in Cologne, German government sources said on Tuesday.... -- FOCUS-Germany to challenge G7 Ukraine reactor plan 06:34 a.m. Jun 15, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???" BONN, June 15 (Reuters) - The German government, facing a revolt by its anti-nuclear Green coalition partners, wants to slam the brakes on the West's plans to help Ukraine shut down Chernobyl by blocking credits for new atomic reactors....
14. Russians stir fear of nuclear instability By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES http://www.washtimes.com/news/news3.html The surprise deployment of Russian troops to Kosovo raises new worries about Russia's control over its military and its thousands of strategic nuclear warheads....
15. Panel Urges Some Autonomy for Nuclear Weapons Program By Walter Pincus, Washington Post, June 15, 1999; Page A02 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-06/15/101l-061599-idx.html A special panel of President Clinton's intelligence advisers yesterday recommended making the Energy Department's nuclear weapons functions semi-autonomous inside the department or splitting them off into an independent agency reporting directly to the White House.
16. Los Alamos, birthplace of bomb, in new scandal 12:49 p.m. Jun 14, 1999 Eastern By Tabassum Zakaria http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???" LOS ALAMOS, N.M., June 14 (Reuters) -- High on a plateau in the Jemez mountains, where the air is thin, the sun is strong and the quiet is deafening, sits the Los Alamos National Laboratory.... The lab was embroiled in a spying scandal at its inception, when a scientist passed atomic secrets to the Soviet Union during World War Two.... Some of the government's most secret nuclear weapons research has been conducted within its 43 square miles (112 square km). But its role of developing nuclear weapons changed this decade when the United States stopped nuclear testing, and now the lab's main charge is to ensure the nuclear weapon stockpile stays in working order....
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17. Excerpts on Nuclear Security Report By The Associated Press Monday, June 14, 1999; 10:01 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990614/V000792-061499-idx.html Excerpts from the report by the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board on security lapses at the Energy Department and its nuclear weapons labs....
18. Panel Urges Nuke Security Changes By H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press, June 15, 1999; 2:27 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990615/V000908-061599-idx.html WASHINGTON (AP) -- Efforts to tighten security at the Energy Department and its nuclear weapons labs are being resisted by mid-level bureaucrats and a ``culture of arrogance'' that has left atomic secrets vulnerable to theft for decades, a presidential intelligence panel concludes....
19. Systemic Failures At U.S. Nuclear Labs Cited 12:38 a.m. Jun 15, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???" WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Security at U.S. nuclear labs under scrutiny over allegations of Chinese espionage is lax at best, and nuclear research should be walled off from Energy Department bureaucrats, a presidential advisory board recommended Monday....
20. Suspect in Loss of Nuclear Secrets Unlikely to Face Spying Charges By DAVID JOHNSTON, June 15, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/061599china-nuke.html WASHINGTON -- Three months ago, a research mathematician was dismissed from his job at the Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory for security violations. Monday Federal authorities say it is most unlikely that the mathematician, who is at the center of the uproar over the suspected theft of nuclear secrets by China, will ever face criminal charges of espionage....
21. Report Scolds Bureaucracy for U.S. Nuclear Lab Lapses By JAMES RISEN, June 15, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/global/061599nuclear-security.html WASHINGTON -- Clinton administration initiatives to tighten security at nuclear weapons laboratories are not being carried out fully because of bureaucratic arrogance and foot-dragging, said a scathing report issued Monday by a presidential review panel....
22. Security Not a Priority For Bush Energy Chief Breaches Have Led to Nuclear Lab Changes By Walter Pincus, Washington Post, June 14, 1999; Page A14 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-06/14/068l-061499-idx.html When retired Adm. James D. Watkins took over the Energy Department in early 1989, then-President George Bush told him that security and safeguards at the department's nuclear weapons laboratories were "a complete mess." In response, Watkins instituted a study of security and beefed up some personnel rules and physical barriers.... As he left office in 1992, Watkins listed his 25 top accomplishments. He was proudest of having clarified responsibility for reactor and nuclear facility safety. Establishing an office to gather information about other nations' nuclear weapons was No. 15. Creating a counterintelligence office to improve security was No. 21.
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23. Nuclear waste may be OK for transfer Officials at New Mexico plant are working to avoid treatment June 13, 1999 http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=061399&ID=s593574&cat= TWIN FALLS, Idaho -- Waste stored at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory may not need any treatment to be accepted at a New Mexico repository for radioactive material.... --- "FOR INFORMATION ON SAFE SECURE LOW-COST ON-SITE INTERIM STORAGE OF PLUTONIUM AND NUCLEAR WASTE BOTH HIGH AND LOW LEVEL VISIT www,nukewaste,com AND AVOID OVER-THE-ROAD TRANSPORTATION, STORE IT SAFELY WHERE IT IS NOW, WILL BE GLAD TO DISCUSS FUTHER," JOEL S, STAHL JOELSTAHL@webtv.net www.plutoniumstorage.com www.nukewaste.com
24. Startech Environmental Receives Contract for Sale of Commercial Plasma Waste Converter for Japan 06:29 a.m. Jun 15, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???" WILTON, Conn., June 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Startech Environmental Corp. (OTC Bulletin Board: STHK), a fully reporting company, announced today that it has received the contract for the sale of a 5-ton per day commercial Plasma Waste Converter system (PWC)(TM) from the EBS Sanko Company, Ltd., of Hiroshima, Japan....
25. Westinghouse Wins 2nd Major Nuclear I&C Contract in 1999 - Bulgarian Contract Follows Major Swedish Award in Late March - Nuclear Unit Logs $200 Million in I&C Orders Since January 1 02:57 p.m Jun 14, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???" PITTSBURGH, June 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Westinghouse Electric Company won its second major nuclear instrumentation and control contract in the past three months when the Bulgarian National Electric Company (NEK) selected Westinghouse to upgrade control, protection, computer and diagnostic systems at the Kozloduy Units 5 and 6 nuclear stations....
26. Illinova, Dynegy Agree to $2B Merger Monday, June 14, 1999; 12:25 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990614/V000424-061499-idx.html DECATUR, Ill. (AP) -- Midwestern electric utility Illinova Corp. and energy marketer Dynegy Inc. are merging in a $2 billion deal they say will create a national leader in the rapidly changing energy industry....
27. Information Warfare Monday, June 14, 1999; Page A20 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-06/14/010l-061499-idx.html The June 2 news story "Hackers Spur Pentagon to Bolster Its Security" contained a statement that requires elaboration. Justice Department spokeswoman Carole Florman's comment that no hacker incidents have compromised classified or top-secret information or systems is falsely optimistic. Classified or top-secret information is the tip of a large iceberg, the overwhelming bulk of which is unclassified information.... [Here's a pre-bombing report from Rand Corp., thinktank.]
28. U.S. FORCES POORLY PREPARED TO FIGHT IN URBAN AREAS, RAND FINDS STUDY CALLS FUTURE URBAN OPERATIONS LIKELY, RECOMMENDS CHANGES News Release February 8, 1999 http://www.rand.org/hot/Press/urban.ops.2.8.html Although recent history provides plenty of evidence that U.S. participation in future urban military operations is likely, U.S. ground and air forces currently lack the key ingredients--doctrine, training and technologies--required to fight successfully in that environment. The challenge to military leaders is how to provide them....
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29. Israeli anti-missile missile operational soon 06:17 a.m. Jun 15, 1999 Eastern By Bernard Edinger http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???" PARIS, June 15 (Reuters) - Israel's Arrow anti-missile missile should be operational within months and the country's heartland should be fully protected against ballistic missiles from 2005, senior Israeli officials said on Tuesday....
30. Kashmir refugees pray for early end to conflict 06:11 a.m. Jun 15, 1999 Eastern By Sheikh Mushtaq http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???"
31. Serb Families Flee Kosovo June 15, 1999 Associated Press http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Kosovo-Serb-Exodus.html MALA KRSNA, Yugoslavia (AP) -- Marko Ovsenica knows something about fleeing. He has done it four times since 1991, running from war after war. Now he is fleeing Kosovo, convinced that Serbs like him will be targets once Yugoslav soldiers are gone....
32. State Dept. Sends Mission to China By Jim Abrams Associated Press Writer Monday, June 14, 1999; 1:40 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990614/V000196-061499-idx.html ALSO: http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-06/14/053l-061499-idx.html WASHINGTON (AP) -- A senior State Department official is going to Beijing with a report on the accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and a goal of putting strained U.S.-China relations back on course....
33. NATO Holds KLA Men Amid Kosovo Chaos Updated 5:38 AM ET June 15, 1999, By Matt Spetalnick http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990615/05/international-yugoslavia- leadall PRISTINA (Reuters) - British NATO troops trying to prevent anarchy and reprisals in Kosovo as Yugoslav forces withdraw arrested five suspected ethnic Albanian guerrillas overnight after a Serb man was shot in Pristina....
34. Milosevic Appears In Novi Sad, Urges Reconstruction Updated 7:31 AM ET June 14, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990614/07/international-yugoslavia- milosevic BELGRADE (Reuters) - Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic Monday appeared in public for the first time since NATO airstrikes began in March, standing in front of a destroyed bridge calling for reconstruction after 11 weeks of bombing....
35. Secret Envoy Helped To Secure Kosovo Deal - Paper Updated 12:35 AM ET June 14, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990614/00/international-yugoslavia- secret LONDON (Reuters) - Russian officials and EU leaders used a Swedish-born financier to open a secret negotiating channel to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic that helped secure the Kosovo peace deal, the Financial Times reported Monday....
36. Koreas exchange fire; North vessel sunk 6/15/99- Updated 03:28 AM ET USA Today http://usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm Full Story http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwsmon05.htm SEOUL, South Korea - North and South Korean warships exchanged fire in contested waters Tuesday, with southern forces sinking a torpedo boat and damaging two other enemy vessels, according to South Korea.... -- S. Korea Claims It Sank North Korean Vessel June 15, 1999 Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/korea/korea.htm Southern warships and northern torpedo boats exchanged fire in contested waters off the Korean peninsula after an eight-day standoff....
37. Report: Australia Plans Spy Charges Monday, June 14, 1999; 1:50 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990614/V000466-061499-idx.html MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- The Australian government is preparing espionage charges against a man already facing trial in Virginia for allegedly trying to sell American military secrets, a newspaper reported Monday. _____________________________
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Message: 2 Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 21:36:49 -0400
Subject: NucNews-5 6/15/99 - US- Waste (2); Startech-Japan; Westinghouse-Bulgaria/Sweden; Illinois; Pentagon hackers; US Forces/Urban Warfare (Rand)
23. Nuclear waste may be OK for transfer Officials at New Mexico plant are working to avoid treatment
June 13, 1999 http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=061399&ID=s593574&cat=
TWIN FALLS, Idaho -- Waste stored at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory may not need any treatment to be accepted at a New Mexico repository for radioactive material.
U.S. Energy Department officials at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., are trying to get a permit to dispose of certain toxic chemicals, along with radioactive waste, without treatment.
If successful, mixed chemical and radioactive waste would need no treatment to be shipped to WIPP, plant spokesman Donovan Mager said. The first shipment of INEEL radioactive waste reached the repository in April.
The Energy Department last year signed a $1 billion contract to build a mixed-waste treatment plant at the Idaho site. It would handle up to 185,000 cubic meters of plutonium-contaminated waste.
The incinerator idea has raised concerns among critics who question if the filters would prevent the release of dangerous chemicals or radiation from the smokestack.
Without the permit the federal agency is seeking, the only acceptable method of treating the waste which contains PCBs -- about 52,500 cubic feet -- is incineration. PCBs come from old electrical transformers and are a suspected carcinogen.
About one-third of the 2.3 million cubic feet of stored plutonium-contaminated waste at the INEEL is not radioactive enough to qualify for disposal at WIPP. Scientists in Idaho say treatment would blend the waste so it all meets the requirements.
Meanwhile, federal officials in New Mexico are labeling waste treatment at the INEEL as marginal.
That is the conclusion of an annual audit of the handling and labeling of contaminated waste stored in Idaho and slated for movement to WIPP.
``The total program has been determined to be marginal on implementation, adequacy and effectiveness,'' said the May 31 weekly newsletter from the Energy Department's Carlsbad office.
The 21 problems cited were with record-keeping and quality control, and represent no threat to safety, said Kent Hunter, assistant Carlsbad manager.
INEEL officials hope to have all the solutions figured out and approved by month's end. That means Carlsbad could recertify Idaho's waste handling, INEEL spokesman Brad Bugger said. He was unsure how that would affect future shipment schedules.
The next deadline for moving INEEL waste to WIPP is to transport 100,000 cubic feet by the end of 2002. If the INEEL fails to meet that mark, it would be prevented by a 1995 court order from sending spent fuel from foreign reactors to Idaho for storage.
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"FOR INFORMATION ON SAFE SECURE LOW-COST ON-SITE INTERIM STORAGE OF PLUTONIUM AND NUCLEAR WASTE BOTH HIGH AND LOW LEVEL VISIT www,nukewaste,com AND AVOID OVER-THE-ROAD TRANSPORTATION, STORE IT SAFELY WHERE IT IS NOW, WILL BE GLAD TO DISCUSS FUTHER," JOEL S, STAHL JOELSTAHL@webtv.net
www.plutoniumstorage.com www.nukewaste.com
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24. Startech Environmental Receives Contract for Sale of Commercial Plasma Waste Converter for Japan
06:29 a.m. Jun 15, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???"
WILTON, Conn., June 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Startech Environmental Corp. (OTC Bulletin Board: STHK), a fully reporting company, announced today that it has received the contract for the sale of a 5-ton per day commercial Plasma Waste Converter system (PWC)(TM) from the EBS Sanko Company, Ltd., of Hiroshima, Japan. Startech has received significant down payments called for by the contract that also provides for progress payments. EBS Sanko asked that the financial details of the contract be confidential.
The PWC installation is planned for the University of Hiroshima, preeminent in Environmental Sciences. The system will process various industrial hazardous wastes in support of the EBS Sanko PWC sales program.
Mr. Koji Ebisu, President of EBS Sanko, said, "In Japan, public awareness and legislation relating to environmental protection is extensive. The sale and use of PWC systems will allow us to improve our environmental standards and make them more protective of the public health and safety. We will also use the system to demonstrate the safe and irreversible destruction of the chemical weapons of the Sino-Japanese Demilitarization Program. PWCs will also be used for radioactive waste applications." Japan is the world's third largest user of nuclear power, exceeded only by the United States and France. Mr. Ebisu also said, "Beyond commercial uses, the Startech system is a powerful tool in chemical and bacteriological threat reduction; a serious concern of many nations."
