Sept. 9 is test for Y2K plans

By The Associated Press, 9/02/99- Updated 12:16 AM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/ndswed13.htm

Government agencies, banks, electric utilities and other companies around the United States will be watching closely for Y2K-like computer trouble next week when the date 9-9-99 arrives.

The fear is that some computers may translate Sept. 9, 1999, as a ''9999'' stop-program command.

Few Y2K planners expect major disruptions such as widespread electrical outages next Thursday. But no one is ruling out the possibility of glitches.

Y2K planners and some industries are taking advantage of the situation to test their readiness and backup systems for New Year's Day, when the real Year 2000 bug may hit.

''It's good to run through any complicated exercise like that so people aren't seeing this kind of deployment for the first time in December,'' said Gerry Cauley, Year 2000 program manager for the North American Electric Reliability Council.

Up to now, most of the attention has been on Jan. 1, when computer programs recognizing only the last two digits of a year might read ''00'' as 1900. But several other problems could occur before then, Sept. 9 among them.

The electric industry will conduct a major drill, beginning Wednesday night, to make sure its thousands of workers understand procedures for Dec. 31.

Some banks will spend Thursday testing techniques to spot and report Y2K trouble, while President Clinton's Y2K advisory council will collect status reports. An international Y2K group will monitor other nations.

Just in case problems do occur, the Coast Guard will add supervisors to keep navigation reliable, and the Transportation Department is assembling a team normally mobilized only during natural disasters.

Airlines decided against setting up a command center, concluding that failure is unlikely, and will simply keep watch, said Thomas Browne, executive director for the Aviation Millennium Project in Washington.

The September date was picked partly out of confidence that nothing will go wrong. A smaller drill took place on April 9 - a date that was problematic because it was the 99th day of the 99th year. That day passed with no reported troubles in electric and other industries.

One reason for the confidence this time is that 9999 is not a widely used end-of-file or end-of-program marker. Also, dates are more likely to appear in computers as 090999. And a 9999 problem is relatively easy to spot and fix within the millions of lines of programming code.

Problems are likely to be limited to billing and other business information programs that run on older mainframe computers, sparing home users and systems that operate power grids and other infrastructure.

Using two digits for the year, on the other hand, is a more common technique. So the new year could disrupt financial transactions, airline schedules and power grids. Another potential problem is Feb. 29, 2000; some computers might not recognize that it is a leap year.

Still, studies have prompted confidence among Y2K planners.

''For the most part, the fears are unfounded,'' said Bruce McConnell, director of the International Y2K Cooperation Center, a clearinghouse established by the United Nations and the World Bank. ''I'm not saying there won't be problems, but the kind of problems will really be a blip.''

----------

Workers Contaminated With Plutonium

Filed at 8:34 a.m. EDT September 2, 1999 By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-SRS-Contamination.html

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) -- Seven workers face weeks of medical monitoring after they were contaminated with plutonium at a federal nuclear weapons facility.

Officials at the Savannah River Site, on the Georgia-South Carolina border, said particles of the radioactive metal were found on the workers' clothing and skin, but they have not determined whether the plutonium penetrated the workers' bodies.

The incident occurred Wednesday while the seven were repackaging plutonium in a storage area, said Frank Jordan, a vice president for the site's main contractor, Westinghouse Savannah River Co. An eighth worker in the area was not contaminated.

The workers, who have been assigned to work in nonradioactive areas, must wait for results of numerous urine and fecal tests over the next four to six weeks to learn whether they inhaled or swallowed the metal. Even in relatively small doses, plutonium can cause cancer.

Officials have not determined why the area was contaminated. Westinghouse and Energy Department officials said they will investigate the incident.

An average of four SRS employees per year are found to have radioactive contamination on their skin, and about 60 each year are found to have contaminated clothing, Fran Williams, a Westinghouse vice president, said.

-----------

Study explores Gulf War illness, nerve gas

USA Today, September 2, 1999
http://usatoday.com/news/digest/nd1.htm

SAN DIEGO - Soldiers exposed to nerve gas during the Persian Gulf War were no more ill than other veterans of the war, according to a new study. Researchers at the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego say their study indicates that the nerve gases sarin and cyclosarin aren't necessarily to blame for the illnesses reported by thousands of Gulf War veterans. The study compared hospitalization records of 124,500 Army veterans who may have been exposed to the nerve gases and 224,800 who were not. For the four years after the 1991 war, there was no difference in how many of each group were hospitalized for any reason.

