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ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 8, 1999-- Company Press Release
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/990908/ga_perma_f_1.html

Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc. (Nasdaq:PESI - news; GERMANY:PES.BE) has released two new technical booklets to aid hazardous waste and radiological waste managers. The two fact-filled booklets written by Perma-Fix's technical staff are designed to help the industry professional deal with voluminous information in a fit-in-the-pocket size guide containing regulations, standards and other references normally featured in larger manuals.

``Pocket Guide for Waste Characterization,'' is a handy 174-page waste manager's reference guide that includes characteristics for hazardous waste, corrosives, reactives and toxicity, plus all F, D, K, P and U listed wastes, the hazardous and universal treatment standards and other must-know information. Perma-Fix calls it ``an indispensable pocket reference.''

A companion to the Waste Characterization guide, the ``Pocket Guide for Radiological Management,'' is the Radiation Safety Officer or Rad Manager's best friend. The 240-page booklet contains equations, rules of thumb, virtually all alpha, beta and gamma energies, plus lots more. Perma-Fix calls it ``a must for all radiological personnel.''

The Waste Characterization booklet retails for $14.95, while the larger Pocket Guide for Radiological Management retails for $19.95. Both are shipped postpaid and other than sales tax in Florida, have no extra service or handling charges in the US.

To order on-line, see the Perma-Fix Web Site at www.perma-fix.com or call 800/365-6066 for toll-free phone orders. The booklets will be sent the next business day.

Editors Note: Electronic images of the two guides are available at www.perma-fix.com/florida/images/bookrad.gif and BookWaste.gif.

Contact:

Strategic Growth, New York Stan Altschuler, 516/829-7111 or For Orders: Perma-Fix Environmental Services Inc., Gainesville, FL Charles Scheer, 800/365-6066

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BETHESDA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE) September 8, 7:42 pm Eastern Time
Company Press Release
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/990908/md_usec_1.html

Sept. 8, 1999--A Washington Post wire service erroneously reported this afternoon that Energy Secretary Bill Richardson will shut down the government's uranium plant in Paducah, KY, tomorrow. A U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) news release issued today says that, ``The stand down will not directly affect operations of the U.S. Enrichment Corporation, which enriches uranium for use as fuel for nuclear power reactors and is regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.''

The DOE release further states, ``All DOE-related operations, except emergency-related activities, will be suspended while DOE and contractor employees and managers review safety procedures.''

USEC leases a portion of the DOE reservation for its uranium enrichment production processes. USEC's operations are not related to other DOE work on the site.

Contact:USEC Elizabeth Stuckle, 301/564-3399 Charles Yulish, 301/564-3304More Quotes and News: USEC Inc NYSE:USU -
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September 8, 1999, 9:53 am Eastern Time
http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/990908/rg.html

KIEV, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Westinghouse Electric Co of the U.S. will supply and test the first load of nuclear fuel for Ukrainian nuclear power plants in 2004, Ukraine's nuclear energy company Energoatom said on Wednesday. Energoatom spokeswoman Nadiya Shumak told Reuters that the fuel would be produced in the United States and tested at the third unit of Pivdeno-Ukrayinska nuclear power plant in the Mykolayiv region in southern Ukraine.

``It will be the first shipment of non-Russian-made nuclear fuel to Ukraine,'' Shumak said.

She also said the $50 million project to produce the fuel for Ukraine would be financed by the United States, but did not say whether this would be private investment or a government programme.

Shumak said the Westinghouse fuel project was the result of last year's U.S.-Ukrainian treaty on cooperation in nuclear issues and Kiev's refusal to participate in the lucrative construction of a nuclear plant for Iran.

Ukraine's electric turbine maker Turboatom had been asked to produce several turbines for a Russian-Iranian nuclear project but the U.S. voiced fears that the deal could help Iran obtain technology to build nuclear arms.

Ukraine's five nuclear power plants produce about 50 percent of the country's total electricity output, but the cash-strapped state depends heavily on fuel supplies from neighbouring Russia, the sole nuclear fuel maker in the former Soviet Union.

Ukraine has to pay about $300 million annually for Russian nuclear fuel supplies.

A joint venture between Morrison Knudsen Corp (NYSE:MK - news) and British Nuclear Fuels Ltd recently bought the Westinghouse nuclear business unit from CBS Corp for $1.2 billion, renaming it Westinghouse Electric Co.