As part of the recent International Earth Society Awards Ceremony held at United Nations Headquarters in New York City, Mr. Ebisu received the Zero Discharge Award for Environmental Achievement. The Award was presented in a special ceremony, attended by many dignitaries, at the Japanese Peace Bell at the United Nations.
Startech is an environmental equipment company whose Plasma Waste Converters remediate and safely process hazardous and non-hazardous wastes comprised of organic and inorganic solids, gases, and aqueous and non-aqueous liquids by its proprietary method of molecular dissociation and closed-loop elemental recycling. The PWC system can convert many hazardous and non-hazardous wastes into commercially useful commodity products.
For further information, contact Robert L. DeRochie, VP of Investor Relations, or see the Startech web page: http://www.startech.net
Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking Statements:
Except for the statements of historical fact, the information presented herein constitutes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include general economic and business conditions, the ability to fund operations, the loss of market share, changes in consumer buying habits and other factors over which Startech Environmental Corporation has little or no control. SOURCE Startech Environmental Corp.
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25. Westinghouse Wins 2nd Major Nuclear I&C Contract in 1999 - Bulgarian Contract Follows Major Swedish Award in Late March - Nuclear Unit Logs $200 Million in I&C Orders Since
January 1 02:57 p.m Jun 14, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???"
PITTSBURGH, June 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Westinghouse Electric Company won its second major nuclear instrumentation and control contract in the past three months when the Bulgarian National Electric Company (NEK) selected Westinghouse to upgrade control, protection, computer and diagnostic systems at the Kozloduy Units 5 and 6 nuclear stations.
Under terms of the contract, valued in excess of $75 million, Westinghouse will replace the plant computer, process control and monitoring systems. Work will begin immediately, and should be completed in 2005.
Mike Comiskey, vice president and general manager of the Westinghouse Nuclear Projects Division, said the Bulgarian award, coming just months after the award of a $90 million contract for the Ringhals Unit 2 plant in Sweden, reaffirms Westinghouse's position as a world leader in the nuclear I&C market.
"Since the beginning of this year, Westinghouse has won nearly $200 million in new I&C projects," he said. "We are committed to executing these contracts in a manner that will bring the absolute highest value to our customers."
Mr. Comiskey also noted that the award of the contracts for Kozloduy Units 5 and 6 marks continued success for Westinghouse in providing I&C upgrades to Soviet-designed VVER 1000 nuclear facilities. In 1993, Westinghouse received a major contract to provide instrumentation and control upgrades for the Temelin plant in the Czech Republic. Just last year, NEK selected Westinghouse to undertake the preliminary engineering and design work that preceded award of the contract Westinghouse just received for the Kozloduy plants.
Westinghouse Electric Company, with headquarters in Monroeville, Pa., offers a wide range of nuclear plant products and services to utilities throughout the world, including fuel, spent fuel management, service and maintenance, instrumentation and control, and advanced nuclear plant designs. Westinghouse supplied the world's first commercial nuclear power plant in 1957 and has the world's largest installed base of operating nuclear power plants. SOURCE Westinghouse Electric Company
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26. Illinova, Dynegy Agree to $2B Merger
Monday, June 14, 1999; 12:25 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990614/V000424-061499-idx.html
DECATUR, Ill. (AP) -- Midwestern electric utility Illinova Corp. and energy marketer Dynegy Inc. are merging in a $2 billion deal they say will create a national leader in the rapidly changing energy industry.
The new firm, to be called Dynegy, will create a full-service energy company about $17 billion in annual revenue, the companies said in a joint statement released today.... Illinova announced a tentative deal earlier this year to sell its troubled Clinton nuclear power plant to AmerGen Energy Co. for $20 million -- about $4 billion less than it cost to build. Until its restart last month, the plant had been idle for more than two years, siphoning millions of dollars from the struggling company.
``Dynegy, with its experienced leadership and proven track record of risk management, profitability and growth, is the ideal strategic partner for Illinova,'' Bayless said. ``I am confident that, together, we will be a leader in the rapidly evolving energy marketplace of the future.''
Dynegy, known as Natural Gas Clearinghouse until a year ago, began in 1985 as a wholesale marketer of natural gas. In the past few years, it has become a full-scale energy marketer.
Dynegy's major shareholders -- Chevron Corp.; BG PLC, parent of British Gas; and Nova Chemicals -- have agreed to the merger, officials said.
The merger is expected to close by the end of the first quarter in 2000.
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27. Information Warfare
Monday, June 14, 1999; Page A20 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-06/14/010l-061499-idx.html
The June 2 news story "Hackers Spur Pentagon to Bolster Its Security" contained a statement that requires elaboration.
Justice Department spokeswoman Carole Florman's comment that no hacker incidents have compromised classified or top-secret information or systems is falsely optimistic. Classified or top-secret information is the tip of a large iceberg, the overwhelming bulk of which is unclassified information.
The Department of Defense sends, stores and receives enormous amounts of such unclassified information daily -- personnel or medical records, logistics shipments, flight plans, geographic data, etc. -- and without it cannot move forces or go to war. Deployed forces depend on information that travels over commercially owned and operated communications networks, and the information in these networks is accessible and vulnerable. A lengthy and growing list of reports, studies, exercises and real-world events has demonstrated this problem.
While the future "American Way of War" outlined in the strategic plan Joint Vision 2010 is utterly dependent on attaining and maintaining information superiority, we often don't consider the critical nature of unclassified information in this process. Ms. Florman is correct to play down the importance of digital defacement of Web sites -- the cyberspace equivalent of drawing mustaches on posters -- but I'm confident that if another nation-state wishes to do us harm via cyberspace, it is not going to bother about Web sites but will instead focus on those systems that can strategically weaken us militarily, economically or socially.
DANIEL T. KUEHL
Burke The writer is professor of information warfare at the National Defense University.
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28. U.S. FORCES POORLY PREPARED TO FIGHT IN URBAN AREAS, RAND FINDS STUDY CALLS FUTURE URBAN OPERATIONS LIKELY, RECOMMENDS CHANGES
News Release February 8, 1999 http://www.rand.org/hot/Press/urban.ops.2.8.html
Although recent history provides plenty of evidence that U.S. participation in future urban military operations is likely, U.S. ground and air forces currently lack the key ingredients--doctrine, training and technologies--required to fight successfully in that environment. The challenge to military leaders is how to provide them.
This is the burden of Marching Under Darkening Skies: The American Military and the Impending Urban Operations Threat, a new study from RAND's Arroyo Center that analyzes the challenge, with special focus on the Army, and offers a series of recommendations to meet it. Arroyo is a research and development center sponsored by the U.S. Army. The analysis was based, in part, on a 1998 conference on the subject hosted jointly by the Arroyo Center and the U.S. Army Infantry Center's Dismounted Battlespace Battle Lab. A summary of those proceedings is also being released today.
Author Russell W. Glenn describes the Army's doctrine for military operations on urbanized terrain, or MOUT, as "woefully outdated." He notes that it shows "closer kinship to the virtually unconstrained operations of the Second World War than to more recent actions in which strict rules of engagement have been the norm." The Army's recent decision to rewrite it's primary MOUT doctrinal manual is "a step in the right direction," Glenn adds.
Urban operations are also constrained by a lack of good facilities for company-size and larger unit MOUT exercises, Glenn points out. He offers several recommendations on this score, ranging from holding exercises in a variety of existing urban sites to providing more training expertise and better instrumentation at currently available MOUT facilities.
Finally, the author argues that many current and soon-to-come military technologies "do not provide the soldier and marine with the firepower, support, or command and control that close combat urban operations demand," that more accurate munitions for aircraft and indirect fire are needed, and that communications and navigation equipment must also be designed more appropriately. The solution, Glenn notes, is to include MOUT considerations in the development of new technologies.
Glenn describes recent initiatives related to Army and joint advanced concepts technology demonstrations and to new doctrinal publications as "reassuring. There is movement on these issues within the Army, but we have a long way to go," he summarizes. The Arroyo Center's research effort is continuing.
RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis.
Contact: Jess Cook Phone: 310-451-6913 Fax: 310-451-6988 E-Mail: Jess_Cook@rand.org
RAND 1700 Main Street, P. O. Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138 http://www.rand.org
1333 H Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20005-4707 202-296-5000
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Message: 3 Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 21:36:42 -0400
Subject: NucNews-4 6/15/99 - US-Security Report (5); Bush DOE Security
17. Excerpts on Nuclear Security Report
By The Associated Press Monday, June 14, 1999; 10:01 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990614/V000792-061499-idx.html
Excerpts from the report by the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board on security lapses at the Energy Department and its nuclear weapons labs.
``For the past two decades, the Department of Energy has embodied science at its best and security at its worst.''
``Organizational disarray, managerial neglect and a culture of arrogance -- both at DOE headquarters and the labs themselves -- conspired to create an espionage scandal waiting to happen.''
``The panel found a department saturated with cynicism, an arrogant disregard for authority, and a staggering pattern of denial. ... Even after President Clinton ...(ordered) fundamental changes in security procedures, compliance by department bureaucrats was grudging and belated.''
``The Department of Energy is a dysfunctional bureaucracy that has proven it is incapable of reforming itself.''
``The predominant attitude toward security and counterintelligence among many DOE and lab managers has ranged from halfhearted, grudging accommodation to smug disregard.''
``Perhaps most troubling ... is the evidence that the lab bureaucracies, after months at the epicenter of an espionage scandal with serious implications for U.S. foreign policy are still resisting reforms.''
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18. Panel Urges Nuke Security Changes
By H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press, June 15, 1999; 2:27 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990615/V000908-061599-idx.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Efforts to tighten security at the Energy Department and its nuclear weapons labs are being resisted by mid-level bureaucrats and a ``culture of arrogance'' that has left atomic secrets vulnerable to theft for decades, a presidential intelligence panel concludes.
The blistering report, which is the result of a 90-day review requested by President Clinton, questions whether the administration's efforts to beef up counterespionage activities and security at the nuclear labs is enough to overcome many years of resistance.
``Perhaps most troubling ... is the evidence that the lab bureaucracies, after months at the epicenter of an espionage scandal with serious implications for U.S. foreign policy, are still resisting reforms,'' the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board said in its 57-page report formally released today.
Former Republican Sen. Warren Rudman of New Hampshire, the board's chairman, briefed Clinton on the panel's findings Monday and told him only a dramatic restructuring of the Energy Department would ensure that lax attitudes toward security would change.
Trying to counter attacks from members of Congress who charged the administration had not responded swiftly to reports of espionage at the weapons labs, Clinton directed his intelligence advisory board in March to examine the security problems and come up with recommendations to fix them.
In its scathing report, the panel said the department was ``incapable of reforming itself'' and that while measures by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson to improve security were welcomed, there was no assurance they ``will gain more than a toehold'' once Richardson departs.
``Organizational disarray, managerial neglect and a culture of arrogance -- both at DOE headquarters and the labs themselves -- conspired to create an espionage scandal waiting to happen,'' the report said.
In a statement, the president said his administration had taken ``unprecedented steps to reduce the vulnerability of our secrets at the labs. ... We remain committed to taking the necessary steps to safeguard our nation's secrets.''
To ensure improved safeguards against the theft of nuclear secrets, the panel suggested two alternatives: create a semiautonomous agency within the Energy Department with ``a clear mission'' to maintain the nuclear weapons program; or, turn responsibility for nuclear weapons programs, including the labs, over to a new independent agency similar to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
It said the decision on which way to go should be left to the president and Congress.
Richardson in an interview late Monday said he remained convinced no such dramatic restructuring was needed and that his efforts to strengthen counterintelligence programs, centralize control over security under a single ``security czar'' and beef up computer security at the labs would do the job.
``We need accountability and centralization of security,'' said Richardson, reiterating that a semi-autonomous nuclear weapons agency within the department would simply create another ``fiefdom'' and be counterproductive.
Still, the strong recommendations by the Rudman panel to overhaul the department will give new ammunition to those in Congress who want to create a new nuclear security agency -- either within or independent of the Energy Department.
``It's hard hitting and the recommendation is almost exactly what we've been suggesting,'' Sen. John Kyl, R-Ariz., said of the advisory board's report. Kyl is one of three Republican senators pressing for creation of a new, more powerful agency within the DOE to oversee all nuclear weapons programs.
The report acknowledges that inattention to security and the lack of concern about espionage date back to the creation of the Energy Department in 1977.
But the lapses exploded into the open in March when a scientist at the Los Alamos weapons lab in New Mexico, Wenn Ho Lee, was fired for security violations. He had been suspected of providing secrets to China about one of America's most sophisticated warheads in the 1980s, but has never been charged with a crime. Lee has denied any espionage, as has the Chinese government.
The Rudman panel's report criticized the handling of the Lee case by the Justice Department, but did not provide any new details, noting that the matter now was the subject of an internal Justice review.
The Rudman panel heard from more than 100 witnesses -- all of whom were assured their views would be held confidential -- and it reviewed thousands of pages of documents.
It concluded that over a succession of administrations, dating back 20 years or more, an entrenched bureaucracy both at the department and in the research labs demonstrated ``an arrogant disregard for authority'' and took security and espionage concerns lightly.
There was ``a staggering pattern of denial'' when it came to security and the growing threat of espionage from China and other countries, the report said.
Among its findings, the intelligence panel said, were that:
--While Sandy Berger, the president's national security adviser, was briefed about the Lee case and lax security at the labs in 1996, there was not enough evidence at that time to warrant presidential action on security.
--In 1995 or sometime later, authorities found an illegal wiretap at an unnamed weapons lab. Although an employee confessed to installing the tap, he was never prosecuted.
--Sometime in the 1980s, listening devices ``were discovered in weapons-related facilities.'' The panel cited classified documents and gave no further details.
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19. Systemic Failures At U.S. Nuclear Labs Cited
12:38 a.m. Jun 15, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???"
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Security at U.S. nuclear labs under scrutiny over allegations of Chinese espionage is lax at best, and nuclear research should be walled off from Energy Department bureaucrats, a presidential advisory board recommended Monday.
``For the past two decades, the Department of Energy has embodied science at its best and security of secrets at its worst,'' the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board concluded in a 57-page report.