---

Gas Not Blame of Gulf War Illnesses

By The Associated Press September 1, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Nerve-Gas-Study.html

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Soldiers exposed to nerve gas during the Persian Gulf War were no more ill than other veterans of the war, according to a new study.

Researchers at the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego say their study indicates that the nerve gases sarin and cyclosarin aren't necessarily to blame for the illnesses reported by thousands of Gulf War veterans.

The study compared hospitalization records of 124,500 Army veterans who may have been exposed to the nerve gases and 224,800 who were not.

For the four years after the 1991 war, there was no difference in how many of each group were hospitalized for any reason. There also was no significant difference in hospitalization rates for any of 15 specific types of disorders.

``We can't rule out some possible low-exposure effects,'' said Dr. Gregory Gray, a Navy captain who headed the study. ``But it's strong evidence that there's not a difference in hospitalization.''

The nerve gas study appeared in Wednesday's issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology, published by the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health.

Paul Sullivan, head of the National Gulf War Resource Center, a Washington, D.C.-based group formed on behalf of sick Gulf War veterans, said the study is unreliable.

``Their tortured history of lies leaves them with zero credibility on the issue of Gulf War illnesses,'' Sullivan said, claiming the military has changed its story many times on toxic exposures during the war.

``We all know that we would never, ever trust the tobacco industry if they issued a statement saying that cigarettes improved your health,'' he said.

The veterans who might have been exposed to nerve gas were in military units deployed near the Khamisiyah weapons depot when it was demolished in March 1991. It was later determined that some of the 1,250 rockets destroyed contained sarin and cyclosarin, enough to release an estimated 342 gallons into the air.

About 100,000 of the 700,000 troops who fought in the war against Iraq have officially complained of health problems they attribute to service in the Persian Gulf. Many suffer from extreme fatigue, joint and muscle pain, concentration and memory problems, rashes, fever, diarrhea and other chronic problems.

---

Radiation Panel Makeup Protested

By H. Josef Hebert Associated Press Writer Wednesday, September 1, 1999; 4:22 p.m. EDT
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990901/V000888-090199-idx.html
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Radiation-Controversy.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A prestigious panel of scientists trying to determine the cancer risks from low doses of radiation is embroiled in controversy even before its first meeting. Critics contend the group is dominated by members beholden to the nuclear industry.

``A campaign is under way to further relax already weak radiation protection standards,'' more than 130 environmental, health and anti-nuclear activists wrote the National Academy of Sciences this week, protesting the composition of the review committee.

They argued that the committee does not represent the broad spectrum of scientific opinion on the issue. Scientists whose studies have found elevated cancer levels from low-dose radiation exposure at some nuclear weapons facilities were excluded from the committee, they said.

At the same time, the committee members include a significant number of scientists who have maintained that current assumptions about low-dose radiation overstate the health risks. Some of the members have asserted there is a dose threshold below which radiation is not harmful at all.

The academy's National Research Council, which selected the scientists, recently added five additional members and forced another to withdraw. The 20-member committee will examine the issue ``from a scientific point of view without politics and without bias,'' Evan Douple, director of the council's radiation studies branch, said in an interview.

Those on both sides of the dispute agree that much is at stake in the three-year study being undertaken by the special panel, which holds its first meeting Thursday.

The threat of cancer from large amounts of radiation is clear. But does exposure to small doses above background radiation over many years put people at risk? Many scientists are not sure and hope the special review panel will provide some answers.

Formally known as the Committee on Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation, or BEIR, the panel has such prestige that its findings are likely to have tremendous impact on what radiation levels will be allowed by the government at abandoned nuclear power plants, in the cleanup of nuclear weapons production facilities and at nuclear waste disposal sites.

``The importance is enormous,'' said Dr. Rudi Nussbaum, professor emeritus of physics and environmental sciences at Portland State University, adding that the BEIR findings will be key in ``shaping legislation and eventually protecting or not protecting people from radiation exposure.''

Nussbaum was one of eight scientists who complained in a letter to the National Academy of Sciences that the panel ``is dominated by individuals whose work has been conducted within institutional settings heavily influenced by organizations with interests in the nuclear industry and does not include a significant number of persons who have demonstrated independence from this institutional setting.''

``This is a very lopsided committee with predictable outcome,'' added Nussbaum in an interview.

Recently one scientist, Kenneth Mossman, a professor of health physics at Arizona State University who had become a prime target of the critics' attacks, was dropped from the panel.