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September 10, 7:30 am Eastern Time
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LONDON, Sept 10 (Reuters) - The UK government said on Friday it had appointed Credit Suisse First Boston to advise on a public/private partnership for state-owned nuclear reprocessing and power generation company British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL).

The investment bank will also be global co-ordinator in the event of a flotation.

The government announced in July that a public/private partnership involving a partial transfer of BNFL to the private sector, possibly by a flotation of part of the equity, was the best way of injecting private sector expertise.

The aim is to introduce the public/private partnership before the end of the current parliament, which can run into 2002.

The government can sell off up to 49 percent of BNFL under the terms of the Atomic Energy Authority Act of 1971.

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06:40 p.m Sep 09, 1999 Eastern
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OKLAHOMA CITY and ST. LOUIS, Sept. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- UroCor, Inc. (Nasdaq: UCOR), a leading disease management company in urology, and Mallinckrodt Inc. (NYSE: MKG), a global manufacturer and marketer of specialty healthcare products, said today Mallinckrodt will sell and distribute UroCor's new radiation treatment for prostate cancer through Mallinckrodt's 35 nuclear medicine pharmacies and more than 80 independent pharmacies. Mallinckrodt also will add the product to its group-purchasing contracts with hospital groups such as Premier.

The agreement will broaden Mallinckrodt's product offering in nuclear medicine while providing UroCor with an instant presence in the radiation oncology market as well as supplementing its traditional base in specialized testing through total disease management. The product, ProstaSeed I-125 radioactive sources, has received 510(k) clearance to market from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and is awaiting final approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). UroCor expects product launch to occur in 1999 following regulatory clearance by the NRC when the Mallinckrodt agreement will also become effective.

ProstaSeed sources are small, radioactive pellets which are implanted in a patient's prostate under ultrasound guidance to destroy the tumor. This treatment, called brachytherapy, is increasingly selected by early stage prostate cancer patients because it does not dictate removal of the organ, which can result in side effects such as impotence and incontinence. Approximately 200,000 new cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed in the U.S. each year, and about 60 percent of these are potentially treatable by brachytherapy. Seeds for a single procedure typically cost about $4,000, and the current U.S. market for all such seed implants is approximately $150 million annually.

"We are extremely enthusiastic about the ProstaSeed sales and distribution agreement with Mallinckrodt," said William A. Hagstrom, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of UroCor. "This strategic plan combines UroCor's ability to differentiate its radiation 'seeds' for implant through our advanced knowledge of prostate cancer and our unique diagnostic and prognostic services with Mallinckrodt's access to the hospital market and its industry leadership in radiopharmaceuticals."

"The arrangement is another milestone in UroCor's drive to expand its therapeutic portfolio of products and services for urologic diseases," Hagstrom continued, "and our target markets are principally urology and radiation oncology medical specialties. This builds on our expanding ability to sell pharmaceutical products for important urologic diseases."

Under the agreement, UroCor will have a dedicated sales force to call on radiation oncologists and medical physicists. Mallinckrodt will also have direct sales and will include ProstaSeed in its hospital group purchasing agreements. There will be minimum annual purchase levels Mallinckrodt must meet, and sales revenues will be divided between the two firms according to an agreed-upon formula.

"This is a very exciting opportunity for us," said C. Ray Holman, Mallinckrodt's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Partnering with UroCor, a firm widely recognized for its expertise in the management of urology diseases such as prostate cancer, enables Mallinckrodt to leverage our strength in the hospital markets and in radiopharmaceuticals. It also provides the opportunity to participate in the advancement of medical technology to provide better healthcare for patients and greater value for physicians and other medical professionals."

"This agreement helps UroCor better leverage our own distribution channel by allowing us to focus our marketing efforts on differentiating the product offering, providing unique service-based capabilities, and developing complementary products," said Karl K. Nigg, UroCor Vice President and General Manager of its therapeutics unit.

Bradley J. Fercho, President of Mallinckrodt's Imaging Group, said, "This agreement is another step in the growth initiative we are pursuing in our Imaging business. The timing for this announcement could not be better, since our entire U.S. medical sales organization is together this week for our national sales meeting. There appears to be tremendous excitement about this opportunity to take this product to our customers, and I'm confident our sales professionals will position ProstaSeed for early and strong marketing success."