President Clinton ordered the investigation of security threats at the Energy Department's weapons labs three months ago.
Clinton said the White House will ``carefully review'' proposals in the report. ``We remain committed to taking the necessary steps to safeguard our nation's secrets,'' the president said in a statement.
The report followed a special report by a panel of the House of Representatives chaired by Rep. Christopher Cox, a California Republican, which concluded that China stole U.S. secrets on seven nuclear warheads and the neutron bomb over 20 years. China has repeatedly denied those allegations.
A U.S. intelligence assessment earlier this year said China obtained U.S. nuclear secrets through spying and the impact is likely to show up in future Chinese weapons.
Still, media attention on spying allegations at the labs may be overblown, the report said. ``Let's not jump to the conclusion that all of the national treasure has been stolen,'' said a White House official, who declined attribution.
The nuclear research labs will continue to be a major target of foreign intelligence services, ``friendly as well as hostile,'' the report said.
The advisory board accused the Energy Department and the labs of being ``Pollyannaish'' on security threats. The predominant attitude toward security among many Energy Department and lab managers ``ranged from half-hearted, grudging accommodation ... to smug disregard,'' the report said.
China's intelligence-gathering methods had proved ``very effective against unwitting and ill-prepared'' Energy Department personnel, it concluded.
``Increasingly more nimble'' in their methods, ``the Chinese services have become very proficient in the art of seemingly innocuous elicitations of information,'' the report said.
Listening devices were found in weapons-related facilities as recently as the early 1990s and an illegal telephone wiretap was discovered after 1995, investigators found.
One subject under counterintelligence surveillance had been granted a security clearance giving him access to nuclear weapons data simply to avoid the delay of normal processing of a lab visit, the report said.
Further security breaches included a 24-month lapse in ordering the security labels ``Secret'' and ``Top Secret'' for mislabeled software, and a 35-month lapse in writing a work order to replace a lock at a weapons lab facility containing sensitive nuclear information.
And it took nearly four years to fix a broken doorknob locked in an open position allowing access to sensitive areas of one weapons lab, the report said.
A scientist, Wen Ho Lee, was fired from Los Alamos National Laboratory in March under suspicion of passing secrets to China. He has not been charged with any crime.
``It's going to be a very difficult case to prosecute as espionage, based on the current state of the evidence,'' the White House official said of Lee.
Nuclear weapons research and stockpile management needs to be placed with a new semi-autonomous agency within the Energy Department, or a wholly independent agency must be created, the advisory group recommended.
``I don't think you need a new agency within DOE (Department of Energy). You don't need a new fiefdom,'' but the department's organizational structure needs to change, said Energy Secretary Bill Richardson.
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20. Suspect in Loss of Nuclear Secrets Unlikely to Face Spying Charges
By DAVID JOHNSTON, June 15, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/061599china-nuke.html
WASHINGTON -- Three months ago, a research mathematician was dismissed from his job at the Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory for security violations. Monday Federal authorities say it is most unlikely that the mathematician, who is at the center of the uproar over the suspected theft of nuclear secrets by China, will ever face criminal charges of espionage.
Moreover, the officials are unsure whether the scientist, Wen Ho Lee, will be accused of any wrongdoing, even though investigators found in March that he had downloaded thousands of secret codes used in the design of the most sophisticated American nuclear weapons.
The uncertain status of the case has infuriated some Government officials and lawmakers, primarily Republicans, who say Lee may be responsible for the most damaging espionage of the post-cold-war era. That conclusion was reinforced last month, when a Congressional panel found that China had used nuclear secrets stolen from American labs to develop advanced miniature warheads and a mobile ballistic missile.
Lee's lawyer, Mark Holscher, said his client was an innocent scientist who had been publicly branded as a spy even though he had not even been charged with any crime.
" Lee has been unfairly injected into a politically charged debate over America-China relations and has been subject to improper leaks in violation of Federal law," Holscher said.
The extent and nature of evidence against Lee remains obscure. But interviews with officials about the still classified evidence -- including details about Lee's work, his meetings with Chinese scientists and his overseas travel -- help explain why after three years of investigation law-enforcement officials acknowledge that they will probably never learn the truth.
Over all, officials said, the evidence is a mosaic of fact and conclusions that suggests why counterintelligence cases are frustrating and often fail to result in prosecutions. These are some of the points:
There are no witnesses who saw Lee engage in espionage.
There is no evidence of a motive in the form of unexplained income or a change in his style of life.
Nor are there indications that Lee, a naturalized American who was born on Taiwan, was ideologically allied with Beijing.
Even the evidence that a theft occurred is circumstantial.
Still, counterintelligence officials said, they strongly suspect that China stole the important information data in the mid-80's. The loss was apparently not found at the time, when an investigation might have had the greatest chance of success. Authorities did not realize that the information had been stolen until 1995, when suspicions were aroused at the lab in northern New Mexico by an analysis of Chinese nuclear tests and when the Central Intelligence Agency obtained a document with esoteric computations indicating that Beijing had acquired nuclear secrets.
Lee emerged as a suspect because he was one of the few researchers in the area that is thought to have been compromised, computational fluid dynamics. Many people at the Energy Department were aware of the information. But officials said Lee was the sole scientist with full access who had also visited Chinese counterparts in Beijing.
From there the evidentiary trail followed a meandering course. Investigators pieced together an account of Lee's contacts with Chinese over the years, producing an outline of circumstantial information. Some of it seemed to raise questions about Lee. Some of it seemed too speculative to shed significant light on his activities. And none of it was solid enough to form the basis for an indictment, Government officials said.
One crucial component is missing. There is no direct evidence that Lee ever passed or tried to pass on to China any classified national security information.
Although the evidence is apparently insufficient to prosecute Lee, the Federal Bureau of Investigation thought that the case against him was compelling enough to ask the Justice Department in 1997 for permission to eavesdrop on Lee under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The law lets the Government monitor subjects electronically, not to assemble evidence of a crime, but to gather intelligence in national security cases.
The still classified F.B.I. application cited questions about Lee dating from the early 80's, when he contacted a scientist who had been ousted from a weapons lab in California after an inquiry into the theft of secrets about the neutron bomb.
The application, made up of drafts of documents exchanged between the F.B.I. and the Justice Department, described how Chinese intelligence differed from espionage by the United States' traditional adversaries. The Chinese, the document said, usually seek information from overseas Chinese who are traveling in China through scientist-to-scientist contacts, a more elusive form of espionage because it does not rely on identifiable intelligence officers.
The F.B.I. request said Lee had failed to disclose the identities of all the scientists whom he contacted in China on visits in 1986 and 1988. The Energy Department had approved the trips and authorized his meetings and discussions of nonclassified matters with Chinese officials. After the trips, Lee and his wife met American security officials and identified a number of Chinese scientists whom they had met.
But counterintelligence officials apparently suspected that Lee might have held back some pertinent information about his activities during vacations taken after each trip. On the vacations, the officials said, Lee had undisclosed contacts with scientists, including one identified as Side Hu, a top official at an institute of engineering physics involved in nuclear weapons research. Other officials said the omissions might have been inadvertent, in light of the numerous contacts that Lee did report.
In 1992, Hu led a delegation of Chinese officials on an official tour of Los Alamos that the Energy Department had authorized, documents show. On the visit, Hu spoke privately with Lee and embraced him in a congratulatory manner.
Later, counterintelligence agents surreptitiously analyzed Lee's spending and found what they thought might be another puzzle piece. They found two charges on a credit card at a travel agency while Lee was in Hong Kong in 1994. One charge was for $100, the other for $700, enough to pay for what officials said might have been an airline ticket to China.
Republican Senators like Fred Thompson of Tennessee and at least one Democrat, Robert G. Torricelli of New Jersey, have expressed outrage that the Justice Department blocked the F.B.I. request for a warrant to eavesdrop on Lee, a step that they suggest would have accelerated the investigation at a critical time, before Lee realized that he was under suspicion.
In mid-1997, the Office of Intelligence Policy Review at the Justice Department found that the evidence was so nebulous and dated that it refused the F.B.I. request for electronic monitoring. After a bureau official had questioned the decision, Attorney General Janet Reno ordered a second review by the Justice Department, which also found that the bureau had failed to produce enough evidence to justify the request.
Ms. Reno has said bureau officials dropped the issue. For her part, she said recently, "I assumed that since I did not hear from the F.B.I. that the matter had been resolved to their satisfaction."
Instead, bureau officials said investigators decided to pursue other avenues. An agent who was posing as a Chinese intelligence officer approached Lee. The scientist rebuffed an invitation to spy for Beijing, Government officials said, but he did not tell authorities about the contact until they had approached him to explain it.
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21. Report Scolds Bureaucracy for U.S. Nuclear Lab Lapses
By JAMES RISEN, June 15, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/global/061599nuclear-security.html
WASHINGTON -- Clinton administration initiatives to tighten security at nuclear weapons laboratories are not being carried out fully because of bureaucratic arrogance and foot-dragging, said a scathing report issued Monday by a presidential review panel.
The report said Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, whose department owns the laboratories, had spoken too soon when he said he had fixed the problem of lax security after allegations arose that China had spied at the labs.
Richardson "overstated the case when he asserts, as he did several weeks ago, 'that Americans can be reassured; our nation's nuclear secrets are today, safe and secure,'" the White House panel's report stated.
Issued by the president's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, which studies sensitive intelligence and national security issues, the report argues that the Energy Department has mishandled the nation's nuclear secrets for 20 years.
The Energy Department, it says, "has embodied science at its best and security of secrets at its worst." The report also said the department was a "dysfunctional bureaucracy that has proven it is incapable of reforming itself."
The panel proposes a radical reorganization, calling for the creation of a new agency, either with some autonomy within the Energy Department or completely divorced from it, that would be put in charge of nuclear weapons.
That proposal appears similar to legislation proposed by several Republican leaders in the Senate and strongly opposed by Richardson. In an interview Monday, Richardson repeated his opposition to the creation of an independent agency.
More cautious measures proposed by Richardson are likely to succumb to bureaucratic pressure, the review board argued. "The next secretary of energy will not have spent months at the tip of the sword created by the recent public outcry over DOE mismanagement of national secrets," the report said. "Indeed, the core of the department's bureaucracy is quite capable of undoing Secretary Richardson's reforms."
The bureaucracy has fought against President Clinton's order in February 1998 intended to improve counterintelligence at the national labs, the report said. "Never before has the panel found an agency with the bureaucratic insolence to dispute, delay and resist implementation of a presidential directive," it said.
The review board, chaired by Warren Rudman, a former Republican senator from New Hampshire, was asked by Clinton to review counterintelligence and security measures at the Energy Department in March, in the wake of the controversy over allegations of espionage at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Rudman briefed Clinton on the report Monday morning, and Clinton was "taken aback" by the findings that the president's directive mandating tougher counterintelligence at the Energy Department was meeting resistance, a senior White House official said.
Richardson said Monday that he stood by his statement that America's nuclear secrets were now secure, and he disagreed with the panel's warnings that the bureaucracy was still blocking the carrying out of tough new security measures.
"I do believe we are actively and aggressively implementing our reforms," he said.
The review board had access to classified information about the Los Alamos spy case and the government's investigation of Wen Ho Lee, the scientist who was the FBI's prime suspect in the case. Lee was fired in March after being investigated by the FBI, but he has not been arrested or charged.
The board did not attempt a full investigation of the handling of that case by the FBI, Justice Department, Energy Department and the White House.
But it did state that a review of the classified intelligence persuaded the board to reject both extremes in the public debate over the controversy: the view that the Chinese have acquired very little classified information and can do little with it, and the opposite view that the Chinese have nearly duplicated the most advanced nuclear warhead in the American arsenal, the W-88.
Instead, the board agreed with the findings of an intelligence assessment issued in April, which concluded that the Chinese had stolen some secrets but probably not the full design plans of the W-88.
The board did conclude that while the Clinton administration had moved too slowly to address the security problems at the labs, it eventually acted more aggressively than its predecessors in seeking to reform the Energy Department.
"The Clinton administration has acted forcefully, but it took pressure from below and outside the administration to get the attention of the leadership," the report said.
The report also found plenty of evidence of counterintelligence failures at the labs that had not been previously disclosed.
One of the most intriguing concerned an incident that occurred sometime after 1995, when an illegal telephone wiretap was discovered at one of weapons labs. The employee who installed the wiretap confessed but was not prosecuted, the report said.
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22. Security Not a Priority For Bush Energy Chief Breaches Have Led to Nuclear Lab Changes
By Walter Pincus, Washington Post, June 14, 1999; Page A14 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-06/14/068l-061499-idx.html
When retired Adm. James D. Watkins took over the Energy Department in early 1989, then-President George Bush told him that security and safeguards at the department's nuclear weapons laboratories were "a complete mess."
In response, Watkins instituted a study of security and beefed up some personnel rules and physical barriers. But the former chief of naval operations, who worked on nuclear matters throughout his Navy career, made his first priority restructuring responsibility within the department, particularly environmental, safety and health standards.
Today, a decade after Watkins started his reforms, new examples of lax personnel security and allegations of Chinese espionage have brought on another reform of security measures, imposed by the Clinton administration and now being enacted into law by the Republican-controlled Congress.
Security has been a perennial problem in the nuclear labs, going back to the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos during World War II. It is therefore not surprising that the current uproar has led to a major effort to reorganize the entire nuclear weapons complex.
The House, for example, last week voted down transfer of the weapons program to the Pentagon. A more serious effort is underway in the Senate to attach to the fiscal 2000 intelligence authorization bill a plan to establish an independent Nuclear Security Administration within the Energy Department to run weapons building.
The restructure, being proposed by three powerful senators, Budget Committee Chairman Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), intelligence committee Chairman Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) and Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), would make the current assistant secretary of energy for defense programs the administrator of all nuclear weapons programs, accountable only to the Energy secretary.
The proposal faces strong opposition from Energy Secretary Bill Richardson. "A new fiefdom in the Department of Fiefdoms is not what I need," Richardson said last week. Instead, he has established a "security czar" with "crosscutting responsibility through the entire complex of [the Energy Department]."
The Energy Department has been bifurcated since its creation during the Carter administration. More than half its functions -- and its $14 billion budget -- relate to civilian energy issues, such as coal, gas and electricity, and those programs often are looked upon as public works projects.
The nuclear weapons complex, on the other hand, is central to U.S. national security and charged with maintaining the country's lead in development and production of nuclear weapons. With the end of the Cold War, the focus has been less on building new weapons and more on maintaining the existing stockpile.