In an interview Wednesday, Mossman said the panel represents ``a spectrum'' of scientific opinion. He said his critics are trying to put scientists with ``extremist'' views on the panel. He said his own views had been distorted, particularly by anti-nuclear groups who characterized him as ``a vigorous advocate of relaxing radiation standards.''

``My position is at these very low doses it's not appropriate to select any (cancer risk) model because there is such tremendous scientific uncertainty,'' said Mossman.

The scientific debate over health risks from exposure to low-dose radiation has been brewing for years.

One problem is that the number of cancers from low-dose radiation has not been measured independently. Current standards for radiation levels are set by extrapolating from the increased cancers observed from exposure to high doses, principally among victims of the World War II atomic bomb blasts in Japan.

Many scientists have adopted -- and past BEIR committees have endorsed -- an assumption that risks from low doses follow a ``linear'' model that assumes each unit of radiation, no matter how small, can cause cancer.

But other scientists, including many of the scientists on the BEIR review panel, contend the linear theory overstates the cancer risks and that as a result the radiation exposure levels may, in fact, be too stringent.

``The BEIR committee has been loaded up with people from this side of the debate,'' complained Daniel Hirsch, executive director of Committee to Bridge the Gap, a California-based anti-nuclear watchdog group. He said it includes none of the reputable scientists who argue the risks may be even greater than now assumed.

``Industry can save billions of dollars if they can get a packed panel and reduce the radiation standards,'' said Hirsch. ``But millions of people would be exposed to additional radiation.''

-----------

Workers Monitor Radiation Levels - (PADUCAH, KY) --

Yahoo Daily Briefs - Kentucky - September 2, 1999
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/local/state/illinois/story.html?s=v/rs/19990902/il/index_1.html#4

"The Paducah Sun" reports that employees working for a private contractor at the uranium-enrichment plant in Paducah are wearing devices to monitor radiation levels. The newspaper says tests are showing higher levels of radiation exposure than officials expected. But a spokesman for Bechtel-Jacobs says the higher levels of exposure do NOT pose a risk to employees.

-----------

Dennis batters Virginia Power but nukes still up

September 1, 3:36 pm Eastern Time
http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/990901/z9.html

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Hurricane Dennis, downgraded to a tropical storm, has knocked out power to about 120,000 customers in Virginia Power's service territory but was not strong enough to shut its nuclear facilities, the company said Wednesday.

``Right now, we don't anticipate having to shut down the plant,'' company spokesman Rick Zuercher said, referring to Virginia Power's Surry nuclear power station, whose two reactors generate a total of 1,600 megawatts (MW).

``But we are continuing to watch the storm,'' he said.

Nuclear plant operators typically shut the units down as a safety precaution if they are likely to be hit by hurricane force winds (74 mph or more).

Dennis, while ploughing northeast just off North Carolina earlier this week, forced Carolina Power & Light to shut its two reactors at the 1,521 MW Brunswick facilty near Cape Fear on the North Carolina coast.

Damage from Dennis was more noticable on Virginia Power's distribution network than at its power plants.

Over the past few days, Dennis has interrupted power to about 120,000 Virginia Power customers as it zig-zagged along, often requiring line crews to restore power to the same areas several times.

``At 11:00 a.m. (EDT) 850 Virginia Power customers in Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chuckatuck and Williamsburg were without power because of Dennis' high winds. About 2,200 outages were reported on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, which Virginia Power serves as North Carolina Power,'' the company said in a statement.

The company said they anticipated another 36 hours of strong winds and heavy rains across southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina.

Virgiania Power, based in Richmond, Va., is the main utility subsidiary of Dominion Resources Inc. (NYSE:D - news).

http://biz.yahoo.com/n/d/d.html

-----------

DOE Workers Asked to Report Affairs

Wednesday, September 1, 1999; 8:09 p.m. EDT
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990901/V000110-090199-idx.html

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- The U.S. Department of Energy is asking its employees to kiss and tell.

A notice sent out last month requires 67,000 workers cleared to handle defense secrets to tell counterintelligence officers about any romantic or sexual liaisons with people from countries thought to be developing nuclear weapons,

Those countries include all former Soviet republics, China, Israel, India, North Korea, Cuba and Taiwan.

Employees also are expected to report friendships or professional relationships with any foreign national if they spend ``private time'' together -- even on the Internet -- or if either one shares information about their personal or professional lives.

Foreign intelligence agencies sometimes use young women to tease secrets from American scientists during pillow talk or other romantic liaisons, said Ed Curran, counterintelligence chief for the Energy Department.

