More nuclear waste to be shipped out of Idaho
About 15,000 barrels must go before end of year 2002
Spokane Net, August 17, 1999
http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=081799&ID=s622588&cat=
BOISE -- Kempthorne administration optimism over the federal government's commitment to removing nuclear waste from Idaho paid off on Monday when the Energy Department said a second load of waste will leave the state next week.
"We're seeing the Department of Energy make good on its commitment to the state of Idaho, and I'm committed to seeing additional shipments in the very new future," Gov. Dirk Kempthorne said in a statement.
The governor interrupted a vacation to announce that 28 more barrels of plutonium-contaminated waste will leave the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory next Monday for the government's permanent dump in New Mexico.
"This now must become a frequent activity," the governor said.
The announcement follows the INEEL's apparent correction of some 21 deficiencies in the way it documents the contents of the drums destined for the $2 billion Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad. The federal audit findings prompted temporary loss of INEEL's certification to ship material to New Mexico.
Those problems -- none considered to have compromised the safety of the first shipment in April -- raised questions about whether current waste shipments from Idaho contain radioactive-only material. The state of New Mexico is still assessing the ability of the underground facility to accept radioactive waste that is also tainted by other contaminants.
State officials believe there may be as many as 900 more barrels of radioactive-only waste to be shipped from INEEL, and the New Mexico permit for the other waste is expected before year's end.
Shipments to the New Mexico dump from all sites in the nation have also been slowed by a lack of TRUPACT containers that each hold 14 55-gallon drums of waste.
The Energy Department has been operating with only 15 of the shipping casks. But last month it sought bids on the manufacture of 70 more over the next five years. There would be 12 in the first order.
Under Idaho's unprecedented 1995 nuclear waste agreement with the federal government, the Energy Department must ship what amounts to 15,000 drums of plutonium-contaminated waste out of Idaho by the end of 2002.
All 315,000 barrels of that waste must be removed by INEEL by 2019.
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Patton vows to ensure safety at Paducah plant
ASSOCIATED PRESS Published Wednesday, August 18, 1999, in the
Lexington Herald-Leader
http://www.kentuckyconnect.com/heraldleader/news/081899/statedocs/18paducah.htm
PADUCAH -- Gov. Paul Patton said yesterday his administration will do all it can to further ensure the safety of the workers and neighbors of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
Meanwhile, an official with the U.S. Department of Energy vowed that his agency ``will leave no stone unturned'' during its investigation into health, safety and environmental issues at the uranium-enrichment plant.
Patton and a busload of other state, federal and plant officials toured the plant yesterday.
The governor's visit and the DOE investigation follow the recent revelation of a federal whistle-blower lawsuit. Sealed documents in the suit allege that plant workers were unknowingly exposed to plutonium, a highly radioactive element, for 23 years.
The Energy Department has said that 100,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel recycled at the plant from 1953 to about 1975 contained trace amounts of plutonium.
In addition to the DOE investigation, Patton has appointed a team of top state officials to look into the allegations and to address health, safety and environmental concerns at the plant
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CNN - Tape wrap caused $250M U.S. launch failure
August 18, 1999, 17:15 EST Turner Broadcasting - Atlanta GA
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9908/18/arms.usa.satellite.reut/index.html
Image http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9908/18/arms.usa.satellite.reut/story.titan.iv.launch.jpg
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A faulty electric connection caused the April 9 failure of a Titan-IV space rocket launch to put a $250 million U.S. missile-warning satellite into proper orbit, the Air Force Space Command reported Tuesday.
The command said in a release from Colorado Springs, Colorado, that an electrical plug failed to release properly and that the final upper stage booster of the rocket did not separate adequately and put the satellite into the high orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to monitor missile launches on Earth.
The big Titan-IV is built by Lockheed Martin Corp., but a spokeswoman at command headquarters said responsibility for the failure rested with the Air Force, NASA and Boeing Co., which builds the initial upper stage booster for the rocket.
Air Force Capt. LeWonnie Belcher told Reuters that technicians who placed tape and thermal wrap on the plug between stages one and two of the final booster were not made aware of unique requirements for the plug.
The failure was one of a disturbing series of launch failures in U.S. military space operations earlier this year and prompted separate reviews by both the Air Force and Lockheed Martin.
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Seattle Times: Air Force blames rocket's failure on Boeing part
Posted at 06:50 a.m. PDT; Wednesday, August 18, 1999 by Bloomberg
News
http://www.seattletimes.com/news/business/html98/rock_19990818.html
WASHINGTON - A faulty electrical connector plug designed by Boeing caused a Lockheed Martin Titan IV-B rocket to put a $250 million missile-warning satellite into the wrong orbit April 9, the U.S. Air Force said.