But the nuclear weapons labs, to attract the best scientists, must spend at least half their efforts on non-weapons research. As Richardson pointed out last week at a Senate hearing, "our labs don't just do weapons work. They do energy, they do climate change, they do biology, they do genome research. They are multifaceted."
Watkins said during a recent interview that when he arrived at the Energy Department he found blurred lines of authority. In addition, none of the three political appointees President Ronald Reagan chose as secretary -- an oral surgeon, a soft drink executive and a White House personnel director -- had any serious military background.
Demanding his attention were highly publicized, politically explosive lawsuits for nuclear waste problems and worker radiation exposure. In the security area, the threat was less espionage and more terrorism, with the possibility of physical attacks against nuclear weapons facilities and their transportation vehicles.
Watkins said the Reagan transition team told him there were no security problems, but he later learned that there had been an FBI espionage investigation into alleged Chinese spying at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and that the General Accounting Office and Congress had completed sharply critical studies of the nuclear complex's physical security.
It was right at the time of the transition from Reagan to Bush that the Chinese allegedly obtained classified data about the W-88, the most advanced U.S. nuclear warhead, according to the recent report of the House select committee chaired by Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.).
During his four years at the Energy Department, Watkins said he introduced tougher physical security standards, tightened the foreign visitor clearance program and pushed to end the backlog in background re-investigations of long-term employees.
When the former chief of Naval operations left office, he said during a recent interview that he felt "more than 50 percent" along the way toward "changing the culture" toward security that he found when he arrived.
But last week, Domenici disclosed at a Senate hearing that it was during Watkins's time as secretary that a security file on a Los Alamos scientist suspected of being "turned" as a Chinese agent was misplaced at the department's headquarters. "Nobody bothered to ask its whereabouts or check it," Domenici said. "It just had disappeared."
The scientist was Wen Ho Lee, who is a suspect in the alleged Chinese spying affair and was fired from his job at Los Alamos in March for security violations. "It was not until earlier this year that the then-director of the Los Alamos Laboratory was told [about the lost file] . . . and yet people would assume that in fact he should have known and been suspicious of Mr. Wen Ho Lee."
It was also during Watkins's tenure that the FBI began its investigation of another Los Alamos and Livermore scientist for espionage. But Watkins said he never heard of the case of Peter Lee until 1997, when Lee pleaded guilty to mishandling classified information.
Before he left office, Watkins briefed his Clinton administration replacement, former utilities executive Hazel O'Leary, on the major issues she would face. Watkins said he was disappointed that, like the Reagan administration secretaries, she was more interested in the energy side of the department than in weapons building -- more interested in commerce and openness than in security. As he left office in 1992, Watkins listed his 25 top accomplishments. He was proudest of having clarified responsibility for reactor and nuclear facility safety. Establishing an office to gather information about other nations' nuclear weapons was No. 15. Creating a counterintelligence office to improve security was No. 21.
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Message: 4 Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 21:36:56 -0400
Subject: NucNews-6 6/15/99 - Israel Missiles; Refugees - Kashmir / Kosovo; China/US; NATO/KLA; Milosevic; Swedish Envoy; Koreas Ships; Australia Spy
29. Israeli anti-missile missile operational soon
06:17 a.m. Jun 15, 1999 Eastern By Bernard Edinger http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???"
PARIS, June 15 (Reuters) - Israel's Arrow anti-missile missile should be operational within months and the country's heartland should be fully protected against ballistic missiles from 2005, senior Israeli officials said on Tuesday.
``Within three to six months, we expect to declare the system operational,'' said Major General Ilan Biran, director general of the Israeli Defense Ministry.
``The first battery of Arrow missiles will be established in 2001 and the country's main population centres, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem will be covered by an interlocking system by 2005,'' he told journalists at the Paris air show.
Biran was speaking near a mock-up of the Arrow missile, together with its radar and other back-up systems, in the Israeli pavilion at the air show.
``We are not presenting the system for export sales but to show the extent of our progress in research and development,'' said Major General Isaac Ben-Israel, one of the Arrow programme directors. ``It's very persuasive to show our capabilies.''
The officials declined commment when asked if the display was meant to convey a message to Israel's Arab neighbours, who were expected to visit the Israeli pavilion.
``We are all aware of the existing chemical and biological threat in our region to be followed down the line by a nuclear threat,'' said Biran.
``None of this is theoretical since there are hundreds of Scud missiles across our borders and we have already had a taste of missile warfare,'' he said, referring to the 1991 Gulf conflict when Iraqi Scud missiles were fired at Israeli cities.
Those attacks caused few casualties but major damage and the realisation that Israel's small population was threatened by weapons of mass destruction.
U.S. Patriot missiles were fired at the Scuds but the results were disappointing.
Biran and the other Israelis were extremely guarded about discussing the Arrow programme, though they did say that about six to eights tests had been conducted with the updated Arrow-II version.
They said all but the first two tests were successful, including one where an Arrow intercepted another Arrow.
The missiles are intended to intercept incoming warheads at at a distance of no less than 40 kms (24 miles) to prevent fall-out over target areas, the Israelis said.
In contrast to U.S. anti-missile missiles now being tested which aim to achieve direct hits and have had disappointing results, the Arrow is designed to explode its warhead near a hostile missile, destroying it or knocking it off course.
A news release said each of the system's batteries could simultaneously handle dozens of threats through multi-target tracking and interception capabilities.
State-owned Israel Aircraft Industries and Tadiran Ltd are the main contractors on the project.
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30. Kashmir refugees pray for early end to conflict
06:11 a.m. Jun 15, 1999 Eastern By Sheikh Mushtaq http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???"
GAGANGIR, India, June 15 (Reuters) - Ishaq Khan and his neighbours left their village for a month when India and Pakistan clashed over Kashmir for the first time in 1947.
Early this month, the 70-year-old Khan and about 400 others from Pandras, 12 km (seven miles) from the ceasefire line between the two countries, moved once again after the Indian army took over their village for operational reasons.
``This time it may take longer for our return,'' Khan said.
Pandras, 140 km northeast of the state's summer capital Srinagar, is part of a new battlefield between India and Pakistan.
The newly nuclear-capable neighbours are locked in the worst standoff in 30 years, ever since India launched an air and ground offensive to dislodge what it says are Pakistan-backed armed guerrillas from its side of ceasefire line about a month ago.
``They (Army) came and asked first for the school building but later said they needed all our houses to store their weapons and ammunition. We had no choice but to leave,'' Ishaq told Reuters.
Khan and the 400 refugees from Pandras are living in five government buildings on the banks of a stream running through Gagangir village, about 67 km from their homes.
``The army offered us tents to live in in Pandras, but we were worried about the retaliatory air strikes by the Pakistan air force,'' said Gulam Mohammad Babar, headmaster of the Pandras school.
Some refugees are worried about their homes and their belongings. ``Most of my villagers left their belongings in their houses,'' said Gulam Mohammad, village head of Pandras.
Others are homesick and want the conflict to end soon. ``I miss my friends, Nahida and Nazima. They went to another village after the shelling began,'' said 12-year-old Zarifa Bano.
Sitting with her head covered, Zarifa also regrets she left her books at home in Pandras.
``It seems difficult that these people will return home this year, unless there is a respite in the battle. But we are trying to take full care of them,'' said a government official.
Officials said the Jammu and Kashmir government provided five kg of rice and four litres of kerosene oil for every family.
The government promised to open a temporary school for migrant children, but most of them work in nearby fields and pine forests collecting wood and fodder.
``I hope my prayers are answered and things cool down so we return to our homes,'' said Fatima Bibi as she cooked some rice in a makeshift kitchen.
In the same room, Abdul Gafoor applied some ointment to his frost-bitten foot. Gafoor, along with 40 men from Pandras, helped the Indian army carry arms and ammunition up an icy mountain.
``I went with soldiers up to Shandri post, 14 km from Pandras. Seven of us got frost bite on our feet because we had to walk barefoot on the slippery glacier,'' Gafoor said.
The refugees are worried about their winter supplies. Winter temperatures in Pandras fall to minus 40-60 degrees Celsius, cutting the village off for six months.
``This is the time we stock up for winter. If we cannot go now, we cannot spend harsh winters there,'' Babar said.
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31. Serb Families Flee Kosovo
June 15, 1999 Associated Press http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Kosovo-Serb-Exodus.html
MALA KRSNA, Yugoslavia (AP) -- Marko Ovsenica knows something about fleeing. He has done it four times since 1991, running from war after war. Now he is fleeing Kosovo, convinced that Serbs like him will be targets once Yugoslav soldiers are gone.
On Monday, his flight met with an unforseen obstacle: His battered blue Lada broke down on the road out of Kosovo, leaving him stranded with his wife and 6-year-old son.
``It took us four days and nights to get here. And now the car is dead,'' he said, smoking. ``I haven't the slightest idea where we are going to, but I had one thing on my mind -- we had to move toward Serbia.''
Thousands of Serbs were on the road Monday, trying to get out of Kosovo ahead of the arriving NATO force. They were heading toward an uncertain future in a country whose infrastructure has been devastated by 2 1/2 months of relentless NATO bombing and whose political leadership is struggling to hold on to power after what many Serbs perceive as the loss of their cultural homeland.
A prominent Serb leader in Kosovo said up to 30,000 of the province's minority Serbs were on the move. The news agency Beta quoted Momcilo Trajkovic of the Serbian Resistance Movement as saying those leaving feared revenge -- both from the Kosovo Liberation Army and from returning ethnic Albanian refugees.
Police in the Yugoslav republic of Montenegro said 12,000 Serb refugees had entered from Kosovo.
Ovsenica hadn't made it that far.
His family is from Zagreb, the Croatian capital, but had to flee to southern Croatia, which was seized by rebel Serbs during the Croatian War in 1991. They hit the road again in 1995 in face of the advancing Croat army, traveling into a Serb-controlled area of Bosnia. Months later, they were forced to flee again -- to the Kosovo town of Djakovica, near the Albanian border.
Marko got a job working in a kitchen knife factory co-owned by a Serb and an ethnic Albanian, and his boss rented him a house at a cheap rate.
``Business was good,'' Marko said. ``We even took a vacation to Greece.''
But the factory collapsed when ethnic tensions rose in Kosovo. His ethnic Albanian boss, named Sabri, joined the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army. And Ovsenica was out of a job.
Last week, when the peace agreement was signed to force Serb troops out of Kosovo, people wearing Yugoslav army uniforms and carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles showed up in town.
``They told us to leave as soon as we can,'' Ovsenica said. ``The next evening, Sabri came dressed in a KLA uniform. He told us to leave as well. Very bluntly.''
So the family took to the road for the fourth time.
``I don't know. I never harmed anyone. Maybe it was better to stay,'' Ovsenica said. ``Maybe NATO would be able to give us some protection, advice or shelter. Who knows?''
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32. State Dept. Sends Mission to China
By Jim Abrams Associated Press Writer Monday, June 14, 1999; 1:40 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990614/V000196-061499-idx.html ALSO: http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-06/14/053l-061499-idx.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A senior State Department official is going to Beijing with a report on the accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and a goal of putting strained U.S.-China relations back on course.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Sunday that Undersecretary Thomas Pickering and other administration officials will again tell the Chinese that the May 7 bombing, which killed three Chinese citizens, was a ``tragic accident.'' They were leaving today.
Pickering will also stress that the United States believes the relationship with China is an important one ``that needs to get beyond this,'' Albright said on NBC's ``Meet the Press.''
The bombing, which the Chinese insisted was intentional, was a serious blow to a relationship already reeling from U.S. charges that China tried to buy influence in American elections and stole U.S. nuclear secrets, and the failure to come to agreement over China's entry into the World Trade Organization.
The Beijing government showed its anger over the bombing incident by encouraging anti-American demonstrations in China, cutting off military contacts and WTO talks and demanding a full accounting of the bombing and punishment for those responsible.
Albright said relations ``clearly have taken some steps backward ... but I believe that we must move forward, as do they, in terms of rekindling the WTO talks and on other issues.''
China and the United States this spring were within sight of a broad market-opening agreement as a prelude to China's entry to the WTO. But the talks slowed following the nuclear theft charges, which heightened anti-Chinese sentiment in Congress, and then broke down after the Belgrade bombing.
U.S. negotiators insist a WTO agreement would benefit the United States, applying international trade rules to China and reducing tariffs that contributed to a $57 billion trade surplus in China's favor last year.
Congress has begun its annual debate over whether to go along with President Clinton's decision to extend normal trade status to China for another year.
Congress is expected to abide by that decision, as it has every year since 1980, but only after a noisy debate in which critics will assail China for its trade practices, human rights record and threats to U.S. security.
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33. NATO Holds KLA Men Amid Kosovo Chaos
Updated 5:38 AM ET June 15, 1999, By Matt Spetalnick http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990615/05/international-yugoslavia- leadall
PRISTINA (Reuters) - British NATO troops trying to prevent anarchy and reprisals in Kosovo as Yugoslav forces withdraw arrested five suspected ethnic Albanian guerrillas overnight after a Serb man was shot in Pristina.
With Yugoslav forces due to leave southern Kosovo, including the provincial capital Pristina, by midnight, their last hours looked set to be chaotic as a rocket-propelled grenade was fired near the airport, held by Russian forces.
But the withdrawal seemed on schedule, with troops pouring northwards in compliance with an international peace deal even as ethnic Albanians trickled out of the hills where they have been sheltering for weeks -- many unaware that NATO had arrived.
The airport has been a bone of contention since Russia snatched it Friday before NATO could get its troops in. But a row over Russia's role in the KFOR peace force, exacerbated by the airport incident, appeared close to settlement.
One of NATO's major worries has been that guerrillas and ethnic Albanian civilians will carry out reprisal attacks against withdrawing Yugoslav troops.
In Pristina, British peacekeepers surrounded a house after coming under fire while checking reports that a Serb man had been shot, Lieutenant-Colonel Nick Clissitt said.
"Five people who we believe to be members of the KLA then emerged from the house with their hands up," he told Sky News television. "They were taken into custody...and they're now being interviewed by us."
Britain's Financial Times quoted the commander of Kosovo Liberation Army guerrillas in Pristina as saying he rejected a U.N. resolution calling on them to disarm.
Rustem Mustafer, known by his nom de guerre of Remi, said the KLA's goal was to transform itself into the army of an independent state of Kosovo.