About UroCor

UroCor markets a comprehensive range of integrated products and services to assist in detecting, diagnosing, treating, and managing prostate cancer, kidney stones, and other complex urologic disorders directly to urologists and managed care organizations. The company's primary focus is helping urologists improve patient care and outcomes while reducing total costs of managing these diseases. UroCor presently serves more than one third of the office-based urologists in the United States.

About Mallinckrodt

Mallinckrodt, Inc., is a global manufacturer and marketer of specialty healthcare products. Based in St. Louis, Mo., the company has three product groups -- Respiratory, Imaging and Radiopharmaceuticals -- and had fiscal 1999 net sales of $2.6 billion.

Mallinckrodt is a world leader in nuclear medicine and distributes its radiopharmaceutical product lines through Diagnostic Imaging Services, its system of nuclear pharmacies in the United States. The Mallinckrodt website address is: www.mallinckrodt.com .

Safe Harbor Statement

Statements in this news release that are not strictly historical, including statements as to plans, objectives, and future financial performance, are "forward-looking" statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although both UroCor and Mallinckrodt believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that the expectations will prove to be correct. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from each company's expectations include, among others, competition within the healthcare and medical services industries; the effect of government regulation and reimbursement policies on the healthcare market and on each Company, including the possibility of being deemed not in compliance with federal and state regulatory requirements; delays in FDA or other regulatory agency approval of pending therapeutic products; each Company's access to and the market's acceptance of new products; each Company's ability to market and distribute therapeutic products profitably; each Company's ability to expand contractual relationships with managed care organizations; as well as the risks, uncertainties, and other factors described from time to time in each Company's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

For more information about UroCor toll-free via fax, dial 1-800-PRO-INFO or 1-800-776-4636, follow the voice menu prompts and enter the company code "UCOR" or 8267 on any touch tone phone, or visit the UroCor page on FRB's web site at: www.frbinc.com .

Visit UroCor at: www.urocor.com . SOURCE UroCor, Inc.

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Company Press Release, Thursday September 9, 9:45 pm Eastern Time
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/990909/ca_atg_inc_1.html

FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 9, 1999--ATG Inc. (Nasdaq:ATGC - news), a leading provider of low-level radioactive waste treatment services, Thursday announced that it is undergoing a temporary shutdown of its Richland, Wash., SAFGLAS(TM) waste processing facility for repairs and maintenance.

ATG's SAFGLAS(TM) process, which went thermally ``hot'' in August 1997, has remained thermally hot 24 hours a day, seven days a week since that time. This two-year period at constant high temperatures is, in management's belief, unprecedented for high temperature radioactive waste processing systems.

On Sept. 5, a failure of a bottom drain caused approximately two drums equivalent of molten glass to be released into the containment pit below the SAFGLAS(TM) glass melter.

While this release did not result in any releases of radioactive materials into the environment and did not pose any hazard to ATG's employees or to the general public (i.e., the release was totally contained), the molten glass did damage some ancillary electrical and hydraulic components that must now be repaired or replaced.

On Sept. 5, the company shut down the SAFGLAS(TM) system in order to repair or replace the damaged ancillary components. ATG had been planning a routine maintenance outage for the system in early 2000 to refurbish refractory materials and to effect design improvements. Some portions of this maintenance will be conducted during the current shutdown.

ATG anticipates that the SAFGLAS(TM) system will not resume full operational capacity until sometime between Sept. 15 and the end of the month. Consequently, ATG anticipates a shortfall, in a presently indeterminable amount, in projected third-quarter revenue and earnings due to the lost processing capacity and the cost of the repairs and maintenance.

ATG is a radioactive and hazardous waste management company that offers comprehensive thermal and non-thermal treatment solutions for low-level radioactive and low-level mixed wastes generated by commercial entities such as nuclear power plants, medical facilities and research institutions, both in the United States and overseas and by the U.S. Departments of Defense and Energy.

This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors including the ability of the company to successfully commercialize its new technologies, as well as risk factors set forth under ``Factors Affecting Future Operating Results'' in the company's annual report on Form 10-K and such other risks detailed from time to time in the company's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements, which may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Contact:

ATG Inc., Fremont Doreen Chiu or Steve Guerrettaz, 510/490-3008 or Market Pathways Shannon T. Squyres, 949/955-1860 (media & investor relations)

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06:45 p.m Sep 09, 1999 Eastern
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WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 9, 1999--EUROTECH Ltd. (OTC BB:EURO) EUROTECH is pleased to announce its first acquisition of Kurchatov Research Holdings (OTC BB:KRHL) common stock in a 6.8 million share swap with CIS Development Corp, in a 1.5 of KRHL to 1 of EURO shares for at total of 4,530,000 new shares of EUROTECH Ltd.