The plug failed in part because of a 21-year-old design flaw that prevented it from disconnecting properly, triggering a costly sequence of events with Boeing's Inertial Upper Stage booster that led to the Defense Support Program satellite mishap.
This was the third of six rocket launch mishaps between August 1998 and May that caused the White House to order a review of space-launch issues. The April 9 mishap was the second failed Titan IV launch that month.
"This (connector design) oversight resulted in a potentially unforgiving design deficiency of the Inertial Upper Stage connector system," said the Air Force in a statement.
The Air Force said it hasn't decided what penalties, if any, to level. Lockheed, as prime contractor, stands to lose up to $135 million in short- and long-term performance payments. Boeing could lose up to $3 million.
Boeing hasn't thoroughly reviewed the report, said Anne Toulouse, a spokeswoman with Boeing Space & Communications. The company has launched an internal review of the Titan mishap and a Delta III failure. Former Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall heads the study.
Boeing already had made improvements to the upper stage before the Air Force review was completed, Toulouse said. Those improvements were incorporated into the upper-stage booster used in the last space-shuttle mission carrying the Chandra telescope, she said.
The Air Force is determining whether Lockheed and Boeing should be denied performance bonuses. Lockheed Martin is already awaiting an Air Force decision on how much bonus money it may lose following an April 30 Titan mishap caused by poor quality control.
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Who Protects the Whistle-Blower?
Tuesday, August 17, 1999; Page A14
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-08/17/015l-081799-idx.html
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has been in the news for placing a hold on Richard Holbrooke's nomination for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations because of the treatment a U.N. employee, Linda Shenwick, received as a result of her providing accurate information to Congress about corruption, mismanagement and waste in the world body ["Holbrooke Nomination Clears Hurdle," news story, Aug. 5]. Sen. Grassley acted correctly and used about the only resource available to a senator to get fair treatment for an employee whom I would classify as a "whistle-blower" in the most positive sense.
When I was in the Senate, I twice was a congressional representative to the General Assembly of the United Nations. Linda Shenwick, a U.N. staffer, was assigned to assist me -- and she had all the numbers on corruption in the United Nations.
Ms. Shenwick supplied me with reports on a number of almost unbelievable abuses going on in the U.N. bureaucracy. I am a supporter of the United Nations, but I began to make speeches on the Senate floor with some of this information, and I understand that Ms. Shenwick came under attack from her superiors for giving me some of these numbers -- although she probably was caught in a quandary, because I was officially a member of the U.N. staff.
Ms. Shenwick gave me statistical data that other senators and I used to illustrate that the original share of the U.S. contribution to the United Nations was 26 percent. However, if it had been readjusted as agreed, (Europe, the Middle East and Japan became more prosperous), our share today should be about 13 percent. The way the U.N. bureaucrats shuffle the numbers, we pay about 35 percent to 40 percent of real costs of the United Nations today. That fact -- plus the waste, fraud and inefficiency -- caused Sen. Nancy Kassebaum to lead an effort to delay some of the payments until that formula could be readjusted. I understand that Ms. Shenwick was disciplined for giving me that information.
It is my hope that Sen. Grassley's courageous action will cause Ambassador Holbrooke to be more sensitive to this issue. Sen. Grassley and Linda Shenwick should be lauded for helping the United Nations improve itself. As a result of their efforts, several TV news magazines and The Post have spotlighted the flagrant graft, corruption and waste that occur.
LARRY PRESSLER
Washington
The writer, a Republican, was a U.S. senator representing South Dakota from 1979 to 1997. In 1992-1993, he was the congressional representative to the United Nations General Assembly.
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[This looks like a job for Rosalie Bertell -- Write Washington Post letters to editor: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm]
Raising Fears of Gulf War Vets
Monday, August 16, 1999; Page A14
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-08/16/006l-081699-idx.html
It was disappointing to read the Aug. 3 news story "Lou Gehrig's [ALS] Disease Claims Gulf Veterans; 28 Cases Have Researchers Taking Closer Look." Specifically:
Researchers found 28 cases when they expected 27. It would be rather amazing if they found exactly 27 cases with 27 expected. Odds don't work that way, just as flipping a coin 10 times rarely gives you five heads and five tails.
We don't even know if 27 was the proper number to expect. The article states: "there are varying estimates of the disease's incidence in young age groups."
If this "excess" single case is worrisome, how about all those studies that show statistically significant decreases in rates of cancer and death among gulf vets? Is that evidence that exposure to something in the gulf is protective?