``This is done on a daily basis today,'' Curran, who wrote the Aug. 17 memo, said in a story published Wednesday in the Albuquerque Journal.

``There are many, many cases of this,'' he said. ``The 50-, 60-year-old person stationed overseas for months, away from family and children, that person could be especially vulnerable to this kind of effort.''

However, according to the notice, top-security workers don't have to report one-time sexual contact with a foreign national from listed countries as long as they are not prying for classified information.

Similar reporting policies are in place at the FBI, the CIA, the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Department of Defense.

Jim Dannieskiold, a spokesman for Los Alamos National Laboratory in northern New Mexico, said the policy was not a big deal and was not even a topic of conversation among employees.

But the document, widely circulated at Los Alamos lab in the wake of congressional and DOE allegations of Chinese spying, prompted some jokes.

A scientist who provided a copy to the Los Alamos Monitor said: ``Apparently, it's all right to sleep with someone -- once -- but if you buy a car from her, you have to report it.''

---

Isn't It Romantic? Security Rules Exempt One-Night Stands

By Walter Pincus and Vernon Loeb Washington Post Staff Writers Thursday, September 2, 1999; Page A01
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-09/02/214l-090299-idx.html

Scientists at the nation's nuclear weapons laboratories must report any romantic liaison with a foreigner, unless it's a one-night stand.

That, in a nutshell, is the new policy announced by the Department of Energy (DOE) as part of a wide effort to tighten security at the labs in the wake of a Chinese espionage scandal, an effort that members of Congress say is long overdue but that is causing confusion, anxiety and derision in the scientific community.

The security crackdown also includes: a proposal to require an estimated 5,000 nuclear scientists to undergo polygraph examinations; an array of cybersecurity measures tightly regulating data transfers and e-mail; and provisions requiring extensive background checks on foreign visitors to the weapons facilities.

Opposition is growing among scientists to the polygraph provision, and DOE officials in Washington worry that the stringent background checks on foreign visitors could prompt some countries to retaliate, harming U.S. initiatives to safeguard nuclear material in the former Soviet Union.

The most derided new policy, however, requires DOE employees who hold security clearances to report any "close and continuing contacts" with foreigners from 25 so-called sensitive countries, a list that includes China, Russia, India, Israel and Pakistan.

The policy went into effect in July and was slightly modified and reissued in mid-August by Edward J. Curran, the department's director of counterintelligence, after some employees asked for a definition of "close and continuing."

The new definition, reported yesterday by the Albuquerque Journal, exempts one-time sexual relationships from the reporting requirement if there is no expectation of future contact, no indication that a lab employee has been targeted for espionage, and no request by a foreigner for classified or sensitive information.

"You can take it and ridicule it," Curran said in an interview. "But we had to define contacts because the scientists said they couldn't do it for themselves."

Curran lamented that "common sense doesn't prevail" at the labs, and he said that in the past, there has been almost no control "over who was talking to whom."

"You know [counterintelligence] is working when you get resistance to it," he added.

One senior manager at Los Alamos National Laboratory, who asked not to be quoted by name, maintained that scientists have long reported suspicious contacts. "There's always been the requirement that you have to report any significant ongoing or unusual contact with a foreign national; that's been in existence for years," the official said. "My experience is that people have always been pretty good about reporting incidents that raised red flags with them."

Similar reporting policies are in place at the FBI, CIA, National Security Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency and Department of Defense. Diplomats stationed in some countries also are required to report on their relationships with foreigners.

Curran, a career FBI official who is considered the federal government's leading counterintelligence investigator, went to the DOE following a February 1998 presidential directive to beef up security at the nation's nuclear weapons facilities.

President Clinton issued the order partly in response to the espionage investigation at Los Alamos where Wen Ho Lee, a Chinese American physicist, was fired in March for security violations and was identified as the government's prime espionage suspect.

Lee has denied passing secrets to China, and U.S. officials now concede that they lack evidence to charge him with espionage. The U.S. attorney in Albuquerque is still considering whether to prosecute him for transferring nuclear weapons data from the lab's classified computer network to his unclassified desktop computer.

Since firing Lee, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson has taken a series of steps, in concert with Curran, to heighten scientists' awareness that they may be targets of foreign intelligence operatives.