The deal, valued at approximately $12 million, represents an acquisition of about 20% of Kurchatov Research Holding's projected outstanding shares following KRHL's pending acquisitions.

EUROTECH, and KRHL have a joint participation in the radiation-resistant material EKOR, to be produced by a jointly owned company. EURO has the worldwide licensing rights to EKOR outside of Russia, and KRHL shares equally with EURO in net profits.

EKOR was developed to contain the radioactive residue from the 1986 nuclear reactor accident in Chernobyl, Ukraine, and has sparked wide interest in the nuclear power and nuclear waste industries.

EUROTECH, Ltd. is a diversified technology holding company formed to capitalize on business opportunities through the acquisition and commercialization of advanced technologies developed by prominent research institutes and individual researchers worldwide.

Certain information and statement included in this release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Federal Privates 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 in such forward-looking statements.

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10:08 p.m. Sep 05, 1999 Eastern By Abigail Levene
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VENICE, Italy, Sept 6 (Reuters) -Been in a gondola? Seen St Mark's? Done the Doge's Palace? If Venice's radiant beauty is beginning to pale on you, take a trip to her murky side.

Amid glossy black gondolas gliding through the waterways of La Serenissima, matt grey Greenpeace dinghies are whisking visitors on a ``poison tour'' to the hulking Porto Marghera industrial complex just four km (2.5 miles) from St Mark's Square.

According to the environmental group, thousands of tonnes of toxic waste are poured into the lagoon every year, polluting the delicate ecosystem and its resident organisms -- such as the clams which the eco-warriers say end up in tourists' spaghetti.

``It's a scandal to have petrochemical industry in an ecosystem as sensitive as the lagoon,'' says Greenpeace's Luca Cardin, gesturing at the chimneys, drums, pylons and cranes of Porto Marghera, home to refineries and plastics plants.

It is a far cry from the captivating face Venice is turning to the glitterati in town for the famous film festival.

As the small dinghy bounces across the glistening waters towards northern Italy's biggest petrochemical complex, Cardin plays tour guide. On the right, the waste outlet for an oil refinery; on the left, a reprocessing scrap heap where Greenpeace says radioactive metals were found four years ago.

Many of the ``sights'' are invisible. ``You can't see it but the sediments are full of dioxins, PCBs, all that comes from the pollution of the waters,'' says Cardin.

``WILD WEST'' OF ILLEGAL FISHING

The warmth of the waste water gushing from an electricity production outlet makes clams grow bigger, Cardin says -- luring fishermen who flock illegally to Marghera under cover of night.

``It's a Wild West here at night. Fishing is forbidden but they catch clams and sell them cheap to hotels and restaurants,'' he says, adding that a Greenpeace analysis of one mollusc found 50 times permitted levels of dioxins and PCBs -- toxic chemicals that can indicate the presence of cancer-causing dioxins.

Last month a police boat patrolling no-fish zones in the dead of night was rammed by illegal fishermen, injuring two officers. The small but powerful motor boat was carrying 400 kg (880 lb) of ``caparossoli,'' the shellfish that are a local speciality.

Everyone admits that illegal fishing takes place, but Venetian restaurants hotly deny using the suspect seafood.

``Of course it's true people fish by Porto Marghera, but serious restaurateurs won't buy the stuff,'' says Giuseppe Sardi, clearing out his boat after a sea fishing trip with his son.

Sardi, whose restaurant is just along the canal in central Venice, says reputable proprietors like him buy only from the city market where fish are certified safe by health inspectors.

``I've never heard of anyone poisoned by clams,'' he says.

Stefano Capelletto, whose no-frills trattoria does a brisk trade in spaghetti with clams and caparossoli, insists only private households buy the doubtful molluscs. He says cooking would kill off anything unpleasant anyway, though to be on the safe side he uses only frozen clams.

But ask Capelletto where he gets his caparossoli and he grins archly. ``They come from the lagoon. I don't know exactly where in the lagoon, obviously. How could I?''

Some locals are taking no chances.

``I don't eat clams here. I'm too scared,'' says a Venetian street vendor who gave his name only as Alessandro. ``Some restaurants buy the illegally-caught clams -- the fishermen catch them so of course they have to sell them.''