The article states: "There have been scattered reports during the last five years that an unusual number of Gulf War veterans are suffering from ALS." Translation: This is from the rumor mill. This is the same rumor mill that has vets with semen that burns flesh, that has a fifth of all gulf vets now deceased, that says that gulf vet cancer rates are several times higher than background and so on.
Ultimately, this story tells us nothing. Yet it will be the basis for many follow-up articles and much unnecessary fear among vets and their wives.
MICHAEL FUMENTO
Senior Fellow
Hudson Institute
Washington
The Hudson Institute is a nonpartisan, conservative think tank.
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Clinton Signs Military Construction Bill
Associated Press Wednesday, August 18, 1999; Page A07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-08/18/094l-081899-idx.html
With reservations about unnecessary spending and an admonition to Congress to speed up its work, President Clinton yesterday signed an $8.4 billion spending bill that underwrites new military construction.
Clinton said the Military Construction Appropriations Act pays for "the vast majority" of his requested military construction projects and housing program.
Although he signed the bill, Clinton criticized lawmakers for providing $93 million less than he requested for a chemical weapons decommissioning program and adding $301 million for 40 projects the Defense Department did not list as priorities.
Clinton made a similar complaint yesterday in signing a $4 billion bill funding flood control and other water projects. He said he is disappointed that Congress piled on new projects the Army Corps of Engineers cannot afford, especially since the Corps already has a $27 billion backlog in water resources projects.
The president noted that Congress has finished work on only two of the 13 appropriations bills it must complete by the end of September. Republican provisions in many of the remaining bills already have drawn veto threats.
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Defense Bill Offers Long-Awaited Relief to Some Retired Military Officers
By Mike Causey, Tuesday, August 17, 1999; Page B07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-08/17/088l-081799-idx.html
About 6,000 retired regular military officers working as civilian employees of the federal government are looking forward to a substantial pay upgrade Oct. 1. Generally, it would mean an additional $9,000 a year or more for the retirees. Many of them work for federal agencies in the Washington area.
The extra take-home pay is expected because of a rule change that would allow the workers to receive all their retired military pay as part of a pending repeal of the so-called dual compensation law. That law has long limited the amount of retired pay that regular (but not reserve) officers can receive while on the federal civilian payroll. The repeal, approved by Senate-House conferees on the defense authorization bill, is expected to be approved when Congress returns from its August recess. The change also would benefit thousands of retired regular officers who work for state or local governments or as public school teachers and who are subject to partial offsets of their retired pay.
Although the retired officers income would rise significantly, the increase isn't a pay raise. It is more a "restoration" of part of their retired pay--money they haven't seen since they traded in their military positions for civilian civil service jobs.
The adjustment would not be retroactive. And it is not related to the 4.8 percent military pay raise that goes into effect in January 2000, which also is part of the authorization bill.
The 4.8 percent military raise also may be extended to civilian federal workers, who are currently slated for a 4.4 percent raise. The larger raise and repeal of the dual compensation law would mean a double-barreled increase for the retired officers.
If Congress passes the authorization bill, as expected, the decades-old offset on retired regular officers pay would be eliminated. The law forces retired regular officers who take civilian government jobs to forfeit half of their retired pay on amounts above $10,450 a year. They lose that pay as long as they hold civilian government jobs.
Congress enacted the statute preventing double-dipping years ago. At the time, politicians felt (with some justification) that some high-ranking regular military officers were greasing the skids for themselves before they retired so they could slip in to high-paying government jobs--often in agencies or programs where they served as part of their military tour of duty.
Right or wrong, federal law also limited the combined retired military pay and civil service salary of all military retirees--enlisted, reserve and regular--to Level 5 of the civilian executive pay schedule. Currently, that is $110,700.
Over the years, many people have argued that it is unfair to restrict retired pay of only regular military officers. Retired reserve officers aren't hit by dual compensation provisions.
People who retire from other professions and take government jobs get to keep their pensions and their government paychecks without any offset. The fact that they didn't make a career in the military, or become an officer, works for them.
The Retired Officers Association spearheaded the decades-long fight to eliminate the dual compensation law. If the authorization bill is signed into law, as expected, repeal of the dual compensation law would be effective Oct. 1.
Defense Buyouts
The defense authorization bill would extend the Defense Department's buyout authority from Sept. 30, 2001, to Sept. 30, 2003. Defense needs the extra time because it wants to to avoid layoffs while it downsizes and contracts out more work to the private sector.
Executive Thinking
The government's 6,800 senior executives soon will be getting a detailed questionnaire asking them to rate their jobs, agency mission, funding and customer service. A private contractor will assemble the survey results for the Office of Personnel Management and the Senior Executives Association.
Although respondents are asked to provide data on the age, ethnicity, education, salary, length of service and agency, OPM says no effort will be made to identify individuals. The survey also will ask the executives how they feel about compensation and benefits, about their willingness to relocate and when they will be eligible to retire.