Thousands of Serb troops and police streamed out of Kosovo overnight, often to the jeers of ethnic Albanians who had been targeted in what Western leaders described as a terror campaign.
Clissitt said the withdrawal seemed to be on schedule: "They're proceeding in an orderly manner and we're pleased with the progress that's being made at the moment."
The origin of the rocket-propelled grenade fired near Pristina airport was unclear, but it appeared to have caused no damage, a NATO spokesman in the Macedonian capital Skopje said.
Russian Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin said Moscow's disagreements with NATO over its role in the Kosovo peacekeeping force -- brought to a head when the two sides' troops faced off at the airport -- would be over before the end of the week.
Stepashin held talks Tuesday with President Boris Yeltsin, who is due to meet Western leaders at a Group of Eight summit this weekend. Defense and foreign ministers of the two countries are also due to meet in Helsinki later this week.
"The prime minister expressed his confidence that 'before the end of the week frictions which had existed would be removed'," Interfax news agency said.
The two sides have yet to reach agreement on the main sticking points -- Russia's demand to have control of a zone in Kosovo and its refusal to let troops serve under NATO command.
Interfax said 11 vehicles with supplies of food, water, fuel and cash for the 200 Russian paratroopers at Pristina airport had set off from their base in Bosnia early Tuesday.
Russia's RIA news agency quoted Serb sources in Pristina as saying up to 7,000 Russian troops were expected in the Kosovan capital in the next few days as part of Moscow's deal with NATO.
Russian news agencies quoted U.S. sources as saying Russia could agree to put its forces under the command of a Finnish contingent and thus avoid reporting directly to NATO.
Meanwhile hundreds of starving Kosovo Albanians came down from the hills near Srbica in the bombed-out wasteland of central Kosovo unaware that NATO troops had arrived and were trying to meet them just a few miles down the road.
The refugees were fearful at first at the sight of journalists in an armoured vehicle, but broke into cheers of joy when they were told that NATO troops were already inside Kosovo and deployed in nearly all of its main cities.
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34. Milosevic Appears In Novi Sad, Urges Reconstruction
Updated 7:31 AM ET June 14, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990614/07/international-yugoslavia- milosevic
BELGRADE (Reuters) - Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic Monday appeared in public for the first time since NATO airstrikes began in March, standing in front of a destroyed bridge calling for reconstruction after 11 weeks of bombing.
"It's not accidental that we start renewal here from Novi Sad," said Milosevic, referring to the city in northern Serbia which was repeatedly bombed by NATO troops who destroyed several key bridges in the area. "There's a lot of symbolism...bridges connect people," he told a cheering crowd.
State television put the crowd at 10,000 although independent news agency Beta said the number was nearer 5,000.
Milosevic, who claimed victory last week in a televised address after the NATO bombing campaign was suspended, applauded the efforts of the Yugoslav people to defend the country.
He repeated a call for unity and said the first reconstruction of key bridges in the north would move ahead quickly.
"Now that we have peace again new tasks await us," he said. "These are to rebuild our country."
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35. Secret Envoy Helped To Secure Kosovo Deal - Paper
Updated 12:35 AM ET June 14, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990614/00/international-yugoslavia- secret
LONDON (Reuters) - Russian officials and EU leaders used a Swedish-born financier to open a secret negotiating channel to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic that helped secure the Kosovo peace deal, the Financial Times reported Monday.
The newspaper, citing European Union and Yugoslav officials, said the channel was opened in May by financier Peter Castenfelt.
"However, the machinations in the run-up to acceptance of the deal have opened up huge fissures in the Russian leadership which now threaten the peacekeeping effort in Kosovo, and even the stability of the Russian government itself," the Financial Times said.
It quoted an unidentified source close to the leadership of the Serbian security services as saying Castenfelt had, for the first time, given Milosevic the final terms on which NATO would settle.
This was only a few days before the peace deal was agreed on June 3 in Belgrade at a meeting between Milosevic, Russian envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin and the EU envoy, Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari.
Castenfelt was reported to have said it was clear in crucial respects that the deal was better than that offered by leading NATO powers during the Rambouillet negotiations in France earlier this year -- especially since it gave the U.N. Security Council control of the operation in Kosovo.
"This means that the U.N. mandate can be voted down by the Russians and Chinese when we don't want (NATO) in any more," said the Yugoslav source.
The Financial Times said the source's testimony, and that of German officials and advisers, suggested that more negotiating was involved in the talks with Milosevic, both open and covert, than the leaders of NATO countries had admitted.
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36. Koreas exchange fire; North vessel sunk
6/15/99- Updated 03:28 AM ET USA Today http://usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm Full Story http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwsmon05.htm
SEOUL, South Korea - North and South Korean warships exchanged fire in contested waters Tuesday, with southern forces sinking a torpedo boat and damaging two other enemy vessels, according to South Korea. North Korea's state-run news agency said its southern neighbor was determined to bring the countries to "the brink of war." South Korea sources say its ships were fired upon first in the Yellow Sea, prompting a 10-minute battle. The damaged craft, another torpedo boat and a patrol boat that was apparently sinking returned to North Korean waters. The United States has about 37,000 troops in South Korea, but their alert status had not changed as of early Tuesday.
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S. Korea Claims It Sank North Korean Vessel June 15, 1999 Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/korea/korea.htm
Southern warships and northern torpedo boats exchanged fire in contested waters off the Korean peninsula after an eight-day standoff....
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37. Report: Australia Plans Spy Charges
Monday, June 14, 1999; 1:50 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990614/V000466-061499-idx.html
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- The Australian government is preparing espionage charges against a man already facing trial in Virginia for allegedly trying to sell American military secrets, a newspaper reported Monday.
The Age newspaper reported that diplomatic sources said Australia is working on ``contingency plans'' in case Jean Philippe Wispelaere, a former Australian intelligence analyst, is cleared by the U.S. court.
The Commonwealth Attorney General's Department was preparing the charges and planned to ask the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions to file them before Wispelaere goes on trial in Virginia, the newspaper said.
Wispelaere, 28, could face life in prison if convicted of attempted espionage at a trial scheduled for Oct. 4 in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va. If prosecutors can also prove the disclosure of U.S. nuclear secrets, the death penalty could apply.
The U.S. government says Wispelaere sold nearly 1,000 secret U.S. defense documents to undercover FBI agents who posed as foreign spies, lured him to Virginia and arrested him at Dulles International Airport outside Washington last month.
An Australian citizen born in Montreal, Wispelaere worked for Australian intelligence from July 1998 until his abrupt resignation on Jan. 12, according to court papers.
If Australia notifies U.S. officials that Wispelaere has been charged with offenses in his homeland, he would be held in custody even if cleared of the U.S. spying charges. Australia would have 45 days to seek his extradition.
If convicted of espionage in Australia, Wispelaere would face a maximum of seven years in prison.
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Message: 5 Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 21:36:24 -0400
Subject: NucNews-2 6/15/99 - Y2K; Puerto Rico (2); UK (2); India; Kashmir; Pakistan (2)
3. Y2K Test Approaches - 200 Days And Counting
02:13 a.m. Jun 14, 1999 Eastern, By Neil Winton, Science and Technology Correspondent http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???"
LONDON (Reuters) - We will soon know if the millennium computer bug is a disaster or an incidental blip as the clocks hit midnight.
Monday there will be 200 days left to worry about whether computers will crash after December 31, 1999 -- a potential nightmare for the industrialized world.
Experts say that many of the chilling scenarios predicted when the millennium computer bug first grabbed the public's attention are unlikely to happen.
They don't expect planes to fall from the sky and they don't think nuclear missiles will be accidentally activated. But they don't discount some unpleasantness, and governments and medium sized corporations in Germany, France and China have been singled out as being the most likely to be affected.
U.S. information technology researcher Gartner Group famously said more than two years ago that it would cost between $300 billion and $600 billion to cure the bug.
The millennium computer problem stems from the once common programmer practice of using only two digits for the year in dates, like 97 for 1997. There are fears 2000 will confuse computers and microchips embedded in machines, causing them to produce flawed data or crash.
BIG CORPORATIONS ON TRACK FOR Y2K SURVIVAL
Big corporations across the world have been spending millions of dollars to fix their computers.
According to Gartner, the results have been impressive.
``The vast majority of large organizations which control the vast amount of services and goods in developed economies are there or thereabouts,'' said Gartner analyst Andy Kyte.
``The fact that they can't guarantee 100 percent compliance doesn't mean they are going to collapse. Most large organizations have treated the matter seriously and are largely ready,'' said Kyte.
``The Armageddon scenarios being painted even two years ago are not going to come to pass,'' he said.
GOVERNMENT PREPARATIONS CAUSE FOR CONCERN
But Kyte warned that governments, particularly those with large social security administrations, were the most vulnerable.
He pinpointed central and regional governments in France and Germany as causing concern.
``We remain very concerned about Germany in both the public and private sector. The best German organizations are up there with the best in Y2K preparation, but far too many are way behind norms for their industry sector,'' said Kyte.
If the public sector payment systems fail, the impact on the recipients will be swift.
In January a major computer breakdown at social security offices in Marseilles, France, paralyzed payments. In a few days frustrated benefit claimants smashed up three post offices before riot police stepped in.
Stephanie Moore, director of the Giga Information Group in Norwell, Massachusetts, agrees with Kyte, however, that considerable progress has been made in fixing the bug.
MOST CHINA SOFTWARE SEEN REMAINING IN JEOPARDY
But Moore worries about Japanese and German banks, and France and China.
``Ninety percent of software in China is pirated. The software vendors won't help them upgrade because it's illegal. Anyone relying on China for a supply chain is likely to have a negative impact,'' Moore said.
``The most stunning thing about France is that lots of IT (information technology) managers are aware of the problem and are making an effort to fix it, but executives with all the power and money do not buy into the Y2K problem; they don't want to fund it,'' Moore said.
Moore's main worry, like Kyte, centers on governments.
``Governments don't have the smarts or the money. Companies can spend lots of money on overtime and bonuses, governments can't and they don't have the brain power or the resources to incentivise,'' Moore said.
HEAD-FOR-HILLS PUNDITS STICK WITH PREDICTIONS
The Internet is still a haven for material predicting a disaster.
Professor Gary North (www.garynorth.com) says computer crashes will rock the industrialized world.
North says that no power generation on earth is safe from infection. This, coupled with a failing telephone infrastructure, could spell havoc for weeks or even months in the industrialized world.
North's theory is accompanied by a survival check list which includes advice on wood stoves, water and food. Of the stock market, he says ``Get out of it. Now.'' And he recommends acquiring gold coins because banks and automated teller machines will crash.
North has moved his family to Northwest Arkansas.
But Gartner's Kyte says: ``We are increasingly confident about the continued availability of infrastructure services at the century boundary and the high availability of electricity, gas, water and telecommunications -- more optimistic than a year ago.''
``We are more pessimistic about failures starting in the third quarter this year in public sector and mid-sized companies. Big-bang disruption has almost receded off the horizon, replaced by a cloud of reduced efficiency in many industrial sectors over an extended period of time.''
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4. Puerto Rican Government Selects Comprehensive Behavioral Care to Study Impact of U.S. Military Training on Residents of Vieques
09:12 a.m. Jun 14, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???"
TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 14, 1999--Comprehensive Behavioral Care, Inc. (CompCare), a wholly owned subsidiary of Comprehensive Care Corporation (OTC BB:CHCR), Monday announced that it has been engaged by the Puerto Rican government to study the psychological and other health-related impacts of U.S. military training and live-fire exercises on residents of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques.
The U.S. Navy has for decades conducted training on Vieques, a small island off Puerto Rico's east coast. Longstanding concern about the impact of the exercises on the island's 9,300 inhabitants has been heightened by two recent accidents - one involving the death of a civilian employee from live ammunition, and a second involving the discharge of depleted uranium during a target practice maneuver.
With the U.S. spearheading the recent NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, Vieques has been the scene of intensified military training activity throughout the first six months of 1999.
"Although much has been written about the ecological effects of the military exercises on Vieques, until now there has been no attempt to assess their impact on the health of the island's inhabitants," according to Puerto Rican Secretary of Health Carmen Feliciano de Melecio.
"We know from other studies that exposure to military exercises can lead to both physical and mental health problems in the general population, including stress and anxiety produced by continual exposure to bombings and other extreme environmental conditions."
"As an independent company and a leader in managed mental health care in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, CompCare is well qualified to conduct, in collaboration with the Department of Health, an impartial, objective, preliminary analysis of the impact of the military exercises on the people of Vieques," said Silma Quinones, Ph.D., CompCare's Vice President for Regional Operations in Puerto Rico.
Beginning last week, CompCare deployed a team of 12-15 trained interviewers to collect demographic data on, and administer a questionnaire to, a pre-determined, representative sample of 216 adult residents of Vieques. The questionnaire, which will gather detailed information on physical and mental health symptoms related to the military training, was adapted from the Short Form - 36 Health Survey Questionnaire, or SF-36. The SF-36 has been widely used in the U.S. to study the health impacts of extreme events and disasters. If they so desire, survey participants who are found to be in need of medical intervention and who are not currently receiving treatment will be referred to the Department of Health for follow-up.
CompCare has consulted with, and has the cooperation of, a team of widely respected Puerto Rican health investigators who are serving as consultants to the study. The study results will be reported to the contracting government agency and the Puerto Rico Department of Health.
Comprehensive Behavioral Care, which has operated in Puerto Rico since 1995, is widely credited with providing hundreds of thousands of Island residents with access to comprehensive, cost-effective mental health and substance services under the Reforma program. The company's ability to respond quickly to Puerto Ricans' health needs was demonstrated last summer in the aftermath of Hurricane Georges, when CompCare deployed teams of psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, and social workers to provide direct services to hurricane survivors in remote villages throughout the Island.
Comprehensive Care Corporation, based in Tampa, Florida, administers and operates behavioral health care programs for governmental agencies and managed care companies throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico. The company has more than 1 million members and a network of approximately 5,000 behavioral health care practitioners.
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5. U.S. Investigates Navy Firing Range In Puerto Rico
06:22 p.m Jun 14, 1999 Eastern By Anthony Boadle http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???"
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy Monday suspended all land operations at a firing range in Puerto Rico pending an investigation ordered by President Clinton into the risks posed to residents after a man was killed by bombs.