Richardson temporarily shut down all computing systems at the labs for a security review and has twice ordered day-long security "stand downs" at Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

Hearings on the polygraph proposal are scheduled for later this month at all three labs, where some scientists question the validity of polygraph testing and say such tests may ruin the careers of innocent employees as well as reduce the labs' ability to attract top scientists.

The new policy on "close and continuing contacts" says that any sexual or intimate relationship, sharing of living quarters, or business or financial relationship with a foreigner from a sensitive country must be reported to counterintelligence officials within five days.

Social contacts and nonsexual personal relationships also must be reported if "sensitive professional and personal information is discussed or is the focus of discussion."

One-time sexual relationships don't have to be reported. But if an employee has had sex with a foreigner "on more than one occasion" the relationship must be disclosed: "Such contact must be reported regardless of whether the foreign national's full name and other biographic data are known or unknown."

The policy notes that conversations on the Internet can be considered "close and continuing contacts" because foreign intelligence services often use cyberspace "as a valid way to conduct business."

-----------

China's Subtle Spying

By PAUL D. MOORE September 2, 1999

http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/oped/02moor.html

ARLINGTON, Va. -- In the furor over the investigation of Wen Ho Lee, the former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist suspected of spying, the operating assumption of most people seems to be that where there is espionage there must be evidence of espionage. A corollary to this is that failure to produce such evidence is proof of either a bungled investigation or a rush to judgment -- in this case, a judgment that some say erroneously singled out Mr. Lee because of his race.

My take is completely different. I think what we are seeing is evidence that China may have succeeded in devising an espionage strategy that can, over time, consistently defeat our ability to investigate or prosecute spying offenses.

China does not normally pay an agent for information, request that the agent provide classified documents, use intelligence officers to elicit information from the agent or engage in clandestine activity like "dead drops" in the United States. This means that there are rarely the "smoking guns" that we have in other cases of espionage -- the unexplained bank deposits, the videotapes of a suspect leaving items in a hollow rock in the park.

China prefers to obtain its information a little bit at a time, by having its scientists and experts exploit individuals who are visiting China in the normal course of business. The problem for American investigators and prosecutors is not to determine whether someone under investigation has provided information to China, but to prove somehow that he told the Chinese three things when he was authorized to discuss only two, or perhaps four things instead of three.

This is very bad news for investigators and prosecutors, who have little they can fall back on. For example, a wiretap of a suspect's phone may provide some useful background or personality assessment information, but it is unlikely to yield instantly incriminating conversation of the "bring your documents and meet me in the park" variety. Unless a suspect for some reason is cooperative enough to confess, there is little chance that a case can be made against him. Even if it can be shown that the suspect provided information, it is likely to remain unclear whether this was deliberate or inadvertent.

The principle that the Chinese apply is simple: people will almost never commit espionage, but they will often enough be indiscreet -- sometimes perhaps to the point of making a major mistake -- if they can be put in the right circumstances.

In other words, China doesn't so much try to steal secrets as to try to induce foreign visitors to give them away by manipulating them into certain situations. Such circumstances can include appeals to altruistic feelings: "Scientific information should recognize no political boundaries." Or to ego: "Someone as knowledgeable as you must know a hundred things that would help our research immeasurably but would not hurt your country at all."

In addition, it has been common enough for the Chinese to arrange a grueling day of tourism for visitors, followed by an evening cocktail reception at which a graduate student might seek research assistance, in the process repeating a question that the visitor had previously been unwilling to answer when asked by a senior Chinese colleague. It also has been possible to simply embarrass valuable information out of a guest by being so frank and open with him about, say, China's neutron bomb design work that he will want to offer at least a helpful hint in return.

China's strategy has some inherent limitations. Since China seeks only a little information at a time and seeks it only when a visitor to China can be maneuvered into the right circumstances, its effort moves rather slowly. It could speed things up with a "dollars for documents" approach, but that is a much riskier strategy because of the evidence trail it leaves. A s far as I can see, we are mishandling this threat to our national security because we are focused on the wrong questions, looking at who stole what information, in the expectation that our search will uncover one or more major spies. While it's possible there are major spies out there, it's not very likely.

The United States should instead focus on where and how China is obtaining information. China's espionage methodology, not a particular spy, is the main threat. The fact that China apparently has managed to acquire significant information without paying money for it makes me suspect that the root problem is people making mistakes, rather than people committing espionage.

Thus our national strategy should be prevention, not prosecution. China's approach should be vulnerable to a systematic program intended to eliminate or steer clear of what might be termed "occasions for indiscretion" that confront American visitors.