An accompanying letter--signed by SEA President Carol A. Bonosaro and OPM Director Janice R. Lachance--says survey data will be used to "help shape the Senior Executive Service of the 21st century" by giving policymakers an insiders' view of what is--and isn't working--within the elite corps.
Mike Causey's e-mail address is causeym@washpost.com
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Los Alamos Says Ranked List Unused
By Chris Roberts Associated Press Writer Tuesday, August 17,
1999; 8:55 p.m. EDT
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990817/V000316-081799-idx.html
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- A list ranking journalists, politicians and others as for, against or neutral in their statements about alleged espionage at Los Alamos National Laboratory was never used, the lab's suspended public relations director said Tuesday.
The list was created by a well-meaning but naive junior employee, said Sylvia J. Brucchi, who is on paid leave while the incident is being investigated. Los Alamos has been under scrutiny after accusations that nuclear secrets were leaked from the lab.
She said the project was only to compile a list of people who were making public statements on the alleged espionage and who were knowledgeable on the subject.
Officials from the Energy Department and the University of California, which has operated the lab under a government contract since 1943, condemned any effort to create a list of people for and against the lab.
The list contained 149 names or organizations, 12 rated as pro, 18 as con, 37 as neutral and the rest unrated. The list also contained background information.
``It's disturbing that the lab would spend taxpayer resources tracking the pulse of its political opponents, it smacks of Nixon's list,'' said Christopher Paine, a Natural Resources Defense Council nuclear-weapons analyst.
``We were just trying to keep up with what the issues were and who was bringing them up,'' Brucchi said. ``It was not my intention to have ratings. A junior staff member (did that) without my knowledge and without my approval.'' She would not identify the staff member.
Brucchi said the employee gave her a copy of the list, but she didn't look at it until she heard it had been leaked to the media, she said. The memo was first reported by the Albuquerque Journal and the Santa Fe New Mexican.
The DOE and lab officials are looking into the incident.
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Rocker Sues Rocketdyne in Girl's Death
By TRACY WILSON, Los Angeles Times, August 18, 1999
http://www.latimes.com/excite/990818/t000073702.html
The lead singer for Motley Crue has sued Boeing North American Inc. claiming that his daughter's death by cancer in 1995 was caused by radioactive material dumped in the soil and ground water near his former home near the Santa Susana Field Laboratory.
Vince Neil and his ex-wife, Sharise, bought a home in Chatsworth in 1991, a few miles east of Boeing's Rocketdyne Division. Boeing acquired the property in 1996 when it bought Rockwell International's aerospace and defense businesses.
The suit claims that Boeing, Rockwell and Rocketdyne knowingly dumped hazardous materials, such as plutonium and uranium, near the Neils' Summit Ridge Circle residence southeast of Simi Valley. Their 4-year-old daughter, Skylar, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in April 1995 and died four months later. The suit claims that her death came "as a direct result of the activities conducted by defendants."
One of Boeing's chief attorneys, Gary M. Black, said Tuesday that he had not seen the suit and would not comment on its allegations. "We haven't been served with a complaint yet," Black said. "We have no reason to think the allegations in this complaint are any different from allegations in other pending cases."
Black concluded by saying: "There is no evidence that there is any off-site contamination from the Santa Susana field lab that is harmful to anyone in any way."
Neil's suit, which seeks unspecified damages, was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles late last week. It is the latest legal action brought against Rocketdyne and its Seattle-based parent company for alleged harm caused to neighbors and their property.
A class-action case is pending in federal court. It contends that decades of nuclear research and rocket engine testing fouled the water, air and soil surrounding the 2,700-acre field lab, and could compromise the health of nearby residents.
Neil, who sold his house in 1994 and now lives in Beverly Hills, was touring with his band in New Mexico and could not be reached for comment Tuesday. His Beverly Hills attorney, David M. Cordrey, said the singer only recently learned about toxic contamination at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory after a Rocketdyne worker health study was released by UCLA researchers in April. At about the same time, Cordrey said, Neil's ex-wife received a notice to potential plaintiffs that was mailed in connection with the class-action suit.
"I think basically he just became aware of the Rocketdyne alleged activities," said Jeff Albright, Neil's publicist. "I don't think it's about money. I think it is about awareness. No dollar amount can bring Skylar back."
Last month, state officials announced plans to remove 3,200 cubic yards of contaminated soil from the Rocketdyne lab site. Located in the hills between Simi Valley and Chatsworth, the lab was opened in 1948 to design the nation's first rocket engines. It was later used to develop model nuclear power reactors, although atomic research was discontinued in 1989.