Selling tourist paraphernalia from his St Mark's Square stall, Alessandro says he has never heard of a clam-poisoning either -- but that dioxin overload would not show up instantly.

LEAKS INTO LAGOON

Venice environment officials play down Greenpeace's claims.

``Any industrial activity poses health risks, just as traffic poses a health risk,'' said Sandro Boato, head of environmental protection for the region. ``Naturally, where there is a large concentration of production activity the statistical risk is higher than in an area where there is no such activity.''

Porto Marghera began life decades ago when the key consideration was creating jobs and developing industry, not protecting the environment, Boato said.

No one denies accidents have happened, though officials shy from confirming Greenpeace's assertion there have been some 40 leaks from Marghera since June 1998 of substances like ammonia or vinyl chloride monomer (VCM), a plastics building block.

The Italian environment ministry in June ordered the temporary shutdown of some Porto Marghera units of EVC International, Europe's biggest PVC producer, after 900 kg (2,000 lb) of VCM were released into the atmosphere.

EVC, in which Britain's ICI and Italy's Enichem hold a minority stake, said the incident posed no health risk for workers or the local population.

``We know there's been damage in past years. You can't say it's a virgin environment because it isn't, it never has been,'' said Boato. But levels of pollution were inside permitted limits, contrary to what Greenpeace maintained, he added.

Software consultant Matteo Mainetti and his Taiwanese girlfriend Yu-Chih Hsu saw the Greenpeace stall outside Venice railway station as they arrived for a day trip and decided on impulse to forsake the gondola for the rubber dinghy.

Their appetites sharpened by the high-speed whizz back to the city after an hour-long tour they pronounced ``interesting,'' they headed for a romantic dinner for two.

``I think I'll steer clear of the clams,'' said Hsu.

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Duke COGEMA Stone & Webster Internet Site Goes On-line

02:56 p.m Sep 08, 1999 Eastern, CHARLOTTE, N.C., Sept. 8 /PRNewswire/
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The Duke COGEMA Stone & Webster (DCS) consortium proudly announces the activation of its internet web page: http://www.dcsmox.com /.

In its introductory phase, http://www.dcsmox.com / provides information on consortium members, links to member company internet sites and project-related information. Future phases will update the site with additional industry links, procurement-related information, and additional project-related information and photographs.

"The internet site is a new aspect of the DCS communication program that will allow us to make current information available to all those interested in the project," said Bob Ihde, DCS president.

DCS is an international consortium selected last March by the Department of Energy to design, construct, operate and deactivate a mixed oxide fuel fabrication facility for the conversion of surplus weapons-grade plutonium into commercial nuclear fuel. The process will render weapons-grade plutonium unusable in future wartime applications.

Led by Duke Engineering & Services, COGEMA, and Stone & Webster, the consortium is composed of fuel fabricators and engineering companies, as well as two of the nation's leading utilities -- Duke Power and Virginia Power -- who will irradiate mixed oxide fuel in six reactor facilities. Framatome Cogema Fuels and Nuclear Fuel Services are also members of the team. SOURCE Duke Engineering & Services

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Panel Faults Lockheed Martin Corp

By Alex Dominguez Associated Press Writer Wednesday, September 8, 1999; 6:03 p.m. EDT
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990908/V000408-090899-idx.html

BALTIMORE (AP) -- An independent review of launch failures that have cost Lockheed Martin Corp. billions of dollars blamed the mishaps on cost-cutting, lack of quality control and the loss of experienced personnel, the defense giant said Wednesday.

``We found too much emphasis on cost. Mission success needs to be reestablished as the most important performance criteria for all employees,'' said A. Thomas Young, the former Martin Marietta and NASA executive who co-chaired the review panel.

Lockheed Martin suffered four launch failures between August 1998 and this April. More than $2 billion in military and private satellites were either destroyed or placed in useless orbits. Boeing has also suffered a number of failures, prompting President Clinton to order a separate government investigation into the failures.

Three of the four failures involved Lockheed's Titan IV rockets, and company officials said they were placing special priority on the successful launch of the remaining 11 Titan launches before the model is retired.

Lockheed president and chief operating officer Peter B. Teets said the company has already implemented an incentive plan to retain experienced employees and make sure the remaining Titans ``fly out with 100 percent mission success.''

The Bethesda-based defense giant reported a second-quarter loss of $41 million in July due in part to the satellite failures.