It is likely the Chinese have only a limited number of situations that they manufacture to try to get extra information out of a visitor, and that they use the same techniques over and over. Against such an approach, an ounce of prevention may be worth a pound of prosecution.

Paul D. Moore was the Federal Bureau of Investigation's chief analyst for Chinese counterintelligence from 1978 to 1998.

-----------

Malfunction Shuts Down Indian Point Nuclear Plant

By DAVID W. CHEN September 2, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/regional/ny-nuclear-plant.html

Emergency officials have temporarily shut down the Indian Point 2 nuclear power plant in Westchester County after a series of apparent electrical problems created the most serious situation at the plant in three years, officials said Wednesday.

The trouble began at 2:30 P.M. Tuesday, when a faulty transmitter indicated a problem in the reactor's temperature and pressure readings. The information, though false, automatically triggered a shutdown of the plant, said Michael J. Spall, a spokesman for Consolidated Edison, the plant's operator. It was the first time in nearly a year that the plant had shut down.

Then, for about five hours, beginning late Tuesday night, 75 percent of the warning lights on the instrument panel in the plant's control room stopped working. There were other ways to gauge the plant's operations, but the loss of the lights meant that emergency officials had to act even more cautiously in monitoring any further problems in the system, said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

No radioactive material was released, and the public was never in any danger, but the county and local officials were informed of the situation late Tuesday night, Sheehan said.

It may be at least a few days before the plant can resume operating, Spall said. In the interim, Con Edison will use other sources of energy to serve its three million customers in New York City and Westchester County.

But in what Sheehan described as a rare move, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is sending an inspection team of four experts to try to determine what went wrong at the plant, which is 35 miles north of Manhattan, in the village of Buchanan.

"We think the plant is stable now," Sheehan said late Wednesday. "But it's obviously something we want to investigate vigorously."

The situation required Indian Point officials to declare what in nuclear power parlance is called a "notification of an unusual event." That designation represents the first of four levels of emergency for a nuclear plant. And while the fourth level has been reached only once in United States history -- the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 -- the first level is rare, too. There were only two such notifications around the country in 1998, and three the previous year.

The last time the Indian Point 2 plant had to declare an "unusual event" was in December 1996, when there was a small spill of some chemicals on the site, Spall said. No one was injured.

Indian Point has had its share of mixed news in recent years. In 1994, the plant broke the world record for longest continuous operation -- 19 months -- of a light-water reactor, the kind used in the United States and most of the rest of the world. But in 1998, the plant was closed for several months because of safety concerns.

-----------

Company Press Release
U.S. Navy Chooses IET-Intelligent Electronics' TechMate Problem Resolution Tool for Its Standard Missile Automatic Test System

August 31, 10:01 am Eastern Time
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/990831/tx_iet_1.html

SAN ANTONIO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 31, 1999--IET - Intelligent Electronics, the leading developer of Web-centric service optimization solutions, today announced the deployment of the TechMate Support Tool for use by the US Navy on its Standard Missile Automatic Test System. TechMate quickly and accurately isolates failures of Standard Missile rounds during functional tests.

Prior to deployment of TechMate, Navy technical personnel applied their subjective knowledge to diagnose missile test failures. This old process typically took several hours or days and had a low degree of accuracy as well as poor repeatability. The TechMate solution now empowers the U.S. Navy to diagnose missile test failures accurately in minutes. The system also ``learns'' from use, thereby becoming more accurate and efficient over time. TechMate ensures essential knowledge is captured, stored and reclaimed to enable each technician to perform at the level of the best expert. Such functionality also helps organizations facing a shortage of skilled engineers.

About TechMate

The TechMate suite of products includes hardware-related fault-isolation software that resides either on a company network/intranet or stand-alone laptop. TechMate is populated with equipment intelligence that is input into a menu-driven knowledge base. This knowledge base can be made up of pictures and schematics that enable a novice technician to repair a complex system. The ATE, measurement device, or technician's indication of symptom(s), prompts TechMate to locate the fault and outlines it on a picture or schematic displayed on a laptop or network computer. TechMate's on-line instructions then guide the technician through repair or replacement. The case is recorded to outline any discrepancies between the initial knowledge base and future cases. TechMate then accumulates and redistributes the most current expert knowledge.

About IET-Intelligent Electronics

IET-Intelligent Electronics develops, markets, and supports software solutions that enable customer-driven organizations to provide superior service through intelligent resource optimization. In addition to its TechMate software suite, IET also develops and markets W-6 Service Scheduler. Chosen as the Best New Product at the 1998 Service Management Europe Conference, IET's W-6 Service Scheduler is an advanced enterprise service scheduling solution that can be easily integrated with CRM's to provide optimized scheduling of service personnel.