But naval exercises will continue as planned next week 50 miles offshore, using live bombs and missiles, Navy Secretary Richard Danzig said after meeting with Puerto Rican Gov. Pedro Rossello.
Puerto Rican independence activists and fishermen have staged protests at the base since Marine jets mistakenly bombed an observation tower in April, killing a civilian security guard and injuring four people, including a Navy officer.
The range on Vieques Island off eastern Puerto Rico is one of the world's largest live weapons training grounds and has been used by U.S. Navy ships and planes since World War II.
The facility is located seven miles (10 km) from Roosevelt Roads, the Navy's largest base outside the continental United States and a key training site for the Atlantic Fleet. ``We agreed that the Navy and Marine Corps will not operate training exercises on the island between now and the time the presidential panel reports at the beginning of August,'' Danzig said.
Earlier this month, the Navy acknowledged that Marine Corps Harrier jets mistakenly fired uranium bullets used to penetrate armored vehicles at the Vieques range in February.
The depleted uranium ammunition contains small amounts of radioactive material that is not considered a public health hazard, but its use had been prohibited on Vieques Island.
The Navy is investigating the incident. ``On the basis of what I have seen up to now, there is no reason to think this presents a significant safety issue,'' Danzig said.
Danzig said the four-member panel named by Clinton will have to weigh the safety interests of the Puerto Rican inhabitants with the security needs of the United States in determining whether to continue using Vieques Island. It also will explore whether there are viable alternative sites.
Danzig urged Puerto Rican protesters to leave the firing range because they could be killed or injured by live ordnance from previous training exercises.
Rossello asked the Navy not to use live ordnance or stage landings on Vieques during next week's exercises, and keep its planes above a 10,000-foot (3,000-meter) limit.
Navy officials said the war games due to begin June 21 will involve live and inert bombs and air-to-air missiles.
Rossello said the exercises would have been a ''provocation'' to Puerto Ricans if they had been carried out on Vieques, a 21-mile-long (34-km-long) island where 9,300 people live.
Residents complain that the bombing harms the environment, destroys marine life, stunts economic development and may be linked to an above-normal cancer rate.
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6. First Major Electoral Success For Britain's Greens
Updated 12:36 AM ET June 14, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990614/00/international-britain-greens
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Greens, who campaigned against genetically modified food, scored their first national electoral success Monday when they won two seats in the European Parliament.
Unlike counterparts in other European Union countries, the British Greens also campaigned against the European single currency.
"One of our first roles will be to press the government to take Green issues seriously," said Jean Lambert, who won a seat in London.
She said the Greens would be seeking an early meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"This vote shows he'd better listen to the voters or he'll find himself dealing with the environmental crisis and a chronic lack of voter confidence," Lambert said.
Like other small parties, the Greens were helped by the fact that the elections for Britain's 87 European Parliament seats were held on a proportional representation basis.
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7. Top scientists back nuclear power
ITN Online, June 14, 1999 http://www.itn.co.uk/Britain/brit19990614/061407.htm
A report by two inportant groups of British scientists concludes new nuclear plants may be needed to combat global warming.
The joint report by the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering says it is essential for the nuclear industry to win back public confidence.
Even with improved energy conservation plans and more use of other renewable energy sources the demand for power at an acceptable cost means the nuclear option must remain open, the report concludes.
It points out that Britain has agreed to tight restrictions on the release of carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse gasses" at the Kyoto summit.
"Energy consumption will increase substantially in the coming decades," the chairman of the team behind the report said.
"With the inevitable increases in global population and, even more, in energy requirements, somehow we have to meet that demand without catastrophic climate change.
In 1998, the House of Commons Trade and Industry Committee said that further nuclear plants might be needed in the next 20 years.
It recommended that a timetable be discussed early in the next term of government.
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8. India designs advanced reactor using thorium--PTI
11:34 a.m. Jun 13, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???"
NEW DELHI, June 13 (Reuters) - Indian scientists have designed an advanced heavy water reactor (AWHR) which can produce about 70 percent electrical energy using thorium fuel, the Press Trust of India (PTI) said on Sunday.
The reactor's design would enable generation of three-quarters of energy from thorium of which India has a sizeable reserve, PTI said, quoting a newsletter of India's state-run Bhabha Atomic Reserch Centre.
``Generating electricity from thorium is of utmost importance to India as it is perhaps the only country in the world with a huge reserve of high grade thorium, more than five times the natural uranium reserves,'' the news agency quoted from the BARC newsletter.
PTI said an important feature of the new design was its ability to remove heat from the fuel channels through natural circulation without coolant circulating pumps.
The new design provided inbuilt safety and reduced the complexity and cost of the reactor, it added.
Utilisation of thorium for power generation forms the final stage of India's three-stage Nuclear Power Programme which was drafted in 1954.
The first stage covered building pressurised heavy water reactors using natural uranium as fuel for producing electricty and plutonium fuel.
The second stage involved setting up fast breeder reactors which used plutonium as fuel to produce electricity, nuclear fuel uranium and more plutonium.
During fiscal 1997/1998 (April-March), Indian nuclear plants produced 10.042 billion units of electricity, or 2.39 percent of a total power generation of 420.622 billion units.
((New Delhi Newsroom +91-11-301-2024 Fax +91-11-301-4043, delhi.newsroom+reuters.com))
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9. Kashmir separatist group cites nuclear danger
04:37 a.m. Jun 14, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???"
SRINAGAR, India, June 14 (Reuters) - A Kashmiri separatist group said on Monday that the decades-old dispute over the territory between India and Pakistan needed to be resolved quickly now the giant neighbours were nuclear capable.
``It is the need of the hour that they decide to resolve all issues peacefully because in case of confrontation, not only Jammu and Kashmir but these two countries will risk their existence,'' Shabir Shah, president of Jammu Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party, said in a statement.
Jammu Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party is one of nearly a dozen separatist groups fighting for Kashmir's independence or merger with neighbouring Pakistan.
India and Pakistan, who conducted tit-for-tat nuclear tests in May last year, are in the midst of their worst faceoff in nearly three decades over the Himalayan region, the cause of two of their three wars since independence.
Last month, India launched a military offensive to dislodge infiltrators from its side of a Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.
India says the infiltrators are a mix of Pakistan soldiers and mainly Afghan foreign mercenaries. Pakistan denies the charge, saying they are freedom fighters.
The Jammu Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party vowed to press its fight for self-determination, but said it would settle for a consensus if it emerged in talks between the Kashmiri people, India and Pakistan.
``Our party stands for the complete freedom of Jammu and Kashmir. However, if during a process of trilateral dialogue some sort of consensus emerges, Freedom Party will accept it wholeheartedly,'' Shah said.
Shah also hit out at the Indian army's actions is Kashmir, saying the areas near the ceasefire Line of Control had ``virtually turned into hell.''
``It seems that Indian armed forces, trampling over all norms and laws, have declared a war against the innocent people of these areas,'' he said.
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10. Pakistan Army Examines India Shells
By The Associated Press, June 14, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Pakistan-India-Chemical-Weapons.html
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan accused India today of firing chemical weapons in the battle over the disputed Kashmir region, saying it was testing Indian artillery shells.
The weapons were fired, Pakistani officials said, by Indian troops battling Islamic guerrillas who seized mountaintop positions in the Indian part of Kashmir, a Himalayan territory claimed by both countries.
``The Indians fired chemical shells,'' said a statement by the Pakistani army. ``The type and details of the contents of the shells are being ascertained.''
Earlier this month, the guerrillas had claimed that Indian forces were using chemical weapons against them, as well as napalm and cluster bombs. India has denied using chemical weapons. Using ground troops, artillery and airstrikes, India has been battling for a month with the guerrillas, who New Delhi claims are supported by Pakistan in an effort to change the cease-fire line running through Kashmir. Pakistani and Indian troops have also traded artillery fire.
The Pakistani army said today that Indian soldiers attacked one of its border positions on the cease-fire line, but Pakistani troops repulsed them ``with very heavy causalities inflicted upon the enemy.''
However, a Pakistani patrol that set out overnight has failed to return and its whereabouts are not known, said the statement.
The Pakistan military also issued a stern warning to India to stop what it called ground assaults on its border outposts, calling them ``totally unacceptable'' and warning that it ``reserves the right to respond.''
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FOCUS-Pakistan says India using 'chemical' shells
01:58 p.m Jun 13, 1999 Eastern By Scott McDonald http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???"
ISLAMABAD, June 13 (Reuters) - The Pakistan military accused India on Sunday of using chemical shells in Kashmir, but the Indian army denied it.
The accusation came as Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif telephoned his Indian counterpart Atal Behari Vajpayee and reiterated a desire to defuse tension in the disputed Himalayan region.
A Pakistan army spokesman said the Indian army had carried out heavy shelling in the last 24 hours, including the use of chemical shells.
``The Indians used chemical shells and we are in the process of analysing what it actually was,'' Brigadier Rashid Qureshi told Reuters.
``It was a smoke type of material that came out of the shells and causes blisters and causes itching and so far nausea,'' he said.
Qureshi said the chemical shell attacks took place on Saturday but he did not know the number of casualties....
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Message: 6 Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 21:36:34 -0400
Subject: NucNews-3 6/15/99 - German - Energy, G7, Ukraine; Russia; US-DOE, Los Alamos
11. German energy producers urge broad reform deal
08:13 a.m. Jun 14, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???"
FRANKFURT, June 14 (Reuters) - Germany's electricity producers said on Monday any agreement with the government on plans to change the way the industry is taxed must come as part of a broader consensus agreement on energy industry reform.
With its planned nuclear phase-out, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Red-Green coalition government is aiming to change the way energy companies' accounting provisions are taxed.
``There will be no isolated agreement with the government on provisions if we don't know what is in the other components,'' Heinz Klinger, president of the association of German electricity producers (VDEW), told a news conference.
The industry, which has already stalled the government's reform plans by threatening to move business abroad, also wanted to hammer out an agreement on how long Germany's 19 nuclear reactors could remain operational and on the reprocessing of nuclear waste, he said.
In the past, the energy producers have earned interest on the provisions they have made for the closure of nuclear power plants, which the government regards as income.
Klinger said nuclear energy producers had not yet reached agreement with the government on the size of the tax burden.
``To my knowledge there is no agreement with the government on the size of the (tax on) provisions,'' he said.
Der Spiegel magazine reported this month that the nuclear power producers had agreed to pay tax on the provisions amounting to 16.7 billion marks over the next 10 years.
Consensus talks between the government and the nuclear power producers were broken off in March amid disagreement over the size of the tax burden on provisions.
((Frankfurt Newsroom +49 69 756525, frankfurt.newsroom+reuters.com))
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12. Germany holds the annually rotating presidency of the G7
05:39 a.m. Jun 15, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???"
Germany holds the annually rotating presidency of the G7 and aimed to remove a passage from the annual economic summit's planned final communique which had been expected to confirm the credits to Kiev, the sources said.
Instead, Schroeder and the two most senior Greens in his cabinet, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and Environment Minister Juergen Trittin, would seek an alternative solution to Ukraine's energy problems during a long-planned visit to Kiev on July 6 and 7, they added.
Trittin, who has led government attempts to make good on Greens election pledges to phase out nuclear power in Germany within a generation, has said that Ukraine should build non-nuclear power stations instead of reactors.
One of Chernobyl's reactors blew up in 1986, contaminating much of Europe with radioactive fallout and leaving Ukraine short of generating capacity -- a problem that became acute when it broke with gas- and oil rich Russia as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Ukrainian leaders say that without foreign credits they will have no option but to keep Chernobyl open.
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OUTLOOK-World Business G7 FUNDING FOR UKRAINE NUCLEAR REACTORS
News at 0730 GMT, June 15 03:37 a.m. Jun 15, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???"
BONN - Parliamentary environment committee meets (started 0600) to discuss German participation in financing two new nuclear reactors for Ukraine as part of Group of Seven (G7) plan to help shut down disaster-hit Chernobyl plant. Anti-nuclear Greens, hold news conference at 0800.
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13. German govt seeks duck Ukraine G7 atom row -sources
05:28 a.m. Jun 15, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???"
BONN, June 15 (Reuters) - The German government, facing a revolt by its Green coalition partners, wants to stall a decision on giving Ukraine credits to build new nuclear reactors at this weekend's Group of Seven summit in Cologne, German government sources said on Tuesday.
The G7 had been expected to confirm the credit under a 1995 deal under which Kiev would receive $1.2 billion to build two reactors to replace the disaster-hit Chernobyl plant. But the anti-nuclear Greens and some of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats have said Germany should not contribute.
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FOCUS-Germany to challenge G7 Ukraine reactor plan 06:34 a.m. Jun 15, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???"
BONN, June 15 (Reuters) - The German government, facing a revolt by its anti-nuclear Green coalition partners, wants to slam the brakes on the West's plans to help Ukraine shut down Chernobyl by blocking credits for new atomic reactors.
Government sources said on Tuesday Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder would try to stall a decision on the $1.2 billion credit, which had been expected when he hosts this weekend's summit of the Group of Seven rich industrial nations in Cologne.
The German parliament's environment committee voted on Tuesday to back a motion put by members of Schroeder's Social Democrats and the Greens -- who have ruled in coalition since last September -- that Germany should block the nuclear credits and offer Ukraine funds only for non-atomic power stations.
Environment Minister Juergen Trittin, a Green, told the committee the two new reactors planned at Rivne and Khmelnitsky to replace capacity lost when the remaining reactor at the disaster-hit Chernobyl plant was eventually shut down might not be safe. He said German officials were discussing with Kiev whether gas-fired generators would be a better option.
A number of Social Democrats have also said they oppose funding new reactors abroad when the new German government is trying to make good on Green election pledges to phase out atomic power in Germany over the coming generation.
The previous, conservative, German government under Chancellor Helmut Kohl had backed a 1995 Group of Seven scheme under which Ukraine was expecting to have the credit confirmed at the Cologne summit.
But Schroeder's cabinet put off a decision last week on approving Germany's share of the cost and would now postpone the decision again at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, sources said.
Schroeder and the two most senior Greens in his cabinet, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and Trittin, would seek an alternative solution to Ukraine's energy problems during a long-planned visit to Kiev on July 6 and 7, they added.
One of Chernobyl's reactors blew up in 1986, contaminating much of Europe with radioactive fallout and leaving Ukraine short of generating capacity -- a problem that became acute when it broke with gas- and oil-rich Russia as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Ukrainian leaders say that without foreign credits they will have no option but to keep Chernobyl open.