Young found in interviews with Lockheed customers, in many cases government and military officials, that the failures resulted in a loss of confidence in Lockheed's launch ability. Customers had noted many of the problems the panel found, he said.

``I also believe the customer would concur ... that the problems are not only fixable, but readily fixable,'' Young said.

Teets said implementing the changes will not cost the company anything because of the savings they will create.

In response to the launch failures, the company appointed the independent panel, headed by Young and former Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force Thomas Moorman.

The panel was charged with examining three sectors within the company's space and strategic missiles sector: Astronautics in Denver; Missiles and Space in Sunnyvale, Calif.; and Michoud Space Systems in New Orleans.

Lockheed's Denver unit, which builds Titan rockets used to launch satellites, and its Sunnyvale plant have both had large-scale cuts in staff over the past year.

The panel recommended improved training, mentoring, and the use of qualified retirees.

Three of the four failures occurred in April.

The Lockheed-made Ikonos I satellite was launched April 27. The satellite, which was being launched for Space Imaging, Inc., a private company half-owned by Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Corp., failed to reach its proper orbit. The Athena II rocket used to launch the satellite was also made by Lockheed Martin.

The company did not release the loss amounts.

On April 23, a $433 million Titan IV rocket also failed to lift an $800 million military satellite into the correct orbit. On April 9, a $250 million military satellite being propelled by a Titan IV rocket failed to reach its proper orbit when an upper stage rocket made by Boeing Co. failed.

On Aug. 12, 1998, another Titan rocket and its military satellite blew up shortly after being launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The military did not release the cost of the satellite, but the launch cost $344 million, the company said.

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Lockheed's Oversight Questioned
Company Accepts Panel's Space-Business Findings

By Tim Smart Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, September 9, 1999; Page E01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-09/09/219l-090999-idx.html

A panel of experts found "systemic" quality-control and management problems in Lockheed Martin Corp.'s space and missile businesses, the Bethesda aerospace company said yesterday.

Lockheed released an executive summary of the findings of former president A. Thomas Young, who agreed in May to review the company's space and missile sector after a string of launch failures with Lockheed's Titan IV rockets and problems with an anti-missile defense system. The failures resulted in billion-dollar losses of key military reconnaissance satellites, as well as a commercial remote-imaging satellite.

"To sum up months of work, we found problems in accountability, quality, subcontract/supplier management and cost emphasis," Young said in announcing the results of his probe.

Young and Lockheed President Peter B. Teets said the problems were most apparent at the company's satellite-manufacturing and missile complex in Sunnyvale, Calif., and at its rocket-making unit near Denver. Both operations have made management changes in the past 12 months and have been the sites of considerable employee layoffs and cost-cutting moves. Lockheed's other main space businesses, in New Orleans, at Cape Canaveral in Florida and at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, were largely free of quality-control problems, Young said.

Teets acknowledged in a telephone interview that some of the cost cutting in Colorado and Sunnyvale may have backfired. In one instance, Young's panel found that because of consolidation of quality-control and "mission success" operations, some important oversight had been lost. Problems that should have been spotted were not found until much later in the process, Teets said.

"It removed one layer of oversight," Teets said. "It was a case of being penny-wise and pound-foolish."

Although the summary did not mention it, an Air Force investigation of a Titan rocket failure found that the problem stemmed from the improper entry of some computer software code into a program designed to set the rate at which a rocket turns after liftoff. The problem was detected by some employees, but because of confusion over which employees were responsible for quality control, the problem was never corrected.

"In the one-strike-and-out business, you've got to have oversight," Teets said.

Young's report also suggested that the company had lost years of experience and program knowledge because of retirements and layoffs among the workers who assemble and test the Titan rockets, considered among the most complex products made by the U.S. aerospace industry.

"You can replace intellectual capability," Young said, "but replacing experience is a more difficult thing to do."

Many of the work-force reductions have come as Lockheed continued to lead the consolidation of the aerospace industry in the years after the end of the Cold War.

"This is an ongoing endeavor to deal with all these acquisitions of the past few years," said A.G. Edwards analyst Glenn Stewart. "From my angle, the dust is yet to settle."

The Young report also criticized a lack of communication from top management down on how to follow the company's "better-faster-cheaper" mandate. In some cases, Young and Teets said, employees may have interpreted this to mean corners could be cut with regard to quality to make products cheaper or to make deadlines.

Lockheed chairman and chief executive Vance D. Coffman said in a statement that the company endorsed the findings of Young's panel and would work to carry out its recommendations, which include bringing back some of the company's retirees for special assistance with launches and other "critical events."

"We're going to pick ourselves up and move forward," Teets said. "This corporation has a wealth and depth of talent that we need to bring to bear on this, and we shall."

Lockheed shares closed at $35.81 1/4, up 81 1/4 cents, yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange.

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Power plant partner may sell its stake (Florida)

Orlando's electric utility is considering ending its holdings in the Crystal River nuclear plant run by Florida Power.

By AMEET SACHDEV, St. Petersburg Times, September 4, 1999
http://www.sptimes.com/News/90499/Business/Power_plant_partner_m.shtml

When Florida Power Corp.'s Crystal River nuclear power plant was shut down two years ago, the company offered to release the minority owners of the reactor from their contracts. One partner accepted the offer, and now another is considering trying to sell its small stake.

Orlando's city-owned electric utility wants to shed its ownership interest as part of a plan to lower the costs of selling power to customers. The Orlando Utilities Commission, or OUC, owns 13 megawatts of the Crystal River plant, or 1.6 percent of its 835-megawatt output.

The OUC's stance follows the city of Tallahassee's decision to transfer its 1.3 percent stake in the reactor back to Florida Power, which is based in St. Petersburg. In exchange, Tallahassee will not be responsible for future operations and maintenance costs for the plant. That agreement is expected to close by the end of the year.

The changing ownership picture is a sign of the uncertain future of nuclear power. While atomic energy is a clean source of electricity compared with coal, the federal government has not solved the problem of where to store nuclear waste. Meanwhile, stringent safety regulations make operating a reactor labor intensive at a time when utilities are trying to cut costs.

"It's a question of whether additional complications are worth it or not," said Kevin Wailes, general manager of electric operations for Tallahassee. "There's a variety of unknowns looking ahead with nuclear generation."

Crystal River's minority owners, who collectively control about 10 percent of the plant, were upset when the plant was forced to shut down in 1996 because it was not meeting operating standards. They were forced to buy power from other sources as well as cover their portion of the repair costs.

The increased expenses were hard to bear for the minority owners, which consist of nine municipal utilities and one rural cooperative. For instance, the city of New Smyrna Beach had to charge its 20,000 customers an extra $4 a month to cover the bills.

During the long outage, the owners were concerned whether Florida Power could turn the Citrus County nuclear plant into a reliable source of power again. To counter the lack of confidence in the plant, Florida Power offered to let the minority owners bow out.

But Tallahassee was the only utility to accept. "We have been wanting to divest our nuke interest since the late '80s," Wailes said.

Now, the OUC would like to open negotiations again. The utility, which serves about 154,000 customers in Orange and Osceola counties, is in the middle of restructuring operations. It recently decided to sell its largest power plant to Reliant Energy of Houston for $205-million. The utility plans to use the proceeds to either pay down debt of more than $1.5-billion or build a more economical plant. "We're looking down the road at a market in Florida that is different from today," OUC spokesman Sheridan Becht said. "This is the time to restructure and prepare for that."

Becht said OUC's investment in the nuclear plant, which dates to when the reactor opened in 1977, is worth $17.8-million. The utility also has set aside about $4-million for expenses associated with the eventual permanent closing of the nuclear plant. Reactors typically have 40-year licenses to operate.

Florida Power spokeswoman Melanie Forbrick said the company is willing to talk to any of the minority stakeholders about transferring ownership. But the sale of the utility and its parent company, Florida Progress Corp., to Carolina Power & Light Co. may complicate matters.

The deal is not expected to close for at least 12 months. In the meantime, the two companies are forming a transition team to oversee the integration of the utilities. That process could postpone any negotiations with the minority owners of the nuclear plant.

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A Glance At The Waco Controversy

Filed at 1:36 a.m. EDT, September 10, 1999 By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Waco-QA.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The FBI's grudging acknowledgment that it was less than candid about its role in the final hours of the 51-day standoff with the Branch Davidian sect near Waco, Texas, has raised new questions and prompted yet another investigation into the tragic events of April 19, 1993.

Attorney General Janet Reno on Thursday named former Sen. John Danforth, R-Mo., to lead an independent investigation into what happened that day. Danforth's probe follows a trio of congressional hearings and two federal inquiries into the deaths of David Koresh and some 80 of his followers.

Here, in question-and-answer form, is a look at some of the basic issues:

Q: Why is Waco back on the national agenda?

A: Because of recent news reports showing that the FBI did, in fact, use potentially incendiary tear gas on that final day, despite six years of FBI and Justice Department claims to the contrary. In recent weeks, FBI and Justice officials have been in the awkward position of having to disavow years of erroneous statements to Congress and the public about the FBI Hostage Rescue Team's use of tear gas in the hours before the Davidians' compound erupted in flames.

Q: What are government officials saying now, compared to what they said then?

A: On Aug. 25, the FBI acknowledged that a ``very limited number'' of military pyrotechnic CS gas canisters were fired at a concrete shelter adjacent to the Davidians' wooden compound. That stands in sharp contrast to earlier public statements. Appearing before the House Judiciary Committee less than two weeks after the standoff's end, Reno said that based on the briefings she'd been given, ``It was my understanding that the tear gas produced no risk of fire.'' And in its voluminous October 1993 report documenting the final assault, the Justice Department made no mention of any pyrotechnic devices. In fact, the Justice report stated: ``The gas delivery systems the FBI used were completely non-incendiary.'' Some former senior FBI officials who played key roles during the standoff, including former deputy assistant FBI director Danny Coulson and chief Waco spokesman Bob Ricks, say they were unaware until recently that potentially combustible devices were used.

Q: Cover-up or bureaucratic slip-up?

A: That's THE question for several congressional committees that are investigating the FBI's belated about-face, and for Danforth. ``My job is to answer the dark question or the dark questions: Was there a cover-up? That's a dark question. Did the government kill people? ... How did the fire start?'' Danforth said. The Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Government Reform Committee also are investigating, in preparation for fall hearings.

Q: What roles did Reno and FBI Director Louis Freeh play?

A: The standoff was already under way when Reno took office, and she had been on the job less than five weeks when she approved the FBI's proposal to use tear gas to flush out the Davidians and break the siege. Reno, who has said she made clear to the FBI her concern that nothing be used that could ignite a fire, is coming under increasing attack on Capitol Hill. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott on Wednesday became the highest-ranking congressional leader to call for her resignation over the escalating controversy. Freeh, who didn't take the helm of the FBI until four months after the standoff ended, has escaped much of the criticism.

Q: Why did this come to light now?

A: Because of inquiries by documentary filmmakers, reporters and lawyers for surviving Branch Davidians and relatives of the dead who are going to court next month in their longstanding lawsuit that the government was responsible for the deaths. Use of the potentially incendiary tear gas was first reported by The Dallas Morning News on Aug. 24, triggering the latest controversy over Waco.

Q: How did the standoff begin?

A: After the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms attempted on Feb. 28 to execute warrants for suspected firearms violations, triggering a deadly gunbattle with heavily armed Davidians who had been tipped off about the raid. Four ATF agents and at least several Davidians died in the gunfire, and more than 16 other ATF agents were wounded. The FBI quickly took control of the operation after the botched raid.

Q: How many people died on the siege's final day?

A: Davidian leader David Koresh and some 80 followers died during the final day's inferno, some from gunshot wounds, others from the fire. Fire had so damaged the bodies that coroners never were able to establish an exact count of the dead.

Q: Who caused the fire?

A: Reno and FBI officials say there is no evidence, even in light of the FBI's tear-gas admission, that the fire was caused by the pyrotechnic canisters. Aerial infrared tapes newly turned over by the FBI capture a radio transmission at 8:08 a.m. in which an unnamed agent says the military rounds bounced off the concrete structure, which was located 40 yards from the main wooden compound. Independent arson investigators determined that the fire, which began at 12:07 p.m., was started inside the compound in three different locations simultaneously. ``That fire was set by David Koresh and the people in that building,'' Reno said. The surviving Davidians disagree. In their lawsuit, they contend that the blaze was ignited by the tear gas canisters.

Q: What types of tear gas were used?

A: Two types of non-incendiary tear gas and the newly revealed military pyrotechnic rounds. The non-incendiary liquid tear gas was inserted in one of two ways: Either by Combat Engineering Vehicles that used their booms to punch holes into the compound's walls to insert the gas; or by Bradley Fighting Vehicles that fired non-combustible ``Ferret'' rounds that shattered on impact. The military M651 canisters, which burn for about 30 seconds to heat and release the solidified tear gas inside, were fired from a Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

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