IET's headquarters are located in Campbell, California. IET also has offices and distributors throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Germany, Israel, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. IET is backed by Oak Investment Management, Genesis Partners (CIBC Oppenheimer and E. Shalev Management), WorldView Investment Partners, and Hambrecht & Quist. IET can be reached at (888) IET-3308 or (408) 377-6088. For more information about IET's products, visit www.ietusa.com

Contact:

SHEROFF & ASSOCIATES Christine Sheroff (for IET) 508/893-9933 csheroff@compuserve.com or IET-Intelligent Electronics Janet Zipes 781/272-5903 janetz@ietusa.com

-----------

Wackenhut Corporation Receives Multi-Site Contract For Commonwealth Edison

Company Press Release
SOURCE: The Wackenhut Corporation
September 1, 8:48 am Eastern Time
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/990901/fl_wackenh_1.html

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla., Sept. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- The Wackenhut Corporation (NYSE: WAK WAKB) has been awarded a five-year contract to provide physical security services at Commonwealth Edison's (ComEd's) six nuclear power generating plants in Illinois. The performance-based contract has a potential value of approximately $95 million over its five-year term.

Richard R. Wackenhut, vice chairman, president and chief operating officer of The Wackenhut Corporation, said, ``We place unusual emphasis on the quality of our physical security services, particularly at those locations, such as nuclear power generating stations, which must meet the stringent standards of federal regulatory agencies. We are pledged to meet or exceed the quality, safety and cost performance goals of ComEd's Nuclear Generation Group.''

Under the terms of the contract, Wackenhut will initiate security services at the six locations with a transition process beginning on September 20 for the Braidwood, Byron and LaSalle sites; and on October 25 for the Dresden, Quad Cities and Zion locations. The transition from the present security provider will be completed by November 19, 1999. The majority of the security force at each station is expected to remain employed under the new contract.

Alan Bernstein, executive vice president of Wackenhut and president of North American Operations, noted, ``We are very pleased with the contract since it contains built-in incentives which will stimulate our workforce as well as the Nuclear Services Division at our corporate headquarters to insure the highest possible performance for ComEd.

``With contracts to provide security at 24 nuclear power generating plants in the United States, The Wackenhut Corporation is now the largest provider of security services to the commercial nuclear power industry in the country. The company is also the largest supplier of contract security services to the U.S. Department of Energy, which is responsible for the federal government's nuclear materials production.''

The Wackenhut Corporation is a leading international provider of security- related and other support services to major corporations and a wide range of industrial and commercial customers. It has operations throughout the United States and in over 50 other countries on six continents, and is also a leader in the privatization of public services for municipal, state and federal agencies.

The Wackenhut Corporation ( www.wackenhut.com ) is a diversified outsourcer providing security services, correctional services, employee leasing and temporary staffing, personnel and facility management, food service, education and training, and supplementary police, fire and emergency services. The company serves a wide range of clients in business, industry and government with operations in every state and over 50 countries on six continents.

The Wackenhut Corporation is the majority shareholder in Wackenhut Corrections (NYSE: WHC - news), a global leader in privatized corrections: designing, financing, building, and managing correctional and detention facilities for government agencies.

This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding future events and future performance of the company that involve risks and uncertainties that could materially affect actual results. Investors should refer to documents that the company files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a description of certain factors that could cause actual results to vary from current expectations and forward- looking statements contained in this press release. Such filings include, without limitation, the company's Form 10K, Form 10Q and Form 8K reports.

SOURCE: The Wackenhut Corporation
More Quotes and News: Wackenhut Corp
NYSE:WAK
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=wak&d=t
- news
http://biz.yahoo.com/n/w/wak.html
NYSE:WAKb
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=wakb&d=t
- news
http://biz.yahoo.com/n/w/wakb.html
Wackenhut Corrections Corp
NYSE:WHC
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=whc&d=t
- news
http://biz.yahoo.com/n/w/whc.html

-----------

[Interestingly, this briefly-reported story was on the 5 am edition of the September 2, 1999 Washington Post online. By 5:30 a.m. it had been removed. I wonder why?]

Marshals Impound FBI Waco Evidence

By Michelle Mittelstadt Associated Press Writer Thursday, September 2, 1999; 1:05 a.m. EDT
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990902/V000285-090299-idx.html
http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/nc1.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal marshals impounded previously undisclosed FBI evidence Wednesday in the 1993 Branch Davidian assault as the Justice Department contacted candidates to head an independent inquiry into the escalating tear-gas controversy.

The marshals took custody of infrared tapes recorded during the early morning of April 19 when FBI agents lobbed incendiary tear gas canisters at a concrete bunker adjacent to the Davidians' compound near Waco, Texas, an FBI source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Hours later, the wooden compound erupted into flames. Cult leader David Koresh and some 80 followers died during the inferno.

Justice Department officials dispatched the marshals to the FBI building less than a block away after the FBI informed them it had uncovered in its files additional information about the tear gas.

The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times in their Thursday editions quoted officials as saying an audio track on the infrared tape picked up the voice of an agent seeking and receiving permission from a commander to fire the incendiary tear gas grenades at the bunker.

Attorney General Janet Reno has decided upon an independent inquiry -- as recommended by the White House, the head of the FBI and several lawmakers -- instead of one run from within her department, the Times and The Washington Post reported.

Department sources said Reno and her top aides were angered at the latest turn of events. Just a week ago, the FBI was forced to recant six years of denials that it had used incendiary tear gas during the final hours of the 51-day siege.

That belated admission prompted a furor on Capitol Hill, where congressional Republicans are readying hearings this fall. A frustrated Reno also ordered an investigation to determine why combustible tear gas was used against her orders.

A list of several candidates -- none of them working for Justice or the FBI -- to head the Reno-ordered probe has been compiled and some of them have been contacted, a Justice source said Wednesday. But no final determination had been made, the source added.

The new evidence, found in the offices of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team in Quantico, Va., was turned up as part of FBI Director Louis Freeh's mandate that all files be searched for relevant information in advance of the investigation, the FBI source said.

The Hostage Rescue Team was in charge of the FBI's operation during the siege and the final tear-gas assault.

After the evidence was found, it was transferred to FBI headquarters in Washington, where the marshals took possession.

``Earlier this afternoon, senior main Justice Department officials learned from the FBI that the FBI had found additional materials in its possession regarding the shooting of military CS gas rounds on the morning of April 19,'' said Justice spokesman Myron Marlin.

The Justice officials ``immediately directed the United States Marshals Service to take possession and inventory the materials,'' Marlin added.

The FBI concurred, said bureau spokesman John Collingwood.

``We are anxious to identify and preserve for outside review and congressional oversight anything that may bear on the firing of the military gas rounds,'' Collingwood said. ``In the end, the only way we can completely restore our credibility is to identify every scrap of information we have and immediately turn it over to whomever is doing the review.''

Reno, who is out of the country on official business through Thursday, has yet to make an official determination regarding the investigation. But it appears increasingly likely that she will order an independent inquiry, sidestepping the investigative resources of the FBI.

Joining a chorus of voices on and off Capitol Hill, the White House has made clear its preference for an independent investigation, a White House official said Wednesday.

``We would support a thorough and independent look at this,'' said the official, who asked not to be identified.

Freeh, who wants to head off any perception of conflict of interest, earlier this week indicated support for an inquiry free of involvement from the FBI or the Justice Department.

Justice sources described Reno as leaning strongly in favor of an independent investigation and forgoing the use of a team of 40 FBI agents that had been assembled to re-interview all of the participants in the FBI operation.

The government's conclusion that the 1993 fire was set by Davidian cult members has long been doubted by conspiracy theorists and others who allege the government engaged in a widespread cover-up.

The FBI and Reno have said there is no evidence to suggest the blaze was set by the incendiary tear gas canisters. After insisting that only non-flammable devices were used, the FBI said last week that a ``very limited number'' of combustible canisters were lobbed at a concrete bunker 40 yards from the compound a few hours before the fire erupted.

The House Judiciary Committee is drafting legislation to establish a congressional commission to investigate the matter -- a step that in Chairman Henry Hyde's view could avoid the partisanship exhibited during earlier Waco hearings.

The House Government Reform Committee, which is already planning hearings, will issue subpoenas Thursday to the White House, Justice and Defense Departments, the FBI and Texas Rangers seeking documents and other Waco-related information, said spokesman Mark Corallo.

Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, on Wednesday became the one of the first members of Congress to urge Reno to resign over the Waco controversy.

``I think the attorney general should step down,'' Gramm said. ``This is another example of where she has either lied to the American people or allowed the American people to be lied to.''