Germany, a near neighbour, was badly hit by the Chernobyl fallout and the accident hardened attitudes against nuclear power and gave the Greens a major boost in the polls.
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14. Russians stir fear of nuclear instability
By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES http://www.washtimes.com/news/news3.html
The surprise deployment of Russian troops to Kosovo raises new worries about Russia's control over its military and its thousands of strategic nuclear warheads.
"The Russians are making mischief again," said a senior national security official. "Either this is a covert operation by the Russians, or the civilian leadership can't control the military. Neither one of those is good for the West."
Pentagon officials said the pro-Serbian Russians have complicated the peace deal in a major way. For example, they said if the Serbs were to refuse to pull out their troops from Kosovo on schedule, resuming the NATO bombing with even a small Russian presence in the province would not be possible.
Pentagon officials explain privately that, adding to concern about tension within Russia's military and control over the nuclear arsenal, is confusion over who is calling the shots in Kosovo, the military in Russia or Russian President Boris Yeltsin and his advisers.
A U.S. intelligence official familiar with the standoff over the Russians in Kosovo said yesterday there are no signs Russian nuclear forces went on a high-alert status -- a move that would have signaled heightened tensions with the West. Still, disarray in Russia's armed forces has weakened the command-and-control structure of the military, making it balky, intelligence officials and reports indicate.
For example, the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London reports the Russian Army is struggling with a lack of funds that has resulted in manpower shortages.
The funding cutbacks result from pressure by the International Monetary Fund on Moscow to reduce spending. "The Russian government faces many competing claims for funds as social tensions increase in Russia," the institute said in its latest report on the Military Balance.
Reports from Russia indicate military units have been forced to sell off weapons and equipment to earn cash. Even food is in short supply. A Russian military officer asked the Pentagon last year to supply the armed forces with military field rations because of food shortages among the troops, which often are not paid for months at a time.
Military preparedness is also declining sharply because of a lack of money for operations and maintenance and the failure to replace old equipment. And as a further result of funding shortfalls, the military has combined some elements and discharged several hundred thousand people.
A 1996 CIA report that looked at the unauthorized use of nuclear weapons by the Russian strategic forces stated that the military is "demoralized and corrupted." It raised the prospect that civilian leaders could lose control of the nuclear arsenal to the military, which continues to view the United States as its "main enemy."
The weakness of Russia's conventional forces was exposed in December 1995, during a large-scale military operation against rebels in Chechnya. Then the Russians were almost routed before calling in air power and conducting intense bombing raids.
Then too, a separate U.S. intelligence report about a Russian military exercise in Europe revealed that Moscow quickly escalated to the use of battlefield nuclear weapons during a war game because of the poor state of its conventional forces.
Still another intelligence report stated that Russian leaders questioned whether there are adequate controls on the nuclear arsenal and said that, in one case, a computer glitch caused nuclear missile crews to go on higher-than-normal alert.
Clinton administration officials have sought to play down the dangers with the Russian nuclear arsenal. They insist Moscow retains control over the thousands of strategic nuclear missiles, bombers and submarines.
But there have been other signs reported in intelligence channels over the past two months, showing that Russia's military is adopting a new hard line against the West because of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
Army Brig. Gen. Keith Dayton, the U.S. defense attache in Moscow, cabled to the Pentagon several weeks ago that Russia sharply curtailed contacts with Western military in what he called a "return to the Cold War."
Yet Russia's rush to deploy troops in Kosovo ahead of NATO's forces and in violation of a promise not to do so has mainly left intelligence analysts scratching their heads.
"It still remains pretty unclear what their motivation is," said one official, who speculated that the confusion is a worrisome sign of political instability. The most benign explanation for Russia's duplicity in Kosovo is that the Foreign Ministry was kept in the dark by Mr. Yeltsin, who secretly approved dispatch of the 200 Russians from neighboring Bosnia to Pristina.
Some intelligence analysts suggest that Russia, which helped in getting the Serbs to agree to a peace settlement, was angered by being cut out of a major role in the final peace implementation force. The troops may have been deployed as a sign of Russian government displeasure.
As analysts see it, a worst-case scenario is that Moscow planned all along to upset NATO's peacekeeping operation by sending the troops and intentionally to mislead U.S. leaders and the world as part of the plan.
At any rate, NATO military leaders are adamant that the problem of the Russians in Kosovo is a "political" matter to be resolved by diplomats. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright said on Sunday the issue was being discussed by military officials.
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15. Panel Urges Some Autonomy for Nuclear Weapons Program
By Walter Pincus, Washington Post, June 15, 1999; Page A02 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-06/15/101l-061599-idx.html
A special panel of President Clinton's intelligence advisers yesterday recommended making the Energy Department's nuclear weapons functions semi-autonomous inside the department or splitting them off into an independent agency reporting directly to the White House.
A similar recommendation has been under study for weeks on Capitol Hill as an outgrowth of allegations of Chinese espionage at the nation's nuclear weapons laboratories, which are part of the Energy Department. As late as last week, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson told Congress he would oppose setting up what he called "a fiefdom within a fiefdom." Faced with a recommendation from Clinton's own advisers, Richardson said yesterday: "I still do not believe that creating a separate agency will do the trick, but nonetheless we will carefully study the proposal."
Clinton said in a statement that he too will "carefully review" the new recommendation and reaffirmed that he remains "committed to taking the necessary steps to safeguard our nation's secrets."
Former senator Warren Rudman (R-N.H.), chairman of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and head of the four-person investigative panel, told Clinton in a 45-minute briefing that layers of bureaucracy at the Energy Department for 20 years have blurred accountability and led to lax security within the nuclear weapons complex, according to a senior White House official.
Rudman, the White House official said, told Clinton that a presidential decision directive signed in 1998 was "the first really serious effort" to tighten security at the department, but that in the wake of espionage charges, it was "late in coming." Rudman surprised the president by saying that "people [at the Energy Department] were still trying to keep it from being implemented," the official said.
"The Department of Energy is a dysfunctional bureaucracy that has proven it is incapable of reforming itself," the panel's report concluded.
As a result, Rudman's panel said shaving the nuclear weapons program out of the department altogether should be considered. Or, it suggested, "The weapons research and stockpile management functions should be placed wholly within a new semi-autonomous agency within [the department] that has a clear mission, streamlined bureaucracy and drastically simplified lines of authority and accountability."
The report praised Energy Department whistleblower Notra Trulock and the House select committee chaired by Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.), which brought forward the espionage allegations, for what the panel called "invaluable" work focusing public and political attention on the deparment's security problems. But it also sharply criticized Trulock and Cox for drawing worst-case conclusions from indications of what may have occurred at the nuclear laboratories.
"Damaging new information," the report said, was undermined by "innuendo; possible damage has been minted as probable disaster; workaday delay and bureaucratic confusion have been cast as diabolical conspiracies."
"Enough is enough," the report concluded.
The panel also criticized the Energy Department and the FBI for narrowing the investigation of possible stealing of data on seven U.S. nuclear warheads, citing a classified Chinese report obtained by CIA in 1995 that contained "highly sensitive . . . descriptions, in varying degrees of specificity, of technical characteristics" on the warheads.
The one investigation run by the FBI "focused on only one warhead, the W-88, only one category of potential sources--bomb designers at the national labs--and on only a four-year window of opportunity." Instead, the panel called for a more vigorous and full inquiry "regardless of the conclusions that may result."
The panel noted the wide range of analysis on Capitol Hill and elsewhere on what benefit the Chinese nuclear program may have gained from information allegedly stolen from the United States. "On one end of the spectrum is the view that the Chinese have acquired very little classified information and can do little with it," the report noted. "On the other end is the view that the Chinese have nearly duplicated the W-88 warhead," it said in a reference to the Cox committee's view.
"None of these extreme views holds water," the panel concluded, supporting the findings of U.S. intelligence agencies in April 1999 that concluded China's technical advances could have come not just from espionage but from a wide range of other unclassified sources and "the relative contribution of each cannot be determined."
But whether or not current Chinese nuclear development benefited from espionage, the panel found the Energy Department's "organizational disarray, managerial neglect, and a culture of arrogance . . . conspired to create an espionage scandal waiting to happen."
Among the new areas it cited was the inadequate screening of new personnel and the reinvestigation of longtime employees. "Problems with personnel security clearances, while mitigated in some aspects, have persisted to an alarming degree," the panel said.
Other members of Rudman's panel, who also are members of the president's foreign intelligence board, were Ann Z. Caracristi, former deputy director of the National Security Agency, the nation's electronic intelligence arm; Sindey D. Drell, a renowned physicist, consultant to government and congressional committees and chairman of a University of California panel that helps manage the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories; and Stephen Friedman, former chairman of Goldman, Sachs & Co., the New York investment banking firm.
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16. Los Alamos, birthplace of bomb, in new scandal
12:49 p.m. Jun 14, 1999 Eastern By Tabassum Zakaria http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???"
LOS ALAMOS, N.M., June 14 (Reuters) -- High on a plateau in the Jemez mountains, where the air is thin, the sun is strong and the quiet is deafening, sits the Los Alamos National Laboratory, birthplace of the atomic bomb and now at the centre of an explosive political scandal.
The lab was embroiled in a spying scandal at its inception, when a scientist passed atomic secrets to the Soviet Union during World War Two. In the recent case the players and country are different, but espionage allegations are similar -- that a scientist at the lab passed nuclear secrets to China.
Some of the government's most secret nuclear weapons research has been conducted within its 43 square miles (112 square km). But its role of developing nuclear weapons changed this decade when the United States stopped nuclear testing, and now the lab's main charge is to ensure the nuclear weapon stockpile stays in working order.
It has a history of discovery, including finding water on the moon, developing an engine with no moving parts and mapping human chromosome 16.
Not everything is classified, such as experiments using one of the world's strongest magnets, done only at night because the building must be evacuated for safety reasons.
But it is not the science that caught worldwide attention this year. Rather, a cloud of notoriety descended on the lab after scientist Wen Ho Lee was fired in March under suspicion of passing secrets to China. He has not been charged with any crime and China has vehemently denied it stole U.S. secrets.
While politicians stoke the fires of controversy over the alleged spying, lab officials offered a more tempered view.
Terry Hawkins, nonproliferation and international security division director, disagreed with the assumption that Los Alamos was the ``unique source'' of information obtained by China on the W-88 nuclear warhead designed at the lab.
``The information that was allegedly leaked could have come from at least 500 different locations throughout the United States,'' he said.
The laboratory's recent history has been ``remarkably free of espionage,'' Hawkins said. ``If you look at the number of laboratory employees who were convicted of espionage, I can only think of one,'' he said referring to Peter Lee.
Peter Lee, a scientist at both Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore laboratory in California, was convicted in 1997 of passing classified information to China.
A congressional report last month said China stole secrets on seven U.S. nuclear warheads and the neutron bomb in 20 years of concerted espionage at U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories.
Los Alamos could not look more different than Washington where the lab's future can be changed through legislation.
Dress is casual with shorts, T-shirts and sandals the norm. Backpacks and beards are more common than the briefcase and the clean-cut faces of the nation's capital.
But the surface college atmosphere evaporates with details like the black, rectangular badge with two silver eyes, called a dosimeter, worn to measure radiation exposure and the silver razor wire curled on top of fences guarding secure areas.
Ethnic diversity is prominent as the lab population wanders amid sand- and salmon-coloured buildings that in some areas look like a haphazard trailer park and in others like warehouses.
``It's the most international small town in the world,'' said Geoff Reeves, a physicist in space sciences.
In the beginning, a group of scientists led by Robert Oppenheimer took over an exclusive boys' school with the secret mission of building a bomb to end World War Two. It became known as the ``Manhattan Project.''
On April 1, 1943, the experiments started. Two years later, on July 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb was exploded in the Trinity Test, 200 miles (320 km) south of the lab. Then in early August, bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. The war ended and the Atomic Age had begun.
The lab's early history was also clouded by espionage. Klaus Fuchs, a physicist on the British team involved in the Manhattan Project that created the atomic bomb, confessed in 1950 to having given secrets to the Soviet Union.
``There's been spying since Cleopatra,'' said Garry Franklin, who works at the Bradbury Science Museum in the town of Los Alamos. ``That's just the nature of the political beast.''
The lab, operated by the University of California for the U.S. Energy Department, is adjusting to the shift in its role from developing new nuclear weapons to maintaining the ones it designed in previous years and ensuring they are at the ready.
Scientists said the mission is actually more difficult than when nuclear weapons were being built and tested.
``You now no longer can turn the key to see if it runs,'' John McAfee, a group leader in explosives research, said using an automobile analogy. ``We now have to say OK we've done all this stuff, here it is, we believe it will start.''
Without the ability to test the weapons as a whole -- the youngest built in the early 1990s and the oldest about 30 years ago -- scientists rely on computer simulations and experiments on nonnuclear parts to determine the effects of ageing and how to counter them.
``We have been given a job that in my mind is much more difficult than the original job of building it and making it work,'' McAfee said.
About 20 square miles (52 square kms), nearly half of the lab area, is devoted to explosives research. ``We literally go out and blow stuff up,'' McAfee said.
Sirens sound a five-minute warning to signal an explosives experiment is at hand. But for the scientists, that siren signals the moment of truth after months of research on an experiment that will now either succeed or fail. ``That's the most difficult five minutes of my life,'' McAfee said.
The data can be run through one of the fastest supercomputers in the world, ``Blue Mountain,'' which occupies a room that is 12,000 square feet (1,080 square metres) and can run 3 trillion calculations per second.
The computer must become even faster in the future with the goal of running 100 trillion operations per second by 2004, said John Morrison, deputy leader for strategic computing. ``That is the power we think we need to model nuclear weapons to assure policymakers that the nuclear stockpile is safe and performs as designed,'' he said.
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Message: 7 Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 20:53:15 -0400
Subject: NucNews-1 6/15/99 - Depleted Uranium-NATO; Rand Corp.
Photo of the month: http://www.humboldt1.com/~lunanews/jbphoto.jpg
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[For fellow depleted uranium researchers....]
1. Depleted Uranium, NATO Press Conference, May 14, 1999
given by NATO Spokesman, Jamie Shea and SHAPE Spokesman, Major General Walter Jertz
http://www.nato.int/kosovo/press/p990514b.htm
... Question: Since NATO appears to be using depleted uranium munitions in Serbia, are there any plans, once the war is over, to have any kind of clean-up given the reputation which these munitions have got in Iraq?
Major General Jertz : Let me say first that we have not used depleted uranium in the last few weeks because those uranium munitions are only used against targets which are targets where they can do a special effect on them and that is why only in rare cases they will be used at all.
Question: Are there any plans for cleaning up? There have been some depleted uranium munitions used I believe in Serbia, are there any plans for cleaning up afterwards because of the dangers of cancers which appear to be there in Iraq when the Allies used them in 1991?
Major General Jertz : You find depleted uranium in all natural things, which are in rocks, soil, everywhere, so don't over-emphasise what you just said. On the plans, like all the other plans, we do have plans of course to help those people to go back again safely in their homes, but I will not elaborate on the plans in detail.....
Margaret: General, going back to the depleted uranium, some of your predecessors have sworn up and down to my news organisation in any case that this is not something that is being used, it is in the arsenal weapons with depleted uranium. You say it hasn't been used in the last few weeks. Are you now confirming that it actually has been used and can you tell us how widely and when?
Major General Jertz : As far as I am informed - but thank you very much for giving me a break that I obviously am not the first speaker.......to confirm did we have it before I did it..yes we did...so I was right when I answered the question that it was used in the past but once again it was used only in rare cases and only against targets where we thought it would have the most effect but once again this ammunition is not obviously what everybody thinks it is. It is not uranium like a radiation weapon and you find it everywhere, in the ....., I already mentioned in soil, rocks and so on.
Jamie Shea: There have also, by the way, been extensive studies into this, one very thorough one by the Rand Corporation in California, which showed that it does not have environmental aspects or health hazards....
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2. June 14, 1999 Search of http://www.rand.org/search-form.html for "depleted uranium":
Health Effects http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.7/MR1018.7.html/mr1018.7.chap2.html
References http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.7/MR1018.7.html/mr1018.7.refs.html
Introduction http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.7/MR1018.7.html/mr1018.7.chap1.html
A Review of the Scientific Literature As It Pertains to Gulf War Illnesses http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.7/MR1018.7.html/mr1018.7.sum.html
Concluding Remarks and Future Research http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.7/MR1018.7.html/mr1018.7.chap3.html
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Controlling the Flow of Weapon Usable Fissile Materials http://www.rand.org/publications/RB/RB7405/index.html
Since 1991, the world has worried that fissile materials from dismantled nuclear warheads will fall into the wrong hands. Although fears that military leftovers might be diverted and refashioned into nuclear weapons are well justified, little attention has been focused on a possibly more serious threat: the spread of weapon-usable plutonium separated from the spent fuel of civilian nuclear reactors. In Limiting the Spread of Weapon-Usable Fissile Materials, authors Brian G. Chow and Kenneth A. Solomon take an expansive view of the proliferation threat. They recommend a bold course of action for controlling the flow of weapon-usable fissile materials[1] from both civilian and military sources. It involves the world's undertaking a four-point plan to make civilian nuclear power more proliferation-resistant the United States and its wealthier allies' buying up and removing weapon-grade plutonium and blended-down uranium from the former Soviet republics.
The Scope of the Problem
Chow and Solomon estimate that by the year 2003, 200 metric tons of weapon-grade plutonium and another 330 metric tons of reactor-grade plutonium will be recovered from spent fuel. This means that there will be enough weapon-grade plutonium from dismantled nuclear weapons to make 40,000 primitive bombs and enough reactor-grade plutonium from spent fuel to make another 47,000 bombs (see figure). By 2003, 1,000 metric tons of highly enriched uranium will be recovered from dismantled weapons--enough to make 65,000 bombs.
Number of primitive nuclear bombs that can be made from separated plutonium
In addition to the rapid accumulation of weapon-usable materials, the presence of sensitive nuclear facilities[2] throughout the world is a problem. Such facilities are a threat because they can produce weapon-usable materials. Any country that can obtain 15 kilograms of highly enriched uranium, 5 kilograms of weapon-grade plutonium, or 7 kilograms of reactor-grade plutonium from a sensitive nuclear facility can build a bomb in a few days or weeks. No safeguard scheme, including that of the International Atomic Energy Agency, can protect the world if such sensitive materials and facilities are widely available.
Making Nuclear Power More Proliferation-Resistant
To build a more proliferation-resistant future for civilian nuclear power worldwide would require that the use of plutonium as fuel be postponed indefinitely because it creates no economic benefits but much proliferation risk. More specifically, the following four-point plan should be enacted:
Terminate or drastically reduce both military and civilian plutonium activities worldwide.
Prolong the world's reliance on existing nuclear reactors that operate in the once-through mode. Doing so entails improving reactor efficiency and identifying additional uranium resources. Encourage the development of advanced nuclear reactors[3] that will be even more efficient and proliferation-resistant than current reactors. Confine, to the extent possible, sensitive nuclear materials and facilities within the five declared nuclear weapon states while agreeing to share the benefits of sensitive nuclear activities, if any, with non-nuclear weapon states.
This four-point program will enable countries to use nuclear energy peacefully, well into the future, with far less risk of nuclear proliferation.
We'll Buy It!
Economic hardship and political instability in the former Soviet republics make especially high the risk that their weapon-usable materials will be diverted to despotic national or subnational groups, or will be refashioned into bombs if Russia or other republics revert to tyranny. Buying and removing weapon-usable materials from the former Soviet republics eliminate this danger.
The United States has already committed $12 billion to purchasing blended-down uranium from Russia.[4] Blending highly enriched uranium with natural or depleted uranium produces low-enriched uranium--an economical reactor fuel that is not suitable for weapons. The United States made this commitment to buy, expecting to recover the full amount through resale to domestic and foreign utilities.
However, Chow and Solomon predict that the United States will lose money on the transaction. Furthermore, $12 billion is not enough to buy and remove all the surplus highly enriched uranium from the former Soviet republics. Additional purchases will be required. The United States should encourage France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and others to repurchase blended-down uranium from the United States or to buy such uranium directly from the former Soviet republics. In this manner, U.S. allies can share the financial burden of the transaction and participate in reducing nuclear danger.
Because weapon-grade plutonium is difficult to render unusable for weapons, it poses a hazard if it remains in Russia and the political situation there takes a turn for the worse. And because weapon-grade plutonium is uneconomical to use in commercial nuclear power plants and is costly to store, it has very little value for Russia. Therefore, the United States, alone or with help from France and the United Kingdom, should encourage Russia to sell its surplus weapon-grade plutonium by offering $1 billion. Then the United States can remove the plutonium from Russia for safekeeping or disposal.
[1]Weapon-usable fissile materials are defined as uranium with a fissile isotopic content of 20 percent or more and plutonium of any isotopic composition. Weapon-usable plutonium includes plutonium separated from the spent fuel of commercial reactors (reactor-grade plutonium) and plutonium recovered from dismantled nuclear weapons (weapon-grade plutonium). Plutonium that is still embedded in the intensely radioactive spent fuel of commercial reactors is not considered weapon-usable.
[2]Sensitive nuclear facilities can produce, separate, or handle weapon-usable fissile materials. They include plutonium-reprocessing and -fabrication plants, plutonium-fueled reactors, and some uranium-enrichment plants. A typical commercial reactor is not a sensitive nuclear facility because it does not use weapon-usable materials in its fuel and its produced plutonium is still embedded in intensely radioactive spent fuel. It operates in the once-through mode, meaning that the plutonium and uranium in the spent fuel are not reused.
[3]These advanced reactors do not have to be breeders; highly efficient converters will do. Both uranium- and thorium-based cycles should be considered.
[4]Russia is expected to share the proceeds of this sale with Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus, which have agreed to turn nuclear warheads stationed in their territories over to Russia.
RAND research briefs summarize research that has been more fully documented elsewhere. This research brief describes work done in the National Defense Research Institute and documented in MR-346-USDP; MR-346-USDP, Limiting the Spread of Weapon-Usable Fissile Materials, by Brian G. Chow and Kenneth A. Solomon, 102 pp., $15.00, which is available from RAND Distribution Services, Telephone: 310-451-7002; FAX: 310-451-6915; or Internet: order@rand.org. RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve public policy through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of its research sponsors. RB-7405
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DOCNO: MR-346-USDP PAGES: xxviii, 102, DATE: 1993 TITLE: Limiting the Spread of Weapon-Usable Fissile Materials. AUTH: B.G. Chow, K.A. Solomon COST: 15.00 ISBN: 0833014684 KEYS: Radioactive substances--Government policy; Nuclear nonproliferation; Nuclear weapons--Inventory control
NOTE: RAND/DRR-377-USDP; RAND/RB-7405
ABST: This report analyzes the danger and economics of weapon-usable fissile materials from both dismantled nuclear weapons and nuclear-plant spent fuel. It found that there will be more weapon-usable plutonium from spent fuel by the year 2003 than from dismantled nuclear weapons. Another problem is the existence of commercial gas centrifuge and other sensitive enrichment plants in nonnuclear weapon states. The study estimates that thermal recycle is uneconomical until the uranium-bearing yellowcake price rises to $50 to $100/lb U3o8 or 30 to 50 years from now. The corresponding numbers for fast reactors are $140 to $220/lb U3o8 or 50 to 100 years from now. The study recommends the U.S. i) try to initiate a 4-element international program for managing dangerous nuclear technologies in the civilian nuclear fuel cycles worldwide, ii) to ask other countries' help for the purchase of highly enriched uranium from former Soviet republics (FSRs), to purchase FSRs' weapon-grade plutonium. --- Glossary http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.7/MR1018.7.html/mr1018.7.gloss.html
A Review of the Scientific Literature As It Pertains to Gulf War Illnesses http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.7/MR1018.7.html/mr1018.7.figs.html
A Review of the Scientific Literature As It Pertains to Gulf War Illnesses http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.7/MR1018.7.html/mr1018.7.tabs.html
News Release April 15 1999 http://www.rand.org/hot/Press/gulfwar.4.15.html
New Gulf War Studies http://www.rand.org/organization/health/gulf.html
PREFACE http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018-6/MR1018-6/MR1018.pref.html
Oil Well Fires http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018-6/index.html
A Review of the Scientific Literature As It Pertains to Gulf War Illnesses Volume4 Stress http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.4/MR1018.4.chap1.html
A Review of the Scientific Literature As It Pertains to Gulf War Illnesses http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.7/MR1018.7.html/mr1018.7.pref.html
A Review of the Scientific Literature As It Pertains to Gulf War Illnesses Volume4 Stress http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.4/MR1018.4.sum.html
A Review of the Scientific Literature As It Pertains to Gulf War Illnesses Volume4 Stress http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.4/MR1018.4.pref.html
1999 Press Releases http://www.rand.org/hot/Press/index.html
Military Use of Drugs Not Yet Approved by the FDA for CW BW Defense http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.9/MR1018.9.html/MR1018.9.Featured /index.html
PREFACE http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.9/MR1018.9.html/MR1018.9.pref.html
Military Use of Drugs Not Yet Approved by the FDA for CW BW Defense http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.9/index.html
A Review of the Scientific Literature As It Pertains to Gulf War Illnesses Volume4 Stress http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.4/MR1018.4.chap5.html
Online RAND Publications http://www.rand.org/publications/electronic/index.html
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RAND RELEASES TWO MORE STUDIES IN GULF WAR ILLNESS SERIES TOPICS INCLUDE DEPLETED URANIUM, MILITARY USE OF UNAPPROVED DRUGS
WASHINGTON, D.C. April 15 RAND today is releasing two additional studies in a series of in-depth analyses of issues that might have affected the health of Gulf War veterans. One of the papers summarizes the scientific literature on the health effects of depleted uranium. The other reports on the military's use of investigational drugs to protect troops against possible chemical and biological attacks.
Last November, RAND released a literature review on the health effects of oil well fires during the Gulf War. Other reviews dealing with chemical and biological weapons, pesticides, pridostigmine bromide, immunizations, infectious diseases, and stress will be released over the next year. The series was commissioned by the Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense for Gulf War Illnesses in response to veterans' concerns about establishing the causes of their health problems.
Depleted uranium (DU) is used in armor and antiarmor rounds to increase their penetrating power. Exposure to the material raises potential health issues concerning both chemical toxicity and radiation. The study found little documented evidence of adverse effects related to DU on either score, however. Authors of this report included nationally recognized authorities on health physics and heavy metal toxicology in addition to RAND staff.
In Military Use of Drugs Not Yet Approved by the FDA for CW/BW Defense, Richard A. Rettig reviews the Gulf War-era deliberations between the FDA and Defense Department concerning procedures for the emergency use of investigational drugs such as pyridostigmine bromide (PB) and botulinum toxoid vaccine (BT). Rettig's paper does not investigate the question of whether PB or BT may have caused illnesses among Gulf War vets, but later reports will deal with this issue.
Copies of the papers will be posted on the RAND web site (http://www.rand.org/publications/electronic/#new) and on the DoD website (http://www.gulflink.osd.mil). For print copies contact project leader Ross Anthony (202-296-5000 ext.5265) or RAND's Public Information Office (310-451-6913).
RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis.
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RAND RELEASES STUDY ON STRESS REPORT IS LATEST IN GULF WAR ILLNESS SERIES
News Release May 19 1999 http://www.rand.org/hot/Press/stress.5.19.html
WASHINGTON, D.C. May 19 - RAND today is releasing an additional study in a series of in-depth analyses of issues that might have affected the health of Gulf War veterans. This paper summarizes the scientific literature on the health effects of stress.
RAND has already released literature reviews on the health effects of oil well fires and depleted uranium during the Gulf War. Other reviews--dealing with chemical and biological weapons, pesticides, pridostigmine bromide, immunizations, and infectious diseases--will be released over the next year. The series was commissioned by the Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense for Gulf War Illnesses in response to veterans' concerns about establishing the causes of their health problems.
The new report evaluates the available scientific evidence concerning the link between stress and health problems and the role of stress in the health problems experienced by Gulf War veterans. "Although these studies generally show that persons who went to the Gulf report more health problems than those who did not, they do not clarify whether these differences result from stress, other possible exposures, or preexisting conditions," the report states. As a result, it continues, it is "inappropriate" either to rely upon stress exposure to explain the myriad health problems reported by Gulf War veterans or to assume that stress played no role.
Copies of the paper will be posted on the RAND website - http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.4 - and on the DoD website - http://www.gulflink.osd.mil. For print copies, contact RAND Publications (310-451-7002) or RAND's Public Information Office (310-451-6913).
RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis.