From: Peace through Reason Subject: (abolition-usa) NucNews: 12/1/98 DOE; Supreme Court Date: 01 Dec 1998 07:59:16 -0500 1. http://deseretnews.com/wir/0a192t19.htm Shortage spurs U.S. to consider making tritium 2. http://www.usatoday.com/news/court/nscot915.htm Energy's nuclear waste case rebuffed 1. http://deseretnews.com/wir/0a192t19.htm Shortage spurs U.S. to consider making tritium Last updated 11/29/1998, 12:01 a.m. MT New York Times News Service WASHINGTON - A potential shortage of tritium, a crucial ingredient of every nuclear weapon, has prompted the Department of Energy to consider whether to recommend starting one of the department's rare public-works-style projects to manufacture more of the radioactive gas. With the department's decision due within three weeks, the issue has set off intense lobbying by congressional delegations from Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina and Washington state, which are hoping for a share of what could be a $9 billion project. Energy Secretary William Richardson is juggling issues of cost, risk and image. The two solutions that may be easiest and least expensive are those creating the biggest image problem: using a civilian reactor to make tritium - and breaking a 50-year taboo on mixing civilian and military atomic projects - or buying the material from Russia or France. More expensive and difficult would be restarting a research reactor that runs on plutonium, which presents safety questions, or building a linear accelerator 100 times more powerful than any yet built in this country. "I think we have dallied long enough on this decision," Richardson said last week. Deciding which course to take is especially difficult because of pending international weapons agreements. 2. http://www.usatoday.com/news/court/nscot915.htm 11/30/98- USA Today Energy's nuclear waste case rebuffed WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court Monday dodged a dispute over the nuclear industry's most perplexing problem - how and where to store thousands of tons of highly radioactive waste permanently and safely. The justices, without comment, let stand a ruling that sparked appeals by nuclear reactor operators and many states on one side and the federal government on the other. The nuclear reactor issue has widespread interest. More than 40,000 tons of used reactor fuel have piled up at 72 civilian nuclear power plants in 34 states, with the amount continuing to grow, until the federal Department of Energy provides a permanent burial site. But the Energy Department has not yet approved such a site. In a 1982 federal law, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, Congress said the government would find a place to safely store all such waste by Feb. 1, 1998. But that deadline has long passed, and the Department of Energy still is studying the feasibility of building a nuclear fuel burial site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, about 90 miles north of Las Vegas. That evaluation is expected to be completed in 2001, government lawyers told the court. If Yucca Mountain is found suitable, presidential approval would be required before construction could start. The site would not be ready to receive any nuclear waste until 2010, the justices were told. The nuclear industry has paid the government about $15 billion toward building the storage facility, and continues to pay about $1 billion a year in fees. When it became obvious that the 1998 deadline would not be met, Department of Energy officials interpreted the 1982 law to mean that no government collection of nuclear waste need begin until a storage facility is completed. That 1993 interpretation was challenged in a federal appeals court by states, state utility commissions and reactor operators. The petitions asked the appeals court to order the government to start collecting nuclear waste and to escrow all fee payments due after the 1998 deadline. After several rounds of litigation, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled last year that the government need not begin collecting nuclear waste until it comes up with somewhere to put it. But the appeals court said the Department of Energy can be sued for monetary damages by those entities who had relied on the 1998 deadline. By early this autumn, 11 utility companies had filed lawsuits in the Court of Federal Claims seeking damages ranging from $70 million to $1.5 billion. In the Supreme Court appeal filed on behalf of the states, state agencies and nuclear plant operators, lawyers in the Michigan attorney general's office argued that the Department of Energy's ''continued failure'' to live up to the 1982 law and related contract has resulted in a dangerous situation. The result is ''nuclear waste sites at 72 different locations throughout the nation next to lakes, rivers and streams, which were never chosen, evaluated or qualified for long-term storage, or permanent disposal,'' the appeal said. But the Department of Energy's appeal to the nation's highest court argued that the appeals court wrongly rejected an ''unavoidable delays'' argument and never should have authorized the possibility of monetary awards. The cases are Michigan vs. Department of Energy, 98-225, and U.S. vs. Northern States Power Co., 98-384. _______________________________________________________________________ * NucNews - subscribe: prop1@prop1.org - http://prop1.org ("Nuclear") * _______________________________________________________________________ - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: john burroughs Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) Abolition 2000 December Newsletter Date: 01 Dec 1998 07:55:26 -0800 (PST) Sue - nice report! See you in Feb I think - John At 04:44 PM 11/30/98 -0800, you wrote: >ABOLITION 2000 > >INTERNATIONAL GRASSROOTS NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 1998 > > ********************************************* John Burroughs Western States Legal Foundation 1440 Broadway, Suite 500 Oakland, California, USA 94612 Tel: +1 510 839 5877 Fax: +1 510 839 5397 E-mail: jburroughs@igc.apc.org Western States is part of Abolition 2000: A Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons ********************************************* - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: smirnowb@ix.netcom.com (Robert Smirnow) Subject: (abolition-usa) NEW NUKES IN SPACE VIDEO AVAILABLE NOW Date: 02 Dec 1998 04:40:37 -0600 (CST) ---- Message-ID: <366478C8.4C1E7291@earthlink.net> Reply-To: envirovideo@earthlink.net FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For Further Information Call: Karl Grossman (516)725-2858 Steve Jambeck or Joan Flynn (718)318-8045 NUKES IN SPACE 2: UNACCEPTABLE RISKS POWERFUL NEW DOCUMENTARY RELEASED BY ENVIROVIDEO Nukes In Space 2: Unacceptable Risks provides an update on the Cassini space probe with 72.3 pounds of lethal plutonium on board, the scheduled August 1999 Cassini Earth “fly-by” and the consequences of an accident. It reports on NASA’s planned additional plutonium missions and investigates the U.S. military’s aim to “control space” and the Earth below with space-based nuclear-powered weaponry. Nukes In Space 2, produced by EnviroVideo, is hosted and written by investigative reporter Karl Grossman, professor of journalism at the State University of New York, directed by Emmy Award-winner Steve Jambeck with Joan Flynn as associate producer. Dr. Karl Z. Morgan, founder of the profession of health physics and former director of the Health Physics Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, states in Nukes In Space 2 that those behind the use of plutonium in space “are very brazen and almost inhuman in their attitude, willing to run the risk of imposing a catastrophe on Earth that man’s never known before, where he cannot inhabit this space on our planet for the next million years…It is inconceivable to me that you would allow such high-risk of plutonium contamination on the Earth.” Alan Kohn, a 30-year NASA veteran and a long-time emergency preparedness officer for NASA, says in Nukes In Space 2: “The people should rise up and protest this. We should not allow our democratic government to do this to us. It is our responsibility and our duty to prevent them from putting us at risk. We have to stop them. They won’t stop themselves.” Nukes In Space 2 tells how the Cassini plutonium fueled space probe, launched by NASA in October 1997, is slated to come hurtling back from outer space on August 18, 1999 at 42,300 miles per hour to buzz the Earth less than 500 miles high in a “gravity assist” or “slingshot” maneuver so it can reach its final destination of Saturn. It presents NASA's own acknowledgement in its Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Cassini Mission that if Cassini makes an "inadvertent reentry" into the Earth’s atmosphere during the “flyby,” the probe will break up, plutonium will disperse and “approximately five billion of the estimated 7 to 8 billion world population at the time…could receive 99 percent or more of the radiation exposure." Dr. Michio Kaku, professor of nuclear physics at the City University of New York, declares in Nukes In Space 2 that NASA could have substituted a solar energy system for plutonium power on Cassini by shaving off just 1 percent, about 130 pounds, from its weight. Former NASA scientist Dr. Ross McCluney agrees and cites a “lack of vision at the highest level of NASA. I think they have another agenda behind-the-scenes.” The manufacturers of plutonium space systems, General Electric and now Lockheed Martin, the U.S. government’s string of national nuclear laboratories involved in fabricating the systems, and the U.S. Department of Energy, have all been pushing nuclear power in space. There is also a military connection, according to Nukes In Space 2. “Star Wars is the name of the game,” declares Dr. Kaku in this documentary. Nukes In Space 2 probes the Pentagon’s plan to deploy weapons in space. It reveals a U.S. Air Force report, New World Vistas: Air and Space Power for the 2lst Century, which states, “In the next two decades, new technologies will allow the fielding of space-based weapons of devastating effectiveness to be used to deliver energy and mass as force projection in tactical and strategic conflict…lasers with reasonable mass and cost to effect very many kills.” However, says New World Vistas, there are “power limitations” currently for such weaponry. “A natural technology to enable high power is nuclear power in space,” it declares. Nukes In Space 2 explores the U.S. Space Command’s desire to become “master of space” in order to “control space” and the Earth below. It exposes the U.S. Space Command’s Vision For 2020 report that describes the command’s mission as “dominating the space dimension of military operations to protect US interests and investment.” Among others appearing in Nukes In Space 2 are: Dr. Helen Caldicott, president emeritus of Physicians for Social Responsibility; Dr. Ernest Sternglass, professor emeritus of radiological physics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; Dr. Rosalie Bertell, president of the International Institute of Concern for Public Health; Harvey Wasserman of Greenpeace U.S.A.; Helen John of the Menwith Hill Women’s Peace Camp; editor Loring Wirbel; Bill Sulzman of Citizens for Peace in Space; and Bruce Gagnon and Regina Hagen of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. Nukes In Space 2 also shows how the use of nuclear power and planned deployment of weapons in space are illegal under the Outer Space Treaty. Nukes In Space 2 follows EnviroVideo’s 1995 video documentary, Nukes In Space: The Nuclearization and Weaponization of the Heavens, which received three major film and video festival awards including the Worldfest Gold Award at the Houston International Film and Video Festival, the world’s largest film and video festival. TO OBTAIN A COPY OF NUKES IN SPACE 2: UNACCEPTABLE RISKS Send $19.95 +$2(s&h) to: EnviroVideo, Box 311, Ft. Tilden NY 11695 or call EnviroVideo 1-800-ECO-TV46 email: envirovideo@earthlink.net For more information visit the Stop Cassini Earth Fly-by Action Site: www.nonviolence.org/noflyby - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: smirnowb@ix.netcom.com (Robert Smirnow) Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: FWB: Y2K Bug and Nukes Date: 02 Dec 1998 11:32:31 -0600 (CST) ---- Sender: owner-abolition-caucus@igc.org Non-member submission from [Robert Cherwink ] -----Original Message----- read this! Y2K Bug and Nukes - Two items included: *2000 Glitch Poses Nuclear Threat *The Impact of the Year 2000 Problem on Nuclear Weapons http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/1798.htm --- a few excerpts to entice you: <<< Western intelligence is warning of possible nuclear "meltdown" in the former Soviet bloc as a result of the so-called millennium bug... ..Russia's nuclear industry is in desperate straits. Throw in Y2K and you could have a giant Chernobyl on your hands... ..In a recent circular to all American power plants, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission warned that "control room display systems, radiation monitoring and emergency response" are particularly at risk... "The Y2K problem is urgent because it has a fixed, non-negotiable deadline," that circular concluded. "This matter requires priority attention because of the limited time remaining to assess the magnitude of the problem." <<< * 2000 Glitch Poses Nuclear Threat, THE ST. PETERSBURG TIMES Nov 13, 1998 <<< The dangers of a Y2K meltdown, even if restricted to a few key systems, are intensified by the Russian and American policy of "launch on warning." This policy calls for nuclear retaliation after detection of another country's launch of missiles, but before the adversary's warheads impact. If Y2K breakdowns were to produce inaccurate early-warning data, or if communications and command channels were to be compromised, the combination of hair-trigger force postures and Y2K failures could be disastrous... ..For all of these reasons, there should be a "safety first" approach to Y2K and nuclear arsenals. All the nuclear weapons states should stand-down nuclear operations. This approach should include taking nuclear weapons off alert status or de-coupling nuclear warheads from delivery vehicles. .. .. The Y2K problem can affect every aspect of the DoE's "cradle to grave" nuclear program... <<< * "The Bug in the Bomb: The Impact of the Year 2000 Problem on Nuclear Weapons" BRITISH AMERICAN SECURITY INFORMATION COUNCIL Executive Summary (The full version should be on their website at http://www.basicint.org/ ) --- Y2K Bug and Nukes http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/1798.htm Peace! Rob, Sector Air Raid Warden at Rob's Place /RENEGADE/ newsletter: http://fornits.com/renegade/ DEDICATED TO SPIRIT, TRUTH, PEACE, JUSTICE, AND FREEDOM Bay_Area_Activist list: http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/829.htm CHAT: http://jupiter.beseen.com/chat/rooms/i/1055/ Rob's Place: http://www.vom.com/rc/home.htm Robert Cherwink Usenet: alt.thebird WHEN SPIDERS UNITE, THEY CAN TIE DOWN A LION -- Ethiopian Proverb - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: DavidMcR@aol.com Subject: (abolition-usa) Late and urgent, re two US peace prisoners of conscience Date: 02 Dec 1998 17:12:25 EST Date: 12/2/98 5:09:34 PM Eastern Standard Time From: DavidMcR To: JDCoffin, 71564.3573@compuserve.com To: prcsandiego@igc.apc.org, psu02368@odin.cc.pdx.edu To: fbp@igc.apc.org, Epank, Doriew@igc.apc.org To: goodwork@igc.apc.org, jorgen.johansen@trada.se To: pjowens@flash.net, wrlne9@idt.net, Zefalcon To: RBLepley, lialliancepeace@hoflink.com To: etandc@igc.apc.org, VOBARON, jlucyny@enter.net To: Lthurston8, dhostetter@igc.apc.org To: nonweb@nonviolence.org, eschwartz@peacenet.org To: vickirov@worldnet.att.net, wrll@scn.org To: COC-L@CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU To: DEMSOC-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM To: LEFT-L@CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU To: RedYouth@lefty.techsi.com To: SocialistsUnmoderated@lefty.techsi.com To: cfaatz@teleport.com To: menno.org.peace@MennoLink.org To: nvweb@nonviolence.org CC: mjameson@lenoxhill.org BCC: DavidMcR Friends, First, this is late and urgent. Second, it involves Oliver Sachio Coe - active in New Jersey's WRL "Root and Branch Collective" and an older fellow, equally peaceful, Daniel Sicken. They took part in a "Plowshares Action" earlier this year at a US military base in Colorado - all this had been reported before on these nets and if you need any specific info on the case, send an email to Melissa Jameson: mjameson@lenoxhill.org Third - if you have lists of your own that should see this, FORWARD IT PLEASE A week or two ago Melissa had asked responsible folks to write to the Judge, which I did on behalf of WRL. She was worried about "crank letters" but I told her that the Judge could live with them and it was more important to let you all know that it would help if responsible letters were sent. I brought the info home with me and then couldn't find it for a week. It just this minute showed up. So I postpone getting over to the office to feed AJ (the office cat) and our WRL Executive Committee meeting to get out this info. THE LETTERS NEED TO BE WRITTEN THIS WEEK - MAIL BY SUNDAY EVENING. The Judge is: Judge Walker Miller % Susan M. Hackman 1961 Stout St., Suite 1525 Denver, Co. 80294-0101 If you feel you can't write a federal judge in a polite and responsible way, DON'T WRITE. The only persons who will suffer from a "wonderfully radical letter" are Sachio and Daniel. If you get smart, they get hurt, not the judge. The arugements for Daniel would just be at one level the same as for Sachio - no one was hurt in the action, there was no resistance to the arrest, and the defendents voluntarily returned for their trial (They were found guilty on November 4 and face a maximum penalty of 20 years and a half million dollars fine. They were charged with sabotage, conspiracy to commit sabotage, and destruction of government property in excess of $1,000). You don't have to agree with Plowshares actions to realize that this was a nonviolent offense, committed out of conscience, by two people who are engaged in positive work in their own communities. Your letter should argue that a long prison term would be seen as punitive, that it would not - from all the evidence of similar terms - change the views of the defendents, that even if a sentence of some kind is felt necessary by the judge, it should take into account the motives of peace and justice, of a deep committment to nonviolence, of the two defendants. And point out that these are people who are in their daily lives of positive worth in their communities, valued by friends and co-workers. IF YOU ARE A PROFESSOR, PASTOR, COUNSELOR, LAWYER, ETC., note that. (For those who want to write, the addresses until January 20 are (and don't forget the numbers!! - no kidding): Oliver Sachio Coe Unit A 28361-013 Federal Detention Center 9595 West Quincy Avenue Littleton, CO 80123 Daniel Sicken Unit A 28360-013 Federal Detention Center 9595 West Quincy Ave. Littleton, Co. 80123 If you are a pacifist you may want to send a bit of money to help with newsletter/expenses/commisary money (Sacho is a vegan so commisary money is helpful). No major legal fees are involved. Make the check payable to: Gram (say Sachio Ko-yin in the memo section) and send it to Melissa Jamieson, 10 E. Ridgewood, N.J. 07450 Please give this priority. Please pass on to others who believe that nonviolent offenders should receive light prison terms, or who will be sympathetic with the reasons behind the actions. Peace, fraternally, and sincerely (this goes to both pacifist and socialist lists) David McReynolds New York City >> - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "David Culp" Subject: (abolition-usa) Forward: START II Analysis from Carnegie's Moscow Center Date: 03 Dec 1998 18:17:55 -0500 __________________Proliferation Brief________________________ Vol. 1, No. 16 December 3, 1998 START II: BETTER LATE THAN NEVER In the Byzantine twilight of Russian political life it is ironically now the Communists (long-time treaty detractors) who seem ready to give the green light for the ratification of the START II treaty. The recent ascendancy of several prominent Communists into the cabinet of Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov has turned the tide in favor of ratification. Prime Minister Primakov and First Vice Prime Minister Yuriy Maslyukov personally lobbied members of the Communist-led Russian Duma - the lower house of the Russian Parliament - to ratify the treaty during closed hearings on November 10, 1998. Following these increased efforts, chances for the approval of the treaty by the Duma sometime in December are now higher than ever before. START II was signed in January 1993 amidst the honeymoon of post-Cold War relations between the United States and Russia. Its provisions require both sides to reduce their massive deployed strategic nuclear forces by almost half - to a level of 3,000-3,500 deployed warheads each. (The United States still plans to retain a total stockpile of some 10,000 nuclear weapons, though, even as the number of deployed weapons shrinks.) The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty in 1996. The Russian Duma, in contrast, has shelved it for more than three years since President Yeltsin formally submitted it for ratification in June 1995. The Road Ahead Just six months ago the Duma majority would not even consider a formal discussion of the treaty, but in November these same deputies agreed to accelerate the process considerably. Now they debate not just the notion of ratification, but specific implementing legislation drafted by officials from the Duma and Foreign and Defense Ministries. In April, President Yeltsin submitted his own START II ratification bill, which lacks Communist support and thus, popular opinion holds, has no chance of approval. In order to forestall the possibility of such a rejection, officials both in the Yeltsin government and Duma have begun to favor a Working Group approach. A Working Group draft resolution is currently being prepared jointly by representatives from both houses of Parliament, the office of the government and the presidential administration. Once this joint resolution is completed, the President will formally denounce his April bill and submit instead the agreed draft resolution. Such an approach will provide the Duma with the opportunity to consider the agreed bill from the very beginning - with much greater probability of its rapid approval. Reportedly, the ratification bill looks similar to that passed by the U.S. Senate, containing various conditions on START III, the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty, and non-deployment of nuclear weapons on the territory of new NATO members. Other provisions are addressed to the executive power, and call for the development of a START II-compatible plan for strategic nuclear force modernization, and sufficient financing of that plan. Although the Working Group probably agrees on the necessity of the conditions, concerns on specific wording remain. Some advocate more obligatory language requiring that missile deactivation under START II be initiated only after a satisfactory START III agreement is concluded. Others prefer a softer approach, perhaps requiring only a presidential recommendation on further START II implementation, contingent on progress in the negotiation of START III. Most likely, these concerns will not permit debates to begin on the Duma floor in early December, as some observers hurriedly predicted. Given that the Duma usually considers ratification of international agreements on Friday afternoons, December 18 or December 25 seem like more realistic deadlines. Potential Roadblocks Remain Despite all the recent activity, START II ratification should not be taken for granted. Communist and nationalist hardliners have so strongly committed themselves to opposition of the treaty that it will be very difficult for them to change their position - even if they want to help their newly-appointed allies in the Cabinet. Similarly, parliamentary liberals who have supported ratification for many years might now be unwilling to make concessions to the pro-leftist ministers. Moreover, there may be some opposition from deputies precisely because of the not very subtle linking by Maslyukov of START II ratification with new loans from the International Monetary Fund. In their eyes, the treaty deserves to be rejected simply because this would be the most efficient way to liberate Russia from the IMF and what they call its 'charlatan prescriptions.' Finally, the entire treaty could be revoked either by the Duma or by the U.S. Senate if the United States breaks out of the ABM treaty and deploys a national missile defense system, as some Senators advocate. Nonetheless, by January 3, 1999, six years after START II was signed with much fanfare, President Yeltsin finally has a real chance to gain its ratification. Unfortunately for him, this triumph may only be possible because of the ascendancy of his political archrivals - the Duma Communists. - Alexander Pikayev _____________________________________________________ Alexander Pikayev is a Scholar-in-Residence at the Carnegie Moscow Center and directs the Moscow-based activities of the Carnegie Non-Proliferation Project. The Project maintains a comprehensive web site on issues of proliferation concern, with special emphasis on Russian nuclear insecurity. Go to: WWW.CEIP.ORG. ____________________________________________________ Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Non-Proliferation Project 1779 Massachusetts Ave, NW Washington, DC 20036 ph: (202) 939-2296 fax: (202) 483-1840 email: npp@ceip.org http://www.ceip.org - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: DavidMcR@aol.com Subject: (abolition-usa) Re Ven. Nichigu Asangha Date: 04 Dec 1998 00:08:54 EST Some of you will remember Nichigu Asangha as the Ven. Sato, active for many years in the Gensuikyo movement and then, on the basis of political disagreements, tossed out. I don't want to rehash political issues here at all. I note only that on December 5th Nichigu Asangha will be 80 years old (perhaps under American ways of timing it might by 79). Those who know him may want to send a greeting. His email address is: nichigu_asangha1@po.teleway.ne.jp Since his computers suffered a "virus attack" he lost many email addresses and friends who do know him may want to restore your contact - an 80th birthday is a very good time! Peace, David McReynolds - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: smirnowb@ix.netcom.com (Robert Smirnow) Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: Nuke Waste Bills are BACK Date: 04 Dec 1998 13:23:41 -0600 (CST) ---- Sender: owner-nukenet@envirolink.org Organization: Public Citizen Reply-To: apiersma@citizen.org X-Sender: Auke Piersma Folks, The nuclear waste bills of last Congress are coming back fast. The first action will be in the U.S. House of Representatives and likely to begin in January in the Commerce Committee. They hope to go to the floor in February. The bill in the House will be very similar to the one passed in Nov. of 1997. Their strategy seems to be centered on passing a bill and letting it sink in the Senate. I suggest we sink it in the House. I'll have targets out by Monday. Auke - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: smirnowb@ix.netcom.com (Robert Smirnow) Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: Sustainable Energy Coalition: "Weekly Update" Date: 06 Dec 1998 10:08:21 -0600 (CST) ---- SUSTAINABLE ENERGY COALITION "WEEKLY UPDATE" December 6, 1998 The articles provided below were initially compiled by the SUN DAY Campaign for the member organizations of the Sustainable Energy Coalition. Feel free to distribute this newsletter to others. Please let us know of other organizations, businesses, or government agencies that would like to be added to the e-mail list for this publication. FEDERAL ENERGY BUDGET 1.) Fiscal Year 2000 Budget Request: The November 30 issue of "Inside Energy" reports that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Fiscal Year 2000 budget submission for fossil energy R&D sent earlier to the Office of Management & Budget (OMB) was slightly below the $384 million provided by Congress for FY'99. However, in the pass-back, OMB cut the fossil request by 33% overall with natural gas programs taking a 50% cut. The pass-back increased the FY'00 energy efficiency and renewable energy (EE/RE) budget by $15 million above the $1.12 billion originally requested by DOE. The article included no info on the nuclear R&D budget but noted that "among environmental cleanup activities, DOE's Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site in Colorado and the Hanford Site in Washington did not fare well in the passback." Separately, several DOE officials have indicated that the passback from OMB is unacceptable and that they will be working with the White House to improve the EE/RE numbers. However, White House officials have responded that the FY'00 budget caps are very tight, that OMB imposed lots of cuts from original requests in the passbacks elsewhere, and they could not promise an increase. Members of the Sustainable Energy Coalition have told the White House that without a substantial increase in the EE/RE programs, they are likely to publicly criticize the request when it is formally released. 2.) Ron Packard's Record: The November 30 "Inside Energy" reports that Rep. Ron Packard (R-CA), the next chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy & Water (which handles the renewable energy and nuclear power budgets), in the past has cast votes on several important DOE-related issues, including supporting fusion and nuclear energy R&D. He has also co-sponsored legislation directing DOE to build an interim storage facility for nuclear waste near Yucca Mountain, Nevada. However, he has voted against House floor amendments aimed at increasing spending on DOE energy efficiency and renewable energy programs. 3.) Climate Change Tax Package: White House officials say they are working on coming up with a more politically sellable climate change tax package, meaning they are considering changes to proposals to get more industry buy-in as well as adding some additional products/initiatives. However, the Treasury Department is still costing all this out and the Administration will have to balance expanding initiatives (e.g., biomass) with holding down the overall cost. Members of the Sustainable Energy Coalition are urging the White House to put more money into the $3.6 billion, five-year package if that's what it takes to get industry support. ELECTRIC UTILITY RESTRUCTURING 1.) Draft Executive Order/EE-RE: The November 27 issue of "Inside EPA" included the full text of a 6-page draft executive order under consideration by the Clinton Administration that would commit federal agencies to purchase electricity generated from renewable fuel sources even when that power costs more than other alternatives, and would set strict energy efficiency goals for federal agencies. It envisions 5% of the federal government's energy needs being met with renewables by 2005 with energy use in federal facilities being reduced by 30% by the same date. The draft executive order is now being reviewed by OMB and may be issued "early next year." Let us know if you would like us to send you a copy (warning: print is small & may not fax well). Members of the Sustainable Energy Coalition have suggested including carbon emissions reduction goals for the federal government as well. 2.) Administration's Restructuring Bill: DOE officials have told members of the Sustainable Energy Coalition that they are willing to consider changes in the Administration's draft utility restructuring bill. However, they want to avoid major revisions that would trigger an extensive interagency review process. They have flatly rejected carbon caps or similar measures aimed directly at emissions for feat that such a proposal would simply sink the bill. Regarding a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) and Public Benefits Fund, DOE officials have expressed a willingness to consider options to strengthen these proposals somewhat. For example, the RPS might be increased from the Administration's earlier proposal of 5.5% renewables by 2010 to 6% or 6.5%. 3.) Rich Glick: A November 27 Reuters story reported that Rich Glick will serve as principle adviser to DOE Secretary Bill Richardson on electricity issues. Richardson noted: "One of my priorities as energy secretary is to help our nation's electric utility system make the transition to choice." Glick worked as legislative director and chief counsel to retiring Senator Dale Bumpers (D-AR) where he managed legislative staff and formulated policies on electric utility restructuring, oil and natural gas issues, global climate change, and nuclear waste disposal. 4.) Los Angeles/Green Power: The Los Angeles City Council gave the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power permission last Wednesday to offer customers the option of purchasing "green power." The utility said it would launch the program in the first quarter of next year. The utility believes that most "green power" customers "will see no difference on their bills and in many cases costs will be reduced" because the higher premium for the higher costs to purchase renewable-based electricity would be offset by a variety of energy-efficiency programs such as discounts on energy-saving appliances. CLIMATE CHANGE 1.) Climate Change/Losses: A November 28 Associated Press story on a new Worldwatch Institute study reports that storms, floods, droughts, and fires have caused a record $89 billion in economic losses this year worldwide. That is more than was than the $55 billion that was lost from weather-related disasters in all of the 1980s. Preliminary estimates put total losses from weather-related disasters for the first 11 months of the year 48% higher than the previous one-year record of over $60 billion in 1996. In addition to the material losses, the disasters have killed an estimates 32,000 people and displaced 300 million -- more than the population of the United States. A combination of deforestation and climate change caused this year's most severe disasters among them Hurricane Mitch, the flooding of China's Yangtze River, and Bangladesh's most extensive flood of the century. The report can be found at . 2.) CO2/Early Reductions: The Environmental Defense Fund has provided the text of S.2617, the "Credit for Voluntary Early Action Act," which is designed "to encourage voluntary greenhouse gas emission mitigation actions by authorizing the President to enter into binding agreements under which entities operating in the Untied States will receive credit, usable in any future domestic program that requires mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, for voluntary mitigation actions before 2008." Let us know if you would like us to fax or e-mail the bill to you. MISCELLANEOUS 1.) Combined Heat & Power: Reuters (December 1) reports that the U.S. Department of Energy wants to double the use of combined heat and power (CHP) systems in commercial, industrial, and institutional buildings throughout the U.S. by 2010. Savings from increased use of the energy-saving CHP units would amount to some 46 gigawatts of electricity, equal to the output of more than 50 large power plants. CHP can generate system efficiencies greater than 70% as compared to central generating plants that operate at a national average of 33%. 2.) Ethanol Record: The Renewable Fuels Association reports that the domestic fuel ethanol industry has achieved a new all-time high for production, manufacturing a record of 103,000 barrels/day or ethanol in October. The previous record of 100,000 barrels/day was set in February 1995. Production for 1998 thus far exceeds 1.36 billion gallons and the industry is expected to set a new annual production record in 1998. Since passage in June of the extension of the federal ethanol tax incentive, two new farmer-owned cooperative production facilities commenced production in Minnesota: Pro-Corn, LLC, a 10-million gallon plant in Preston, and Agri-Energy, LLC, a 15-million gallon facility in Luverne. In addition, several plants in Iowa, Illinois, South Dakota, Louisiana, and Minnesota have celebrated ground-breaking ceremonies and are expected to begin production in 1999. 3.) Wind Powers America: The American Wind Energy Association reports that between now and next July 1, new wind plants will be installed and begin operating in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. This surge in new construction will boost installed U.S. wind capacity by approximately 50%, to a level sufficient to power more than half a million average American households. 4.) Wisconsin Wind: Madison Gas & Electric Co. were to start construction this past week on a $14.5 million wind farm in Kewaunee County, Wisconsin that will include seventeen wind turbines -- sufficient to produce enough power to light 4,400 homes. The project is scheduled to start operating in June 1999 and would be the largest wind power project in the eastern United States. It will be financed by customers who designate that they want wind power as a source of part of their electricity. An average residential customer who signs up for 20% of electricity from the wind turbines will pay another $4 to $5 a month. 5.) More Wind News: A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the 24.9 MW Vansycle Ridge Wind Farm near Pendleton, Oregon on December 3 initiated construction of the first commercial wind energy facility to be built in the Pacific Northwest in more than a decade. Texas Utilities and York Research Corporation announced the unveiling of "phase one of the 34,000-kilowatt, $40 million Big Spring (TX) WindPower Project, which will include the largest wind turbines in America." A November 30 article from the "Omaha World-Herald" discussed the Alta (IA) wind power project whose "wind turbines can collectively produce almost 193 megawatts of electricity per hour." The article notes that there are now 37 wind projects in different phases of construction nationally, including eight in Iowa. Let us know if you would like us to fax you copies of any of these materials. 6.) EXXON-Mobil Merger: In response to the EXXON-Mobil merger, SUN DAY released a 1-page statement discussing the adverse impacts on sustainable energy and climate change. A 1-page news release by US PIRG warns that the merger is "Big Oil at its worst" that will help the industry to "drill in even the remotest parts of the planet; consumers, however, will not benefit, and the environment will almost certainly suffer." Let us know if you would like us to fax you a copy of either release. Similarly, Public Citizen observed that "consumers are eventually going to pay the price for this since it induces non-competitive behavior." The transcript of an interview by Chris Flavin (Worldwatch Institute) with Jim Lehrer concerning the environmental impacts of the merger is on the web at: ; in addition, a statement by the Worldwatch Institute on the merger can be found at . 7.) Supreme Court/NuclearWaste: Reuters reports that the U.S. Supreme Court declined on November 30 to review a U.S. Appeals Court ruling that refused to force the U.S. Department of Energy to start accepting the high-level radioactive waste piling up at nuclear power plants, but allowed utilities to seek compensation from the government. A lawsuit filed by more than 30 states and state public utility commissions and by more than 40 utilities ought to force DOE to take the waste. A earlier (October 5) 6-page news release from the Minnesota Department of Public Service noted that "28 state utility commissioners [had] joined 68 of their colleagues already demanding that $6.5 billion in on-going Nuclear Waste Fund payments be deferred until the DOE provides the nuclear waste disposal services the fees already have paid for." Let us know if you would like us to fax you a copy. 8.) Yucca Mountain Doubts: A 1-page article in "Armed Forces Newswire Service" reports that a new geological study of Yucca Mountain has found that at some time in the past the proposed radioactive waste repository site area was flooded with water. DOE's predictions of performance at Yucca Mountain depend centrally on its location well above the level of the water table. Let us know if you would like to see a copy. ## END## - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: smirnowb@ix.netcom.com (Robert Smirnow) Subject: (abolition-usa) USA PLANS TO MILITARILY DOMINATE OUTER SPACE WITH NUKES, WEAPONS Date: 06 Dec 1998 16:58:58 -0600 (CST) ---- This message is in MIME format. The first part should be readable text, while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools. Send mail to mime@docserver.cac.washington.edu for more info. --- Colonising Space: Peaceful Exploration or Military Adventure ? Leicester Peace Action Group Annual Conference Vaughan College, Leicester 14th November 1998 (http:/www.gn.apc.org/cndyorks/yspace/articles/lcon.htm) The conference was organised by the Leicester Peace Action Group. Formed in 1982 as a Working Party of the Policy and Resources Committee of Leicester City Council, the group operates as an umbrella organisation on which local peace and environmental groups are represented. Its objective is to promote moves towards the fulfilment of peace by working to remove the threat of war, particularly nuclear war. Membership of the Group is made up of City Councillors and representatives of the County Council and local organisations whose aims are consistent with the objectives of the Peace Action Group. The theme of the conference was inspired by the rapid growth in the use of space for military and peaceful purposes and by the development of Leicester's National Space Centre, due to open in Feb 2001. Over 100 people attended the conference which was opened by the Chair of the Peace Action Group, Councillor Councillor Roy Stuttard.=20 The following report has been compiled from notes taken by various attendees from West Midlands CND and Yorkshire CND. Key Note Speakers: Peaceful Space Exploration - Dr Martin Barstow =85 is a Reader in Astrophysics and Space Science at Leicester University a= nd a Fellow of the Institute of Physics. He is involved in astronomical research using a wide variety of space instrumentation including the Voyager mission and the Hubble Space Telescope. He is currently developing a new instrument for a rocket flight in 1999. Dr. Barstow's slide illustrated presentation took us on a grand tour of the solar system, with impressive pictures of the solar system taken from spacecraft. He talked of "the peaceful use of space" and of exploration, discovery and understanding of the planets, the stars and the galaxies that inhabit the Universe.. Space flight has enabled us to see and know more about the planets. The importance of international collaboration in this very costly and complex endeavour was emphasised. He did mention that it would be nice if the military (if it does have to exist) had to live off the back of a civil (ethical) space programme. The grand tour was followed by a review of three major questions: =B7 Why are we here ?; =B7 How long will we be here ?; =B7 Is there anybody else ?. The talk included some examples of where we have acted quite responsibly in space (e.g. sterilisation of vehicles landing on other planets to prevent the introduction of possible harmful bacteria etc), He argued the value of pure information as an aid to solving world (human) problems. We are children of space, being made up of elements created in the hearts of stars and blown across outer space in stellar explosions. Perhaps, therefore it is natural that we should explore space to help give us a sense of place and position? Also in about 4.5 billion years our Sun will die naturally. The Earth will die with it and so will the human race (if it is still around) unless we find an alternative home. One important statement came in response to a question about the use of solar power for spacecraft control systems, so allowing peaceful research to continue without using nuclear energy. He did not believe that this was currently possible at large distances from the sun, but would be in the future. Perhaps a ban on nuclear power could act as a stimulus to solar panel research? Another question on whether we should be concerned about asteroid impacts prompted the reply that there is not much we can do about it. The chances of impact are very low and if we blow them up the probability increases because even if we could split the body up (which is unlikely) we make many more possible impacting bodies. Military Adventure in Space - Dr Karl Grossman =2E. is a professor of journalism at the State University of New York/Colle= ge at Old Westbury who for almost 30 years has pioneered investigative reporting and environmental journalism. He is author of "The Wrong Stuff - The Space Program's Threat to Our Planet" and writer and narrator of "Nukes in Space: The Nuclearisation and Weaponisation of the Heavens" and has just finished "Nukes in Space II" which was shown at the Conference. He is a member of the Commission on Disarmament Education, Conflict Resolution and Peace of the International Association of University Presidents and the United Nations. Dr. Grossman started by stating that it is important that the new Leicester Space Centre holds and gives information about the military uses of space. Some aspects of space exploration are exploitative - planets Ours and others) are being mapped for rare minerals: this is about money and big corporations. And, as far as the US is concerned, no-one else is to be allowed strategic access to space. He showed extracts from official US documents such as "New World Vistas - Air and Space Power for the 21st Century" which states that "in the next two decades, new technologies will allow the fielding of space-based weapons of devastating effectiveness". Further, the document makes it clear that space based nuclear power systems are required to enable high power for space-based radars and weapons.=20 A major problem for putting nuclear materials in space is the occurrence of accidents. It was shown that the figures quoted by NASA and others for the probability of accidents are plucked out of the air to give false reassurance. Before the Challenger disaster the probability of a catastrophic accident with the shuttle was given as 1:100.000. This was immediately revised by NASA to 1:78 after the accident. The Titan rocket (used to launch many of the missions carrying nuclear materials) has an actual failure rate is 1:12. Dr. Grossman then described the consequences of the planned 1999 Cassini Earth "flyby". NASA calls a crash of the space probe fuelled with 72..3 pounds of plutonium dioxide into the Earth's atmosphere an "inadverent reentry". It says in its Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Cassini Mission that, should this occur, "approximately 5 billion of the estimated 7 to 8 billion world population at the time=85could receive 99 percent or more of the radiation exposure". NASA in the report projects 2,300 fatal cancers in the event of such an accident. The report also speaks of plans if plutonium rains down on urban areas, for example - "demolish some or all structures", "relocate affected population permanently". The U.S. government's Interagency Nuclear Safety Review Panel "Safety Evaluation Report" on the Cassini mission, speaks of the possibility of "several tens of thousands" of cancer deaths.=20 It notes that in an Earth "flyby" accident because the plutonium canisters "have not been designed for the high speed re-entry=85much of the plutonium is vaporised" and provides "a collective dose to the world's population." Depending on where the spacecraft might "inadvertently" re-enter the atmosphere, there could be 1-4 million deaths. To clean up the operation would cost $200 million per square kilometre. NASA itself says that, if Cassini strikes an inhabited area, the cost of property damage and radioactive cleanup could be as high as ten-trillion dollars. But the US government has covered itself by the Price-Anderson Act which limits the US liability to a total of $100-million damages to all and any affected countries. Alan Kohn, former safety preparedness officer for NASA now believes that when the "quest for knowledge becomes too expensive" it becomes "meaningless". In contrast, a current NASA expert, Dr. Edberg, believes the "low" risk of an accident is worth it. On film, however, he agrees that the estimate of a one-in-a-million accident is "in a sense a number pulled out of a hat". The actual failure rate of space shots containing nuclear material is 12%..=20 And NASA has itself listed 18 different possibilities for accidents to occur to Cassini during the Earth fly by manoeuvre. Dr. Michio Kaku considers the weakest point is loss of contact with a probe, leading to an explosion. There is a 10% chance of this, or of a rocket misfiring and going into the wrong orbit. And yet the plutonium on board Cassini provides as little as 740 watts to power instruments. The European Space Agency have developed new high-performance silicon solar cells that "could profitably" be used in deep space missions. The European Rosetta probe to rendezvous with a comet will use solar not nuclear power. Even so, at least 8 more space missions carrying plutonium 238 are planned for the near future by NASA. There is too much vested interest in the "space business". In Germany the solar developers have a nuclear arm. The plutonium systems are made by Lockheed Martin, who also make the Titan IV launchers. In the US, the Dept of Energy is an extension of the Atomic Agency. On top of all this, it is impossible to get mainstream publicity in the US as GE & Westinghouse own major broadcasting companies. What is happening here? The aim of the US military is world dominance. The US Space Command declares itself "Masters of Space". Their mission to dominate space is presented, for all to see, in their "Vision 2020" document and their "Long Range Plan" describes how they aim to achieve it.= =20 The U.S. space military approach is also detailed in the book, "The Future of War: Power, Technology & American World Dominance in the 2lst Century", in which George and Meredith Friedman state that through the domination of space with weaponry the U.S. will dominate the planet below and "just as Europe shaped the world for a half a millennium" by the Britain, France and Spain dominating the oceans with their fleets, "so too the United States will shape the world for at least that length of time". They also push the use of nuclear power as an energy source for these purposes. As Friedman has said: "he who controls space controls the battlefield". The Friedmans run a think tank for the Pentagon. Also, of course, there has been little business for the nuclear industry in the US in recent years (you see - campaigns do work!) and it needs to find ways to keep itself going. The most recent justification for developing a nuclear space capability is to defend the Earth against asteroid impacts. Is it a coincidence that a number of Hollywood films have recently shown how the Earth can be saved by the use of nuclear weapons against these "threats from nature"? But all this is terribly risky. Accidents have happened - space missions have gone wrong and dispersed Pu 238 over the Earth's surface. This has a shorter half life than 239, is not fissile, but is much more radioactive.= =20 By 1970 debris from SNAP 9A (a '64 abort) was found on all continents. The ill-fated Apollo 13 in 1970 had 8.3 pounds of plutonium on board. It was ejected before re-entry in case the spacecraft burned up in the atmosphere and was said to have been aimed into the deep Tong Trench in the South Pacific. In 1996 the Russian space probe to Mars crashed and disintegrated over Bolivia & Chile. No help was offered to clean-up the mess. And, of course, the proposed dominance of space is a complete violation of International Treaties. By 2002 the ABM & Outer Space Treaties will be breached. Both of which have been signed by the US. The US has already developed a helium-based laser which can knock out rival satellites - in violation of the Outer Space Treaty. The U S Experience - Dr Donna Johnson Dr. Johnson lives in Colorado Springs the home of the US Space Command and other military schools, centres and bases. She showed slides of the construction of NORAD in the heart of Cheyenne Mountain. Information from the BMEWS at Fylingdales in North Yorkshire is fed here directly as part of the "Star Wars" system. NORAD HQ is the command centre for US military operations. It consists of 15 buildings built on springs inside the mountain to withstand a nuclear attack. It has recently been renamed "Cheyenne Mountain Air Station".=20 Dr. Johnson gave an interesting and inspiring account of how she (and others like her) despite living in the middle of a huge military complex, continuously and untiringly campaign against it. She told of her personal campaign of refusing to pay tax that went towards military expenditure. In one example dollar bills, totalling the amount that should have been paid to the Inland Revenue for military purposes, were attached to hundreds of balloons which were let off outside the tax office. A much better way to throw the money away! Despite all the witholdings and fines and interest - she was never prosecuted or gaoled. Other campaigns aimed against bases in Colorado Springs (e.g. Falcon, now Schriever, Air Force base and the Office of Space Domination) were described. Slides of a range of brilliantly designed T-shirts were displayed (including one displaying the quote by Margaret Mead - "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Personnel at the bases refuse to confront the moral issues associated with the bases - they are merely "doing their job" and others should "trust us - we're working for your best interests." However, this is difficult to do when there is a $20 billion pa black budget that funds secret projects a large part of which is associated with the military use of space. When so much money is needed for improvements in health and education - are the means consistent with the proposed end? To the campaigners in Colorado Springs, silence signifies consent and they cannot remain silent. As Dr. Johnson remarked, during the time of the Vietnam War, only 2-3% refused the draft but it was enough to pay a significant part in ending the war. Seminars "Civil Spies in the Sky - peaceful or aggressive?" - Dr Bhupendra Jasani Dr. Jasani is a Visiting Professor in the Department of War Studies, Kings College, London, where he is heading a programme on military use of space and arms control verification from space. He is currently working on a project for the International Atomic Energy Agency, on behalf of the British and German governments to investigate the applications of Commercial Satellite Imagery on the monitoring of nuclear power facilities. In a fascinating and interesting talk, Dr. Jasani explained and showed how information from commercial satellites is now so sophisticated that it rivals military imaging information. Imaging satellites are used in the verification of treaties such as SALTII, and although information from military sources is secret, most information is now available - at a price - through commercial satellites. Many different states operate commercial imaging satellites although imagery from this source is not as high-quality as that from military satellites (civil are 700 kilometres above earth, whereas military are at 150). However, the gap is narrowing. European (French), Japanese & Indian are the best commercially available at present. Dr. Jasani has been urging the MOD to exploit the potential of commercially-available images. By combining them with radar images & information from open sources, you can arrive at valid conclusions about e.g. nuclear sites. Once a clear plan of the site is drawn up from multi-sourcing, radar alone will provide continued monitoring. He has been urging the IAEA to use this technique. During the Korea crisis the IAEA's use of US satellite images intensified the confrontation as Korea accused them of siding with their enemy. As well as photographs, information can also be obtained from images looking at other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, e.g. infra red or radar. Images can for example, give information about hot water discharges, or false foliage camouflage to identify if, for example, a nuclear power station is operating. Dr Jasani gave some examples of the use of imaging. Finding the phased array radar at Krasnoyask, with interceptor missiles next door which showed that Russia was breaking the ABM treaty because it was looking internally and not externally. He clearly said that nuclear weapons are the easiest type of weapon of mass destruction to identify and verify because the installations needed to make and store the weapons is distinct. He showed pictures taken by satellites of Israel's nuclear weapons production and storage facilities to show how useful commercial satellite images can be. Dr Jasani is trying to encourage non military bodies, such as the IAEA or the UN to use commercial imagery, since they are often stuck because they are not given information which is useful to them by the military. They can use the images to search out which places they should visit. Using commercial images could enable organisations to be more independent of the United States. Use of commercial images can be used in the implementation of the CTBT to prevent violation beforehand, rather than through seismic monitoring. "Space in T V and film fiction" - Dr John Cook A fascinating talk, though contributing very little to campaigning issues, except for a review of the way in which the public view both ethics and science in general. It consisted of clips from various TV series, mostly StarTrek, interspersed with philosophical discussions of the issues involved.=20 Apparently, the StarTrek series was the inspiration of a US war hero and was originally intended as "Hornblower in Space" - the pilot programme in 1964, called "The Cage", being gung-ho and chauvinistic. Surprisingly, this pilot revealed that the liberal aspects were more popular than the militaristic and, over the years, the programme became more politically correct. It was originally intended that the second-in-command of the Enterprise would be a woman, but the producers thought the public would not accept a woman in charge, so made it an alien!!! Seminar attendees thought that even now the women are only telephonists, etc, and don't make important decisions. Other points arising from the discussion :- =B7 Computer games are all about killing =B7 Baddies , e g Daleks in Dr Who are portrayed with German accents =B7 The only justification for science fiction is to make people think - ie about metaphysics as in "The End of Eternity" (Asimov) or ethics as in "The Time Machine (Wells) =B7 TV, and therefore science fiction, forms children's view of the world. =B7 Britain can't win in the space race, therefore British programmes eg Re= d Dwarf tend to be more mocking. "To Badly Go - Ethical Use of Space" - Dr David Webb The problem may not be the science but the way it is carried out. As Bertrand Russell said: Science .. has two main functions: 1. to enable us to know things, and 2. to enable us to do things. It cannot be objective. But people can. Ethics are concerned with what is morally good and bad, right and wrong. This is usually human centric, but Fritjof Kapra (in "The Web of Life") believes we need to consider "Deep Ecological Ethics" because "Logic does not lead us from the fact that we are an integral part of the web of life to certain norms of how we should live. However if we have deep ecological awareness, or experience, of being part of the web of life, we will (as opposed to should) be inclined to care for all of living nature." Among the questions we should ask are: =B7 Why do we want to go into space? =B7 Is the cost involved immoral? =B7 How do we monitor the use of space? =B7 Can we separate the civil and military uses of space? Military activities are geared towards defence and dominance. Civil activities are exploration, discovery, communication. However, most of these activities (including communication which is used for propaganda, spying and control) lead to some form of exploitation and exploitation almost always leads to domination. Is this an ethical way to behave? Is it best for the planet? The 'Vision Statement' of NASA talks about 'exploring frontiers' whereas the US Space Command 2020 argues that the protection of space requires superior US space warfare capability. US Space Command and NASA have now agreed to work together in: "several areas of mutual interest in the hopes of saving both organisations costs and sharing in new technologies to benefit future spaceflight and spacecraft" This suits NASA, because the military can get cash more easily from accountable and unaccountable budgets. International Treaties have been drawn up and agreed to ensure an "ethical" use of space. These include: =B7 the 1967 Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies; =B7 the 1968 Agreement on the Rescue of Astronauts, the Return of Astronaut= s and the Return of Objects Launched into Outer Space; =B7 the 1972 Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Spa= ce Objects; =B7 the 1975 Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Spac= e; and =B7 the 1979 Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. In addition the International Telecommunication Union regulates the use of radio frequencies for telecommunications and direct television broadcasting by artificial satellites. However, many problems remain unresolved: =B7 the definition of outer space and its delimitation from airspace =B7 equitable use of the geostationary orbit =B7 the use of nuclear-powered satellites and spacecraft =B7 international direct television broadcasting, remote sensing, and the military use of outer space =20 The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 provides the basic framework on international space law it has been ratified by 91 countries it has good basic ethical principles: =B7 The exploration and use of outer space shall be carried on for the benefit and in the interests of all countries and shall be the province of all mankind =B7 Outer space shall be free for exploration and use by all States =B7 Outer space is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means =B7 States shall not place nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial bodies or station them in outer space in any other manner =B7 The Moon and other celestial bodies shall be used exclusively for peaceful purposes =20 However, although treaties are often signed with the best of intentions, when an advantage is to be made in breaking them - they tend to get broken. The Outer Space and ABM Treaties are on the verge of being broken (if they haven't been broken already). =20 No-one believes in SDI, yet billions of dollars is poured into it. The US has a 'black budget' where money disappears. Is this ethical? It certainly doesn't seem democratic. Interestingly, the EU decided not to go for a BDM system for Europe because it is useless, expensive and would not be popular. Scientists should examine what they are doing, why and how.. They must recognise and confront the fact that the scientific programme may be used by military - as propaganda and a reason to keep spending on space publicly acceptable. How do we measure the moral advantages and disadvantages of the space programme? Is it inevitable that humans should want to explore space? At what cost? The Friedens und Begegnungsstatte Mutlangen and the Darmstadter Friedensforum of Germany have drawn up the following guidelines for the Assessment for Space Missions: Space missions should: =B7 deal with social needs of humankind =B7 solve problems on Earth rather than create new ones =B7 only be used if no better terrestrial solution is available =B7 be cheap =B7 not run the risk of catastrophe =B7 be sustainable (i.e. respect natural limits and use a minimum of resources) =B7 not create (international) conflicts, confrontations or imbalances but strengthen international co-operation =B7 not be used for power politics =B7 not be used for the deployment of weapons or missile defence An interesting debate covering much of the above was held in the afternoon session. There was some agreement on what was meant by the ethical use of space - but differences of opinion on how much this was respected by the actions of scientists, politicians and the military. Discussion and Forum In the discussion at the end of the Conference it became clear that the scientists in the audience found it difficult to believe the "domination of space" line. They could not believe that this was a national policy - perhaps the work of some maverick general who was allowed to get away with saying too much? It is difficult to believe that top scientists that have to deal with politicians and bid for grants and awards in national and international contexts can be so naive. Details of one organisation and o ne event were mentioned - COSPAR and UNISPACE III. Notes on these, obtained from the internet, follow. =20 The meeting ended =2E.. with a closing speech from Roy Stuttard and with thanks to the organisers and helpers and special thanks to Anna Cheetham from Leicester CND who put in hours of unpaid work to make the conference such a great success. Additional Notes 1. The Conference also hosted the premier screening of "Nukes in Space 2: Unacceptable Risks" by Karl Grossman, from Envirovideo, which provides an update on the August 1999 Cassini Earth fly-by. It reports on NASA's planned additional plutonium missions and investigates the U.S. military's aim to "control space" and the Earth below with space-based nuclear-powered weaponry. Copies of the video can be obtained from: Yorkshire CND 22 Edmund Street, Bradford BD5 OBH Tel 01274 730795 Email: cndyorks@gn.apc.org (web site: http://www.gn.apc.org/cndyorks/yspace/ysnews.htm) Or from: EnviroVideo, Box 311, Ft. Tilden NY 11695 (call EnviroVideo 1-800-ECO-TV46 Email: envirovideo@earthlink.net) For more information visit the Stop Cassini Earth Fly-by Action Site: http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby/ 2. Before the Conference Karl Grossman and Donna Johnson attended a press release at the House of Commons and Karl held an interview for the BBC programme "Uncle Sam's Eavesdroppers" which was broadcast on the BBC in Yorkshire on Thursday 3rd December. The programme covered the role of Menwith Hill as an integral component of the US Star Wars programme (see also the article by Duncan Campbell in the Guardian of 3/12/98 - at http://www.gn.apc.org/cndyorks/yspace/articles/swars.htm). =20 3. Karl Grossman is a founder member of the umbrella organisation created to oppose U.S. space policies, and the use of nuclear- powered space probes and the deployment of weapons in space . The Global Netowork Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space was formed in 1992 (see http://www.gn.apc.org/cndyorks/yspace/articles/gnet.htm). The next meeting of the Global Network will be in March 1999 in Darmstadt, Germany. The Global Network can be contacted at: PO Box 90083,=20 Gainesville, Fl. 32607, 352/337-9274 or E-mail (globenet@afn.org).=20 4. COMMITTEE ON SPACE RESEARCH (COSPAR)=20 (See also: http://cospar.itodys.jussieu.fr/) Established in 1958 by the International Council for Science (ICSU) to continue the co-operative programs of rocket and satellite research successfully undertaken during the International Geophysical Year of 1957-1958. The ICSU resolution creating COSPAR stated that the primary purpose of COSPAR would be to "provide the world scientific community with the means whereby it may exploit the possibilities of satellites and space probes of all kinds for scientific purposes, and exchange the resulting data on a co-operative basis."=20 COSPAR is an interdisciplinary scientific organisation concerned with international progress in all areas of scientific research carried out with space vehicles, rockets, and balloons.=20 COSPAR's objectives are carried out by the international community of scientists working through ICSU and its adhering National Academies and International Scientific Unions. Operating under the rules of ICSU, COSPAR ignores political considerations and considers all questions solely from the scientific viewpoint.=20 Address: 51, bd de Montmorency 75016 Paris, France=20 Telephone: +33 1 45 25 06 79 Faxsimile: +33 1 40 50 98 27 E-mail: COSPAR@paris7.jussieu.fr =20 The IAF and COSPAR organise annual joint symposia held during the scientific and technical sessions of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN COPUOS).=20 =20 The 33rd COSPAR Scientific Assembly will be held in Warsaw, Poland from 16-23 July 2000. UNISPACE III (See details of the Conference at: http://www.un.or.at/OOSA/unisp-3/index.htm=20 On The Office for Outer Space Affairs web site: http://www.un.or.at/OOSA/index.html See also an Index of On-Line Reports of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space at: http://www.un.or.at/OOSA/coprep/coprpidx.html) =20 The United Nations General Assembly agreed that the Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE III) should be convened as a special session of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space open to all Member States of the United Nations. The primary objectives of the UNISPACE III Conference will be (a) to promote effective means of using space technology to assist in the solutions of problems of regional or global significance and (b) to strengthen the capabilities of Member States, in particular developing countries, to use the applications of space research for economic, social and cultural development. =20 The Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space has agreed that a Special Session of the Committee (UNISPACE III Conference), open to all Member States of the United Nations, should be convened at the United Nations Office at Vienna from 19 to 30 July 1999 as a special session of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, open to all States Members of the United Nations. Its central theme will be "Space Benefits for Humanity in the Twenty-first Century". =20 Contact Information For further information and queries on the UNISPACE III Conference, contact:=20 Office for Outer Space Affairs Room E-0952 United Nations Office at Vienna Vienna International Centre A-1400 Vienna Austria=20 Fax: +43-1-21345-5830=20 Email: OOSA@unov.un.at ---2132565244-315033615-912979423=:48656-- - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: smirnowb@ix.netcom.com (Robert Smirnow) Subject: (abolition-usa) QUERY RE Y2K & DE-ALERTING, ACCIDENTAL NUCLEAR WAR, PLEASE RESPOND Date: 06 Dec 1998 21:26:32 -0600 (CST) Friends, The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation received a suggestion that Abolition 2000 should initiate an electronic petition concerning de-alerting because of Y2K potentially DISASTROUS problems. I was asked to write the petition up and circulate it but don't have enough expertise to.I am not writing on behalf of The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation although I think they'd be very interested in any well thought out, drawn up draft/petition. Can someone that does have extensive knoweldge re Y2K and nuclear weapons help with a draft/petition? I thank you ahead of time. I will forward any such material to The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. Also, can any of you pass along info re the potential of accidental nuclear war both Y2K related and non Y2K related? Peace, Bill Smirnow PS Let's all remember that the Pentagon is seriously concerned about Y2K related accidental nuclear war scanarios. I don't know but imagine all other nuclear weapons states, declared or not, as well as all NNWS "Defense" departments would be very concerned re this potential catastrophe.Fallout knows no boundaries & many Non-Nuclear Weapons States[NNWS] are targeted by NWS. - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Stephen Young Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) QUERY RE Y2K & DE-ALERTING, ACCIDENTAL NUCLEAR WAR, Date: 07 Dec 1998 10:40:05 -0500 Dear friends, This issue is covered in great detail in a recent BASIC reports research paper, "The Bug in the Bomb: The Y2K Problem and Nuclear Weapons", which is available free on our website at: http://www.basicint.org. You can also get hard copies for $10 by replying to me. Thanks Stephen Young Senior Analyst BASIC Robert Smirnow wrote: > Friends, > The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation received a suggestion that > Abolition 2000 should initiate an electronic petition concerning > de-alerting because of Y2K potentially DISASTROUS problems. I was asked > to write the petition up and circulate it but don't have enough > expertise to.I am not writing on behalf of The Nuclear Age Peace > Foundation although I think they'd be very interested in any well > thought out, drawn up draft/petition. Can someone that does have > extensive knoweldge re Y2K and nuclear weapons help with a > draft/petition? I thank you ahead of time. I will forward any such > material to The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. > > Also, can any of you pass along info re the potential of accidental > nuclear war both Y2K related and non Y2K related? > > Peace, > Bill Smirnow > > PS Let's all remember that the Pentagon is seriously concerned > about Y2K related accidental nuclear war scanarios. I don't know but > imagine all other nuclear weapons states, declared or not, as well as > all NNWS "Defense" departments would be very concerned re this > potential catastrophe.Fallout knows no boundaries & many Non-Nuclear > Weapons States[NNWS] are targeted by NWS. > > > > - > To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" > with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. > For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send > "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Hisham Zerriffi Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) QUERY RE Y2K & DE-ALERTING, ACCIDENTAL Date: 07 Dec 1998 11:32:50 -0500 (EST) Dear Bill Smirnow, The latest issue of our newsletter, Science for Democratic Action, has a 5 page article on de-alerting and its role in nuclear disarmament and includes a brief discussion of Y2K issues. You can download it from our website (http://www.ieer.org) or I would be happy to send you a hardcopy. Another resources I would check are "The Bug in the Bomb" which is a new report by Michael Kraig of the British-American Information Security Council (BASIC) in Washington DC. Hope this helps. Hisham Zerriffi At 09:26 PM 12/6/98 -0600, you wrote: > > Friends, > The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation received a suggestion that >Abolition 2000 should initiate an electronic petition concerning >de-alerting because of Y2K potentially DISASTROUS problems. I was asked >to write the petition up and circulate it but don't have enough >expertise to.I am not writing on behalf of The Nuclear Age Peace >Foundation although I think they'd be very interested in any well >thought out, drawn up draft/petition. Can someone that does have >extensive knoweldge re Y2K and nuclear weapons help with a >draft/petition? I thank you ahead of time. I will forward any such >material to The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. > > > Also, can any of you pass along info re the potential of accidental >nuclear war both Y2K related and non Y2K related? > > > > Peace, > Bill Smirnow > > > > PS Let's all remember that the Pentagon is seriously concerned >about Y2K related accidental nuclear war scanarios. I don't know but >imagine all other nuclear weapons states, declared or not, as well as >all NNWS "Defense" departments would be very concerned re this >potential catastrophe.Fallout knows no boundaries & many Non-Nuclear >Weapons States[NNWS] are targeted by NWS. > > > >- > To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" > with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. > For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send > "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. > > ************************************************************ * Hisham Zerriffi * * Project Scientist Phone: (301) 270-5500 * * Institute for Energy Fax: (301) 270-3029 * * and Environmental Research E-mail: hisham@ieer.org * * 6935 Laurel Ave. Suite 204 Web: www.ieer.org * * Takoma Park, MD 20912 * ************************************************************ - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: smirnowb@ix.netcom.com (Robert Smirnow) Subject: (abolition-usa) SIGN ON TO OPPOSE RUSSIAN REACTORS, WESTERN FUNDING Date: 07 Dec 1998 16:51:52 -0600 (CST) --- Reply-To: nirsnet@igc.org Organization: NIRS Sender: owner-nukenet@envirolink.org Dear Friends, On December 14, 1998, there will be an international day of protest against the proposed K2/R4 reactors in Ukraine. These are new reactors that would be paid for largely with western money. For the past few months, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has been holding a "public consultation" process on K2/R4, including public meetings in several cities in Ukraine and other countries. The results have been an overwhelming consensus against construction of these reactors. This letter to President Clinton is the U.S. participation in this international day of protest. We will deliver it to the White House on December 14, and issue a news release about it and the issue. We hope that you will be able to sign on to this letter. We must have your sign-on by 5 pm, Friday, December 11. You can e-mail to nirsnet@igc.org or fax to 202-462-2183. Please include your name, organization name, city and state. Thank you! Michael Mariotte NIRS December 14, 1998 Hon. William Jefferson Clinton President of the United States The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20000 Dear President Clinton: The undersigned U.S. environmental and citizens' groups are writing to you to urge you to oppose western funding, through the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, for the proposed new K2/R4 reactors in Ukraine. We strongly oppose the completion of these unnecessary new reactors, and our opposition is shared by a vast majority of Ukrainians and NGOs throughout Europe, as the EBRD public consultation process has demonstrated. Although we fully agree with your goal of closing the Chernobyl nuclear plant, we also strongly oppose the completion of K2/R4, on the grounds that they are both extremely unsafe and unnecessary. As the end of the public consultation period for K2/R4 approaches and the EBRD will be making a decision on funding the project, we ask you to oppose EBRD funding of this unsafe and financially unsound project. Nuclear power continues to create environmental and safety threats throughout Europe and the world. In Eastern Europe especially, nuclear power continues to be relied on heavily, in a region where safety standards and quality of equipment are generally lower than they are in Western Europe. We are very concerned that the expansion of nuclear power in Eastern Europe will only compound these problems. In addition, we would like to point out that the money for K2/R4 would be much more wisely spent on energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, as well as upgrades of currently operating power plants, as originally recommended by a distinguished international advisory panel, including U.S. experts Peter Bradford and David Freeman. Ukraine and other countries in Central and Eastern Europe are at a crossroads in terms of power generation. Part of the legacy from the old Soviet regime is heavy reliance on nuclear power and the use of obsolete and unsafe reactor design types. These reactors, including the VVER 1000 type used at K2 and R4, have been identified by the IAEA as having serious and fundamental safety flaws that are not entirely correctable. In important respects, these reactors cannot meet internationally accepted safety standards and could not be licensed in the United States. Ukraine has suffered enough under government policies that aggressively promote the use of nuclear power, without regard to international safety standards, or indeed to the human costs of nuclear accidents. The Ukrainian people have spoken: They do not want yet another unsafe and expensive nuclear project which continues to risk their health and environment. Our understanding is that the Administration believes that permanently closing Chernobyl is the most important issue here, and that if helping Ukraine build new reactors is the price to close Chernobyl, we should provide that assistance. We appreciate and agree with your insistence on closing Chernobyl. But building new unsafe reactors to replace old unsafe reactors is not much of an improvement. Rather, the United States and the international community must do everything it can to assist Ukraine in attaining a sound non-nuclear energy future. Ukraine has the necessary energy resources to accomplish this goal, and the U.S. and EBRD should concentrate its efforts on this. Thank you very much for your attention to this matter and we look forward to hearing from you soon regarding your position on this urgent issue. Sincerely, Cc: Vice President Al Gore Karen Shepherd, EBRD - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: smirnowb@ix.netcom.com (Robert Smirnow) Subject: (abolition-usa) OPPOSE RUSSIAN REACTORS, WESTERN FUNDING Date: 07 Dec 1998 17:01:09 -0600 (CST) --- Reply-To: nirsnet@igc.org Organization: NIRS Sender: owner-nukenet@envirolink.org Dear Friends, On December 14, 1998, there will be an international day of protest against the proposed K2/R4 reactors in Ukraine. These are new reactors that would be paid for largely with western money. For the past few months, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has been holding a "public consultation" process on K2/R4, including public meetings in several cities in Ukraine and other countries. The results have been an overwhelming consensus against construction of these reactors. This letter to President Clinton is the U.S. participation in this international day of protest. We will deliver it to the White House on December 14, and issue a news release about it and the issue. We hope that you will be able to sign on to this letter. We must have your sign-on by 5 pm, Friday, December 11. You can e-mail to nirsnet@igc.org or fax to 202-462-2183. Please include your name, organization name, city and state. Thank you! Michael Mariotte NIRS December 14, 1998 Hon. William Jefferson Clinton President of the United States The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20000 Dear President Clinton: The undersigned U.S. environmental and citizens' groups are writing to you to urge you to oppose western funding, through the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, for the proposed new K2/R4 reactors in Ukraine. We strongly oppose the completion of these unnecessary new reactors, and our opposition is shared by a vast majority of Ukrainians and NGOs throughout Europe, as the EBRD public consultation process has demonstrated. Although we fully agree with your goal of closing the Chernobyl nuclear plant, we also strongly oppose the completion of K2/R4, on the grounds that they are both extremely unsafe and unnecessary. As the end of the public consultation period for K2/R4 approaches and the EBRD will be making a decision on funding the project, we ask you to oppose EBRD funding of this unsafe and financially unsound project. Nuclear power continues to create environmental and safety threats throughout Europe and the world. In Eastern Europe especially, nuclear power continues to be relied on heavily, in a region where safety standards and quality of equipment are generally lower than they are in Western Europe. We are very concerned that the expansion of nuclear power in Eastern Europe will only compound these problems. In addition, we would like to point out that the money for K2/R4 would be much more wisely spent on energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, as well as upgrades of currently operating power plants, as originally recommended by a distinguished international advisory panel, including U.S. experts Peter Bradford and David Freeman. Ukraine and other countries in Central and Eastern Europe are at a crossroads in terms of power generation. Part of the legacy from the old Soviet regime is heavy reliance on nuclear power and the use of obsolete and unsafe reactor design types. These reactors, including the VVER 1000 type used at K2 and R4, have been identified by the IAEA as having serious and fundamental safety flaws that are not entirely correctable. In important respects, these reactors cannot meet internationally accepted safety standards and could not be licensed in the United States. Ukraine has suffered enough under government policies that aggressively promote the use of nuclear power, without regard to international safety standards, or indeed to the human costs of nuclear accidents. The Ukrainian people have spoken: They do not want yet another unsafe and expensive nuclear project which continues to risk their health and environment. Our understanding is that the Administration believes that permanently closing Chernobyl is the most important issue here, and that if helping Ukraine build new reactors is the price to close Chernobyl, we should provide that assistance. We appreciate and agree with your insistence on closing Chernobyl. But building new unsafe reactors to replace old unsafe reactors is not much of an improvement. Rather, the United States and the international community must do everything it can to assist Ukraine in attaining a sound non-nuclear energy future. Ukraine has the necessary energy resources to accomplish this goal, and the U.S. and EBRD should concentrate its efforts on this. Thank you very much for your attention to this matter and we look forward to hearing from you soon regarding your position on this urgent issue. Sincerely, Cc: Vice President Al Gore Karen Shepherd, EBRD - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: smirnowb@ix.netcom.com (Robert Smirnow) Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: DoE Deadline Extended for Pu-238 Development for Future Space Date: 08 Dec 1998 02:34:56 -0600 (CST) ---- Sender: owner-abolition-caucus@igc.org Missions One piece of good news for us is that the DoE has extended the deadline for comments on the Proposed Production of Plutonium-238 for Use in Advanced Radioisotope Power Systems for Future Space Missions. Russell Hoffman of the "Stop Cassini Homepage" called Colette Brown, DoE, and confirmed that the November 4 deadline was a misprint and that the correct deadline date is now stated as January 4, 1999. This is a good opportunity, like responding to the scheduled 8/18/99 Cassini Earth flyby, for us to respond before a possible destructive event. I hope many of us will reply to their plans for irresponsible and dangerous nuclear technologies.. thanks, take care.. Jonathan M. Haber NoFlyby Website http://www.nonviolence,org/noflyby <<<< REPRINT OF ORIGINAL NOTICE >>>> NOTICE OF INTENT: To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Proposed Production of Plutonium-238 for Use in Advanced Radioisotope Power Systems for Future Space Missions (DOE/EIS-299). DOE intends to prepare an EIS to assess the potential environmental impacts of establishing a domestic capability to produce Pu-238 including the storage of neptunium-237 (Np-237), fabrication of Np-237 targets, irradiation of targets to produce Pu-238, and the processing of these targets to isolate the Pu-238 and recycle the Np-237. The Pu-238 would be used in advanced radioisotope power systems for potential future space missions. Without a long-term supply of Pu-238, DOE would not be able to provide the radioisotope power systems that may be required for these potential future space missions, and the Department would not fulfill the intended space nuclear power role assigned to the Department in the National Space Policy statement issued on 19 September 1996. This assigned role of maintaining the space nuclear capability is also consistent with the Department's charter under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended. Alternatives to be analyzed for the fabrication of Np-237 targets and for processing the irradiated targets include the use of the Radiochemical Engineering Development Center in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the Fuels and Materials Examination Facility at the Hanford Site near Richland, Washington. Alternative facilities for the irradiation of targets for Pu-238 production include the Advanced Test Reactor near Idaho Falls, Idaho, the Fast Flux Test Facility at the Hanford Site, Washington, and the High Flux Isotope Reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The public scoping period begins with the publication of this Notice of Intent and will continue until 4 November 1998. [extended to January 4th, 1999 according to in conversation with Colette Brown and the editor of this newsletter]. Public scoping meetings will be announced as soon as determined but at least 15 days prior to the date of the meetings. Contact Colette Brown, Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology (NE-50), U.S. Department of Energy, 19901 Germantown Road, Germantown, Maryland 20874, tele. 301.903.6924, fax: 301.903.1510, E-mail: "Colette Brown" . Requests to speak at scoping hearings, scoping comments, and requests for documents should be submitted to the above contact. [For detailed information, see 63 FR 53398, 5 October 1998.] Comment period begins Oct 5 and ends NOV 4 [extended to JAN 4, 1999] DOE Contact: Colette Brown, Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology (NE-50) USDOE, 19901 Germantown Road Germantown, MD 20874 Telephone 301-903-6924 FAX 301-903-1510 EMAIL Colette.Brown@HQ.DOE.GOV A toll free telephone number has been established to receive public comments. Interested parties may call (800) 708-2680 and leave a detailed message with their comments. <<<< END OF REPRINT <<<< ps: [We have received feedback that there were problems getting through using the above toll free number and a better one is: (877) 562-4593, expecially for questions.] - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Kathy Crandall Subject: (abolition-usa) START 2, Y2K Date: 08 Dec 1998 11:20:09 -0500 Dear Nuclear Abolitionists: Stay tuned START II progress, and please check out the MSNBC story on Y2K and Nukes. . . Kathy APO 12/08 0956 Russia Postpones Nuke Treaty Talks MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia's parliament again postponed discussions on the START II treaty today after failing to meet a deadline for sending a related measure on nuclear weapons to President Boris Yeltsin. The parliament's agenda-setting body, the Duma Council, had planned today to review a bill outlining Russia's nuclear weapons program. But it delayed debate because no parliamentary factions except the liberal Yabloko party submitted proposals or suggestions for the measure, the Interfax news agency said. Russia's Communist-led parliament has repeatedly delayed action on the START II treaty, signed by the United States and Russia in 1993. The lawmakers want an additional measure outlining the country's nuclear weapons program before they act on the treaty. The START II treaty would halve the Russian and American nuclear arsenals to about 3,000 to 3,500 warheads each. Yabloko leaders accused Communists in the parliament of once again stalling on the treaty, which the U.S. Senate ratified in 1996. Yeltsin and other proponents of ratification say the missiles that would be destroyed under START-II will soon be out of date anyway. One positive note was sounded today when Nikolai Kharitonov, a leader of the Communist-allied Agrarian Party, said he had changed his mind about the treaty after a meeting with Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, and now supported it. "As things stand now, ratification is in Russia's interest," Kharitonov said, according to the Interfax news agency. He suggested that Russia could enhance its prospects for Western financial aid by ratifying the accord. ************************************************************ If you have web access, please check this MSNBC story. Not only can you see the cool graphics, you can vote to rate the importance of the story and help to ensure broader coveraged by MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.com/news/220749.asp#BODY Also check out these sites for more on Y2K and Nukes: British American Security Information Council Report at: http://www.basicint.org/ and The Federation of American Scientists Site on Command and Control http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/c3i/index.html ... And don't forget to order your De-Alerting Resource & Action Kits by contacting the Disarmament Clearinghouse or ordering from the Web at: http://www.psr.org/Disarmhouse-dealert.htm ************************************************************ Fears mount over millennium bombs Will the Year 2000 problem make a dangerous situation explosive? The multiple warheads from a US missile light up the sky during a live exercise over the vast atoll of Kwajalein. The atoll is used by the US military as a test site. By Kari Huus MSNBC Dec 6 =97 Perhaps no entity on earth faces a more mammoth Year 2000 challenge than the U.S. Department of Defense, which has some 1.5 million computers, 28,000 systems and 10,000 networks. Within its purview, no area has prompted more concern than the country's nuclear weapons arsenal, and whether its control and command is safe from the millennial bug. THE CONCERN LIES with computer systems programmed to use two rather than four digits to describe the year =97 for example "79" instead of "1979." When the year 2000 arrives, experts predict that some computers may mistake the date for 1900 and shut down or malfunction. They may also feed bad information to other systems with which they are linked. The Pentagon stands by its Year 2000 (or Y2K) effort, which it says has been under way since 1995 and budgeted at $2.5 billion over five years. But defense officials don't offer guarantees. "None of us knows exactly what is going to happen," says Pentagon spokesperson Susan Hansen. "We feel cautiously optimistic that what will happen is some nuisances rather than crises=85 We feel pretty confident that we will be able to provide for the national security of the United States." Cautious optimism on the part of the DoD has done little to reassure critics. A recently released report by the British American Security Information Council (BASIC) in Washington says Department of Defense efforts to address the Y2K issue have been riddled by "severe and recurring problems." And, BASIC notes, there is even less information available about Moscow's efforts, much less the rest of the world's nuclear weapons infrastructure. The combination of possible computer glitches and the hair-trigger posture of U.S. and Russian nuclear forces raise the specter of a missile launch based on compromised surveillance data, or a communication breakdown in the event of a real attack, according to the BASIC report. U.S. decision-makers must take steps now to preclude disaster should the Pentagon fail," says the report's author, Michael Kraig, a Scoville fellow. RISKS AND MYTHS Analysts on both sides of the debate are quick to say that missiles are highly unlikely to launch themselves at the stroke of midnight on Jan.1, 2000. Rather, most concerns about military computer glitchesare focused on the vast web of computerized communications systems under STRATCOM =97 U.S. Strategic Command, which controls the country's nuclear arsenal. Equally worrisome is U.S. Space Command (part of NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command), responsible for early-warning radar and surveillance =97 the basis for military decisions. (For a review, see the Federation of American Scientists' Nuclear Forces Guide). As in other sectors, no one is sure how the military's overall procedures will work if one part of the system fails. What raises the stakes is that both the United States and Russia maintain "launch on warning" postures =97 calling for nuclear retaliation upon detection of the other's launch of missiles. If date-related problems produce inaccurate early-warning data, or if communications within the military command are compromised, there will be 10 minutes to half an hour to clarify the situation and make the decision to launch or hold back. Even in normal times misinterpretation of data frequently leads to heightened alert. Signals are sometimes garbled by solar disturbances. In 1979, personnel at NORAD saw the numbers indicating ballistic missile launches suddenly jump from zero to 20. In preparation to retaliate, nuclear bomber crews started their engines, and Minutemen missiles were readied. Ultimately, the data was traced to a faulty embedded chip design. Who's benefitting from the frenzy? Given all the work required to make U.S. weapons systems Y2K safe, who's getting the contracts =97 and subsequently earning big fees? Well, it's not a windfall for defense giants who traditionally make most of their money from government contracts. In fact, the amount budgeted =97 $2.54 billion spread over five years =97is companies like defens and aerospace behemoth Lockheed Martin Corp. Lockheed says it has had piecemeal contracts on the overall Y2K effort, but that most of its input came under regular government maintenance contracts. Compare the amount the company is earning on Y2K upgrades to the $80 million the company is spending to make itself internally compliant, and there's little or no benefit. "It's a wash, or less than a wash, " says Jim Fetig, a spokesman for Lockheed. "The outgo is bigger than the input. " The same message came from Northrop Grumman, which makes military surveillance systems, military electronics and combat aircraft. Despite winning a handful of small information technology contracts, "we've noticed no big upsurge, " a spokesman said. =97 Kari Huus In 1995, Moscow went into a state of high alert when its early warning radar mistook a Norwegian scientific probe for a U.S. trident missile launched from the Baltic. The response decision was elevated all the way to President Boris Yeltsin, his defense minister and the chief of staff, who decided against action when they determined the "impact" would be outside Russian borders. There is also a danger that, in the event of data correctly interpreting attack, communication systems used to coordinate a reaction may malfunction. Indeed, the DoD's efforts to prevent this breakdown go only so far, since the military has shifted from largely dedicated communications systems to commercial networks. In testimony before a House subcommittee in June, Deputy Secretary of Defense John Hamre conceded, "If Ma Bell's or Bell Atlantic's system fails on Year 2000, we're going to have mission failure, and I don't have any control over that." FAULTY CHAIN Few military analysts suggest that 2000 will bring the Armageddon. "The most likely thing is that Y2K problems get lost in the noise of flaky computer problems," says John Pike, security analyst for the Federation of American Scientists, a privately funded, non-profit organization in Washington, D.C. However, Pike believes the greatest risk lies with events that follow component failure. "The thing you worry about is people improvising," he says, causing a relatively innocuous event to escalate, as happened in the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl crises. Pike paints a scenario: "Most probably, the response is not that a missile will jump out of its silo at midnight, but that the door of the missile silo will get stuck." A technician whose job it is to keep the missile ready for use drops his wrench into the silo, tearing a hole in the fuel tank, causing an explosion. The explosion severs communication with the base, and it goes into a higher state of alert, which raises concern at military bases in Russia. "If systems behave peculiarly, people will be nervous, overworked, and stop trusting the system," says Pike."Consequently the man-machine interface starts behaving in unpredictable ways." HOW MUCH PROGRESS IS ENOUGH The Department of Defense says the situation is well under control. It reports that it has identified 2,581 mission-critical systems, of which 53 percent are now fully Y2K ready. Another 1,014 are going through the paces and a few hundred are to be retired or replaced before 2000. The idea is to finish all the fixes by Jan. 1, 1999 =97 three months earlier than previously announced, according to spokesperson Hansen. This will leave ample time for testing, and including Y2K testing in military exercises.But BASIC, which did extensive documentation of the DoD process, contends that there are serious flaws in the Pentagon's representation =97 including ad-hoc funding, lax management and inadequat= e standards for declaring a system "Y2K compliant." In short, the fixes won't be finished and tested in time, says BASIC. "Initial research findings=85 have resulted in no confidence that the Pentagon's present program will meet the Year 2000 challenge," according to its report. Those findings were based in part on the government's own conclusions, which started to set off alarms last spring. The Office of Management and Budget has expressed its concerns that DoD will not meet its goals. The General Accounting Office for the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs warned in a report in April, "Time is running out to correct Department of Defense systems that could malfunction=85 the impact of these failures could be widespread, costly and potentially disruptive to military operations worldwide." An array of audit reports posted by the Inspector General for the DoD suggest many military departments are lagging behind schedule on Y2K efforts, and predict disruptions in command and control, testing and day to day operations. THE NUCLEAR CLUB Assuming that the Pentagon meets its goals, however, it seems clear that Russia will not, particularly in light of its severe economic constraints. Moscow has insisted that the Russian system is different =97 not susceptible to Y2K glitches =97 but the argument has failed to convince. Defense Deputy Secretary Hamre described Russia's early warning system as "fragile" in Senate testimony. "Our concern is that Russia and China have only a very rudimentary understanding of the Year 2000 problem, which is why we need to reach out to them to make sure they have custodial confidence in their own systems," he said. That was in June. As of October, Washington and Moscow were discussing the possibility of exchanging personnel in military sites to usher in the millennium, which spokesperson Hansen says will "=85 relay information and relieve the anxiety in case of a glitch ... to ensure no one misconstrues Y2K problem for an attack." Some critics of U.S. nuclear policy, however, say that the fundamental flaw is in the posture of U.S. and Russian forces in the post-Cold War era. BASIC, as well as members of Congress and other non-governmental groups, urge the U.S. and Russia to "stand down or de-alert" missiles that remain on a hair-trigger prior to 2000. Though most agree it is too late to separate missiles from warheads, BASIC's Kraig urges the two sides to otherwise disable missiles. Others are calling for an independent audit by a non-governmental agency and fuller public disclosure of the results. "We don't know squat about testing at STRATCOM," says Pike of FAS. "We know a lot more about Y2K compliance of parking garages at Washington headquarters than computers that are planning thermonuclear war." The Defense Department says it's just not a practical solution to bring in outsiders unfamiliar with the multitude of rules and regulations to which they are subject. And as with many of the ideas being bandied about at the cusp of 1999, there's just not enough time. Says Hansen: "By the time [outside auditors] got up to speed it would probably be past the year 2000." -- DISARMAMENT CLEARINGHOUSE Nuclear Disarmament Information, Resources & Action Tools Kathy Crandall, Coordinator 1101 14th Street NW #700, Washington DC 20005 TEL: 202 898 0150 ext. 232 FAX: 202 898 0150 ext. 232 E-MAIL: disarmament@igc.org http://www.psr.org/Disarmhouse.htm http://www.psr.org/ctbtaction.htm A project of: Peace Action, Physicians for Social Responsibility and Women's Action for New Directions -- DISARMAMENT CLEARINGHOUSE Nuclear Disarmament Information, Resources & Action Tools Kathy Crandall, Coordinator 1101 14th Street NW #700, Washington DC 20005 TEL: 202 898 0150 ext. 232 FAX: 202 898 0150 ext. 232 E-MAIL: disarmament@igc.org http://www.psr.org/Disarmhouse.htm http://www.psr.org/ctbtaction.htm A project of: Peace Action, Physicians for Social Responsibility and Women's Action for New Directions - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "David Culp" Subject: (abolition-usa) START-II DEBATE DELAYED AGAIN Date: 08 Dec 1998 13:31:59 -0500 START-II DEBATE DELAYED AGAIN Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Newsline Tuesday, December 8, 1998 The Duma has postponed discussion of the START-II treaty until 15 December, ITAR-TASS reported on 8 December. Duma Deputy Speaker and member of the Yabloko faction Vladimir Ryzhkov told reporters that the Duma is set to ratify the treaty on that date or send the draft law to President Yeltsin with an explanation of its stance. Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Vladimir Lukin (Yabloko) told reporters that the debate was delayed because no faction beside Yabloko had submitted its proposals on the bill and that leftist parties are deliberately delaying discussion. Duma Security Committee Chairman Viktor Ilyukhin (Communist Party) said the treaty cannot be discussed until the government submits a budget for decommissioning part of its nuclear arsenal. Earlier, Liberal Democratic Party leader Zhirinovsky declared that he is "even more convinced [than ever] that the Duma should not ratify START-II." ---------- RUSSIA POSTPONES NUKE TREATY TALKS=20 Tuesday, December 8, 1998; 9:56 a.m. EST MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia's parliament again postponed discussions on the START II treaty today after failing to meet a deadline for sending a related measure on nuclear weapons to President Boris Yeltsin.=20 The parliament's agenda-setting body, the Duma Council, had planned today to review a bill outlining Russia's nuclear weapons program.=20 But it delayed debate because no parliamentary factions except the liberal Yabloko party submitted proposals or suggestions for the measure, the Interfax news agency said.=20 Russia's Communist-led parliament has repeatedly delayed action on the START II treaty, signed by the United States and Russia in 1993.=20 The lawmakers want an additional measure outlining the country's nuclear weapons program before they act on the treaty.=20 The START II treaty would halve the Russian and American nuclear arsenals to about 3,000 to 3,500 warheads each.=20 Yabloko leaders accused Communists in the parliament of once again stalling on the treaty, which the U.S. Senate ratified in 1996.=20 Yeltsin and other proponents of ratification say the missiles that would be destroyed under START-II will soon be out of date anyway.=20 One positive note was sounded today when Nikolai Kharitonov, a leader of the Communist-allied Agrarian Party, said he had changed his mind about the treaty after a meeting with Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, and now supported it.=20 ``As things stand now, ratification is in Russia's interest,'' Kharitonov said, according to the Interfax news agency. He suggested that Russia could enhance its prospects for Western financial aid by ratifying the accord.=20 =A9 Copyright 1998 The Associated Press - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jackie Cabasso Subject: (abolition-usa) DOE's Cimerron press release Date: 08 Dec 1998 19:14:33 -0800 (PST) News Media Contact: For Immediate Release: Derek S. Scammell, 702-295-3521 December 8, 1998 Jim Danneskiold, 505-667-1640 Matthew Donoghue, 202-586-5806 DOE to Conduct Fifth Subcritical Experiment Scientific Data to Help Ensure the Safety and Reliability Of the Stockpile Without Nuclear Testing The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will conduct its fifth subcritical experiment in Nevada on December 9. Subcritical experiments produce essential scientific data and technical information to support DOE's Stockpile Stewardship Program to maintain the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile without nuclear testing. The experiments are called "subcritical" because no critical mass is formed, no self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction can occur and therefore no nuclear explosion can result. The experiments are fully consistent with the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The experiment will address physics to be used in modeling the nuclear explosion process in simulation codes. The experiment consists of a set of experimental packages to measure early time dynamic behavior of special nuclear material (SNM). Two identical experimental assemblies will be fielded with different diagnostic suites, that will measure the properties of plutonium. Each assembly will be composed of SNM and high explosives. The experiment will be conducted at the Nevada Test Site's U1a Complex, 85 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The U1a Complex is an underground laboratory of horizontal tunnels about one-half mile in length mined at the base of a vertical shaft, approximately 960 feet beneath the surface, designed to contain these experiments in a safe and secure environment. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Last Updated December 08, 1998 Disclaimer Please send questions and comments to the webmaster http://www.nv.doe.gov ******************************************** WESTERN STATES LEGAL FOUNDATION 1440 Broadway, Suite 500 Oakland, CA USA 94612 Tel: (510)839-5877 Fax: (510)839-5397 wslf@igc.apc.org ********** Part of ABOLITION 2000 ********** Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Robert Kinsey" Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) SIGN ON TO OPPOSE RUSSIAN REACTORS, WESTERN FUNDING Date: 07 Dec 1998 16:55:23 -0700 Sign On Bob Kinsey Colorado Coalition for the Prevention of Nuclear War - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Robert Kinsey" Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) SIGN ON TO OPPOSE RUSSIAN REACTORS, WESTERN FUNDING Date: 08 Dec 1998 22:33:39 -0700 Please sign on: Bob Kinsey, Peace and Justice Task Force, United Church of Christ, Rocky Mountain Conference - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Peace through Reason Subject: (abolition-usa) Space and Waste News: 12/8/98 Date: 09 Dec 1998 08:12:52 -0500 A quick note: I'm going to be away from a computer from December 22nd to 28th, if anyone wants to pick up the slack. If you check http://www.webcrawler.com/news/242/ scroll to the end of the page, and type in "nuclear OR plutonium OR uranium OR radioactiv???" - then sort by date -- you'll get quick and easy access to articles from all over the world. (et in dc - prop1@prop1.org) 1. http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec98/1998L-12-08-09.html PRODUCING PLUTONIUM TO POWER SPACE MISSIONS 2. http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec98/1998L-12-08-01.html Incoming California Governor Squeezed on Nuclear Waste Disposal 3. http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec98/1998L-12-06g.html -- It DOES Matter - Healing Our World: Weekly Comment 1. http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec98/1998L-12-08-09.html AmeriScan: December 8, 1998 PRODUCING PLUTONIUM TO POWER SPACE MISSIONS The Department of Energy (DOE) intends to prepare an environmental impact statement to assess the impacts of establishing a domestic capability to produce plutonium to power future space missions. The DOE wants to produce (Pu-238) including the storage of neptunium-237 (Np-237), fabrication of Np-237 targets, irradiation of targets to produce Pu-238, and the processing of these targets to isolate the Pu-238 and recycle the Np-237. The Pu-238 would be used in advanced radioisotope power systems for potential future space missions. Locations to be analyzed for the fabrication of Np-237 targets and for processing the irradiated targets include the Radiochemical Engineering Development Center in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the Fuels and Materials Examination Facility at the Hanford Site near Richland, Washington. Facilities for the irradiation of targets for Pu-238 production include the Advanced Test Reactor near Idaho Falls, Idaho, the Fast Flux Test Facility at the Hanford Site, Washington, and the High Flux Isotope Reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Public comments are welcome to January 4, 1999. Contact Colette Brown, Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology (NE-50), U.S. Department of Energy, 19901 Germantown Road, Germantown, Maryland 20874, Tel: 301-903-6924; Fax: 301-903-1510; Email: Colette.Brown@HQ.DOE.GOV * * * "COVER-UP" OF 54 SEAL DEATHS AT SEABROOK NUCLEAR PLANT Fish Unlimited, the international fisheries conservation group, said today that they have confirmed that the operation of the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant in New Hampshire is responsible for the deaths of at least 54 juvinile seals since 1993. The seals are killed by being caught up in the intake systems used to draw water into the reactor to cool it from the Atlantic Ocean. The seals are caught against the intake screens and are either drowned or dismembered. "This is an outrageous finding," said Bill Smith, executive director of Fish Unlimited. "The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, National Marine Fisheries Service and other agencies have known about violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act for some time and have engaged in a cover-up to keep it from becoming public knowledge. While there could have been a fine of up to $25,000.00 for each seal killed there has been nothing." The operators of the Seabrook facility have recently applied to National Marine fisheries for a permit to legally kill 34 seals annually. * * * ... GREEN ENERGY IMPROVES THE ECONOMY Wisconsin can reduce 21 percent of the projected growth in emissions of gases contributing to global warming between 1990 and 2010, while creating 8,500 new jobs and $490 million in disposable income. These are the main findings of a 1998 report by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Department of Energy. "This study shows that the scare-mongering by some Wisconsin industries is wildly off base," said Steven Clemmer, senior energy analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists. Clemmer found that a 75 percent increase in renewable energy use by 2010 would reduce the projected growth in Wisconsin's global warming gases between 1990 and 2010 by an additional 10 percent, while creating 3,316 more jobs and $81 million in higher disposable income. "The amount of electricity saved would be equivalent to the electricity consumed annually in Wisconsin by over one million households," said Clemmer. 2. http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec98/1998L-12-08-01.html Incoming California Governor Squeezed on Nuclear Waste Disposal By Philip M. Klasky, Environment News Service SACRAMENTO, California, December 8, 1998 (ENS) - While the new members of the California state legislature were being sworn in Monday, Native American leaders and environmental activists delivered a letter signed by over 135 organizations calling for Governor-elect Gray Davis to reject the proposal for a controversial nuclear waste disposal site at Ward Valley, California. Gray Davis The letter asks Davis to withdraw the state of California's request for the land and bring to an end the decade long fight over the Ward Valley project. Signatories include some of the nation's largest environmental organizations, indigenous rights groups and environmental organizations from Canada, Mexico, Europe and Asia. For the last eight years, outgoing California Governor Pete Wilson has made construction of the nuclear disposal site a centerpiece of his political agenda. The Ward Valley site is supported by the California Radioactive Materials Management Forum (Cal Rad Forum), a group of public and private institutions and corporations that use radioactive materials and generate low-level radioactive waste in the four-state Southwestern Low-Level Waste Disposal Compact region of Arizona, California, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Members are universities, medical centers, electric utilities with nuclear power plants, industrial and manufacturing firms, and professional societies in engineering, science, radiation safety, and the medical sciences. The Cal Rad Forum is currently seeking an opportunity to meet with Governor-elect Davis to "discuss the issue and options," according to David Krueger, chairman, Cal Rad Forum and director, Environmental Health and Safety, ICN Pharmaceuticals. Speaking to Forum members on November 6, immediately after the election, Krueger pointed out that Arizona's Governor Jane Hull, a Republican, won re-election. "This is the first time during the attempts to get Ward Valley approved that the two states have Governors of different parties. California has a compact or contract with Arizona and the Dakotas to provide disposal capacity for 30 years. If Mr. Davis and the new Legislature cannot resolve the issues related to Ward Valley, I would not be surprised if Arizona seeks relief in Federal Court. That scenario was not likely while the two states were headed by the same party, as has been the case for many years," Krueger. The nuclear industry plans to bury "low-level" radioactive wastes from nuclear power plants and medical facilities in shallow, unlined trenches at Ward Valley. Critics of the plan point out that the site is located above an aquifer, 18 miles from the Colorado River, and in the midst of critical habitat for the endangered desert tortoise. The Ward Valley land is considered sacred aboriginal territory by the five lower Colorado River Indian tribes who have conducted a long-term vigil at the site. Demonstration against Ward Valley at the California State House, 1998. Earlier this year, the top Democratic leadership of the California state legislature alleged that the method by which the Wilson administration has attempted to obtain the federal land at Ward Valley is illegal. This claim, coupled with the historic 113 day occupation of the site by Native American and environmental activists, halted a federal environmental review of the proposal. The letter delivered to Governor-elect Davis Monday states that the Ward Valley project would threaten the Colorado River, source of water for 22 million people in the United States and Mexico and violate environmental justice mandates. Davis also received a letter from Reverend Jesse Jackson delivered by representatives of the Rainbow Coalition stating that, "Indian peoples and communities of color should not be the dumping ground for dangerous wastes and reckless waste disposal projects." San Francisco Supervisor Gavin Newsom wrote to Davis reminding him that the City and County of San Francisco passed a resolution this last year opposing the Ward Valley project. Los Angeles, Berkeley, Marin, Imperial and San Bernardino Counties have passed similar resolutions. As State Controller, Davis opposed the radioactive waste disposal project on both environmental and economic grounds. Davis authored a report that found, based on experience at other failed and leaking dump sites, that leakages at the Ward Valley facility could cost California taxpayers as much as $500 million in clean-up costs. During his recent election campaign, Davis expressed serious concerns about the proposed contractor, US Ecology, who was licensed by the Wilson administration to build the facility. Formerly known as Nuclear Engineering Company, US Ecology has left a trail of leaking dumps and litigation across the country. All four of their nuclear waste dumps, in Washington, Kentucky, Illinois and Nevada, are leaking. Their Maxey Flats, Kentucky facility was put on the EPA's Superfund list of most polluted sites after plutonium and other radioactive wastes were discovered leaking from the facility. Earlier this year, Nebraska turned away a US Ecology nuclear waste dump proposal over concern about the company's track record compounded by the firm's deteriorating financial condition. In her bid for re-election, California Senator Barbara Boxer successfully campaigned on her long-standing opposition to the Ward Valley disposal site. Public opinion polls show that a majority of Californians oppose the project, although many are unaware of the proposal. The Wilson administration has been an aggressive proponent of disposal of radioactive wastes at Ward Valley. The state of California, along with US Ecology, is currently suing the federal government in federal district court in an attempt to force the government to transfer the land at Ward Valley to the state and begin construction. Davis has yet to indicate what he decide to do about the proposed Ward Valley project once he assumes office in January 1999. Lastly, if you're interested in animal testing (I know it's not nuclear): 3. http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec98/1998L-12-06g.html -- It DOES Matter - Healing Our World: Weekly Comment I won't reproduce this here, but it has compelling photos. _______________________________________________________________________ * NucNews - subscribe: prop1@prop1.org - http://prop1.org ("Nuclear") * _______________________________________________________________________ - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "David Culp" Subject: (abolition-usa) Russia conducts subcritical nuclear test Date: 09 Dec 1998 13:23:09 -0500 Russia conducted a subcritical nuclear test today (Wednesday) at its = Novaya Zemlya test site, according to the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS. As most of you know, DOE announced it will conduct a subcritical nuclear = test today at the Nevada Test Site, code-named "Cimarron". David Culp Plutonium Challenge 245 Second Street, N.E. Washington, D.C. 20002-5761 E-mail: dculp@igc.org CTBT: Ratification in 1999! - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Save Ward Valley" Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) SIGN ON TO OPPOSE RUSSIAN REACTORS, WESTERN FUNDING Date: 09 Dec 1998 11:01:34 -0800 Sign on-- Molly Johnson Save Ward Valley 107 F Street Needles, CA 92363 ph. 760/326-6267 fax 760/326-6268 www.shundahai.org/SWVAction.html http://earthrunner.com/savewardvalley www.ctaz.com/~swv1 http://banwaste.envirolink.org www.alphacdc.com/ien/wardvly4.html www.greenaction.org - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "David Culp" Subject: (abolition-usa) Talbott goes to Moscow for START talks; Albright calls for START III negotiations to begin in January Date: 09 Dec 1998 15:43:53 -0500 U.S. DELEGATION IN MOSCOW FOR NUCLEAR, ECONOMY TALKS Wednesday, December 9, 9:56 AM ET=20 MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott arrived in Russia Wednesday for high-level talks on nuclear and economic issues, a U.S. official said. ...=20 The official said Talbott, a Russia expert fluent in the language, would discuss the START-2 arms control treaty, which has yet to be approved by the Russian parliament, other nuclear non-proliferation issues and financial and economic subjects. ... ---------- NATO, RUSSIA REPORT UNACCUSTOMED HARMONY Wednesday, December 9, 10:30 AM ET=20 By Paul Taylor, Diplomatic Editor=20 BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO invited Russia Wednesday to its 50th anniversary summit in Washington next year after a show of new warmth between the former Cold War adversaries amid talk of long-delayed progress on nuclear disarmament. NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright issued the invitation to Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov ...=20 Albright said he told her that the Russian parliament would finally ratify the long-stalled Start-2 strategic arms reduction treaty by the end of this month and she hoped to launch talks on a Start-3 accord for more radical cuts when she visits Moscow next month.=20 - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jackie Cabasso Subject: (abolition-usa) US subcritical test delayed Date: 09 Dec 1998 19:51:39 -0800 (PST) Greetings, friends Due to technical difficulties, DOE did not detonate its subcritical test, code-named "Cimarron," as scheduled today. The test is now scheduled to take place tomorrow, Thursday, Dec. 10. Following is DOE's press release. News Media Contact: For Immediate Release: Derek S. Scammell, 702-295-3521 December 9, 1998 Jim Danneskiold, 505-667-1640 Fifth Subcritical Experiment Delayed at the Department of Energy's Nevada Test Site The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) placed its fifth "subcritical" experiment, Cimarron, on a one-day hold today at the Nevada Test Site. DOE's Los Alamos National Laboratory decided against conducting the experiment today, as originally scheduled, due to technical difficulties they encountered with the experiment's diagnostic package. The scheduled experiment will address the physics to be used in modeling the nuclear processes in simulation codes. The experiment will consist of a set of experimental packages to measure early time dynamic behavior of special nuclear material. Subcritical experiments are scientific experiments to obtain technical information in support of the Department of Energy's program to maintain the safety and reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile without nuclear testing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Last Updated December 09, 1998 Disclaimer Please send questions and comments to the webmaster http://www.nv.doe.gov ******************************************** WESTERN STATES LEGAL FOUNDATION 1440 Broadway, Suite 500 Oakland, CA USA 94612 Tel: (510)839-5877 Fax: (510)839-5397 wslf@igc.apc.org ********** Part of ABOLITION 2000 ********** Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Shundahai Network Subject: (abolition-usa) new "Cimarron" subcrit update Date: 10 Dec 1998 08:20:37 -0800 Hello Friends, This is Reinard. I just spoke with Darwin Morgan at DOE as I am sure that many of you have. He was unable to confirm when "Cimarron" will be exploded. It will definitely not be today 12/10/98. There is a slight possibility that it might happen on Friday 12/11 but it is unlikely. They have scheduled a dry run for this afternoon at 3pm pacific standard time and we might know more after that. Thank you for all the faxes and letters sent to the White house and DOE demanding that they cancel the Subcritical test. It is making an impact. If you have not had the opportunity to send a protest letter in, please do so. http://www.igc.org/tvc/ the Tri Valley CARES web page has a sample letter that you can send. Yesterday, 3 people from Shundahai Network and Alliance for Atomic Veterans were arrested at the Nevada Test Site in protest of Cimarron. My self and Susi Snyder will be going to Federal Court on January 27 (which is the date of the first test at the Nevada Test Site) over our Sept 8, lock down action on top of the federal building to bring public attention to the subcriticals. This is our first time in Federal Court so we are looking forward to the experience. I am sure whoever hears the schedule of the test first will let everyone else know. Keep up the faith and continue to be strong! Peace, Reinard ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< SHUNDAHAI NETWORK "Peace and Harmony with all Creation" out,out5007 Elmhurst St., Las Vegas, NV 89108-1304 Phone:(702)647-3095 (FAX)647-9385 Email: shundahai@shundahai.org 0000,0000,fefehttp://www.shundahai.org Shundahai Network is proud to be part of: Healing Global Wounds Alliance, a multi-cultural alliance to foster sustainable living and break the nuclear chain; and Abolition 2000: A Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Shundahai Network Subject: (abolition-usa) subcrit reschedueled for 12/11/98 Date: 10 Dec 1998 14:23:28 -0800 Just got a call from Darwin Morgan at DOE. He said they have reschedueled the test for Friday, Dec 11, 1998 3pm Pacific Satndard Time. ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< SHUNDAHAI NETWORK "Peace and Harmony with all Creation" out,out5007 Elmhurst St., Las Vegas, NV 89108-1304 Phone:(702)647-3095 (FAX)647-9385 Email: shundahai@shundahai.org 0000,0000,fefehttp://www.shundahai.org Shundahai Network is proud to be part of: Healing Global Wounds Alliance, a multi-cultural alliance to foster sustainable living and break the nuclear chain; and Abolition 2000: A Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Timothy Bruening Subject: (abolition-usa) A newsletter article about Iraq Date: 10 Dec 1998 17:57:20 -0800 (PST) In a Sacramento-Yolo Peace Action newsletter, I read that respected British newspapers reported that the latest Iraq crisis was "triggered by the U.S. refusal to commit to lifting the oil embargo even if Iraq fully complies with requirements to eliminate its weapons of mass destruction". Which British newspapers published those reports and when did they do so? I also read that Israel has up to 400 thermo-nuclear warheads. Where did that figure come from? TIME's estimate was a little over 100 in May. I also read that the oil embargo against Iraq has killed over one million, with as many as 7,000 dying each month. Where did those figures come from? - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Timothy Bruening Subject: (abolition-usa) Subcritical test letter Date: 10 Dec 1998 17:57:14 -0800 (PST) Below is my draft of a letter to the editor about the Cimarron subcritical test. I am asking for suggestions on how to improve this letter. U.S. TO VIOLATE COMPREHENSIVE TEST BAN TREATY FOR THE 5TH TIME! Since last July 2, the Department of Energy (DOE) has conducted 4 subcritical nuclear tests (the most recent on September 26). A subcritical test involves an amount of plutonium too small to produce a nuclear explosion, but still provides information about nuclear weapons explosions. In the near future, the U.S. will conduct a 5th subcritical test, code named Cimarron. I believe that subcritical nuclear tests clearly violate the spirit of the historic Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) signed in September 1996 by President Clinton. The CTBT commits the U.S. "not to carry out any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion...". The intent of the CTBT is to pave the way for the elimination of nuclear weapons by halting the development of new nuclear weapons. The subcritical tests can provide information which helps the U.S. develop new nuclear weapons. The DOE claims these experiments are permissible because the CTBT does not define "nuclear weapon" test. However, I believe that subcritical nuclear tests do violate the CTBT because they are intended to help the U.S. develop new nuclear weapons. These tests make global adoption of the CTBT less likely by encouraging other nations to copy the U.S. decision to continue testing and update their nuclear arsenals. These tests especially contradict the condemnation expressed by the U.S. government against India and Pakistan for conducting their own series of nuclear weapons tests earlier this year, and against North Korea for allegedly building an underground nuclear weapons facility. How can we credibly condemn India, Pakistan, and North Korea for testing or allegedly possessing nuclear weapons if we conduct nuclear weapons tests? The subcritical tests are part of a massive "Stockpile Stewardship and Management" program, intended to maintain and expand U.S. nuclear weapons capabilities well into the next century. A DOE document admits that "The ability to design nuclear weapons is the core of DOE program and is utilized in all other aspects of the program ... The nuclear design capability will be maintained by pursuing an understanding of the underlying physics of nuclear weapons and exercising the process of design of nuclear weapons ... A limited number of new nuclear component design requirements are foreseeable in the future." (U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Defense Programs, Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan, February 29, 1996, unclassified version, p. VII-3). During the next decade, taxpayers will spend about $45 billion for this program, an annual rate higher than the Cold War average. Thus, it is fair to say these tests are intended to signal to the rest of the world an unflagging U.S. commitment to nuclear weapons as the ultimate "big stick." Please call the Department of Energy and the White House and your Congressional representatives and demand that the U.S. cancel all future subcritical tests, and also demand that the U.S. stop all new and modified nuclear weapons development, close down the Nevada Test Site and all nuclear weapons development facilities except for disarmament programs, and begin immediate clean up and containment of the nuclear nightmare caused by the U.S. Nuclear Weapons program. Below are phone numbers and addresses to call and write: President Bill Clinton, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington DC 20500, (202) 456-1111. Secretary of Energy, 1000 Independence Ave, Washington DC, 20585 To leave a message for Bill Richardson, new Secretary of DOE call the 202 586 6210 and the press office at 202 586 5806. Members of Congress (202)224-3121. Senators Boxer and Feinstein (U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C., 20510). Representatives (U.S. House, Washington, D.C., 20515). - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jackie Cabasso Subject: (abolition-usa) Cimerron delayed again: DOE's press release du jour Date: 10 Dec 1998 18:29:03 -0800 (PST) News Media Contact: For Immediate Release: Derek S. Scammell, 702-295-3521 December 10, 1998 Jim Danneskiold, 505-667-1640 Fifth Subcritical Experiment Rescheduled at the Department of Energy's Nevada Test Site The U.S. Department of Energy's fifth "subcritical" experiment, Cimarron, has been delayed until December 11, at 3:00 p.m.(PST) at the Nevada Test Sites U1a facility. It was originally scheduled for December 9. The Department's Los Alamos National Laboratory cites continuation of technical difficulties they have encountered with the experiment's diagnostic package as the reason for the delay. The experiment will address the physics to be used in modeling the nuclear processes in simulation codes. The experiment will consist of a set of experimental packages to measure early time dynamic behavior of special nuclear material. Subcritical experiments are scientific experiments to obtain technical information in support of the Department of Energy's program to maintain the safety and reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile without nuclear testing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Last Updated December 10, 1998 Disclaimer Please send questions and comments to the webmaster http://www.nv.doe.gov ******************************************** WESTERN STATES LEGAL FOUNDATION 1440 Broadway, Suite 500 Oakland, CA USA 94612 Tel: (510)839-5877 Fax: (510)839-5397 wslf@igc.apc.org ********** Part of ABOLITION 2000 ********** Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jackie Cabasso Subject: (abolition-usa) US prepares for paramilitary, right-wing, anti-nuclear groups! Date: 10 Dec 1998 18:29:05 -0800 (PST) Greetings, collegues. Losing sleep worrying about paramilitary, right-wing, anti-nuclear groups wanting to raise public awareness about nuclear issues and willing to sacrifice lives to further their cause? I kid you not. I came across this press release on the DOE's Nevada Test Site web page. Check out the last paragraph! -- Jackie Cabasso News Media Contact: For Immediate Release: Derek S. Scammell, 702-295-3521 November 25, 1998 Darwin Morgan, 702-295-3521 Department of Energy to Sponsor Weapons of Mass Destruction Training Course for First Responders Training will strengthen cooperation between government and state agencies who may be called upon to respond to a terrorist threat, or act of terrorism This year, according to the ICT International Terrorism News Archive, terrorists affiliated with 66 different groups have been linked to more than 270 bomb attacks, kidnapings, murders, massacres, fire bombings, rocket attacks, and highjackings throughout the world. Most of these terrorist incidents occurred in the Middle East, Asia and South America. However, Osama bin Ladin=s East Africa Network was linked to the recent U.S. Embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar al-Salam, East Africa. Closer to home, Ramizi Yousef was sentenced to 240 years in prison on January 8, 1998, for masterminding the World Trade Center bombing; and Timothy McVeigh was convicted in June 1997 of the Oklahoma City bombing, and later sentenced to death. Incidents such as these are rare, thanks in part to the efforts of the United States intelligence and law enforcement agencies, who actively exchange information with other countries to prevent terrorist groups from establishing themselves in the United States and perpetrating other terrorist attacks against American civilians, businesses and defense installations. However, the United States cannot afford to be complacent -- first responders such as law enforcement agencies, fire, police and medical personnel must be trained, and kept aware of the ever-present terrorist threat, and if called upon, be able to deal with any conventional, nuclear, chemical or biological threat or terrorist incident within their respective communities. Here in Nevada, federal, state, county and Las Vegas first-line emergency responders have been given the opportunity to participate in a Weapons of Mass Destruction Training Course for First Responders November 30 through December 3 at the U.S. Department of Energy's Nevada Test Site. The four-day course consists of about 15-hours of classroom instruction on such topics as terrorism, conventional, nuclear, chemical, and biological incidents, and the wearing and care of protective equipment. The classroom instruction will be followed by 2-day, 16-hour field exercise at the Nevada Test Site, which will give about 130 students practical, handsBon experience on what they learned in the classroom. The actual hands-on, two-day field exercise at the Nevada Test Site will be based on the following scenario. Intelligence information gathered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation over a period of several months on the Good Earth Movement, a small, right wing, paramilitary group that is against nuclear power. The group wants to raise public awareness about nuclear issues and is willing to sacrifice lives, their own as well as others', to further their cause. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Last Updated December 03, 1998 Disclaimer Please send questions and comments to the webmaster http://www.nv.doe.gov ******************************************** WESTERN STATES LEGAL FOUNDATION 1440 Broadway, Suite 500 Oakland, CA USA 94612 Tel: (510)839-5877 Fax: (510)839-5397 wslf@igc.apc.org ********** Part of ABOLITION 2000 ********** Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Sally Light" Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) new "Cimarron" subcrit update Date: 10 Dec 1998 21:24:42 -0000 Hi, all - As of late afternoon on 12/10/98, the news from NTS is that they will attempt the test on Friday, 12/11/98, at 3 pm. Of course, in view of the problems DOE's had with "Cimarron" so far, it remains to be seen whether the test will actually occur. Thanks to all who turned out yesterday and today for actions to protest "Cimarron," and especially to those who were arrested. Peace .... Sally Light, Tri-Valley CAREs. ---------- > From: Shundahai Network > To: abolition-usa@lists.xmission.com; abolition-caucus@igc.org; rherried@roxy.sfo.com; nuke-waste@igc.org; a-days@motherearth.org; news@ens-news.com; wiseamster@antenna.nl; nukenet@envirolink.org; bulletin@bullatomsci.org; wipp-activism-rmpjc@igc.org > Subject: (abolition-usa) new "Cimarron" subcrit update > Date: Thursday, December 10, 1998 4:20 PM > > Hello Friends, > > > This is Reinard. > > > I just spoke with Darwin Morgan at DOE as I am sure that many of you have. He was unable to confirm when "Cimarron" will be exploded. It will definitely not be today 12/10/98. There is a slight possibility that it might happen on Friday 12/11 but it is unlikely. They have scheduled a dry run for this afternoon at 3pm pacific standard time and we might know more after that. > > > Thank you for all the faxes and letters sent to the White house and DOE demanding that they cancel the Subcritical test. It is making an impact. If you have not had the opportunity to send a protest letter in, please do so. http://www.igc.org/tvc/ the Tri Valley CARES web page has a sample letter that you can send. > > > Yesterday, 3 people from Shundahai Network and Alliance for Atomic Veterans were arrested at the Nevada Test Site in protest of Cimarron. > > > My self and Susi Snyder will be going to Federal Court on January 27 (which is the date of the first test at the Nevada Test Site) over our Sept 8, lock down action on top of the federal building to bring public attention to the subcriticals. This is our first time in Federal Court so we are looking forward to the experience. > > > I am sure whoever hears the schedule of the test first will let everyone else know. > > > Keep up the faith and continue to be strong! > > > Peace, Reinard > > ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< > ><<><< ><<><< > > > SHUNDAHAI NETWORK > > "Peace and Harmony with all Creation" > > out,out5007 Elmhurst St., Las Vegas, NV > 89108-1304 > > Phone:(702)647-3095 (FAX)647-9385 > > Email: shundahai@shundahai.org > > 0000,0000,fefehttp://www.shundahai.org > > > Shundahai Network is proud to be part of: > > > Healing Global Wounds Alliance, a multi-cultural alliance to > > foster sustainable living and break the nuclear chain; and > > > Abolition 2000: A Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons > > > ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< > ><<><< ><<><< > > > > > - > To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" > with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. > For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send > "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Sally Light" Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) Subcritical test letter Date: 10 Dec 1998 21:30:04 -0000 Hi, Timothy - You might use *$60 billion over the next 13 years* as the current, estimated cost (and it may yet rise!) of the Stockpile Stewardship Program. Regards, Sally Light, Tri-Valley CAREs. ---------- > From: Timothy Bruening > To: abolition-usa@lists.xmission.com; fcnl@IGC.APC.ORG; shundahai@shundahai.org; wslf@IGC.APC.ORG; wilpfnatl@igc.org; marylia@IGC.APC.ORG; pasacramento@igc.org; ldazey@igc.org; wslf@IGC.APC.ORG; abeier@igc.org; planevada@aol.com; wiednerb@aol.com; iio1@pge.com; mcli@igc.org; wagingpeace@napf.org; NUKE-WASTE@IGC.APC.ORG; pamembers@IGC.APC.ORG > Subject: (abolition-usa) Subcritical test letter > Date: Friday, December 11, 1998 1:57 AM > > Below is my draft of a letter to the editor about the Cimarron subcritical > test. I am asking for suggestions on how to improve this letter. > > U.S. TO VIOLATE COMPREHENSIVE TEST BAN TREATY FOR THE 5TH TIME! > > Since last July 2, the Department of Energy (DOE) has conducted 4 > subcritical nuclear tests (the most recent on September 26). A subcritical > test involves an amount of plutonium too small to produce a nuclear > explosion, but still provides information about nuclear weapons explosions. > In the near future, the U.S. will conduct a 5th subcritical test, code named > Cimarron. > > I believe that subcritical nuclear tests clearly violate the spirit of the > historic Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) signed in September 1996 by > President Clinton. The CTBT commits the U.S. "not to carry out any nuclear > weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion...". The intent of the > CTBT is to pave the way for the elimination of nuclear weapons by halting > the development of new nuclear weapons. The subcritical tests can provide > information which helps the U.S. develop new nuclear weapons. The DOE > claims these experiments are permissible because the CTBT does not define > "nuclear weapon" test. However, I believe that subcritical nuclear tests do > violate the CTBT because they are intended to help the U.S. develop new > nuclear weapons. These tests make global adoption of the CTBT less likely > by encouraging other nations to copy the U.S. decision to continue testing > and update their nuclear arsenals. > > These tests especially contradict the condemnation expressed by the U.S. > government against India and Pakistan for conducting their own series of > nuclear weapons tests earlier this year, and against North Korea for > allegedly building an underground nuclear weapons facility. How can we > credibly condemn India, Pakistan, and North Korea for testing or allegedly > possessing nuclear weapons if we conduct nuclear weapons tests? > > The subcritical tests are part of a massive "Stockpile Stewardship and > Management" program, intended to maintain and expand U.S. nuclear weapons > capabilities well into the next century. A DOE document admits that "The > ability to design nuclear weapons is the core of DOE program and is utilized > in all other aspects of the program ... The nuclear design capability will > be maintained by pursuing an understanding of the underlying physics of > nuclear weapons and exercising the process of design of nuclear weapons .. > A limited number of new nuclear component design requirements are > foreseeable in the future." (U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Defense > Programs, Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan, February 29, 1996, > unclassified version, p. VII-3). During the next decade, taxpayers will > spend about $45 billion for this program, an annual rate higher than the > Cold War average. Thus, it is fair to say these tests are intended to signal > to the rest of the world an unflagging U.S. commitment to nuclear weapons as > the ultimate "big stick." > > Please call the Department of Energy and the White House and your > Congressional representatives and demand that the U.S. cancel all future > subcritical tests, and also demand that the U.S. stop all new and modified > nuclear weapons development, close down the Nevada Test Site and all nuclear > weapons development facilities except for disarmament programs, and begin > immediate clean up and containment of the nuclear nightmare caused by the > U.S. Nuclear Weapons program. Below are phone numbers and addresses to call > and write: > > President Bill Clinton, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington DC 20500, (202) > 456-1111. > > Secretary of Energy, 1000 Independence Ave, Washington DC, 20585 > To leave a message for Bill Richardson, new Secretary of DOE call the 202 > 586 6210 and the press office at 202 586 5806. > > Members of Congress (202)224-3121. Senators Boxer and Feinstein (U.S. > Senate, Washington, D.C., 20510). Representatives (U.S. House, Washington, > D.C., 20515). > > > - > To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" > with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. > For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send > "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Boyle, Francis" Subject: RE: (abolition-usa) A newsletter article about Iraq Date: 11 Dec 1998 03:16:56 -0600 This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand this format, some or all of this message may not be legible. ------_=_NextPart_001_01BE24E6.FFF08B70 Content-Type: text/plain 1. have not seen those articles, but they are true 2. The CIA estimated Israel had 200 nukes about a decade ago. So you figure it out from there. 3. The United Nations. fab Francis A. Boyle Law Building 504 E. Pennsylvania Ave. Champaign, IL 61820 217-333-7954(voice) 217-244-1478(fax) fboyle@law.uiuc.edu > ---------- > From: Timothy Bruening[SMTP:tsbrueni@wheel.dcn.davis.ca.us] > Reply To: abolition-usa@lists.xmission.com > Sent: Thursday, December 10, 1998 7:57 PM > To: abolition-usa@lists.xmission.com; fcnl@IGC.APC.ORG; > shundahai@shundahai.org; wslf@IGC.APC.ORG; wilpfnatl@igc.org; > marylia@IGC.APC.ORG; pamembers@IGC.APC.ORG > Subject: (abolition-usa) A newsletter article about Iraq > > In a Sacramento-Yolo Peace Action newsletter, I read that respected > British newspapers reported that the latest Iraq crisis was "triggered by > the U.S. refusal to commit to lifting the oil embargo even if Iraq fully > complies with requirements to eliminate its weapons of mass destruction". > Which British newspapers published those reports and when did they do so? > > I also read that Israel has up to 400 thermo-nuclear warheads. Where did > that figure come from? TIME's estimate was a little over 100 in May. > > I also read that the oil embargo against Iraq has killed over one million, > with as many as 7,000 dying each month. Where did those figures come > from? > > > - > To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to > "majordomo@xmission.com" > with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. > For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send > "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. > ------_=_NextPart_001_01BE24E6.FFF08B70 Content-Type: text/html Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable RE: (abolition-usa) A newsletter article about Iraq

1. have not seen = those articles, but they are true
2. The CIA = estimated Israel had 200 nukes about a decade ago. So you figure it out = from there.
3. The United = Nations.
fab
Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania = Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820
217-333-7954(voice)
217-244-1478(fax)
fboyle@law.uiuc.edu


    ----------
    From:   = Timothy = Bruening[SMTP:tsbrueni@wheel.dcn.davis.ca.us]
    Reply To: =       abolition-usa@lists.xmission.com
    Sent:   = Thursday, December 10, 1998 7:57 = PM
    To: =     abolition-usa@lists.xmission.com; fcnl@IGC.APC.ORG; = shundahai@shundahai.org; wslf@IGC.APC.ORG; wilpfnatl@igc.org; = marylia@IGC.APC.ORG; pamembers@IGC.APC.ORG

    Subject: =        (abolition-usa) A newsletter article about Iraq

    In a Sacramento-Yolo Peace Action = newsletter, I read that respected British newspapers reported that the = latest Iraq crisis was "triggered by the U.S. refusal to commit to = lifting the oil embargo even if Iraq fully complies with requirements = to eliminate its weapons of mass destruction".  Which British = newspapers published those reports and when did they do so?

    I also read that Israel has up to 400 = thermo-nuclear warheads.  Where did that figure come from?  = TIME's estimate was a little over 100 in May.

    I also read that the oil embargo = against Iraq has killed over one million, with as many as 7,000 dying = each month.  Where did those figures come from?


    -
     To unsubscribe to = abolition-usa, send an email to = "majordomo@xmission.com"
     with "unsubscribe = abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
     For information on digests or = retrieving files and old messages send
     "help" to the same = address.  Do not use quotes in your message.

------_=_NextPart_001_01BE24E6.FFF08B70-- - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Peace through Reason Subject: (abolition-usa) NucNews USA: 12/11/98 Date: 11 Dec 1998 08:07:33 -0500 1. http://www.ohio.com/bj/news/ohio/docs/008749.htm Fire causes uranium plant evacuation 2. http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/unc-msctros.html Dating shipwreck by Bombs 3. http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/16772.html No More Nukes in '99 4. http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,30000101,00.html? Salt Lake City Golf Course Built on Uranium Tailings 5. http://www.denverpost.com/news/news1209d.htm Flats security gets 'B' for effort 6. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/344/nation/Nuclear_power_ads_hit_as_mislea ding+.shtml Nuclear power ads hit as misleading ---------------------------- 1. http://www.ohio.com/bj/news/ohio/docs/008749.htm Fire causes uranium plant evacuation PIKETON, Ohio (AP) -- A fire in a motor forced the evacuation of 24 workers from a plant in this southern Ohio city that enriches uranium for fuel for nuclear power plants. Four workers were treated at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant for minor injuries from the fire, which started about 6:10 a.m. Wednesday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a statement. Two plant operators suffered smoke inhalation and two of the plant's firefighters slipped and fell on leaking oil. The fire involved lubricating oil used in an electric motor that drives compressors to extract gases, the plant's owner, U.S. Enrichment Corp., said in a news release. The NRC said the exact cause of the fire was not known and that a team of investigators is at the plant. ``We're still examining and trying to determine what the cause of the fire was,'' Angela Greenman, a NRC spokeswoman from Chicago, said this morning. U.S. Enrichment spokeswoman Elizabeth Stuckle said this morning that company officials are reviewing the circumstances of the fire. It took the plant fire department about two hours to put the fire out. Operations continued in other parts of the plant. No chemical or radioactive material was released outside of the area where the fire occurred. The company, based in Bethesda, Md., runs the plant in Piketon, about 60 miles south of Columbus, and a similar plant in Paducah, Ky. ----------------------- 2. http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/unc-msctros.html Excerpt story about radiocarbon-dating shipwreck, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ... Even atomic bombs exploded in the 1950s and 1960s may offer clues to what happened at the site since the sinking. ... Since radioisotopes such as cesium-137 and plutonium-239 and 240 from atmospheric nuclear testing have accumulated in most marine sediments worldwide, Martens should be able to detect any later wreck movement by analyzing sediments cored from beneath the oak hull. "We won't find the bomb-produced radioisotopes directly under the hull or stones unless they have moved due to storms or other events," he said.... Contact: David Williamson - David_Williamson@unc.edu 919-962-8596 - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 3. http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/16772.html No More Nukes in '99 by Declan McCullagh 4:45 p.m. 10.Dec.98.PST WASHINGTON -- US nuclear power plants must be shut down unless operators can prove all Year 2000 bugs have been exterminated, an anti-nuclear advocacy group said Thursday. Arguing that Americans can't risk even a slight chance of system failure, the group asked federal regulators to flip the switch on suspect nuclear plants by 1 December 1999. "This is a very reasonable request. The [government] should be required to establish a noncompliance date so that if the plants aren't compliant with Y2K they should be closed," said Paul Gunter, director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service's reactor watchdog project. NIRS, which lobbies for elimination of all nuclear energy, on Thursday requested that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission adopt an emergency regulation saying companies that haven't tested for Y2K "shall close their facilities... by December 1, 1999 until such time as the licensees have conducted a successful exercise." The NRC already has required that all nuclear power plants report their Y2K-readiness by 1 July 1999. And a spokesman for the nuclear industry said there was no need for further government action. "The reality is if you talk to the experts, they'll tell you safety systems are not at risk," said Steve Kerekes of the Nuclear Energy Institute. "If for some reason that proves not to be the case, we'll do what we have to do to ensure safety." Federal audits of nuclear power plants show that safety-related systems suffer from Y2K woes. A November 1998 government audit of the Seabrook, New Hampshire, nuclear plant found that reactor coolant level monitoring systems, fuel handling systems, reactor vessel level indication systems, and the computer system that oversees digital controllers would not work properly in the year 2000. Of 1,304 programs and embedded systems afflicted with Y2K, the audit said 12 had "safety implications." NIRS's Gunter thinks of Y2K as yet another reason to ban nukes. "This is just another issue in an overlay of issues like age-related degradation and unresolved nuclear waste management," he said. If all US nuclear plants were shut down, the country would lose approximately 20 percent of its electric power. Nuclear units are disproportionately located in the northeast, where they supply about 40 percent of the power. NIRC also wants operators to stockpile 60 days' worth of diesel fuel for diesel generators -- which are already required as a backup power source -- and consider alternative energy sources in case of generator failure. Its recommendations: solar, wind, natural gas, hydro, or other dedicated power systems. Nuclear reactors require backup power to cool their cores and fuel pools after they are shut down. [Un-Holy Cow!] 4. http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,30000101,00.html? December 06, 1998 Deseret News - Utah South S.L. golf course gets nod Facility on Vitro site is expected to open in 2000 By Jason Swensen Deseret News staff writer SOUTH SALT LAKE - OK, maybe a golf course on the shoulder of a sewer plant won't capture the ambience of Augusta. But South Salt Lake duffers will finally have nine holes they can call their own. The city's Planning Commission recently approved Central Valley Water Reclamation Facility's application to develop an executive golf course next to the treatment plant near 900 West and 3300 South. The nine-hole, par-33 course will be designed on the old Vitro tailings site and, yes, treated wastewater will be used to fill the ponds and refresh the fairways. It will be South Salt Lake's only golf course. The infamous Vitro property, now owned by Central Valley Water, was once home to a uranium mill that contaminated soils with radioactivity. Those soils have since been removed and there is no longer a health danger. (State environmental regulators say the amount of radiation there now is less than natural radiation found elsewhere in the Salt Lake Valley.) Central Valley trustees had thought about simply landscaping the 50 acres, "until the board voted to go ahead and put a golf course in," said Central Valley Executive Director Reed Fisher. Excavating work is already under way to shape the tentatively named Central Valley Golf Course. Irrigation and seeding will begin sometime next year, said architect William Neff, who is designing the course. Central Valley officials are pointing to a 2000 opening date. The course will be managed by Doug Vilvin, a PGA pro who operates the neighboring driving-range facility, Golf in the Round. A starter's shack will be built near the driving range, and golfers will be able to use the Golf in the Round pro shop. Fisher said it is not unusual for golf courses to use treated wastewater. Arizona, in fact, requires it on all courses as a conservation tool. A course now under construction in Tooele will also used treated wastewater. While treated water isn't fit to drink, it poses no danger. Course regulations will prohibit golfers from wading into the ponds, but Fisher adds the water wouldn't harm a stubborn golfer opting to chip an errant ball out of the pond to save a stroke. Sand traps, trees and berms will be included to make the course more challenging. The golf course is expected to be self-supporting. "Any additional revenues will be used to offset the costs" of the sewer facility, Fisher said. 5. http://www.denverpost.com/news/news1209d.htm Flats security gets 'B' for effort By Jim Kirksey Denver Post Staff Writer Dec. 9 - BROOMFIELD - Security at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site northwest of Denver was given a grade of "B'' Tuesday by members of an independent panel asked last year to investigate whether nuclear materials there are safe. Two of the four panelists who attended a news conference voiced some concern over security, but didn't consider it to be a serious threat. When U.S. Rep. David Skaggs, who called for the panel in June 1997, pressed the two panelists present to grade Rocky Flats security, they agreed on "B.'' Filiberto Cruz, the vice president of the security guard union at the plant, later concurred with that mark. One of the panelists, Donovan Hicks of Cygnus Enterprise Development, admitted, "I've never given an "A' to anybody in my life.'' The Denver Post reported in May 1997 that plant security officers had warned federal investigators that plant security is so flawed terrorists could steal plutonium and make a nuclear bomb. The plant security director quit "in disgust'' in April 1997, saying he couldn't ensure the safety of the Denver region and that members of the anti-government Montana militia had tried to recruit plant guards. Maj. Mark Larson, commander of the 821st Security Forces Squadron at Buckley Air National Guard Base and one of the panelists, said there needs to be better coordination among the different contractors at the plant who have different security responsibilities. Pat Ahlstrom, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Safety, and U.S. Marshal Tina Rowe were the two other panelists. Their reports were submitted Monday to the U.S. Department of Energy and to Kaiser-Hill, the primary contractor at the Rocky Flats plant. Ahlstrom concluded in his report that "the employees and surrounding communities are quite safe from assaults upon the strategic nuclear material still on site. The plant is well prepared to deter such criminal actions and foreign or domestic terrorism or failing deterrence, to meet and overcome likely threats.'' Hicks came to a similar conclusion: "I believe that the overall security . . . is sufficient to deter the theft of special nuclear material from the facility.'' In Larson's assessment, "Security provided material stored at Rocky Flats is sound and provide solid protection from theft, sabotage and accidental release of nuclear material.'' However, all the panelists had some concerns about security at the plant. Rowe decried the lack of coordination between different aspects of security at the plant. "When a site which has achieved so much in recent years puts security in all its forms as a focus, the chain can stay strong in spite of limitations and restrictions.'' Other panelists also recommended better security coordination throughout the plant, and aging security equipment also was often cited. It was also suggested the some of the security equipment was getting very old and nearing the end of its lifespan. Hicks compared the situation to personal computers. Much of the security at the plant is comparable to a 386 computer processing chip, when the state of the art is a "Pentium.'' 6. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/344/nation/Nuclear_power_ads_hit_as_mislea ding+.shtml Nuclear power ads hit as misleading By Scott Allen, Globe Staff, 12/10/98 The national Better Business Bureau yesterday called on a nuclear industry trade group to stop running advertisements that flatly assert nuclear power is ''environmentally clean,'' in a unique decision that attempts to stop misleading marketing claims in the growing competition for consumers' electricity business. The business ethics group found that recent full-page advertisements by the Nuclear Energy Institute went too far in touting the safety and cleanliness of nuclear power, neglecting to mention such drawbacks as radioactive waste and the air pollution from making nuclear fuel. But the decision's message went far beyond the nuclear industry. As companies using telemarketing and direct mail gear up to battle for electricity customers from Massachusetts to California, Better Business Bureau officials warned energy advertisers that they will be held to a higher standard than in the past when strict regulation prevented competition. ''We felt it is very important that, as this market opens up ... that claims about the environment be very clear and very specific,'' said Andrea Levine, director of the national advertising division at the Council of Better Business Bureaus in New York City. ''You can sort of think of it as a warning shot to the industry.'' Officials at the Nuclear Energy Institute, a Washington-based group that represents more than 100 nuclear plants, objected to the decision, arguing that the Better Business Bureau had no jurisdiction to begin with. They said the ads, which appeared this fall in 13 publications including The New York Times, Washington Post, and Atlantic Monthly, were aimed at influencing policy rather than consumers. ''This is clearly a campaign that is directed toward policy makers. That's our charge: to coordinate policymaking for the nuclear industry,'' said Nuclear Energy Institute spokesman Scott Peterson. However, the institute did not appeal the nonbinding Better Business Bureau decision, and promised to consider it in future advertisements. Environmentalists called the decision a big victory against market-hungry energy suppliers who make blanket claims of environmental virtue. ''When companies use vague environmental terms like clean or green or safe they are on shaky ground because there are usually facts that undermine the claim,'' said Lewis Milford, director of the Vermont-based Clean Energy Group, one of several environmental groups that brought the complaint. Environmentalists have long objected to energy industry advertising claims, criticizing ads that assert coal plants are environmentally beneficial or that the now-closed Yankee Rowe nuclear power plant in western Massachusetts is ''aging like fine wine.'' However, until now, they had few places to turn with complaints. Because power companies were government-regulated monopolies, the Federal Trade Commission and Better Business Bureau alike treated their ads as political statements rather than consumer advertising. Political statements receive much broader free speech protection than commercial advertising. Over the past three years, however, states increasingly have eliminated the monopolies, allowing customers to choose their power supplier just as they choose their telephone service provider. More than 19 million people live in states where they can choose where their power comes from, and the number could increase eight-fold in the next year. Competition in Massachusetts so far has been limited, largely because of a law that guaranteed customers a 10 percent electric bill cut even if they stayed with their existing power company. But 100,000 California households have changed power providers, and competition is heating up in states such as Pennsylvania. As a result, the Better Business Bureau for the first time agreed to hear a complaint about energy industry advertising. The disputed ads included such statements as: ''Nuclear power plants don't burn anything to produce electricity, so they don't pollute the air.'' The New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council argued that the claims were misleading. Though nuclear plants do not release conventional pollution from their stacks, the uranium fuel is enriched with power from polluting coal plants, and the hot water that reactors discharge kills fish. In addition, the group said, there is no permanent place for the nuclear waste. The Nuclear Energy Institute countered that critics were bringing in issues beyond the scope of their ads, but the Better Business Bureau disagreed. In the decision released yesterday, the panel ''recommends that the advertiser refrain from using overly broad claims that nuclear energy is `environmentally clean' or produces electricity `without polluting the environment.''' One company that has entered the competitive power market, Green Mountain Energy Resources of Vermont, said the decision will make it easier for the firm to market renewable energy such as wind power without being undermined by others' misleading claims. ''We want customers to have confidence in the information they are getting from everyone,'' said Tom Rawls, Green Mountain's director of environmental affairs. _______________________________________________________________________ * NucNews - to subscribe: prop1@prop1.org - http://prop1.org * Please forward -- help educate! _______________________________________________________________________ - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Shundahai Network Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) US prepares for paramilitary, right-wing, Date: 11 Dec 1998 08:17:03 -0800 Hi Jackie and others. I could not believe it when I read the article in the Las Vegas Review Journal on this training simulation. It seems like this is part of a coordinated effort by the DOE to charecterize anti-nuclear organizations as dangerous and fanatical. I have been meaning to write a letter to the editor about this but have been swamped with other projects. It sure is crazy though. Peace and Holiday wishes to all. Reinard At 06:29 PM 12/10/98 -0800, you wrote: >Greetings, collegues. Losing sleep worrying about paramilitary, right-wing, >anti-nuclear groups wanting to raise public awareness about nuclear issues >and willing to sacrifice lives to further their cause? I kid you not. I >came across this press release on the DOE's Nevada Test Site web page. >Check out the last paragraph! -- Jackie Cabasso > The actual hands-on, two-day field exercise at the Nevada Test Site > will be based on the following scenario. Intelligence information > gathered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation over a period of > several months on the Good Earth Movement, a small, right wing, > paramilitary group that is against nuclear power. The group wants to > raise public awareness about nuclear issues and is willing to > sacrifice lives, their own as well as others', to further their cause. > ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< SHUNDAHAI NETWORK "Peace and Harmony with all Creation" out,out5007 Elmhurst St., Las Vegas, NV 89108-1304 Phone:(702)647-3095 (FAX)647-9385 Email: shundahai@shundahai.org 0000,0000,fefehttp://www.shundahai.org Shundahai Network is proud to be part of: Healing Global Wounds Alliance, a multi-cultural alliance to foster sustainable living and break the nuclear chain; and Abolition 2000: A Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: smirnowb@ix.netcom.com (Robert Smirnow) Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: Y2K and nuclear power Date: 11 Dec 1998 14:22:55 -0600 (CST) ---- Reply-To: nirsnet@igc.org Sender: owner-nukenet@envirolink.org Dear Friends, today (December 10, 1998), NIRS submitted three emergency petitions to the NRC about the Y2K issue and nuclear power. A news release and fact sheet are below; the petitions themselves and other material is available on the NIRS website. Michael Mariotte NIRS NEWS FROM NIRS Nuclear Information and Resource Service 1424 16th Street NW, #404, Washington DC 20036 202-328-0002; fax: 202-462-2183; nirsnet@nirs.org, www.nirs.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Michael Mariotte, Paul Gunter, Mary Olson December 10, 1998 202-328-0002 NAT'L GROUP SUBMITS THREE EMERGENCY RULEMAKINGS TO NRC Y2K COMPUTER BUG MAY AFFECT SAFETY OF ATOMIC REACTORS AND ABILITY TO RESPOND TO EMERGENCY CONDITIONS Washington, DC. The Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) today submitted three emer-gency petitions for rulemaking to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to address problems that may be caused to atomic power reactors and the electric power grid by the Y2K computer bug. "The Y2K computer problem is greater than most people imagined even a year ago," said NIRS' execu-tive director Michael Mariotte, "and it is becoming clear that not every nuclear utility will be Y2K com-pliant in time for the millennium. Further, the possibility of electrical grid instability and local and re-gional blackouts cannot be ruled out, and nuclear power reactors require large amounts of electricity for essential cooling even when closed. Moreover, few-if any-utilities have actually tested emergency plans to cope with potential Y2K difficulties. Our petitions address each of these issues." The first NIRS petition would require the NRC to close by December 1, 1999 any reactor that cannot prove, through full testing, that it is Y2K compliant until it can prove such compliance. The second peti-tion would require nuclear utilities to install additional backup power units to ensure a steady supply of electricity to reactors. The third petition would require each utility to engage in a full-scale emergency response exercise during 1999 in which plant personnel must attempt to address a Y2K-related problem. The petitions were submitted under 10 CFR 2.802, a formal legal process that can lead to the establish-ment of binding regulations. NIRS requested that the petitions be treated in an expedited manner. "The nuclear industry and the NRC say they are working diligently to resolve the Y2K problem," said Mariotte, "and we believe them. Unfortunately, the magnitude of the problem is so large that not every nuclear utility is likely to complete their work in time. The actions we are requesting today are prudent, modest steps-some would say too modest-to help ensure that the Y2K computer bug does not lead to catastrophe. The probabilities of severeY2K problems for some nuclear utilities fall well within the prob-abilities for which the NRC has promulgated other major safety rules." "The NRC and the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) consistently have said that they have not identified any Y2K safety-related issues at nuclear reactors," said Paul Gunter, Director of NIRS' Reactor Watchdog Project. "But a November 6, 1998 audit of Y2K issues at the Seabrook, New Hampshire reactor found 12 safety-related systems affected by the Y2K bug, another 13 systems that could cause a reactor trip, and more than 800 affected systems "significant to business. "A key issue for all nuclear utilities, even those able to put their house in order, is stability of the electri-cal grid," said Gunter. "There are thousands of utilities and independent power generators in the U.S. and Canada and it is highly unlikely all will resolve their Y2K problems in time. Instability of the grid could lead to local and regional blackouts, and the NRC has identified [in NUREG-1150, the agency's basic safety document] station blackout as the single largest contributor to risk at many reactors." Gunter explained that nuclear utilities typically use diesel-powered generators to provide necessary power to cool reactor cores in the event of a blackout. This cooling power is necessary for months even when reactors are shut down. But a NIRS investigation of the generators, attached as an appendix to the peti-tion, found that they frequently don't work and are subject to multitudes of problems. "This is just the tip of the iceberg," said Gunter, "our investigation of these generators is continuing and we are finding they are even less reliable than we had believed." High-level atomic waste fuel pools at every reactor site also must be cooled; otherwise, the water cover-ing the fuel rods could boil off, and their lethal radioactive inventory released. "The NRC currently does not even require that these fuel pools have back-up power," noted NIRS radioactive waste specialist Mary Olson. "But any extended blackout would place these pools at severe risk. We are demanding that the NRC add backup power capability, and to classify these pools as safety-related and requiring cooling." Mariotte noted that current rules only require nuclear utilities to conduct emergency plan exercises once every two years, meaning that half the nation's utilities will not even address the Y2K issue in their exer-cises unless the rule is changed. "Every utility must have hands-on experience in coping with these is-sues," Mariotte said. "The unpredictability of how systems may respond to Y2K bugs, questions of the reliability of off-site emergency responders, including telecommunications, fire, police and other officials, all beg for additional training and practice." "We are not suggesting people head for the hills at the Millennium," said Mariotte. "But when I was a Boy Scout, the motto was 'Be Prepared' and right now we aren't prepared. The potential problems are real, and deserve the type of measured and appropriate response we are urging today. It clearly would be irresponsible and negligent to allow non-Y2K compliant reactors to operate, and we trust the NRC will agree with us on that. It is also simple prudence to require emergency plan exercises and additional back-up power sources. It is perhaps ironic that it may require renewable energy resources to rescue the nuclear power industry from its own shortcomings, but the future begins now." Mariotte noted that some Y2K-related problems may surface even before January 1, 2000. A Swedish utility recently turned its computer clocks to January 1, 1999, and its reactor unexpectedly shut down. "It would have been a cold New Year's Eve in Sweden if that reactor hadn't been tested," said Mariotte. "Testing and ensuring Y2K compliance is the critical issue here, and too many utilities have left them-selves too little time for proper testing, and fixing the new unexpected bugs testing reveals." NIRS also announced that it is contacting funders in an effort to launch a Y2K awareness campaign through its existing Eastern Europe/Commonwealth of Independent States program. "On one hand, the relatively poor reactor designs in those countries have a silver lining: they are much less dependent on digital technology," said Mariotte. "On the other hand, very little work is being put into identifying and repairing both their potential direct nuclear problems and problems associated with their electrical grid. A massive public awareness campaign and development of effective contingency/emergency plans are des-perately needed. One Chernobyl was too many." "The Millennium should be a time of celebration and joy," concluded Mariotte, "not an occasion of fear or panic. The actions we are proposing today will go a long way toward providing assurance of our health and safety as we enter the excitement and promise of the 21st century. Copies of the NIRS petitions and background materials are available from NIRS and on the NIRS web-site, www.nirs.org. --30-- NUCLEAR POWER AND Y2K In mid-1998, a nuclear utility in Sweden decided to see what would happen if it switched the clocks in its reactor's computers to read January 1, 1999. The response surprised utility officials, who had expected business as usual. The reactor's computers couldn't recognize the date (1/1/99) and thus turned the reactor off. If the utility had waited to run this test, New Year's Eve would have been rather cold in Sweden. The Y2K computer bug caused the problem. The Y2K computer bug has the potential to affect the safety and operation of commercial nuclear power reactors, other major nuclear facilities, and the entire electrical power grid. This is true in the U.S. and abroad. While utilities are working to correct their Y2K vulnerabilities, it is not clear that all such problems will be fixed in time. Citizens can play an important role in ensuring that any Y2K-related disruptions are minimized by encouraging their utilities, state and local governments, and federal regulators and officials to devote the resources necessary to address the issue and to make appropriate contingency and emergency plans to cope with unexpected circumstances. BACKGROUND The Y2K computer bug stems from the early days of computers, when memory was very expensive. Software designers saved on memory costs by writing date-sensitive functions with a two-digit year (i.e. 98 instead of 1998). Thus, when the program reaches the year 2000, it may read it as 1900, with unpredictable ramifications. Many of these early programmers assumed their programs would be obsolete by 2000. Unfortunately, the practice continued for many years, and affects not only the early mainframe computers, but also personal computers and other electronic devices that use preprogrammed "embedded chips." In addition, depending on how programs were written, other dates may set off problems, including January 1, 1999, September 9, 1999, February 29, 2000, and others. Y2K AND NUCLEAR SAFETY The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the nuclear power industry, through its trade association Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), claim that the Y2K bug does not affect the safety of atomic reactors. This attitude, while reassuring, may be overly optimistic. For example, an NRC audit of the Seabrook reactor in New Hampshire, released November 6, 1998, found, in this single power plant, 1,304 separate software items and embedded chips that were affected by the Y2K bug. Twelve of these were described as having "safety implications," including the critical Reactor Vessel Level Indication System; another 13 could cause the reactor to trip (itself a potential safety issue); 160 affected systems required by regulations; and 800 were "significant to business"-in other words, keeping the supply of electricity from the plant running. Only about 40% of the items were described as having "minimal" or "no impact" on plant operations. The NRC plans to conduct audits of only 12 reactor sites (out of more than 70) and, by December 1, 1998, had completed and published only three of these. All showed some potential compromise of safety-related systems. In addition, the unpredictable nature of computer and embedded chip responses to an unreadable date means that some failures of systems not directly related to safety could adversely affect safety systems or operator responses to unrelated emergencies (e.g., by providing incorrect data). REACTORS NEED ELECTRICITY The Y2K bug threatens to disrupt the electrical grid, and could cause local or regional blackouts. Some have predicted a national electrical blackout. Consider that there are more than 1,000 different utilities, public and private, and non-utility generators of electricity in the U.S. and Canada. In June 1998, a U.S. Senate Committee issued a survey of the ten largest U.S. utilities. The Committee concluded that "there is significant cause for concern" about utilities efforts to remedy the Y2K problem, that "assurances of timely Y2K compliance [are] little more than a hope," and that, because the utilities surveyed are the largest in the nation, "we are pessimistic about the implications for the rest of the utility sector." Failure of some small utilities could cause instability in the electrical grid, leading to localized blackouts; failure of one or more larger utilities could lead to regional blackouts. While this would be inconvenient at best for most people, it is potentially disastrous for nuclear reactors. A little-known reality of nuclear power is that atomic reactors need a steady source of electricity to cool their cores and irradiated fuel pools even when they are shut down. Without this cooling ability, even closed reactors would melt down; fuel pools would boil dry and release their highly-radioactive inventories. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission considers this "station blackout" scenario to be among the largest contributors to risk of operating reactors. To compensate, nuclear plants are required to have back-up power sources. These are normally giant generators that run on diesel oil and each reactor is required to have two of them (although some multi-reactor sites share generators). But these diesel generators can be unreliable. At best, the NRC says they are 95% reliable. That means that if all 200 or so generators were required at one time, 10 may fail. Moreover, there is reason to believe, given the operating history of these generators, that the 95% level is little more than wishful thinking. WE'VE GOT EMERGENCY PLANS, OR DO WE? Nuclear utilities have been slow to design and implement contingency plans to cope with unforeseen Y2K-related problems. The Senate Committee found, in June 1998, that "none of the utilities surveyed had completed contingency plans…" For the most part, contingency plans will be folded into existing emergency response plans at nuclear utilities. But these emergency plans, which include emergency evacuation capabilities, are tested only once every two years, meaning that under current regulations, at least half the utilities will never even test their Y2K-related plans. All nuclear emergency plans rely heavily on off-site sources of assistance, including police, fire and other essential services. But these services, as well as critical communications abilities, also may be vulnerable to the Y2K bug if not properly assessed, remedied and tested. THE INDUSTRY RESPONSE TO Y2K The utility industry, including the nuclear utilities and the NRC, has been working to resolve Y2K issues. For the most part, they say they will be "Y2K ready" (which does not necessarily mean compliant) by the turn of the millennium. But many utilities began working on the problem late, and some have not even completed their initial assessments of the scope of their problems. Once the assessments are completed, utilities must repair the problems, if possible, or purchase and install new systems. Then systems must be tested, itself a time-consuming process that may reveal still more bugs and incompatibilities. Few utilities have allowed themselves more than a few months to fully test all systems and repair any new problems found. WHAT YOU CAN DO Citizens can take several proactive steps to help assure that Y2K-related disruptions will be minimized and that effective emergency and contingency plans are implemented. In December 1998, the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) submitted three emergency petitions for rulemaking to the NRC. These call for: 1) the shutdown of all reactors that are not demonstrably Y2K compliant through full testing, by December 1, 1999 until they are compliant; 2) installation of additional sources of back-up power to replace or supplement the existing diesel generators. These may include solar, wind, natural gas, hydro or other dedicated power systems; 3) a requirement that every nuclear utility test a full-scale emergency plan during 1999 with a scenario that includes a Y2K-related component. Concerned people should write to the NRC (U.S. NRC, Washington, DC 20555, Attn: Docketing and Service Branch) in support of these petitions. Copies of the petitions are available from NIRS. People can also contact your state and local officials and urge them to institute separate emergency and contingency plans for your state, paying special attention to the possibility of electrical blackouts and telecommunications failures. Finally, people should contact their federal legislators and demand continued congressional hearings on the nuclear industry and Y2K, and ask their Congressmembers to support the NIRS petitions. The Y2K issue is, by its very nature, rapidly changing. New information continually is being developed. For the latest information, check the NIRS website (http://www.nirs.org) or contact NIRS. Michael Mariotte, December 1998 Nuclear Information and Resource Service 1424 16th Street NW, #404, Washington DC 20036 202.328.0002; fax: 202.462.2183 nirsnet@nirs.org; http://www.nirs.org - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: smirnowb@ix.netcom.com (Robert Smirnow) Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: US SIGN ON - URGENT! DOE COMMERCIAL/MILITARY LINK Date: 11 Dec 1998 16:29:04 -0600 (CST) --- Sender: owner-abolition-caucus@igc.org To : Abolition caucus Please respond to Brad Status: RO Dear folks The DOE decision on renewing production of tritium for nuclear weapons is imminent. As such, Peace Action and ANA have drafted this letter, asking one more time that Secretary Richardson have the courage to recognize our (hopefully) shrinking nuclear arsenal and the lack of any real need for tritium, and choose not to produce tritium at all. As it appears more and more that DOE is going to make SOME decision, and perhaps leaning in the direction of the commercial reactor option, we are asking specifically that he not choose that particular method, on the grounds that doing so would cross the line between commercial and military uses of nuclear technology, and would diminish the position of the US to further the cause of nuclear non-proliferation. Because there will be a "public meeting" on Monday night in Tennessee (see my earlier message of today) to discuss the commercial production of tritium at the Watts Bar or Sequoyah plants, we are looking for sign-ons from any and every group by Monday Dec. 14 at noon. We will fax the letter to Secretary Richardson on Monday, so that it is at DOE Headquarters by the time they are having the "meeting" in Tennessee. In addition, we are looking for ways to get it to Tennessee in time for the "meeting" as well. That's it. Please let me know if you can sign on. Thanks all. Brad >>> >>>December xx, 1998 >>> >>>The Honorable Bill Richardson >>>Secretary of Energy >>>Washington, DC >>> >>>Dear Secretary Richardson: >>> >>>The undersigned organizations, representing thousands of concerned >>>citizens throughout the country, strongly oppose U.S. plans to >>>utilize commercial nuclear power plants to produce tritium for >>>nuclear weapons. In our view, such a plan would blur the line >>>between civilian and military applications of nuclear power and >>>thus sets a dangerous precedent from a non-proliferation >>>standpoint. In addition, further reductions in nuclear arsenals, >>>supported by your administration and increasingly likely, would >>>make a new source of tritium unnecessary. >>> >>>As you are aware, it has been the long-standing policy of the >>>United States to separate military and civilian uses of nuclear >>>technology. We stand behind that policy and continue to believe >>>that in this area, the United States must make non-proliferation >>>concerns paramount. Recent revelations that the Indian government >>>procurred tritium for its nuclear weapons program from Western- >>>built 'civilian' reactors reinforces our view. >>> >>>Section 56e of the Atomic Energy Act forbids special nuclear >>>material produced in a commercial reactor from being used "for >>>nuclear explosive purposes." While definitions of "special nuclear >>>material" do not include tritium, this technicality does not mask >>>the fact that the Department of Energy plans to use a source of >>>civilian electricity as a source of materail to boost the >>>destructive power of the nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal. As >>>a former Ambassador to the United Nations you must be able to >>>appreciate how apparent contradictions in our nuclear weapons >>>policies undercut our ability to champion the cause of nuclear non- >>>proliferation abroad. >>> >>>The U.S. timeline for securing a new source of tritium is >>>based on out-dated thinking in terms of the size of the U.S. >>>nuclear arsenal. The United States still bases its planning on >>>maintaining a START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) I arsenal. >>>Implementation of START II, now pending ratification in the Russian >>>Duma, will delay the "need" for new tritium until at least >>>2011 since the tritium from nuclear weapons being retired under the >>>provisions of the START treaties can be recycled into the nuclear >>>weapons slated to remain in the arsenal. The lower force levels >>>envisioned under the broad outlines of START III agreed to by >>>Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin last year would delay the "need" for >>>new tritium even further into the 21st Century. >>> >>>We are particularly concerned about the prospect of using tax payer >>>dollars to complete the construction of the Tennessee Valley >>>Authority's Bellefonte nuclear reactor to produce nuclear weapons >>>tritium. In addition to the substantial burden this proposal would >>>present for taxpayers, bringing Bellefonte on-line would add to the >>>ever growing amount of nuclear waste in the United States. A >>>problem for which there is no adequate solution. >>> >>>We understand that your office is under considerable pressure to >>>choose between a number of potential tritium sources, each of which >>>has considerable fiscal or non-proliferation drawbacks. At a time >>>of emerging consensus on the desirability of significantly reducing >>>the U.S. nuclear arsenal we urge you to make the courageous >>>decision of "none of the above" regarding tritium sources. We >>>stand ready to work with your office on the removal of legislative >>>language forcing the United States to maintain a massive Cold War- >>>sized arsenal. >>> >>>The United States does not need to move forward with a new tritium >>>program that will waste further taxpayer dollars and has the >>>potential to undercut long-standing non-proliferation policy. >>> >>>Sincerely, >>> >>> >>> ******************************** Brad Morse Program Assistant Alliance for Nuclear Accountability 1801 18th St., NW Suite 9-2 Washington, DC 20009 www.ananuclear.org ph:(202) 833-4668 fax:(202) 234-9536 - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: smirnowb@ix.netcom.com (Robert Smirnow) Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: FLOATING CHERNOBYLS[?] IN SAN DIEGO BAY Date: 11 Dec 1998 20:18:02 -0600 (CST) ---- Floating Chernobyls in San Diego Bay Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1998 14:24:17 -0800 From: Laura Hunter Organization: Environmental Health Coalition To: envirovideo@earthlink.net ACTION ALERT AND STATUS REPORT ON THE NUCLEARIZATION OF SAN DIEGO AND THE FUTURE AIRCRAFT CARRIER FLEET Environmental Health Coalition (EHC ) would like to raise the following recent Nuclear Navy activity to the attention of activists in the country and seek your support. The continued strangle-hold of the Naval Reactors Office over the Navy is being played out in San Diego in form of the Nuclear Megaport Project in San Diego Bay. As devastating as this project is for San Diego, it also has serious implications for the nation. The construction of multiple nuclear repair facilities, dredging of San Diego Bay, construction of what are essentially two in-bay waste landfills (one with hazardous waste), the siting of combined nuclear power that far exceeds a commercial reactor in the middle of a densely populated area (up to 18 separate reactors), and construction of multiple waste treatment and storage facilities including a mini-Ward Valley complete the picture of San Diego as the nation's newest Naval Nuclear Sacrifice Zone. Add to this, the recent decision of the Defense Acquisition Board that the next generation of aircraft carriers, the CVX generation, will be nuclear powered and the problem expands to impact many communities. All of this because Naval Reactors has the Navy is on a nuclear treadmill and refuses to let it off, even when the opportunity to do so presents itself. We are requesting that supporters call Secretary Richard Danzig. Please request that he: 1) direct his staff and project directors to conduct a new DEIS and environmental analysis that fully, accurately, and comprehensively assesses the entire Nuclear Carrier Megaport Project and, 2) stay the decision of the Defense Acquisition Board to make the CVX generation of carriers nuclear-powered until a full environmental and economic assessment can be completed on the entire nuclear home porting program, and a solution is determined for current and future generations of carriers?a solution that meets the Navy mission and poses the least threat to human health and the environment. 3) meet with local San Diego community members to hear directly about their concerns. Please call or write: Secretary Richard Danzig Secretary of the Navy 1000 Navy Pentagon Room 4E686 Washington D.C. 20350-1000 (703) 695-3131 BACKGROUND 1. A new complete, accurate, and comprehensive environmental analysis should be conducted prior to the final nuclear home porting and propulsion decisions. Current Status of the Nuclear Megaport in San Diego The Navy has already successfully implemented many of the necessary elements of the Nuclear Megaport. It strategically divided the environmental impacts of the project into 5 different assessments, severely segmenting the impacts. Only one of seven public hearings was held in San Diego. None of the hearings was attended by the official that made the decision on the document or the permit i.e. the public has yet to speak to a decision-maker about any aspect of this project. A clear violation of democratic principles. The Navy self-certifies its NEPA documents and then self-regulates the most dangerous aspects of the project from afar (Puget Sound Naval Shipyard regulates the radiological aspects of the project). We are left as an occupied community without access to decision makers or any voice in our future. The most recent environmental document was the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Developing Home Port Facilities for Three NIMITZ-Class Aircraft Carriers in Support of the U.S. Pacific Fleet (DEIS). The public comment period closed on November 12, 1998. Seven Independent Technical Experts agree?the DEIS is fatally flawed The DEIS is a highly flawed document and is unsuitable for determining impacts on the community. Both EHC and the City of Coronado hired multiple technical experts to conduct an independent review of the DEIS. All came to the same conclusion?the DEIS is fatally flawed and needs to be redone and reissued. To quote from the City of Coronado's letter "...the City of Coronado has determined that the Navy's DEIS is so inadequate as to preclude meaningful analysis, and therefore demands that a revised DEIS be prepared..." Our technical experts' review supported this conclusion. In general, the all of the consultants that reviewed other aspects of the DEIS all found that the information was deficient and did not allow for independent verification. Unfortunately, the Navy certifies its own environmental documents. The DEIS should be redone and recirculated before any final decision is made. 2. The recent decision for a nuclear CVX places San Diego and other communities at additional risks without benefit of any environmental analysis. The recent decision of the Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) that the next generation of aircraft carriers, the CVX generation will be nuclear powered expands and extends the impact to ours and other communities. There has been no environmental review process of this significant decision of which we are aware or have been notified. The development and construction of new, long-term nuclear technology has a myriad of environmental impacts, all of which impact communities and all of which need to be analyzed in the public arena. The GAO report, Navy Aircraft Carriers: Cost-Effectiveness of Conventionally and Nuclear Powered Carriers, finds nuclear propulsion costly and unnecessary to meet Navy mission One of the largest failings of the DEIS is that it did not assess the impacts of the entire nuclear home porting project or reflect current information. In the DEIS the Navy concludes that "Nuclear propulsion significantly enhances the military capability of aircraft carriers" . However, this has recently been disproved. An August, 1998 Government Accounting Office (GAO) report revealed that nuclear powered carriers (CVN) offer no discernible advantages compared to conventionally powered carriers (CV). This report contains significant new information that should be reflected in the environmental analysis. The GAO report considered several issues related to the CVN nuclear propulsion and found, after very thorough analysis, that the CVNs are far more expensive to operate and maintain, costing in excess of $8 billion more, and could cause problems with forward deployment of carriers in the Pacific region. The $8 billion figure is very understated. For example, the GAO admits that waste will be dangerous for thousands of years yet it only included the cost of 100 years of waste storage on the nuclear tab. The GAO also found that conventional carriers spend less time in maintenance and can be available sooner for a large scale crisis because it is easier to accelerate or compress their maintenance schedules. The GAO's analysis also demonstrates that a force of 12 conventional carrier groups can provide a greater level of overseas presence than can a larger nuclear carrier force of 13 carriers. Further, acquisition costs of a nuclear carrier are twice as expensive and mid-life modernization (refueling/refurbishing) is at least three times as expensive (compare $866 million with $2.4 billion). Deactivation is almost 20 times more costly ($52 million compared to $955 million) due to the costs of removing nuclear contaminated equipment and spent fuel. We would also add to the list all the other associated health and environmental problems of nuclear reactors. The bottom line is that the GAO's analysis shows that conventionally powered carriers can meet the Navy's mission and strategic needs at a significantly lower life-cycle cost. It is clear that the pursuit of non-nuclear propulsion for the next generation of carriers would avoid significant costs and could protect public health and the environment--all without compromising military readiness. But, the DAB has sealed our fate without any public input In spite of the findings of this study, in September, just one month after the release of the GAO report, the Defense Acquisition Board met and sealed our fate with a single decision about the CVX carriers?that they would be nuclear (Jane's Defence Weekly October 8,1998, US future carriers will be nuclear-powered) . As far as we know, this commitment of (at a minimum) $40 billion tax dollars and related health and environmental costs was made without any public input. The considerable cost of mining, hauling, operations, and thousands of years of waste storage of the deadly nuclear materials was not even considered or debated in a public forum. This action on the part of the DAB appears to continue the Naval Reactors' pursuit of a larger nuclear program than we need at the expense of democracy and public and environmental health. There is no reason why San Diego and the rest of the nation should have to support naval reactors that we can't afford, don't need, and that, in fact, put our lives and the health of our communities at risk. This decision impacts not only San Diego where the carriers may ultimately end up, but also the many communities that are impacted by the mining, transport of dangerous waste, construction of nuclear reactors, re-fueling and de-fueling, and storage of the waste. The Navy has an option, and an obligation, to turn away from a nuclear propulsion in the future carriers It is clear that the Navy could turn away from nuclear-propulsion in aircraft carriers without sacrificing military readiness or storage. One such credible design for a new conventional carrier can be found in a document from the Defense Technical Information Center titled A Short Take Off, Vertical Landing Carrier, S-CVX.(DTIC # ADA345638). This carrier design holds 60 aircraft while using a smaller personnel group with smaller size and conventional power. The recent Defense Acquisition Board decision to pursue a nuclear CVX should be set aside so that other alternatives should be analyzed and so should recent decisions by DOD to put more money into research and development for a nuclear CVX. An environmental impact study of this decision should be conducted. Use of conventionally powered CVX carriers could greatly reduce the threat to public safety and the environment in the future from this project, could save money, and is a reasonable alternative. Community Opposition in San Diego EHC continues to strongly fight the Navy's plans to home port three nuclear-powered aircraft carriers with related repair and waste storage facilities in San Diego Bay. As the Navy's plans have expanded people have become increasingly concerned about the impacts of this project. On October 28, the Navy held its first public hearing in San Diego on the project which was attended by an overflow crowd of almost 300 people. In addition, over 1000 people from residents in 31 different communities have requested that they be on the record as opposing the project. In addition, the Navy paid no attention to the environmental justice issues of this project, preferring rather to confine the "area of impact" to Coronado, a wealthy, white community directly adjacent to the base. This exclusionary strategy was borne out in the public hearings. Although almost 100 of those in attendance at the hearing were from the primarily Spanish-speaking, downwind communities of Barrio Logan, National City, and Sherman Heights, there was no translation available at the hearing and none of the documentation was produced in Spanish, even though it had been requested by San Diego Mayor Susan Golding. The DEIS dismisses the idea that downwind communities will be impacted and continues to consider Coronado the only impacted community. The DEIS does little to address the issues of exposure through fish consumption or toxic or radiological air releases. The day after the hearing, several hundred people called the office of the Secretary of the Navy requesting an audience with him in San Diego to hear our concerns about the project. Although he visited San Diego two days after his appointment, no contact with community residents was made. We urge supporters to help us by writing and calling Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig Secretary of the Navy 1000 Navy Pentagon Room 4E686 Washington D.C. 20350-1000 (703) 695-3131 Please request that he: 1) direct his staff and project directors to conduct a new DEIS that fully, accurately, and comprehensively assesses the entire Nuclear Megaport Project and, 2) stay the decision if the Defense Acquisition Board to make the CVX generation of carriers nuclear-powered until a full environmental and economic assessment can be completed on the entire nuclear home porting program, and then a solution is determined for current and future generations of carriers?a solution that meets the Navy mission and poses the least threat to human health and the environment. 3) meet with local community members to hear from the community directly about their concerns. This is issue is being significantly under covered in the media. Compared to the massive opposition by California elected officials and extensive media coverage on Ward Valley, this presence of up to 18 nuclear reactors and a mini-Ward valley (self-regulated no less) in the middle of the nation's 6th largest city goes, apparently, unnoticed. Elected officials, for the most part, will not get involved. This nuclearization of San Diego will ensure a continued nuclear future for the nation with all the attendant risks. We are seeking your help so that we can break the choke-hold of Naval Reactors over the Navy and turn back the nuclear CVX decision. We would greatly appreciate hearing from any one who has information on these or related issues. Please call or email me with any questions or information. We will keep you posted. Laura Hunter, Director Clean Bay Campaign Environmental Health Coalition ehcoalition@igc.org (619) 235-0281 FAX (619) 232-3670 - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Shundahai Network Subject: (abolition-usa) U.S. Subcritical conducted at 2pm, 12/11 Date: 11 Dec 1998 22:15:32 -0800 Dear friends, we are sad to announce that the U.S. Subcritical Nuclear Weapons Test "Cimerron" was conducted today, Dec 11, at 2pm Pacific Standard Time. Thank you to all those around the world that have demonstrated and sent letters against these tests.! ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< SHUNDAHAI NETWORK "Peace and Harmony with all Creation" out,out5007 Elmhurst St., Las Vegas, NV 89108-1304 Phone:(702)647-3095 (FAX)647-9385 Email: shundahai@shundahai.org 0000,0000,fefehttp://www.shundahai.org Shundahai Network is proud to be part of: Healing Global Wounds Alliance, a multi-cultural alliance to foster sustainable living and break the nuclear chain; and Abolition 2000: A Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: DavidMcR@aol.com Subject: (abolition-usa) November 2 New Yorker Date: 12 Dec 1998 14:57:14 EST Friends, It is possible a note on this appeared already on one of the two Abolition lists - I often am so far behind I am forced just to delete. But better by far, in this case, to risk duplication. I just finished reading Amitav Ghosh's excellent article on "Countdown: Why Can't Every Country Have the Bomb" in the November 2nd issue of the New Yorker. Sorry that it is impossible for me to post, scan, or duplicate it - time limits forbid. But this is a sober, disturbing, carefully worked out examination of the nuclear bombs tested in India and Pakistan, the chances they will be used, and some idea of what would happen if they were. If you have access to that issue of the New Yorker, read it. If you are in the NYC area, I'll hold onto my copy and you can borrow from me (usually the issues are thrown out when done, after I clip cartoons). - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: smirnowb@ix.netcom.com (Robert Smirnow) Subject: (abolition-usa) CNN COLD WAR SERIES SATURDAY & SUNDAY NIGHTS Date: 12 Dec 1998 16:55:51 -0600 (CST) Friends, CNN is running a series on the Cold War which airs here in the New York[I assume at least all of the East Coast of the USA] area each Saturday night at 10 PM & a new episode airs Sunday nights at 8PM. Nuclear weapons & doctrine obviously play a large role in much of the programming.Last week there was an excellant episode on the Cuban Missile Crisis. -Bill Smirnow - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Kathy Crandall Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) CNN COLD WAR SERIES SATURDAY & SUNDAY NIGHTS Date: 12 Dec 1998 18:52:18 -0500 In addition to watching the series on tv, if you have web access be sure to look at http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/experience/the.bomb/ -focusing on the cold war and "the bomb" which also features an interactive message board on many nuclear weapons issues. Robert Smirnow wrote: > Friends, > CNN is running a series on the Cold War which airs here in > the New York[I assume at least all of the East Coast of the USA] area > each Saturday night at 10 PM & a new episode airs Sunday nights at 8PM. > Nuclear weapons & doctrine obviously play a large role in much of the > programming.Last week there was an excellant episode on the Cuban > Missile Crisis. > > -Bill Smirnow > > - > To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" > with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. > For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send > "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. -- DISARMAMENT CLEARINGHOUSE Nuclear Disarmament Information, Resources & Action Tools Kathy Crandall, Coordinator 1101 14th Street NW #700, Washington DC 20005 TEL: 202 898 0150 ext. 232 FAX: 202 898 0150 ext. 232 E-MAIL: disarmament@igc.org http://www.psr.org/Disarmhouse.htm http://www.psr.org/ctbtaction.htm A project of: Peace Action, Physicians for Social Responsibility and Women's Action for New Directions - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: smirnowb@ix.netcom.com (Robert Smirnow) Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: Sustainable Energy Coalition: "Weekly Update" Date: 12 Dec 1998 22:51:27 -0600 (CST) ---- SUSTAINABLE ENERGY COALITION "WEEKLY UPDATE" December 13, 1998 The articles provided below were initially compiled by the SUN DAY Campaign (ph. 301-270-2258; fax: 301-891-2866) for the 36 member organizations of the Sustainable Energy Coalition (list available upon request). Feel free to distribute this newsletter to others. In addition, please let us know of other organizations, businesses, or government agencies that would like to be added to the e-mail list for this publication. This newsletter is presently sent to over 500 recipients nationwide. FEDERAL ENERGY BUDGET & TAXES 1.) Fiscal Year 2000 Budget Request: There has been no movement within the Administration towards increasing its total Fiscal Year 2000 budget request for energy efficiency and renewable energy although there may be some slight moving around of funds among competing accounts. In addition, there reportedly will be no increase in the funding levels for the weatherization and state grants programs over FY'99 and key programs such as Resource Assessment are slated to be zeroed out. The budget request is expected to be formally transmitted to Congress on or about February 1. 2.) Climate Change Tax Package: Presently, not much new money appears to be available for the Administration's $3.6 billion five-year climate change tax package and there may be only modest changes in the specific initiatives being proposed. A DOE official says that the problem is not the Energy Department but Treasury. 3.) Podesta/Energy Priorities: The December 7 "Roll Call " reports that when asked about priorities for the next year, in the interview, new White House Chief of Staff Podesta first mentioned saving Social Security, then the Patients' Bill of Rights. When then asked for other priorities, he responded: "Well, scientific research is one. We're for increasing medical research, but also other areas of science, too. Congress has given healthy increases to the National Science Foundation, but not to energy research, which is a priority of ours. We're going to push forward on the environment, we're going to try to go back and push forward on our initiative on school modernization." Roll Call then asked what were the environmental priorities. Podesta responded: "Clearly, we've got a massive agenda, especially on the research and incentive side to begin to deal with challenges of climate change." ELECTRIC UTILITY RESTRUCTURING 1.) EIA Analysis/RPS Impacts: An analysis in the Energy Information Administration's "Annual Energy Outlook 1999" says that the Renewable Portfolio Standard (5.5% renewables by 2010) in the White House's proposed Comprehensive Electricity Competition Act could account for a reduction in carbon emissions of 20 million metric tons in 2010 and 25 million metric tons in 2020. Electricity prices would increase by $1/month in 2010 but decrease thereafter as renewable energy technologies become more economical. The analysis also noted that more rapid development and adoption of energy-efficient technologies than that assumed in the reference case could lower energy demand in 2010 by 3% below the reference case and lower carbon emissions by 4%, or 69 million metric tons. In 2020, energy demand would be lower by 7% and emission by 6% or 127 million metric tons. For further details, see:. 2.) Utility Plant Emissions Database: The U.S. EPA has made available a new Emissions and Generation Resource Integrated Database (E-GRID) providing comprehensive CO2, SO2, and NOx emissions (per unit of electricity) and fuel source data for virtually all electric power plants in the U.S. It also provides the amount and percentage of power from different fossil fuels, nuclear power, and renewables. EPA considers this an important right-to-know tool for consumers choosing among competing electricity suppliers. E-GRID can be found at or call Rick Morgan (202-564- 9143) for further information. 3.) House Energy & Power Subcommittee: The December 4 "White House Bulletin" reports that Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) may be named chairman of the House Subcommittee on Energy & Power which would oversee development of utility restructuring legislation in the House. House Commerce Committee Chairman Tom Bliley (R-VA) is expected to name subcommittee members early next year. Evidently, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) believes he has the chairmanship, but Hastert has sufficient seniority to get it. 4.) Senator Craig/Utility Restructuring: The November 30 "Inside Energy" reports that in a letter send to Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee Chairman Frank Murkowski (R-AK), Senator Craig Thomas (R-WY) indicated that he plans to reintroduce a version of the bill he introduced during the 105th session. That bill, S.722, would provide states with flexibility in determining how and when to open their markets to competition. Thomas argued that mandating competition "is not in the interests of all classes of customers and could result in increased rates for low- density states." CLIMATE CHANGE 1.) Earth Warmest in 1,200 Years: The December 12 "Washington Post" reports that "the warming of the Earth in this century is without precedent in at least 1,200 years and cannot be fully explained by any known combination of natural forces." It adds that Jonathan Overpeck, head of the paleoclimatology program for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says that new research that documents climate change as far back as the Holy Roman Empire is strengthening the argument that humans are partly responsible for the rising temperatures. "[W]hat we're now seeing ... [is] difficult to explain without turning to a 'greenhouse gas' mechanism. ... Twentieth century global warming is a reality and should be taken seriously," he noted. 2.) Climate/Congressional Prospects: Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) was recently quoted as saying that the Kyoto Protocol "is dead for as far as the eye can see in the U.S. Senate" because there was "no way" the White House could muster the two-thirds vote needed in the Senate to ratify the treaty. 3.) CO2 Solutions Study: White House economists, the DOE laboratories, and other EPA and DOE economists are reportedly developing a new analysis of the potential of energy efficiency and renewable energy to reduce carbon emissions. It is expected that the renewables portion of the study will be a lot stronger than before and, according to one person working on it, "the renewables community should be very happy with the new report." 4.) Population/CO2 Emissions: A new report, "Profiles in Carbon: An Update on Population, Consumption and Carbon Dioxide Emissions" by Population Action International charts 45 years of per capita C02 emissions in 179 countries, and then ranks most of these countries by their 1995 emissions. The report quantifies the inequity involved in these emissions, noting that the 20% highest emitting populations contribute fully 63% of the CO2 emissions. On a per-capita basis, Americans are the third-highest per-capita CO2 emitters behind only the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. Each American annually emits 5.3 metric tons of CO2 compared to 2.79 for Germans, 2.46 for Japanese, 1.38 for Swedish, and 0.71 for Chinese. The publication can be found at or call 202-659-1833. MISCELLANEOUS 1.) Solar Photovoltaic Rooftops: The December issue of "Photovoltaic Insider's Report" reports that the new German coalition government will launch a 100,000 solar rooftop program on January 1, 1999 that will dwarf any government photovoltaic program ever attempted in the 20-year history of the commercial PV industry. It is expected to create a market for some 500 MW of PV modules with a market value in the billions of dollars over the next few years -- about four time greater than total world module shipments of 122 MW in 1997. At present, the biggest government PV program is the solar rooftop program in Japan which called for the installation of 9,400 4-kW residential rooftop PV systems (or more than 35 MW of PV modules) in the last fiscal year. The U.S. has no program even approaching the size of the existing initiative in Japan or the new one in Germany. However, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District has launched a new program, PV Pioneer II, intended to enable residential utility customers to own their own rooftop PV system. Through the program, SMUD will "buy down" over half the cost of the solar system; a typical 2-kW rooftop system would generate enough energy to offset about half the average yearly energy needs of a SMUD customer and cost under $4,500 compared to a regular cost of $10,000. For details, see . 2.) Nuclear Ads Disputed: On December 9, the Better Business Bureau said a Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) advertising campaign , which touts nuclear energy "environmentally clean" is inaccurate and it recommended that the industry trade group refrain from making such claims. The ruling comes in response to a complaint filed by 15 environmental and consumer groups including six members of the Sustainable Energy Coalition. Based on extensively documented issues involving nuclear waste, thermal discharges, and fuel fabrication, the ruling states that the nuclear industry should not make unqualified claims that it produces electricity "without polluting the environment." NEI has indicated disappointment with the ruling but has waived its right to appeal. Let us know if you would like us to fax you a 13-page packet of statements and news stories. 3.) Renewable Caucus Members: Member-of-Congress-elect Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH) has joined the House Renewable Energy Caucus making her the first Member-elect to join the caucus. There are now 123 members of the House Renewable Energy Caucus in the incoming 106th Congress (52 R's, 70 D's, 1 I.). Let us know if you would like us to fax you a list. 4.) New Members of Congress/Environment: The Union of Concerned Scientists has prepared an 8-page analysis of the environmental and energy views of the new members of the 106th Congress (Senate and House). Let us know if you would like us to fax you a copy. 5.) New DOE EE/RE Staff: The U.S. Department of Energy has announced the appointment of David Leiter as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy and Ben Finzel as EE/RE's Director of Communications. ## END ## - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Timothy Bruening Subject: (abolition-usa) Letter about Nuclear Waste Shipment from Pennsylvania to Date: 13 Dec 1998 12:06:19 -0800 (PST) In the near future, 10 spent nuclear fuel rods will be shipped from a power plant in Pennsylvania to General Electric's Vallecitos Nuclear Center, a nuclear laboratory in Pleasanton, CA. The Vallecitos Nuclear Center has received or delivered 53 commercial fuel rod shipments since 1979, totaling 513 kilograms. My friend Dorothy Brownold wants me to write a letter to the editor about the Vallecitos shipment. What should I say in the letter? - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Timothy Bruening Subject: (abolition-usa) Letter about Nuclear Waste Shipment from Pennsylvania to Date: 13 Dec 1998 18:34:26 -0800 (PST) Below is my first draft of a letter to the editor about the planned irradiated nuclear fuel rod shipment from Limerick, PA to Pleasanton, CA. Will the shipment go through Davis? How tough are the casks (ie. How hard an impact can they withstand, how much heat can they withstand, how long can they stay under water before corroding, what are the chances of radiation being released during an accident, what are the chances of a terrorist attack, etc). Please tell me how I can improve my letter: Watch out! More irradiated nuclear fuel rods will soon come through Sacramento. In early 1999, ten irradiated nuclear fuel rods (so radioactive that a person standing three feet away from unshielded irradiated fuel would receive a lethal dose of radiation in just 10 seconds) will be shipped by truck from the Limerick, Pennsylvania nuclear power plant to General Electric's Vallecitos Nuclear Center, a nuclear laboratory in Pleasanton, CA. The fuel rods will travel along some of the nation's busiest freeways, including through Reno, Sacramento, Stockton and the Tri-Valley's 580/680 freeway interchange before arriving at Vallecitos, situated along highway 84. This worries me, since according to DOE projections, trucks average 6.4 accidents per 1 million miles, which works out to a 1.92% chance of an accident for a 3,000 mile trip, and an accident involving irradiated fuel could cause $2 billion of damage in an urban area, according to a 1980 NRC study. The Vallecitos Nuclear Center has been involved in more than 50 shipments (totaling 513 kilograms) of spent nuclear fuel rods since 1977, including at least 11 in the past five years, all without any public notification. Many or those shipments have come rolling across the nation's highways from faraway places like Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania and Hope Creek, New Jersey. However, this time, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission chose to post approval (given last month) of the latest shipment on its website due to the shipment's size and distance, and to tout the extensive security measures it plans. Why are they coming here? According to the NRC, the GE Vallecitos facility "tests the feasibility of burning fuel in commercial reactors for a longer period than is the current practice." A GE official explained that the nuclear workers cut into the rods to check the plutonium levels and to search out any cracks or flaws. This is done at Vallecitos in "hot cells," special rooms lined with thick concrete walls. The stated goal of the program at Vallecitos is to determine if the nuclear industry can save money by allowing power plants to change fuel rods less frequently. As fuel rods sit in nuclear reactors, they are bombarded by neutrons and some of the rod's uranium 238 ultimately becomes plutonium 239. Thus, fuel rods become progressively "hotter" and more radioactive the longer they are used in a reactor. This raises questions as to whether an eventual outcome of the research program at Vallecitos will be to cut the margin of safety at U.S. nuclear power plants. Since shipments of irradiated fuel rods to and from Vallecitos has been kept secret for so long, I believe that General Electric and the NRC have a moral and legal obligation to hold public hearings on the shipments and on the Vallecitos research programs in Livermore, Pleasanton, Sunol, and all along the transportation route, to address the following concerns. According to the NRC, highway accidents with nuclear fuel rods have occurred, though the NRC says there have not been documented radioactive releases from them. Transportation casks have been found with inadequate welds and other problems. And, unpredictable situations- like the collapse of the Cypress freeway structure during the Loma Prieta earthquake, or a truck falling off a bridge onto a passing train- do happen. According to Dept. of Energy records, the DOE's "hot cells" at Vallecitos are severely contaminated and in need of cleanup. Will any of DOE's "hot cells" be used for this program? What is the total number of "hot cells" at the site? What other facilities will be used? How are the nuclear rods cut open? What kinds of analyses are performed? What are the waste streams from these extremely hazardous operations? How many nuclear rods will be used in the program overall? When will this program end? What is the potential health impact on workers and the public? In 1977, General Electric had closed its main reactor at the Vallecitos Nuclear Center following controversy over its location atop an active earthquake fault. I am concerned that an earthquake could release radiation from the 64 irradiated fuel rods at Vallecitos- the 54 already there plus the 10 due to arrive next year. There have been some problems with the shipment. The Limerick nuclear power plant encountered "minor problems" during the last week in November when it attempted to load the ten 12-foot long irradiated, also called spent, fuel rods into a shipping cask, according to an internal NRC report. "There were also believed to be some irregularities, so the operation was halted," the memo continued. Due to these unspecified "problems" and "irregularities," coupled with an imminent, already-scheduled fuel reload at Limerick, the fuel rod shipment destined for Vallecitos will be delayed until 1999, the memo said. The NRC did not disclose, however, just how soon after the New Year that shipment might come. Further, the NRC alluded to new efforts to identify and acquire different rods "to minimize any schedule slippages in the research program." - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: smirnowb@ix.netcom.com (Robert Smirnow) Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: PRESS RELEASE RE UKRAINIAN NUKE REACTORS Date: 14 Dec 1998 19:22:09 -0600 (CST) ---- Message-ID: <3675757D.97D6E1C4@igc.org> Reply-To: nirsnet@nirs.org Organization: NIRS Sender: owner-nukenet@envirolink.org Thanks to everyone who signed on! Michael Mariotte NIRS NEWS FROM NIRS Nuclear Information and Resource Service 1424 16th Street NW, #404, Washington, DC 20036 202-328-0002; fax: 202-462-2183; nirsnet@nirs.org; www.nirs.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Michael Mariotte, 202-328-0002 December 14, 1998 80+ ORGANIZATIONS ASK CLINTON, EBRD TO STOP FUNDING FOR NEW UKRAINIAN REACTORS DECEMBER 14 IS INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST AGAINST UNNECESSARY K2/R4 PROJECT More than 80 environmental and consumer organizations December 14 sent a letter to President Clinton and to the U.S. representative on the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) urging them to stop funding for Ukraine's proposed K2/R4 atomic reactors. 67 of the groups were from the United States. The letter was part of an international day of protest against the unnecessary and dangerous project. Demonstrations are expected in some 30 European cities on December 14, which marks the end of a controversial "public consultation" period intended by the EBRD to solicit public comment on its participation in the project. The Clinton administration has supported construction of the new reactors as the price to pay for a permanent shutdown of the two remaining operable Chernobyl atomic reactors. But environmentalists and critics throughout Europe-and now the United States-have pointed out severe safety shortcomings in these "new," but Soviet-designed reactors. Opponents also have argued that the EBRD is required to support only least-cost energy projects. A blue-ribbon panel, including U.S. utility and nuclear experts Peter Bradford and David Freeman, concluded in 1997 that the K2/R4 project is decidedly not a least-cost energy strategy for Ukraine. But the EBRD commissioned a new study, by nuclear contractors Stone & Webster, which argues that the reactors are a least-cost energy alternative. Said NIRS executive director Michael Mariotte, "The Stone & Webster study is faulty from beginning to end. It barely recognizes decommissioning costs-which in U.S. experience runs at about initial plant construction costs; it completely ignores radioactive waste storage costs, which may be the highest nuclear-related cost of all; and its estimate of construction costs will be met only if Ukraine doesn't plan on paying its construction workers." Mariotte added, "We agree with President Clinton that permanently closing Chernobyl is of paramount importance. But there is little reason to believe that Ukraine will keep its promise to close Chernobyl if K/2 and R/4 are built-after all, what other nation would keep Chernobyl running at all? Further, it makes precious little sense to build two new unsafe reactors in highly-populated regions to replace two unsafe reactors in an abandoned region. And K2/R4 are decidedly unsafe-neither could be licensed in the U.S., or anywhere in the west." "Instead of building the next nuclear accident waiting to happen, the EBRD and the U.S. should be helping Ukraine develop and implement renewable energy projects and especially new energy efficiency measures. Ukraine actually has plenty of electrical capacity, but it also is among the least energy efficient nations in the world. It would be much more cost-effective and a greater boon to its economy to help make Ukraine an energy efficient nation supported by new local energy efficiency industries," said Mariotte. Background on K2/R4 Khmelnitski 2 and Rovno 4 are two partially-built, Soviet-designed 1000MW VVER nuclear units situated in northeast Ukraine. The construction of these reactors was stopped in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, in 1996, the Ukrainian government proposed a project to complete these reactors to replace two operational units at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which is to be closed down by 2000. Ukraine signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the G7 countries and the European Union in which the conditions for this deal are formulated. The project is expected to cost $1.72 billion. The Ukrainian government has approached the EBRD for a loan of $190 million for the project. Once this loan is obtained, additional funding will come from Euratom, Russia and from Export Credit Agencies in Europe, Japan and the U.S. The EBRD has been considering the loan for years, but seems hesitant to come up with the loan, as the project fails to meet many of the criteria the Bank has formulated for such projects. In 1997, an independent panel of the EBRD concluded that K2/R4 does not meet the EBRD economic criteria, in the sense that the project is not economic in terms of rate of return and is not a least cost solution for the problem of energy supply. Safety problems The project also poses many serious safety problems, most of which are due to structural flaws in the original Soviet design. The international Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has identified these safety problems, which include an increased risk of fire due to improper cable layout, faulty steam generators, containment vessels that are susceptible to rupture, faulty control rods and poor and obsolete instrumentation and control. Despite the significance and importance of these safety problems, the project sponsor is not planning to complete all safety measures, and planning to solve some of the known safety problems only at the first refueling--after three years of reactor operation. Poor public consultation EBRD regulations require that the project sponsor, the Ukrainian state company Energoatom, undertake public hearings on the project, as arranged under the Convention on Environmental impact assessment in a Transboundary Context, (the Espoo convention). For this reason, a Public Participation Process started in August, with the objective of gathering input from the public on the environmental impact assessment. This process, which ends in mid-December, has been hampered from the very first day by many problems, mostly due to a lack of interest from the Energoatom. Decisions have, to a large extent, been carried out on a non-transparent basis, and information about the project has not been readily available. Project sponsors have been consistently uncooperative throughout the public participation process. The Ukrainian government has little patience with any public opposition, which might weaken its efforts to complete the reactors and in some cases has actually attempted to silence opposition by using intimidation and physical threat. The Ukrainian Secret Service (the successor to the KGB) has harassed, interrogated and arrested without warrant persons who have openly campaigned against the project. NIRS can place reporters in touch with European contacts on these issues. More information is available on NIRS' website: www.nirs.org --30-- - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jackie Cabasso Subject: (abolition-usa) BIG LEGAL WIN AGAINST DOE! Date: 14 Dec 1998 17:27:38 -0800 (PST) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, December 14, 1998 P.1 of 2 CONTACT: Jackie Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation (510) 839-5877 Marylia Kelley, Tri-Valley CAREs (925) 443-7148 "HOORAY!" BIG WIN BY 39 PLAINTIFF GROUPS!! GROUPS WIN LANDMARK NUCLEAR WEAPONS "CLEANUP" VICTORY; TO AVOID CONTEMPT FINDING, ENERGY DEPARTMENT AGREES TO OPEN DATABASE, ANALYSIS OF LONG-TERM STEWARDSHIP PLANS, $6.25 MILLION CITIZEN MONITORING FUND WASHINGTON, DC/SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- To settle a lawsuit brought by 39 environmental and peace organizations including the Oakland-based Western States Legal Foundation and Livermore's Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment (CAREs), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has signed a landmark agreement which will increase public oversight of its efforts to address severe contamination problems in the nation's nuclear weapons complex. The settlement, which was delivered to Federal District Court Judge Stanley Sporkin today, ends nine years of litigation charging that DOE failed to develop its "cleanup" plans properly. DOE faced a contempt of court hearing before Judge Sporkin for not complying with a previous legal agreement in the case. "From the perspective of protecting the nation's water, air and land, this settlement is superior to the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement DOE originally agreed to prepare," said David Adelman, a Natural Resources Defense Council lawyer who represented the plaintiffs. "We now have the data, the resources and the processes necessary to make DOE's environmental work more accountable to the public." The Washington, D.C. law firm of Meyer & Glitzenstein provided pro bono litigation counsel. Key elements of the settlement include:  Creation of a regularly updated, publicly accessible database including details about contaminated facilities and waste generated or controlled by DOE's cleanup, defense, science and nuclear energy programs, including domestic and foreign research reactor spent fuel, listing characteristics such as waste type, volume, and radioactivity, as well as transfer and disposition plans;  DOE funding for at least two national stakeholder forums to assure the database is comprehensive, accurate and useful;  Completion of an environmental analysis, with public input, of plans for "long-term stewardship" at contaminated DOE sites to ensure protection of the public and the environment; More . . . . . . Continued, P. 2 of 2  Establishment of a $6.25 million fund for non-profit groups and tribes to use in monitoring DOE environmental activities and conducting technical reviews of the agency's performance;  Payment of plaintiffs'legal fees and expenses incurred to litigate this case; and  Continuing federal court oversight to assure adherence to the agreement. "I'm really excited! This is a major victory both for the environment and for public participation," said Marylia Kelley, of Tri-Valley CAREs in Livermore, California, one of 39 plaintiff groups." We have won access to the tools the public needs to monitor DOE's compliance with the nation's obligation to address the radioactive and toxic legacy of nuclear weapons production." DOE's "cleanup" program is slated to become the largest environmental project in U.S. history, with an estimated total cost of more than $250 billion. "Since the mid-1980's we've been asking for a breakdown of DOE-generated waste by program and facility," added Jackie Cabasso of Oakland's Western States Legal Foundation, a plaintiff and communications coordinator for the lawsuit. "DOE is currently gearing up its nuclear weapons research and development activities -- the same kinds of activities that created this environmental disaster. Now, for the first time, using DOE's own data, we'll be able to demonstrate the link between cause and effect, a powerful argument against any further nuclear weapons design and production." Many of the groups first sued DOE in 1989, claiming that the agency must conduct a thorough analyses before moving ahead with plans to address the radioactive and toxic legacy of nuclear weapons production and modernize its facilities. The next year, DOE signed a legal agreement promising a full public review of its proposals. In 1994, however, DOE leaders decided to abandon the Environmental Restoration Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement process without consent of the plaintiffs or Federal Court Judge Sporkin, who had approved the initial settlement. In April, 1997, plaintiffs went back to Judge Sporkin seeking enforcement of the original agreement. In a series of court hearings, Judge Sporkin made it clear that he expected DOE to abide by its commitments. Earlier this year, he ordered DOE to "show cause" why it should not be held in contempt for failing to conduct the environmental analysis. In depositions taken by the plaintiffs, former Energy Secretary James Watkins and other former senior DOE officials strongly backed plaintiffs claims. The discussions which led to today's settlement were conducted at Judge Sporkin's urging. - - 3 0 - - Note: Representatives from Western States Legal Foundation, Tri-Valley CAREs and other northern California plaintiff groups will hold a news conference today, Mon. Dec. 14, at 12 noon at the San Francisco offices of the Natural Resources Defense Council, 71 Stevenson, Suite 1825 (near Montgomery Street BART at 2nd Street, south of Market Street in San Francisco). Representatives from attorney of record NRDC will be available by speaker-phone from Washington, DC. * * * Copies of the settlement agreement are available on request. * * * PLAINTIFF ORGANIZATIONS The Atomic Mirror, CA Bay Area Nuclear (BAN) Waste Coalition, CA Citizen Alert, NV Citizens for Alternatives to Radioactive Dumping, NM Citizens Opposed to a Polluted Environment, CA Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, NM East Bay Peace Action, CA Energy Research Foundation, SC Friends of the Earth, Washington, DC Greenpeace, Washington, DC Hayward Area Peace and Justice Fellowship, CA Lane County American Peace Test, OR Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy, NY Livermore Conversion Project, CA Los Alamos Study Group, NM Nashville Peace Action, TN Natural Resources Defense Council,Washington, DC Neighbors in Need, OH Nevada Desert Experience, NV Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, CA Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, TN Peace Action, Washington, DC Peace Farm of Texas Physicians for Social Responsibility, Washington, DC Physicians for Social Responsibility - Greater SF Bay Area, CA Physicians for Social Responsibility, CO Physicians for Social Responsibility, NM Physicians for Social Responsibility, NY Plutonium Free Future, CA Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, CO San Jose Peace Center, CA Seattle Women Act for Peace/Women Strike for Peace Shundahai Network, NV Sonoma County Center for Peace and Justice, CA Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, CA Western States Legal Foundation, CA Women Concerned/Utahns United Women for Peace - East Bay, CA Women's International League for Peace and Freedom - East Bay Branch, CA ******************************************** WESTERN STATES LEGAL FOUNDATION 1440 Broadway, Suite 500 Oakland, CA USA 94612 Tel: (510)839-5877 Fax: (510)839-5397 wslf@igc.apc.org ********** Part of ABOLITION 2000 ********** Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Peter Weiss Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) Fwd: US SIGN ON - URGENT! DOE COMMERCIAL/MILITARY LINK Date: 14 Dec 1998 22:17:57 -0500 LCNP (Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy) will be glad to sign on to the letter. Peter Weiss, President, LCNP Robert Smirnow wrote: > > --- > Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1998 14:02:24 -0800 (PST) > From: Peace Action - National Office > > Sender: owner-abolition-caucus@igc.org > Subject: US SIGN ON - Urgent! > To: abolition-caucus@igc.org > > To : Abolition caucus > From: Brad Morse and Bruce Hall > Please respond to Brad > Subject: tritium sign-on letter > Status: RO > > Dear folks > > The DOE decision on renewing > production of tritium for nuclear weapons is imminent. As such, Peace > Action and ANA have drafted this letter, asking one more time that > Secretary > Richardson have the courage to recognize our (hopefully) shrinking > nuclear > arsenal and the lack of any real need for tritium, and choose not to > produce > tritium at all. As it appears more and more that DOE is going to make > SOME > decision, and perhaps leaning in the direction of the commercial > reactor > option, we are asking specifically that he not choose that particular > method, on the grounds that doing so would cross the line between > commercial > and military uses of nuclear technology, and would diminish the > position of > the US to further the cause of nuclear non-proliferation. > > Because there will be a "public meeting" on Monday night in Tennessee > (see > my earlier message of today) to discuss the commercial production of > tritium > at the Watts Bar or Sequoyah plants, we are looking for sign-ons from > any > and every group by Monday Dec. 14 at noon. We will fax the letter to > Secretary Richardson on Monday, so that it is at DOE Headquarters by > the > time they are having the "meeting" in Tennessee. In addition, we are > looking for ways to get it to Tennessee in time for the "meeting" as > well. > > That's it. Please let me know if you can sign on. Thanks all. > > Brad > > >>> > >>>December xx, 1998 > >>> > >>>The Honorable Bill Richardson > >>>Secretary of Energy > >>>Washington, DC > >>> > >>>Dear Secretary Richardson: > >>> > >>>The undersigned organizations, representing thousands of concerned > >>>citizens throughout the country, strongly oppose U.S. plans to > >>>utilize commercial nuclear power plants to produce tritium for > >>>nuclear weapons. In our view, such a plan would blur the line > >>>between civilian and military applications of nuclear power and > >>>thus sets a dangerous precedent from a non-proliferation > >>>standpoint. In addition, further reductions in nuclear arsenals, > >>>supported by your administration and increasingly likely, would > >>>make a new source of tritium unnecessary. > >>> > >>>As you are aware, it has been the long-standing policy of the > >>>United States to separate military and civilian uses of nuclear > >>>technology. We stand behind that policy and continue to believe > >>>that in this area, the United States must make non-proliferation > >>>concerns paramount. Recent revelations that the Indian government > >>>procurred tritium for its nuclear weapons program from Western- > >>>built 'civilian' reactors reinforces our view. > >>> > >>>Section 56e of the Atomic Energy Act forbids special nuclear > >>>material produced in a commercial reactor from being used "for > >>>nuclear explosive purposes." While definitions of "special nuclear > >>>material" do not include tritium, this technicality does not mask > >>>the fact that the Department of Energy plans to use a source of > >>>civilian electricity as a source of materail to boost the > >>>destructive power of the nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal. As > >>>a former Ambassador to the United Nations you must be able to > >>>appreciate how apparent contradictions in our nuclear weapons > >>>policies undercut our ability to champion the cause of nuclear non- > >>>proliferation abroad. > >>> > >>>The U.S. timeline for securing a new source of tritium is > >>>based on out-dated thinking in terms of the size of the U.S. > >>>nuclear arsenal. The United States still bases its planning on > >>>maintaining a START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) I arsenal. > >>>Implementation of START II, now pending ratification in the Russian > >>>Duma, will delay the "need" for new tritium until at least > >>>2011 since the tritium from nuclear weapons being retired under the > >>>provisions of the START treaties can be recycled into the nuclear > >>>weapons slated to remain in the arsenal. The lower force levels > >>>envisioned under the broad outlines of START III agreed to by > >>>Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin last year would delay the "need" for > >>>new tritium even further into the 21st Century. > >>> > >>>We are particularly concerned about the prospect of using tax payer > >>>dollars to complete the construction of the Tennessee Valley > >>>Authority's Bellefonte nuclear reactor to produce nuclear weapons > >>>tritium. In addition to the substantial burden this proposal would > >>>present for taxpayers, bringing Bellefonte on-line would add to the > >>>ever growing amount of nuclear waste in the United States. A > >>>problem for which there is no adequate solution. > >>> > >>>We understand that your office is under considerable pressure to > >>>choose between a number of potential tritium sources, each of which > >>>has considerable fiscal or non-proliferation drawbacks. At a time > >>>of emerging consensus on the desirability of significantly reducing > >>>the U.S. nuclear arsenal we urge you to make the courageous > >>>decision of "none of the above" regarding tritium sources. We > >>>stand ready to work with your office on the removal of legislative > >>>language forcing the United States to maintain a massive Cold War- > >>>sized arsenal. > >>> > >>>The United States does not need to move forward with a new tritium > >>>program that will waste further taxpayer dollars and has the > >>>potential to undercut long-standing non-proliferation policy. > >>> > >>>Sincerely, > >>> > >>> > >>> > ******************************** > Brad Morse > Program Assistant > Alliance for Nuclear Accountability > 1801 18th St., NW > Suite 9-2 > Washington, DC 20009 > www.ananuclear.org > ph:(202) 833-4668 fax:(202) 234-9536 > > > - > To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" > with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. > For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send > "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: smirnowb@ix.netcom.com (Robert Smirnow) Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: INDIA MAY TEST H BOMB, TEST BAN TREATY JEOPARDIZED Date: 15 Dec 1998 11:51:31 -0600 (CST) ---- Sender: owner-abolition-caucus@igc.org FYI (with thanks to MV Ramana) Harsh South Asians Against Nukes > >India May Test Again Because H-Bomb Failed, U.S. Believes >By Mark Hibbs, Nucleonics Week, November 26, 1998 > >One of India's May nuclear blasts, which was described by the New Delhi >government as a successful thermonuclear weapons test, was in fact a >failure, senior U.S. nuclear intelligence analysts have concluded after >months of study. > >Discrepancies between claims made by India after the tests and actual >seismic data recorded by several international organizations have prompted >speculation that at least one of three tests at the Pokaran test site India >said were successful on May 11 did not go off. Last week, however, >Washington officials told Nucleonics Week that analysts at the Z Division >of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, responsible for making >estimates of progress in foreign nuclear weapons programs based on >classified data, have now concluded that the second stage of a two-stage >Indian hydrogen bomb device failed to ignite as planned. > >As a result of the apparent failure, U.S. official sources said, the Indian >government is under pressure by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), >responsible for India's nuclear weapons design and production effort, to >test the H-bomb again, in the face of ongoing bilateral talks in which the >U.S. seeks to persuade India to agree to a global nuclear test ban. > >Measured in terms of verified capabilities, apparent progress in delivery >systems, and military control of the bomb program, one U.S. official said, >''Pakistan may have pulled even or gone ahead'' of India in the South Asian >nuclear arms race, by virtue of tit-for-tat tests Islamabad carried out two >weeks after India's detonations. > >Only days after the blast, DAE announced to the world that the test was a >complete success, and that India now had demonstrated a thermonuclear >weapons capability. When India announced it had tested an H-bomb, U.S. >officials and some ex-DAE officials suggested that, because Indian >officials in the past had used the term ''thermonuclear'' loosely, the >biggest Indian shot on May 11 was a boosted fission weapon, not a true >hydrogen bomb (NW, 14 May, 12). After several months of analysis of >seismic, human, and signals intelligence data, however, U.S. officials >directly responsible for interpreting the information have concluded that >they are satisfied that DAE tried to test an H-bomb. > >A boosted fission weapon is a nuclear weapon in which neutrons produced by >thermonuclear reactions serve to enhance the fission process, which itself >is set off in the type of weapons designed by India by the implosion of a >core of metallic plutonium. In a boosted fission bomb, the contribution of >the thermonuclear reaction to the total yield is relatively small. > >A full-fledged thermonuclear weapon is a two-stage weapon in which the main >contribution to the explosive energy results from the fusion of light >nuclei, such as deuterium and tritium. The high temperatures required for >the fusion reaction, produced in the secondary stage of the device, are >initially produced by means of an initial fission explosion, generated by >the primary stage. > >According to well-placed sources, U.S. analysts now strongly believe that, >on May 11, the primary stage of an Indian H-bomb detonated, but its heat >failed to ignite the secondary stage. "If India really wants a >thermonuclear capability, they will have to test again and hope they get it >right," one U.S. official said. > >After the May blasts, India declared that a "thermonuclear device" >code-named Shakti-1 had produced a nuclear yield of 43 kilotons. At the >same time, India asserted that a "fission device" was exploded yielding 12 >kilotons, and that a "low-yield device" had produced a yield of about 0.2 >kilotons. But seismic and intelligence data analysed by U.S. experts have >prompted the conclusion that "the secondary didn't work," one source >explained. > >According to data compiled by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), >the expected mid-point of a range of probable yields for all blasts on May >11, given the seismic recordings of between 4.7 and 5.0 on the Richter >scale, would be only about 12 kilotons. > >Sources said that, while the U.S. has not made any public comment about >what it knows about the Indian H-bomb test, the Clinton administration has >raised the subject with the Indian government in secretive, high-level >talks with New Delhi over terms under which India would agree to comply >with the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). The Indian side has asserted >that the discrepancy between measured yield and the DAE claim of 43 >kilotons is accounted for by a precautionary reduction by DAE of the amount >of fuel used in the secondary, in order to prevent damaging the village of >Khetolai, located only a few miles from the test site. U.S. analysts have >concluded that was not the case. > >"The Indians are hopping mad that we don't believe their H-bomb worked," >one source said. > >But the matter has now severely complicated the U.S.-Indian talks on the >test ban, diplomatic sources observed last week. Because the H-bomb test >failed, DAE "is under intense pressure to test again," one U.S. official >said. According to an official at the U.N. Conference on Disarmament in >Geneva, "The U.S. has been preparing to let India climb down" from heavy >sanctions which were applied nearly immediately after the May test series, >provided India agrees to the CTBT. But if DAE didn't deliver on the H-bomb >test, he said, the U.S. "will have to give India a lot more in return" for >a firm agreement to agree to the CTBT. > >Diplomatic sources said that, in 1997, India had asked the U.S. for test >simulation data, such as that the U.S. agreed to supply France a few years >ago, in order to permit India to accept the CTBT, but that the U.S. had >refused. One analyst said that "it would now be logical" for India to renew >that request. But sources said a U.S. transfer of such data to India [was >unlikely?] > >In the heady hours following what appeared to be a series of successful >nuclear weapons tests in May, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee >had declared that India would not carry out further tests and would >negotiate accession to the CTBT (NW, 14 May, Extra). But since then, U.S. >officials said, DAE has bid to test the H-bomb again. At the same time, one >Indian analyst said last week, Vajpayee is "terribly worried" about the >prospect that the Indian military might get control of the nuclear weapon >program. "The military is looking at what was apparently a DAE failure and >it sees what's happening over in Pakistan where the military is directly in >control of its weapons program," one U.S. official said. -- Mark Hibbs, >Washington > > >Mark Hibbs is European Editor of Nucleonics Week and Nuclear Fuel, leading >specialist newsletters on international nuclear affairs, published by >McGraw-Hill, Inc. Hibbs, based in Bonn, Germany, covers nuclear energy and >proliferation problems in Europe, the former Soviet Union, and Asia. - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Janet Bloomfield Subject: (abolition-usa) Re: BIG LEGAL WIN AGAINST DOE! Date: 15 Dec 1998 21:58:59 +0000 (GMT) Dear everyone, all I can say is "jolly well done"! Have a wonderful holiday and let's look forward to more success in 1999. Love and peace, Janet Bloomfield. Saffron Walden, England. - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Peace through Reason Subject: (abolition-usa) NucNews U.S.: NIRS / y2k; Yucca Mt; DOE settlement; TX dump; Date: 16 Dec 1998 06:31:19 -0500 1. http://detnews.com/1998/technology/9812/13/12130202.htm Group says unplug nuclear plants not set for Y2K 2. http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/washpol/nevada-waste.html Contradictions Seen in Report on Possible Nuclear-Waste Site 3. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-12/16/038l-121698-idx.html Energy Dept. Settles Suit on Waste Cleanup 4. http://www.phillynews.com/inquirer/98/Dec/10/national/DUMP10.htm Texans' dump plan angers Mexicans 5. http://www7.mercurycenter.com/premium/nation/docs/losalamos11.htm Replacing nuclear detonations 1. http://detnews.com/1998/technology/9812/13/12130202.htm Group says unplug nuclear plants not set for Y2K Reuters / The Detroit News December 13, 1998 WASHINGTON -- An environmental group Thursday submitted a petition to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission asking that nuclear power plants be shut down if they cannot prove themselves free of Year 2000 computer bugs. Nuclear Information and Resource Service officials said if the nation's 104 commercial nuclear power plants are not properly tested and declared free of the Y2K threat, there could be "severe safety and environmental problems" caused by date-sensitive electronic systems failing when 2000 starts. "The Y2K computer problem is greater than most people imagined even a year ago, and it is becoming clear that not every nuclear utility will be Y2K compliant in time for the millennium," said Michael Mariotte, NIRS executive director. The so-called Y2K problem has developed as a result of computer systems recognizing years by their last two digits, reading 1999 for example as "99." When the new millennium begins, computers will misread the year 2000 for 1900, and if not corrected, could cause system-wide malfunctions. The first petition by the Nuclear Information and Resource Service would require the NRC to close by Dec. 1, 1999, any reactor that cannot prove, through full testing, that it is Y2K compliant. A second NIRS petition would mandate that nuclear utilities install additional backup power units to ensure steady supply of electricity to reactors. A third and last petition requires each utility to engage in a full-scale emergency response exercise during 1999 for testing plant personnel. "The nuclear industry and the NRC are working diligently to resolve the Y2K problem, and we believe them. Unfortunately, the magnitude of the problem is so large that not every nuclear utility is likely to complete their work in time," Mariotte said. NIRS said the possibility of electrical grid instability and local and regional blackouts cannot be ruled out as a result of possible computer malfunctions. The group noted that few utilities have actually tested emergency plans to cope with potential difficulties. In a statement, the Nuclear Energy Institute said the industry had thus far found Y2K issues a challenge, but manageable. The industry group noted that systems needed to safely shut down nuclear plants respond to plant conditions and operator commands, not to date-driven data bases, prone to Y2K or millennium bugs. "The NRC stated in 1997 that safety-related shutdown systems are not subject to the Year 2000 concern," according to the NEI statement. The environmentalist group asked the NRC to consider their petitions on an expedited basis, and allow outside verification of nuclear plant Y2K testing and compliance. 2. http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/washpol/nevada-waste.html Contradictions Seen in Report on Possible Nuclear-Waste Site By MATTHEW L. WALD, New York Times, December 16, 1998 WASHINGTON -- After 15 years and $6 billion of research, the Energy Department plans to release this week its first detailed analysis of whether Yucca Mountain, in the Nevada desert, is a good place to bury nuclear waste for what amounts to eternity. The report is expected to say there is no reason to stop investigating Yucca Mountain, near Las Vegas, as the site for storing thousands of tons of long-lived radioactive waste from the production of electricity and nuclear weapons. But according to people who have been briefed on the assessment, and public comments by agencies advising the Energy Department, several contradictory points are contained within its thousands of pages First, water has been found to move through the desert mountain faster than many proponents of the site had hoped, posing the possibility that nuclear contamination could be carried relatively quickly into the groundwater under the mountain and then beyond the boundaries of the waste repository. Because the mountain alone will not be able to contain the waste without some help from man, if then, engineering details such as how the wastes are packaged and how the storage tunnels are laid out will be crucial, the assessment states. But the report's supporting documents also predict that the peak period of radioactive releases from the waste will be so far in the future -- 200,000 years or more -- that man-made features, like corrosion-resistant canisters, will not be reliable. Officials at the Energy Department, which was supposed to have begun accepting reactor waste in February, say the report, known as a viability assessment, merely lays out a path for further research before 2001, when the department is supposed to make a recommendation on the site to the president. Department officials and nuclear-power executives say the assessment is a step toward the department being able to recommend the site, even if the rock is not as impermeable as once believed. But other experts, including independent reviewers brought in by the department, say that making any predictions about the site will be extremely difficult if the Environmental Protection Agency, which must eventually establish the criteria for it, decides that it must perform well hundreds of thousands of years from now. Two thousand centuries from now, they say, Yucca Mountain, now one of the driest and most remote places in the United States, may no longer be desert. Energy Secretary William Richardson said in a telephone interview that predictions would be stated in probabilities. "That's all one can offer," he said. "I don't think in science one can offer certainty." The assessment runs five volumes; thousands of supporting documents have already been made public. Many are available at http://www.ymp.gov/va.htm. The nuclear industry, which is eager for the government to take spent reactor fuel off its hands, is asserting that the assessment shows there are no "show-stoppers" that would nullify Congress' instructions to the Energy Department to investigate Yucca Mountain. Theodore Garrish, an expert on waste at the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's trade association, said study of the mountain was going through "a natural progression" into man-made aspects of the project. "They're saying what kind of engineering needs to be put into this site to make this thing work," Garrish said. "This is a combination of geology and man-made barriers and engineering." Garrish also said that the work thus far is sufficient to lay to rest some concerns -- for example, that a volcano or an earthquake would disturb the site. But outside scientists have raised many questions about the research. Many of these scientists are not hostile to the idea of burying the wastes at Yucca, but say that evaluation of the 15 years of research points to many unanswered questions. Recent reviews by outside scientists found that not enough is known about how water, the main vector in spreading the wastes, will flow through the mountain in coming millennia, when rainfall may be triple the mountain's current six inches a year. The time scale is so long that it probably includes climactic changes including ice ages. "Greenhouse gas warming is a little blip on the screen, compared to longer-term changes we're going to see here," said another independent scientist who has seen the statement. Scientists have already found that in the section of the mountain where the waste would go, 1,000 feet below the surface, water shows signs of atomic bomb fallout, which means that it made the trip in the last 50 years, after atmospheric nuclear testing began. To carry wastes from the site, the water would have to percolate down another 1,000 feet to reach the water table, but a report last month to Congress and the Energy Department by a panel of outside scientists, the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, found that water may flow relatively quickly, through rock fractures. The report said the usefulness of the area above the water table as a barrier was "uncertain," and that during times when the climate in Nevada is wetter than it is now, travel times could be "several hundred years or shorter," which is brief compared to the longevity of the wastes. How fast the waste moves depends heavily on the amount of rainfall, but even the U.S. Geological Survey, the organization that first identified the region in 1976 as a likely site for burying waste, said in a report to the Energy Department this month that "there is surprisingly little" in the assessment about "reckoning the uncertainties in either past or future climates." Department officials say that shifting the focus of research to engineering considerations is natural. "In any scientific endeavor, it starts off seeming simple, and you will find more and more questions," said one high-ranking department official, speaking on condition that he not be further identified. Most of those willing to talk about the study said they did not want to comment on the record before it is released by Richardson, who could make changes in its findings. "People used to think, 20 years ago, that the geology was so good, you don't have to worry much about the man-made part," said the official. But no matter what site was chosen, "you find more and more you need to explain," he said, and eventually, engineers will have to address the question of how the metal of the waste containers, and how the heat created by the wastes, will interact with the rock at the site chosen. As part of the shift in attention, the department has been testing the corrosion resistance of a nickel alloy that it wants to use to package the spent fuel; scientists think those tests could be used to predict the metal's performance for centuries or even a few thousand years. But, said one scientist who was asked by the Energy Department to evaluate its research, "if you want to extrapolate from two years to 100,000 years, good luck. There's no good theoretical basis for your extrapolations." And no one is clear on how much extrapolation is necessary, because the period for which the repository should be expected to contain the wastes has not been established. In the 1980s, the Environmental Protection Agency suggested 10,000 years in a draft rule that was later withdrawn. In 10,000 years the most intensely radioactive wastes, like cesium and strontium, will have decayed away, but the plutonium and other man-made elements will still have most of their radioactivity. ------------------------ 3. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-12/16/038l-121698-idx.html Energy Dept. Settles Suit on Waste Cleanup By H. Josef Hebert Associated Press, Wednesday, December 16, 1998; Page A29 The Energy Department will provide its critics money for research and expanded access to information about nuclear waste cleanup efforts under a settlement reached with environmentalists. The department said it agreed to earmark $6.25 million for citizen groups to monitor and finance independent technical studies of the government's nuclear waste management programs. The settlement, approved Monday by U.S. District Judge Stanley Sporkin, closed a nine-year lawsuit filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council and 38 other environmental organizations. ...(snip) The department will put a variety of unclassified nuclear waste and cleanup information in a new database that will be available through the Internet, officials said. The lawsuit also accused DOE of failing to perform adequate environmental reviews of how it manages the nuclear weapons stockpile. Sporkin dismissed that section earlier this year on national security grounds. Other plaintiffs included Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and Physicians for Social Responsibility. ------------------------ 4. http://www.phillynews.com/inquirer/98/Dec/10/national/DUMP10.htm Texans' dump plan angers Mexicans The state wants to build a nuclear disposal site near the border. Critics see environmental racism. By Molly Moore, WASHINGTON POST / Philadelphia Inquirer GUADALUPE BRAVOS, Mexico -- This bantam border town has a message for what it sees as the overbearing bullies next door: "Clinton and Bush -- Take away your nuclear garbage," screams the banner in front of city hall on Main Street. The town's hostility is aimed 50 flat desert miles to the southeast, where Texas plans to chew huge craters in the rocky earth to create a nuclear waste dump for radioactive refuse from Texas, Maine and Vermont. But what state officials in Austin and the Congress in Washington regard as a remote patch of scrubland -- a perfect spot for an unpopular dump -- is considered by critics as too close to home and water supplies for hundreds of thousands of Mexicans who populate the towns and cities south of the border. "For us it's a question of life and death," said Israel Trejo Gamez, mayor of this town of 9,600 people. "We're worried for our future generations of children. If it's not dangerous, like the U.S. government says, why not put it in New York?" Mexicans, as well as political and environmental opponents in the United States, maintain they have the answer to that question. 'Why . . . this place?' "It's obvious environmental racism," said Clara Torres Armendariz, a state legislator in the sprawling Mexican state of Chihuahua, which adjoins Texas. "Why choose this place? The American side is 65 percent Hispanic and not politically or economically important for the United States. On the other side is Mexico." Seldom has one issue so galvanized Mexico's disparate political spectrum as the proposed nuclear waste dump outside the Texas community of Sierra Blanca, 18 miles north of the border and 80 miles southeast of El Paso. The Mexican Congress voted unanimously to oppose construction of the dump, and political leaders from every party have united in protest marches, petitions and visits to Gov. George W. Bush's office in Austin and congressional suites in Washington. The battle over Sierra Blanca has spanned nearly two decades, since Texas first began looking for a dump site to comply with federal law urging states to take responsibility for disposing of low-level nuclear waste generated by power stations, hospitals and research laboratories. The alternative has been to ship it to one of two operating dumps in Richland, Wash., and Barnwell, S.C. Four other sites have been closed over the years because of various problems. Dangerous fault? In a decision shadowed by allegations of political shenanigans, the Texas state legislature ordered the dump built on a 16,000-acre ranch that the state purchased five miles east of Sierra Blanca, which has a population of 600. Environmentalists allege the site is situated over a dangerous fault line in an earthquake-prone region. They say potential leaks could endanger underground water aquifers. They complain that Sierra Blanca already has the nation's largest sewage-sludge dump and that the trend toward situating waste dumps along the southern border of Texas violates a 1983 pact between the United States and Mexico to "prevent, reduce and eliminate sources of pollution" within 60 miles of the border. But Hudspeth County officials and Sierra Blanca business leaders argue that the site for low-level nuclear waste is safe and that in a poor county where the biggest employer is the U.S. Border Patrol, the dump would bring a needed financial windfall. Even though the dump has not been built, the county has received service fees that have helped build a new park, library and health clinic, refurbish the high school football field, and buy new school buses and ambulances. In July, two Texas administrative judges recommended, after two years of study, that the state deny the licenses sought by the Texas Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Authority to build the dump, citing the "failure to adequately characterize the fault directly beneath the site and . . . to adequately address potential negative socioeconomic impacts from the proposed facility." But the recommendation was only advisory. Supporters and opponents said they expected Texas authorities to give final approval to the dump despite the warnings. In addition, the U.S. Senate recently voted to allow Texas to enter into contracts with Maine and Vermont to accept out-of-state nuclear waste at the site. ------------------------ 5. http://www7.mercurycenter.com/premium/nation/docs/losalamos11.htm Replacing nuclear detonations Deadly arsenal: Los Alamos, Livermore labs update weapons technology using powerful computers. By Mark LeibovichWashington Post LOS ALAMOS, N.M. -- When Department of Energy engineer John Pedicini was 27, he exploded his first brainchild -- a large nuclear device -- and felt a surge of patriotism as the Nevada desert quaked. That was in the mid-1980s, when the Evil Empire seemed as tangible as the underground detonations that measured the strength of the nation's nuclear arsenal. Today, Pedicini is waging a new race, one known to few beyond the shrinking community of nuclear weapons designers here at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Far from desert bunkers, their pursuit is unfolding on a massive computer that can perform more calculations in one second than a hand-held calculator can in 3 million years. ``I'm here because I wonder if (Russian President Boris) Yeltsin's economy will keep falling apart,'' said Pedicini. ``I worry that Russia will go the way of (Germany's) Weimar Republic in the 1920s, and they will become a threat to us again.'' Such vigilance still pervades America's nuclear birthplace. But as the Cold War recedes deeper into history, the lab's basic mission has undergone a seismic shift. The United States stopped developing nuclear weapons in 1989 and ceased underground testing in 1992; that leaves about 8,000 warheads in today's U.S. stockpile (the exact number is classified). Now the scientists entrusted with maintaining these weapons must create a simulated testing ground. Computer skills have become a gold standard. Rise of nuclear nerds Los Alamos has reinvented itself. Last month, the Department of Energy, which oversees nuclear weapons, announced that the ``world's fastest computer,'' called ``Blue Mountain,'' was fully operating at Los Alamos. It was the latest milestone of a period that has seen the laboratory's elite group of Cold War physicists replaced by -- or transformed into -- a new generation of nuclear nerds. At the crux of this evolution is the U.S. government's $4.5 billion-a-year effort to preserve its nuclear weapons. Called ``Stockpile Stewardship,'' the project's objective is to maintain the reliability of aging weapons systems without the benefit of the underground detonations used for decades. The weapons project requires a computing system powerful enough to produce a three-dimensional likeness of how a device would perform if exploded. It would portray the heat, light and chaos of a nuclear detonation and, virtually speaking, place the scientists inside a bomb as it unchains the greatest destructive power unleashed by human beings. The project has infused the lab with fresh urgency following a post-Cold War identity crisis. In the early 1990s, ``there was a sense that we would just grab the peace dividend and get out of the weapons business,'' said Gilbert G. Weigand, deputy assistant secretary for strategic computing and simulation at the Energy Department. Technicians feared this would render them overeducated maintenance workers. Or worse, unemployed. But stockpile stewardship has presented fresh challenges, many made up of bits and bytes rather than protons and neutrons. While the program includes non-computerized tasks, such as the routine transport of weapons between facilities, the simulation work represents its leading edge, many weapons scientists here say. Aging stockpile Aging is perhaps the most persistent foe in the modern arms race. By 2004, the average age of the weapons in the stockpile will be nearly 20 years, or the expected lifespan of many of these weapons at the time they were constructed. During the Cold War, older weapons were retired and new ones designed to take their place. But just as urgent is the aging of the Cold War scientists who built the arsenal. Their ranks are dwindling fast, at Los Alamos and at its sister, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. These are the last U.S. scientists to design nuclear bombs, the last to run underground tests. ``In the next 10 or 15 years, most of the people who helped develop these devices will no longer be alive,'' said Mark Goldman, director of government programs for Silicon Graphics Inc., which holds the $121.5 million contract to build the Los Alamos Blue Mountain supercomputer on which the simulations will be performed. Weigand would not divulge exactly how many nuclear weapons designers are still employed by the government, citing national security concerns. Speaking broadly, he put the figure at ``a couple of hands full.'' _______________________________________________________________________ * NucNews - to subscribe: prop1@prop1.org - http://prop1.org * Please forward -- help educate! _______________________________________________________________________ - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: DavidMcR@aol.com Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: Minnesota Protests Date: 17 Dec 1998 01:36:29 EST This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --part0_913876590_boundary Content-ID: <0_913876590@inet_out.mail.aol.com.1> Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII --part0_913876590_boundary Content-ID: <0_913876590@inet_out.mail.hotmail.com.2> Content-type: message/rfc822 Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Content-disposition: inline Return-Path: Received: from relay31.mx.aol.com (relay31.mail.aol.com [172.31.109.31]) by air09.mail.aol.com (v53.27) with SMTP; Thu, 17 Dec 1998 00:31:25 -0500 Received: from lefty.techsi.com (lefty.techsi.com [204.89.207.112]) by relay31.mx.aol.com (8.8.8/8.8.5/AOL-4.0.0) with ESMTP id AAA06151; Thu, 17 Dec 1998 00:31:17 -0500 (EST) Received: (from slist@localhost) by lefty.techsi.com (8.8.8/8.7.3) id UAA02320; Wed, 16 Dec 1998 20:36:52 -0600 Resent-Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 20:36:52 -0600 Message-ID: <19981217052716.4467.qmail@hotmail.com> X-Originating-IP: [206.150.219.139] Resent-Message-ID: <"eEBspC.A.Ck.44Ge2"@lefty> Resent-From: SocialistsUnmoderated@lefty.techsi.com X-Mailing-List: archive/latest/2734 X-Loop: SocialistsUnmoderated@lefty.techsi.com Precedence: list Resent-Sender: SocialistsUnmoderated-request@lefty.techsi.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit 4:30 pm at the Federal Court House, downtown Minneapolis Thursday, Decemember 17th there will be a protest against the military strikes against Iraq for those that can make it here :) Dwight ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com -- The lefty.techsi.com server is not operated by the owners of the techsi.com domain. Views expressed in this email do not reflect the opinions of TSI, its officers, customers, or minions. To unsubscribe, send email to SocialistsUnmoderated-request@lefty.techsi.com with "unsubscribe" in the Subject line. Send complaints that can't be resolved by unsubscribing to doumakes@novia.net. --part0_913876590_boundary-- - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: ASlater Subject: (abolition-usa) New Agenda UN vote: op-ed Date: 17 Dec 1998 14:13:30 -0500 Dear Friends, Below is an article I wrote on the UN vote in which all of our NATO allies, with the exception of Turkey, UK and France resisted US pressure and voted for speedier steps to disarmament. While this unprecedented breach in the NATO wall (thanks in large part to grassroots lobbying by our global Network) has received extensive coverage internationally, there has been no word of it in the US. Please consider writing your own, or using this one, as well as letters to the editor, etc. about US lawless behavior. In light of the awful events in Iraq, it's becomes ever more urgent that the American public know how out of step our own country is, even with our allies. TIME FOR A NEW NUCLEAR POLICY AGENDA by Alice Slater Calling on the nuclear weapons states “to demonstrate an unequivocal commitment to the speedy and total elimination” of their nuclear arsenals, the New Agenda Coalition of eight nations-- Ireland, Sweden, New Zealand, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Egypt and Slovenia-- won an extraordinary victory in the UN this December on their resolution for a new nuclear policy agenda. Despite intense lobbying by United States envoys in capitols all over the world, urging governments to vote against the resolution, it passed by a vote of 114 in favor, 18 against and 38 abstentions. Slovenia, a NATO-wannabe, had to withdraw its sponsorship and voted to abstain after some arm-twisting by Uncle Sam. Overturning long-standing precedent, all of the non-nuclear NATO nations with the exception of Turkey withstood heavy-handed pressure from the US, aided by France and the UK, breaking ranks to abstain on the resolution. Canada, emulating its leadership role in pushing through the landmines treaty and International Criminal Court agreement over US objections, sent representatives to NATO capitols urging those nations to resist US pressure. Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Greece, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, Iceland, Portugal, and Denmark, as well as non-NATO allies Japan and Australia all rejected the rusty cold war position of the US. The New Agenda Coalition has issued a clarion call to the nuclear weapons states and the nuclear capable states which are not members of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (India, Pakistan, Israel), to take more immediate and practical steps towards nuclear disarmament, urging that we not enter the next millenium without a clear and rapid path towards the elimination of nuclear weapons. The US strenuously objected in the UN debate to the New Agenda’s call to review existing nuclear strategic doctrines and to dealert all nuclear weapons, stating that such measures would undermine its policy of nuclear deterrence. The new German Foreign Minister recently issued a call that NATO adopt a no first use policy, although Germany’s Defense Minister, on a subsequent visit to Washington avoided a clear statement on no first use, responding to US pressure and expressions of alarm that NATO Cold War doctrine might actually be changed to conform to new realities. Canada’s Foreign Affairs Committee recently issued a parliamentary report urging that Canada and NATO allies should work with the New Agenda Coalition and encourage the nuclear weapons states to conclude negotiations leading to the elimination of nuclear weapons. It also endorsed the de-alerting of all nuclear weapons, and called upon the government to “argue forcefully” for a re-examination of NATO’s nuclear policy. Now is the time for the US to heed its allies and begin taking the practical steps recommended by the New Agenda Coalition. With the Y2K problem threatening uncertain possibilities for tragic nuclear accidents due to faulty computer programming, taking our weapons off hair-trigger alert is particularly appealing. Reports from Russia that the Duma is likely to pass START II, reducing arsenals to about 3500 deployed strategic warheads in each country, and then to move for cuts much deeper than the 2500 warheads contemplated under START III, is an added further incentive for the US to support the lead of its partners in NATO and friends in the New Agenda Coalition by moving towards meaningful nuclear disarmament. The continued reliance on nuclear weapons as instruments of national security is a provocative invitation to other nations to acquire themwitness events in India and Pakistan. It’s time to put the cold war behind us and negotiate a treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons. By clinging so obdurately to its useless and dangerous nuclear capability, the US is perceived by other nations as having joined the league of so-called “rogue” states which use the terror of weapons of mass destruction as an instrument of policy. The US should join with its allies in working rapidly to eliminate the nuclear scourge. It must not repeat the tragic and shameful conduct that led to its pariah status on the landmines and International Criminal Court treaties. Alice Slater Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE) 15 East 26th Street, Room 915 New York, NY 10010 tel: (212) 726-9161 fax: (212) 726-9160 email: aslater@gracelinks.org GRACE is a member of Abolition 2000, a global network working for a treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons. - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: ASlater Subject: (abolition-usa) New Agenda UN vote: op-ed Date: 17 Dec 1998 14:13:30 -0500 Dear Friends, Below is an article I wrote on the UN vote in which all of our NATO allies, with the exception of Turkey, UK and France resisted US pressure and voted for speedier steps to disarmament. While this unprecedented breach in the NATO wall (thanks in large part to grassroots lobbying by our global Network) has received extensive coverage internationally, there has been no word of it in the US. Please consider writing your own, or using this one, as well as letters to the editor, etc. about US lawless behavior. In light of the awful events in Iraq, it's becomes ever more urgent that the American public know how out of step our own country is, even with our allies. TIME FOR A NEW NUCLEAR POLICY AGENDA by Alice Slater Calling on the nuclear weapons states “to demonstrate an unequivocal commitment to the speedy and total elimination” of their nuclear arsenals, the New Agenda Coalition of eight nations-- Ireland, Sweden, New Zealand, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Egypt and Slovenia-- won an extraordinary victory in the UN this December on their resolution for a new nuclear policy agenda. Despite intense lobbying by United States envoys in capitols all over the world, urging governments to vote against the resolution, it passed by a vote of 114 in favor, 18 against and 38 abstentions. Slovenia, a NATO-wannabe, had to withdraw its sponsorship and voted to abstain after some arm-twisting by Uncle Sam. Overturning long-standing precedent, all of the non-nuclear NATO nations with the exception of Turkey withstood heavy-handed pressure from the US, aided by France and the UK, breaking ranks to abstain on the resolution. Canada, emulating its leadership role in pushing through the landmines treaty and International Criminal Court agreement over US objections, sent representatives to NATO capitols urging those nations to resist US pressure. Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Greece, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, Iceland, Portugal, and Denmark, as well as non-NATO allies Japan and Australia all rejected the rusty cold war position of the US. The New Agenda Coalition has issued a clarion call to the nuclear weapons states and the nuclear capable states which are not members of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (India, Pakistan, Israel), to take more immediate and practical steps towards nuclear disarmament, urging that we not enter the next millenium without a clear and rapid path towards the elimination of nuclear weapons. The US strenuously objected in the UN debate to the New Agenda’s call to review existing nuclear strategic doctrines and to dealert all nuclear weapons, stating that such measures would undermine its policy of nuclear deterrence. The new German Foreign Minister recently issued a call that NATO adopt a no first use policy, although Germany’s Defense Minister, on a subsequent visit to Washington avoided a clear statement on no first use, responding to US pressure and expressions of alarm that NATO Cold War doctrine might actually be changed to conform to new realities. Canada’s Foreign Affairs Committee recently issued a parliamentary report urging that Canada and NATO allies should work with the New Agenda Coalition and encourage the nuclear weapons states to conclude negotiations leading to the elimination of nuclear weapons. It also endorsed the de-alerting of all nuclear weapons, and called upon the government to “argue forcefully” for a re-examination of NATO’s nuclear policy. Now is the time for the US to heed its allies and begin taking the practical steps recommended by the New Agenda Coalition. With the Y2K problem threatening uncertain possibilities for tragic nuclear accidents due to faulty computer programming, taking our weapons off hair-trigger alert is particularly appealing. Reports from Russia that the Duma is likely to pass START II, reducing arsenals to about 3500 deployed strategic warheads in each country, and then to move for cuts much deeper than the 2500 warheads contemplated under START III, is an added further incentive for the US to support the lead of its partners in NATO and friends in the New Agenda Coalition by moving towards meaningful nuclear disarmament. The continued reliance on nuclear weapons as instruments of national security is a provocative invitation to other nations to acquire themwitness events in India and Pakistan. It’s time to put the cold war behind us and negotiate a treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons. By clinging so obdurately to its useless and dangerous nuclear capability, the US is perceived by other nations as having joined the league of so-called “rogue” states which use the terror of weapons of mass destruction as an instrument of policy. The US should join with its allies in working rapidly to eliminate the nuclear scourge. It must not repeat the tragic and shameful conduct that led to its pariah status on the landmines and International Criminal Court treaties. Alice Slater Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE) 15 East 26th Street, Room 915 New York, NY 10010 tel: (212) 726-9161 fax: (212) 726-9160 email: aslater@gracelinks.org GRACE is a member of Abolition 2000, a global network working for a treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons. - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: ASlater Subject: (abolition-usa) New Agenda UN vote: op-ed Date: 17 Dec 1998 14:13:30 -0500 Dear Friends, Below is an article I wrote on the UN vote in which all of our NATO allies, with the exception of Turkey, UK and France resisted US pressure and voted for speedier steps to disarmament. While this unprecedented breach in the NATO wall (thanks in large part to grassroots lobbying by our global Network) has received extensive coverage internationally, there has been no word of it in the US. Please consider writing your own, or using this one, as well as letters to the editor, etc. about US lawless behavior. In light of the awful events in Iraq, it's becomes ever more urgent that the American public know how out of step our own country is, even with our allies. TIME FOR A NEW NUCLEAR POLICY AGENDA by Alice Slater Calling on the nuclear weapons states “to demonstrate an unequivocal commitment to the speedy and total elimination” of their nuclear arsenals, the New Agenda Coalition of eight nations-- Ireland, Sweden, New Zealand, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Egypt and Slovenia-- won an extraordinary victory in the UN this December on their resolution for a new nuclear policy agenda. Despite intense lobbying by United States envoys in capitols all over the world, urging governments to vote against the resolution, it passed by a vote of 114 in favor, 18 against and 38 abstentions. Slovenia, a NATO-wannabe, had to withdraw its sponsorship and voted to abstain after some arm-twisting by Uncle Sam. Overturning long-standing precedent, all of the non-nuclear NATO nations with the exception of Turkey withstood heavy-handed pressure from the US, aided by France and the UK, breaking ranks to abstain on the resolution. Canada, emulating its leadership role in pushing through the landmines treaty and International Criminal Court agreement over US objections, sent representatives to NATO capitols urging those nations to resist US pressure. Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Greece, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, Iceland, Portugal, and Denmark, as well as non-NATO allies Japan and Australia all rejected the rusty cold war position of the US. The New Agenda Coalition has issued a clarion call to the nuclear weapons states and the nuclear capable states which are not members of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (India, Pakistan, Israel), to take more immediate and practical steps towards nuclear disarmament, urging that we not enter the next millenium without a clear and rapid path towards the elimination of nuclear weapons. The US strenuously objected in the UN debate to the New Agenda’s call to review existing nuclear strategic doctrines and to dealert all nuclear weapons, stating that such measures would undermine its policy of nuclear deterrence. The new German Foreign Minister recently issued a call that NATO adopt a no first use policy, although Germany’s Defense Minister, on a subsequent visit to Washington avoided a clear statement on no first use, responding to US pressure and expressions of alarm that NATO Cold War doctrine might actually be changed to conform to new realities. Canada’s Foreign Affairs Committee recently issued a parliamentary report urging that Canada and NATO allies should work with the New Agenda Coalition and encourage the nuclear weapons states to conclude negotiations leading to the elimination of nuclear weapons. It also endorsed the de-alerting of all nuclear weapons, and called upon the government to “argue forcefully” for a re-examination of NATO’s nuclear policy. Now is the time for the US to heed its allies and begin taking the practical steps recommended by the New Agenda Coalition. With the Y2K problem threatening uncertain possibilities for tragic nuclear accidents due to faulty computer programming, taking our weapons off hair-trigger alert is particularly appealing. Reports from Russia that the Duma is likely to pass START II, reducing arsenals to about 3500 deployed strategic warheads in each country, and then to move for cuts much deeper than the 2500 warheads contemplated under START III, is an added further incentive for the US to support the lead of its partners in NATO and friends in the New Agenda Coalition by moving towards meaningful nuclear disarmament. The continued reliance on nuclear weapons as instruments of national security is a provocative invitation to other nations to acquire themwitness events in India and Pakistan. It’s time to put the cold war behind us and negotiate a treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons. By clinging so obdurately to its useless and dangerous nuclear capability, the US is perceived by other nations as having joined the league of so-called “rogue” states which use the terror of weapons of mass destruction as an instrument of policy. The US should join with its allies in working rapidly to eliminate the nuclear scourge. It must not repeat the tragic and shameful conduct that led to its pariah status on the landmines and International Criminal Court treaties. Alice Slater Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE) 15 East 26th Street, Room 915 New York, NY 10010 tel: (212) 726-9161 fax: (212) 726-9160 email: aslater@gracelinks.org GRACE is a member of Abolition 2000, a global network working for a treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons. - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: ASlater Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: ACTION ALERT-Stockpile Stewardship Resolution Date: 17 Dec 1998 19:20:44 -0500 Dear Friends, I am forwarding this action alert prepared by the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability. If your Congressperson is not on the list below, please make every effort to follow up. >STOCKPILE STEWARDSHIP RESOLUTION ACTION ALERT > >Please contact your US Representatives and ask them to cosponsor the Markey >Resolution in 1999. With enough cosponsors, we could get a floor vote on >the resolution or a similar amendment this year. > >Brad > >THE UNITED STATES SHOULD START THE NEW YEAR AND THE NEW 106TH CONGRESS >LEADING THE WAY INTO A SAFER WORLD > >COSPONSOR THE MARKEY RESOLUTION > >The Stockpile Stewardship Program (SSP) is the new name for nuclear weapons >research, development, testing, and production activities at the Department >of Energy's many labs and nuclear weapons facilities. At a price tag of >$4.5 billion annually, the SSP involves dozens of upgraded and new research >facilities and supercomputers, enhanced weapons production capabilities, >and >explosive tests using nuclear weapons material including uranium and >plutonium. The nuclear weapons establishment claims that this program is >needed to ensure the safety and reliability of existing nuclear weapons. >But the SSP has little to do with ensuring safety of the arsenal >(preventing >accidental detonations) or verifying reliability (assuring the bombs >explode >as predicted). The SSP is intended to maintain the capability to design >and >develop new weapons and to train a new generation of nuclear weapons >designers. >This is provocative to other countries, and runs counter to our Nuclear >Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) obligations to negotiate in good faith the >cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament. The >provocative >nature of the SSP was realized this spring when India cited this program as >they detonated several underground nuclear tests. >What are the alternatives? Under the START II arms control agreement, >potential START III negotiations, and proposed unilateral cuts, the US >stockpile is growing ever smaller. As nuclear weapons stockpiles shrink, >the existing stockpile can be maintained with a more responsible >custodianship program that is far smaller that the SSP, which is less >expensive and requires fewer facilities. A number of more appropriate >alternatives can fulfill US stockpile maintenance requirements while >complying with the obligations of the NPT and the Comprehensive Test Ban >Treaty, signed by the President and currently held hostage by the Senate >for >advice and consent. > >PLEASE ASK YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TO JOIN REPRESENTATIVE MARKEY AND OTHERS BY >COSPONSORING THE MARKEY RESOLUTION, AND REDIRECT CUSTODIANSHIP OF THE >NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARSENAL TOWARD LESS COSTLY, LESS PROVOCATIVE ALTERNATIVES. > > >Alliance for Nuclear Accountability > >ACTION ALERT! > >CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TODAY! > >In 1998, Representative Ed Markey (D-7-MA) and 14 other members of the US >House of Representatives had the courage and foresight to call for a less >provocative, less wasteful, and more responsible custodianship program to >save billions of dollars and ensure the real safety of the US nuclear >weapons stockpile. If your member of the US House is listed below, please >thank them and encourage them again to cosponsor the Markey Resolution in >1999. If your member of the House is not listed below, please ask them to >join the others and cosponsor the Markey Resolution before they return in >January. > >Cosponsors of the Markey Resolution in 1998: >Rep. Ed Markey (D-7-MA) >Rep. Barbara Lee (D-9-CA) >Rep. John Tierney (D-6-MA) >Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-6-CA) >Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-14-NY) >Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-8-NY) >Rep. Nita Lowey (D-18-NY) >Rep. Bob Filner (D-50-CA) >Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6-NJ) >Rep. Jim McGovern (D-3-MA) >Rep. Major Owens (D-11-NY) >Rep. George Miller (D-7-MA) >Rep. Lois Capps (D-22-CA) >Rep. Elizabeth Furse (D-1-OR-Retired) >Sen.-elect Charles Schumer (D-9-NY) > >URGE YOUR REPRSENTATIVE TO COSPONSOR THE MARKEY RESOLUTION > >For more information, a copy of the original legislation, contact the >Alliance for Nuclear Accountability DC Office at 202-833-4668, or to reach >your member of Congress ccall the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121. >Your Representative can contact Representative Markey's office and >Legislative Director Jeff Duncan at >202-225-2836. > ******************************** > Brad Morse > Program Assistant > Alliance for Nuclear Accountability > 1801 18th St., NW > Suite 9-2 > Washington, DC 20009 > www.ananuclear.org > ph:(202) 833-4668 fax:(202) 234-9536 > > Alice Slater Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE) 15 East 26th Street, Room 915 New York, NY 10010 tel: (212) 726-9161 fax: (212) 726-9160 email: aslater@gracelinks.org GRACE is a member of Abolition 2000, a global network working for a treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons. - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: DavidMcR@aol.com Subject: (abolition-usa) Re: Gensuikyo's Letters to Clinton & UN Date: 17 Dec 1998 19:53:38 EST Dear Akamatsu-san, Please accept the good wishes of War Resisters League and, I am sure, many others. I am delighted to have the text of your letter. Clinton's actions are a crime and international protests are imperative. Thank you for coming to the aid of the American peace movement at this most difficult moment. Peace, David McReynolds War Resisters League, NYC << Subj: Gensuikyo's Letters to Clinton & UN Date: 12/17/98 5:41:32 AM Eastern Standard Time From: antiatom@twics.com (antiatom) Sender: owner-abolition-caucus@igc.org To: abolition-caucus@igc.org Dear friends of peace, We are sending you for your reference our letter of protest sent to President Clinton on US attack against Iraq, and also a letter of request to the United Nations to stop this outrage. We staged a protest action in front of the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo this evening. In solidarity, Japan Council against A & H Bombs (Gensuikyo) ------------------------------------------------ December 17, 1998 Mr. Bill Clinton President of the United States of America White House Washington, D.C., U.S.A. LETTER OF PROTEST Mr. President, On the early morning of December 17(Japanese time), the U.S. government launched a massive military attack against Iraq, on the ground of non-compliance of Iraqi government on the problem of inspection on its weapons of mass destruction. This action by the U.S. was taken unilaterally even while the U.N. Security Council was in session to discuss the inspection problem. This is totally unlawful in the light of both the U.N. Charter and international law. We Japan Gensuikyo strongly denounce this outrageous action. The development of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, by whatever country, should resolutely be opposed. Since the Iraqi Government has agreed on the U.N. inspection, it should naturally cooperate to the inspection activities. Nevertheless, this does not justify the unilateral military action of the U.S. Far from it, such action itself constitutes the violation of the Security Council resolution adopted in March this year, which prohibited any military action not approved by the U.N.O. At the same time, we must point out as the fundamental problem that a total ban on nuclear weapons has not yet been achieved even now, and that this fact keeps generating a danger of nuclear weapon development. The U.S. government should be held heavily responsible for this, too, as it constantly opposes a convention totally banning and eliminating nuclear weapons, while holding on to the enormous stockpile of its own nuclear weapons. Japan Gensuikyo strongly urges the U.S. government to immediately stop all military actions now taken, and to work for a peaceful solution of the problems. Sincerely, Koichi Akamatsu Secretary General ---------------------------- Mr. Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations Mr. Didier Opertti, Chairman of the General Assembly Mr. Jassim Mohammed Buallay, Chairman of the Security Council United Nations New York, NY 10017 U.S.A. December 17, 1998 Dear Sirs, We, the Japan Council against A & H Bombs (Japan Gensuikyo) have strongly denounced the U.S. military attack against Iraq and urged the U.S. government to immediately stop all military actions. Iraq must naturally submit to the UN inspection. However, this problem would by no means justify the U.S. military actions under whatever international law. On the contrary, the U.S. action in itself is a violation of the U.N. Charter and the Security Council resolution that prohibits military action not authorized by the U.N.O. We herewith send you a copy of our letter of protest addressed to U.S. President Clinton, and request that the United Nations takes immediate action necessary to stop such action. Sincerely, Koichi Akamatsu Secretary General >> - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: DavidMcR@aol.com Subject: (abolition-usa) Not yet ready: Menno response to bombing Date: 18 Dec 1998 01:58:59 EST In a message dated 12/17/98 10:52:36 PM Eastern Standard Time, mcpjc@mail.sssnet.com writes: << Subj: Not yet ready: Menno response to bombing Date: 12/17/98 10:52:36 PM Eastern Standard Time From: mcpjc@mail.sssnet.com (Mennonite Church Peace and Justice Committee, Orrville Ohio) Sender: err.processor@MennoLink.org Reply-to: mcpjc@mail.sssnet.com (Mennonite Church Peace and Justice Committee, Orrville Ohio), menno.org.peace@MennoLink.org, menno.talk.congregations@MennoLink.org To: menno.org.peace@MennoLink.org, menno.talk.congregations@MennoLink.org Friends, I apologize. I was really hoping to get this finished up tonight, but that isn't going to happen. PJC and GCMC are working with MCC to suggest that, on Sunday, congregations pray for repentance and dedicate gauze to be sent to President Clinton. By tomorrow, I hope to post here and on the PJC web site: --Prayer of repentance --Action idea explanation: collecting, dedicating and mailing gauze to the White House --Litany of dedication (of ourselves to peace and the gauze to the Iraqis) --Sample note to send to President Clinton with the gauze We suggest gauze because -it resembles swaddling clothes and reminds us of what our focus should be, especially this time of year --is used to bind up wounds (Luke 4). Wounds caused by the sanctions and wounds caused by the current and past military actions. (conservative projections by the Clinton administration run at 10,000 Iraqi civilian casualties) The gauze is a wonderful idea that reminds us of wounded relationships that need healing. --is less available in Iraq because of the sanctions and symbolic of the kind of things we should be sending to Iraq rather than missiles. --it might be used in various ways as altar decorations to symbolize a congregation's feelings about the Iraqi situation -- (on a practical note) it is light weight and thus cheaper to mail and handle You might want to purchase enough packages of gauze for each household or member of your congregation and leave time in your service for this activity. Thanks for your patience and interest! Peace, Susan Susan Mark Landis Minister of peace and Justice for the Mennonite Church PO Box 173, Orrville OH 44667-0173 phone/fax 330-683-6844 mcpjc@sssnet.com http://www.MennoLink.org/peace/ >> - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: DavidMcR@aol.com Subject: (abolition-usa) Re: Just in case Date: 18 Dec 1998 01:59:05 EST In a message dated 12/17/98 8:57:15 PM Eastern Standard Time, mcpjc@mail.sssnet.com writes: << Subj: Re: Just in case Date: 12/17/98 8:57:15 PM Eastern Standard Time From: mcpjc@mail.sssnet.com To: menno.org.peace@MennoLink.org, menno.talk.congregations@MennoLink.org, davidmcr@aol.com (David McReynolds, New York City), menno.org.peace@MennoLink.org, menno.talk.congregations@MennoLink.org For some great ideas about prayer and action, please see: http://www.MennoLink.org/peace/may13.html The PJC site also has a few new things up on the Iraqi page. And, David, if you forward to this list the web sites where FOR, etc, are calling for a day of mourning on Saturday, I'd appreciate it. While I'm working hard to get some prayers and litanies together with other ideas, this one is also entirely appropriate. I guess I haven't had the time to search other sites since earlier this morning. Friends, keep buying the gauze! Susan Susan Mark Landis Minister of peace and Justice for the Mennonite Church PO Box 173, Orrville OH 44667-0173 phone/fax 330-683-6844 mcpjc@sssnet.com http://www.MennoLink.org/peace/ >> - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: DavidMcR@aol.com Subject: (abolition-usa) Brief note - Iraq Date: 18 Dec 1998 01:59:17 EST Others have said very wise things. I sent along Edward Said's piece and hope you got it. Most of you getting this are either in international groups or have contact with them. All possible, immediate pressure is needed on the US and British governments. Labour back benchers might get reported on the BBC TV and would have some impact here (where at least in NYC we get BBC TV). Russia's withdrawal of her ambassador underlines the seriousness of the situation. For those of you in the US, you may want to send a fax directly to the Iraqis Mission - not to offer political support but to say that you are ashamed of and oppose the US action, and do not accept that the people of Iraq are an enemy of the people of this country. In any case, at a human level, I suspect the folks at the Iraqi Mission are nervous and worried about what is happening at home. In this situation that Mission is one of the few places we can address notes of condolence (with the added and certain comfort that NSA will monitor this traffic - and so we get double duty - it is filed for those doing analysis of opposition to the bombing, and it is a human gesture of Iraq). Fax: 212 / 737.7770. I deeply appreciate the notes that have come in on Abolition 2000 from those in Canada, Japan, England, etc. Please - we need those. Also as many of you may know, Peace Action, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, War Resisters League, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, and the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee have called for THIS Saturday, the 19th being a national day of mourning in the US with vigils and demontrations where possible. I would add a personal note of quiet fury at watching the host of political figures trotted out to assure us (as Tony Blair did - SHAME!) that there is no connection to the impeachment. And a terrible sense of shame that we excuse the bombing by saying we had to start it before Ramadan lest we give offense to the Muslims. What about the Christians? Isn't this already the season of the Prince of Peace? Peace, David McReynolds War Resisters League staff NYC - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: smirnowb@ix.netcom.com (Robert Smirnow) Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: YUCCA MOUNTAIN VIABILITY RELEASE Date: 18 Dec 1998 20:07:35 -0600 (CST) --- Reply-To: nirsnet@nirs.org Organization: NIRS Sender: owner-nukenet@envirolink.org News Release from 100 Environmental and Consumer Organizations For Immediate Release: Contact: Auke Piersma, 202-546-4996, ext. 318 Dec. 18, 1998 Mary Olson, 202-338-0002 DOE's Viability Assessment: Showstoppers Abound WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Environmental and consumer organizations called today for Energy Secretary Bill Richardson to disqualify Yucca Mountain as the proposed site of a nuclear waste repository. The data within the Department of Energy's Viability Assessment (VA), released today, confirm that the site must be disqualified. Furthermore, the VA snubs necessary public involvement. In the Viability Assessment, the scientific data supports the Petition to Disqualify Yucca Mountain, which 219 environmental organizations submitted on Nov. 18. The rapid water travel times from the proposed dump to the nearest wells supplying drinking water require the energy secretary to disqualify Yucca Mountain as a site to dump high-level nuclear waste. Several other concerns are likely showstoppers, including seismic activity, volcanic activity and geothermal upwelling. "We object to the content of the report for its optimistic conclusions." the groups said. "Our petition has highlighted clear evidence of showstoppers. It is time for the DOE to stop the show and disqualify Yucca Mountain." DOE models, despite their large uncertainties, predict massive radionuclide contamination, peaking up to 20 times above current radiation protection standards for other geologic waste dumps. "It is outrageous that DOE will continue to study this site when their own data predicts excessive radiation exposure to citizens of our nation," said Wenonah Hauter, the director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy Project. Earlier this month, representatives of environmental and consumer groups met with Richardson to urge that the VA be written with an open democratic process that fosters public participation. However, the DOE has failed to solicit the views of citizens. "We are frustrated with the DOE's lack of effort in upholding the integrity of the process to characterize Yucca Mountain," said Michael Mariotte, the executive director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service. "The VA should be accompanied by several public hearings across the country in the many states that would be affected by this program." The DOE says the VA is intended to present an assessment of Yucca Mountain at this time, but the agency has failed to allow for an outside independent peer review that is representative of the full range of concerns. The DOE should establish a convening body to select a representative group of peers across the full spectrum of issues and expertise, the groups said. "The environmental community stands ready to nominate members of a convening body in an open process," said Hauter. "We also look forward to the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board's review, but we encourage them to not stop short of the obvious conclusions of Yucca Mountain that need to be drawn." Recent independent cost estimates for the Yucca Mountain program suggest a shortfall of $25 billion. "It would be outrageous for DOE to make the decision to go forward with more work at Yucca Mountain when the evidence in their own study - - a leaky mountain, leaky containers, and earthquakes - - disqualify the site. It is time to move on and stop wasting billions of dollars," said Ann Mesnikoff of Sierra Club's Global Warming and Energy Program. # # # Action for a Clean Environment * Alliance for Nuclear Accountability * Alliance to Close Indian Point * Alliance for Survival * American's for a Safe Future * Appalachia - Science in the Public Interest * Arizona Safe Energy Coalition * Atlanta Food Not Bombs * Baltimore's Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Cmte * Bay Area Nuclear Waste Coalition * Bison Land Resource Center * Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League * California Communities Against Toxins * Californians for Radioactive Safeguards * Center for Energy Research * Central Pennsylvania Citizens for Survival * Chenango North Energy Awareness Group * Chernobyl Children's Project * Chicago Media Watch * Citizen Alert * Citizen's Resistance at Fermi Two (CRAFT) * Citizens Awareness Network * Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana * Citizens For a Healthy Planet * Citizens League for Environmental Action & Recovery (CLEAR) * Citizens Protecting Ohio * Clean Environment * Coalition for Peace and Justice * Coalition for a Nuclear Free Great Lakes (CNFGL) * Connecticut Green Party * Desert Citizens Against Pollution * Don't Waste Oregon * Don't Waste Michigan (DWM) * E.D.E.N. Calendar of Southeast Michigan * Earth Day Coalition * Earth Care * Earth Concerns of Oklahoma * El Paso Chapter National Lawyers Guild * Environmental Advocates * Environmental Coalition on Nuclear Power * F.A.C.T.S. (For A Clean Tonawanda Site), Inc. * Flagstaff Opposed to Nuclear Transportation * Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice * Forces of Nature * FRIENDS of the COAST - Opposing Nuclear Pollution * GE Stockholders' Alliance * Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE) * Grandmothers for Peace International * Grass Roots Environmental Organization of New Jersey * Green Party of New Jersey * Hanford Watch * Heads Up Media * Institute for Local Self Reliance * Kalamazoo Area Coalition for Peace and Justice * Long Island SHAD (Sound & Hudson against Atomic Development) * Maryland Safe Energy Coalition * Massachusetts Citizens For Safe Energy * Native Forest Network - Eastern North American Resource Center * NC WARN * New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution * Non- Violent Student Organization- Kalamazoo College * Nuclear Information and Resource Service * Nuclear Waste Citizen's Coalition * Nuclear Energy Information Service * Nukewatch * Orange County Greens * Peace Action Maine * Pennsylvania Environmental Network (PEN) * Pennsylvania Consumer Action Network * Philadelphia Solar Energy Association * Physicians for Social Responsibility/Maine * Physicians for Social Responsibility, Los Angeles * Prairie Island Coalition * Public Citizen * RACE, Regional Association of Concerned Environmentalists * Redwood Alliance * Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center * Safe Energy Communication Council * Save Ward Valley * Sierra Blanca Legal defense/ El Paso * Sierra Club * Snake River Alliance * Solar Energy International * Southwest Research and Information Center * Southwest Toxic Watch * STAR (Standing for Truth About Radiation) * Stop Mobile Chernobyl!/People Against Unsafe Nuclear Transportation * Student Environmental Organization - Kalamazoo College * Students for a Sustainable Earth - Western Michigan U * SUN DAY Campaign * Swords into Plowshares Peace Center - Western Michigan University * The Radiation and Public Health Project * Three Mile Island Alert * Tippecanoe Environmental Council * Vermont Public Interest Research Group * Women Legislators' Lobby * Women's Action for New Directions * Women's International League for Peace & Freedom * World Tree Center for Peace, Justice and Mother Earth * Yggdrasil Institute * - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: smirnowb@ix.netcom.com (Robert Smirnow) Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: Yucca Viability Meeting in Las Vegas Jan 26-27 Date: 18 Dec 1998 23:45:57 -0600 (CST) ---- Reply-To: happen@pipeline.com Sender: owner-nukenet@envirolink.org Public comment time will be alotted at this important Yucca viability meeting. [Federal Register: December 18, 1998 (Volume 63, Number 243)] [Notices] [Page 70170] >From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr18de98-129] ======================================================================= NUCLEAR WASTE TECHNICAL REVIEW BOARD Board Meeting: January 26-27, 1999--Las Vegas, Nevada: Department of Energy's (DOE) Viability Assessment of a Repository at Yucca Mountain, and Other Issues Related to the Disposal of High Level Waste at Yucca Mountain Pursuant to its authority under section 5051 of Public Law 100-203, Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1987, the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (Board) will hold its winter meeting on Tuesday, January 26, and Wednesday, January 27, 1999 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The meeting, which is open to the public, will begin at 1:00 p.m. on January 26, and 8:00 a.m. on January 27. The meeting will be held at the Alexis Park Hotel, 375 East Harmon, Las Vegas, Nevada 89109; (Tel) 702 796-3300, 800 453-8000, (Fax) 702 796-0766. On January 26, the meeting will focus on progress on alternative repository design, scientific and engineering investigations, and regulatory criteria pertinent to a potential repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has been invited to send a representative to discuss the NRC's draft rule (10 CFR part 63) for disposal of high-level waste at Yucca Mountain. On January 27, the focus of the meeting will turn to the U.S. Department of Energy's Viability Assessment (VA). Representatives from the DOE will make presentations on different aspects of the VA, including repository design, waste package characteristics, total system performance assessment, the license application plan, and repository life-cycle costs. A detailed agenda will be available approximately one week before the meeting. You can either call for a copy, or visit the Board's web site at www.nwtrb.gov. The Board is making an added effort at this meeting to accommodate the views of interested parties. Time will be set aside at the end of both days, and will be extended if necessary, to take public comments. Those wishing to speak are encouraged to sign the ``Public Comment Register'' at the check-in table. A time limit may have to be set on individual remarks, but written comments of any length may be submitted for the record. In addition, time will be set aside for public comment in the late morning on January 27. Interested parties also will have the opportunity to submit questions in writing to the Board. To the extent time permits, these questions will be answered by one or more Board members during the meeting. Last, the Board members are extending an invitation to the public to come meet them and have a cup of coffee. This informal get together will be held in the meeting room on January 27 from 7:15-7:45 a.m. Transcripts of this meeting will be available via e-mail, on computer disk, or on a library-loan basis in paper format from Davonya Barnes, Board staff, beginning on July 20, 1998. For further information, contact the NWTRB, Paula Alford, External Affairs, 2300 Clarendon Boulevard, Suite 1300, Arlington, Virginia 22201-3367; (tel) 703-235-4473; (fax) 703-235-4495; (e-mail) info@nwtrb.gov. The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board was created by Congress in the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1987 to evaluate the technical and scientific validity of activities undertaken by the DOE in its program for managing the disposal of the nation's commercial spent nuclear fuel and defense high-level waste. In the same legislation, Congress directed the DOE to characterize a site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, for its suitability as a potential location for a permanent repository for disposing of that waste. Dated: December 14, 1998. William Barnard, Executive Director, Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board. [FR Doc. 98-33487 Filed 12-17-98; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6820-AM-M - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Peace through Reason Subject: (abolition-usa) NucNews U.S.: 12/19/98 - Yucca Mountain, DOE settlement; etc Date: 19 Dec 1998 07:51:35 -0500 Yucca Mountain (1-3); Ameriscan Nuc 4-5 1. http://www.savannahmorningnews.com/smn/stories/121798/OPEDone.html Atomic uncertainty 2. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-12/19/118l-121998-idx.html U.S. Orders Research On Atomic Waste Site 3. http://cnn.com/US/9812/18/environment.nuclear.reut/ U.S.: Nevada desert is promising site for nuke waste 4. http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec98/1998L-12-15-09.html AmeriScan: December 15, 1998: DOE settlement; Ukraine Reactors 5. http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec98/1998L-12-18-09.html AmeriScan: December 18, 1998: Hanford; Virginia Nuc Waste ------------------------- 1. http://www.savannahmorningnews.com/smn/stories/121798/OPEDone.html Atomic uncertainty YUCCA Mountain in southeast Nevada, 40 miles from Las Vegas, is supposed to be the ultimate safe storage site for highly radioactive waste from the production of electricity and nuclear weapons. Much of the waste temporarily buried at the Savannah River Site is slated to go there. Now, after 15 years and $6 billion worth of research, the Energy Department is about to report that proposed man-made caverns and tunnels deep inside Yucca Mountain may not be so safe after all. Its five-volume report, called a Viability Study and numbering thousands of pages, is only an interim report. A final report is due in 2001 when the Energy Department will submit its recommendations to the president. Among the doubts and reservations: * Water moves through the desert mountain faster than originally believed, posing the possibility that nuclear contamination could be carried to groundwater and thence spread over a vast area. * The peak releases of radioactivity will be so far in the future -- 200,000 years or more -- that the reliability of man-made, corrosion-resistant cannisters to contain the waste cannot be relied on. It is contemporary time that is running out for the Energy Department. It was supposed to start accepting nuclear waste from the nuclear power industry last February. Yet it is easy to see how confounding site selection can be. Yucca Mountain has been at the top of every government agency's list of storage sites since the U.S. Geological Survey identified it as a likely candidate in 1976. It is isolated, already on government property and annual rainfall is only six inches. But the quest for scientific certainty about safety has lengthened every time a preliminary report has been issued. In the 1980s, the Environmental Protection Agency set the maximum containment period for radioactive waste at 10,000 years. Scientists later found that the most intensely radioactive wastes, such as cesium and strontium, will have decayed in 10,000 years, but plutonium and other man-made elements will endure for at least 200,000 years. And even those figures depend on projections that are only mathematically provable, not scientifically certain. Anticipating the final report on Yucca Mountain, due out in 2001, Energy Secretary William B. Richardson said that predictions would be stated in probabilities. "That's all one can offer," he said. "I don't think in science one can offer certainty." That change in viewpoint makes the selection of Yucca Mountain more likely in 2001. The sooner that spent fuel rods buried at SRS are dug up and hauled to Nevada, the better .. --------------------- 2. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-12/19/118l-121998-idx.html U.S. Orders Research On Atomic Waste Site Nevada Facility Closer to Approval By Joby Warrick Washington Post Staff Writers Saturday, December 19, 1998; Page A09 Finding "no show-stoppers" that could scuttle the project, the Clinton administration yesterday moved closer to approving Nevada's Yucca Mountain as the first permanent repository for the nation's most dangerous forms of nuclear waste. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson released a five-volume "viability assessment" that commits the government to continued research on the proposed $19 billion dump, to be built beneath a desert ridge 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. A decision on the controversial site could come as early as 2001. After 15 years of study, agency officials described the project as "promising" but said key issues remain unresolved. Among them is the question of whether the mountain's cracks and faults could release radiation within the 10,000-year lifespan of the dump. "Our pledge is to do a serious, objective study," said Energy Undersecretary Ernest Moniz, the agency's top scientist. "We are committed to addressing the issue of nuclear waste in a way that, to the best of our scientific knowledge, protects human health now and in the future." The Yucca Mountain repository is strongly opposed by Nevada state officials and by many environmentalists, some of whom criticized yesterday's decision to allow the project to go forward. Last month, 219 environmental groups urged the Department of Energy (DOE) to abandon the site on grounds that it poses unacceptable risks to future generations. "It would be outrageous for DOE to make the decision to go forward with more work at Yucca Mountain when the evidence in their own study -- a leaky mountain, leaky containers, and earthquakes -- disqualify the site," said Ann Mesnikoff of the Sierra Club. If built, the repository would house 77,000 tons of spent reactor fuel and other highly radioactive material from military reactors and commercial nuclear power plants. Current plans call for a maze of underground chambers where wastes would be stored in corrosion-resistant canisters. The total future cost of the project, including transportation and long-term maintenance, is estimated at $36 billion. Several recent studies have questioned whether Yucca Mountain's geological features could compromise its ability to isolate the highly radioactive waste in the future. Moniz said government scientists disagree with the studies' conclusions but would assign top priority to resolving all the issues raised. "We don't want to hide from these problems," he said. Most of the waste destined for Yucca Mountain is temporarily stored at more than 100 private and government sites around the country, despite a government promise to begin accepting the material by January of this year. Because the repository would not open until 2010 at the earliest, the nuclear industry and its congressional supporters are pressing the administration to open an interim storage site in the nearby desert. Industry officials have sued the Clinton administration over the delay, and yesterday they urged the Congress to pass legislation creating an interim dump. "The viability assessment is now out. It's positive," said Joe F. Colvin, president of the Nuclear Energy Institute, a Washington-based trade group. "Congress now needs to enact the comprehensive legislation that was supported by overwhelming majorities in both houses of the 105th Congress." --------------------- 3. http://cnn.com/US/9812/18/environment.nuclear.reut/ U.S.: Nevada desert is promising site for nuke waste December 18, 1998 CNN WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Energy said Friday that Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert was a "promising" site for becoming the nation's permanent nuclear waste repository, pending more research on its safety. By calling it "promising," the agency rejected pleas from environmental groups to disqualify Yucca Mountain. Those groups have cited research showing that groundwater could be contaminated by radioactive waste during the thousands of years the nuclear fuel would remain highly radioactive. DOE released its first detailed analysis on the potential waste site in a long-awaited viability assessment. The agency said that if it were eventually approved, the site would cost some $19 billion to build and monitor. "DOE believes that Yucca Mountain remains a promising site for a geologic repository and that work should proceed to support a decision in 2001 on whether to recommend the site to the president for development as a repository," the DOE said. For the site to be recommended, the agency said it must still demonstrate that a repository can be designed and built at Yucca Mountain that would protect the public and the environment. The waste site would become the home for some 70,000 metric tons of spent radioactive fuel rods from nuclear power plants, and additional waste from production of nuclear weapons. Currently, around 38,000 tons of spent fuel is being stored at more than 70 commercial nuclear power plants across the country, pending the resolution of a dispute over when the federal government must remove the waste for storage. DOE said uncertainties remained about key natural processes in the Yucca Mountain region, and over preliminary design plans. To address the outstanding questions, the agency said environmental impact assessments would be conducted in the next two years before the final recommendation in 2001. The report said the advantages of making Yucca Mountain the repository site included: -Location. The mountain lies 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas on unpopulated land owned by the federal government and adjacent to the Nevada Test Site, the longtime home for more than 900 nuclear weapons tests; -Lack of water. DOE said water is the main way radioactive elements are transported from a repository, and noted that Yucca Mountain is in a desert, with an average rainfall of 7 inches; -Groundwater. The nearest groundwater is isolated in a closed basis and does not flow into any any rivers that reach the ocean. The DOE said the natural geology and the preliminary repository design can keep water away from the waste for thousands of years. Using mathematical models, the agency said that for 10,000 years after the repository is closed in around the year 2045, people living near Yucca Mountain are expected to receive little or no increase in radiation exposure. The maximum radiation exposure was expected to occur after 300,000 years, the report said. DOE said the preparation of environmental impact statements in 1999 and 2000 would cost around $1.1 billion, and if approved, the construction and placement of waste would cost around another $18.7 billion in constant 1998 dollars. The first waste would be emplaced in 2010 and the last waste in 2033, and the site closed 10 years after the last waste is laid to rest. DOE said the total cost to complete the program, including transportation of waste and storage would cost around $36.6 billion. The number does not include the $5.9 billion that has spent on the program thus far. --------------------- 4. http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec98/1998L-12-15-09.html AmeriScan: December 15, 1998 DOE SETTLES WITH 39 GROUPS ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS OVERSIGHT To settle a lawsuit brought by 39 environmental and peace organizations, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has signed an agreement which will increase public oversight of contamination problems in the nation's nuclear weapons complex. The settlement, delivered to Federal District Court Judge Stanley Sporkin in Washington, DC Monday, ends nine years of litigation charging that DOE failed to develop its "cleanup" plans properly. "From the perspective of protecting the nation's water, air and land, this settlement is superior to the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement DOE originally agreed to prepare," said David Adelman, a Natural Resources Defense Council lawyer who represented the plaintiffs. A key part of the settlement is a new $6.25 million fund for non-profit groups and tribes to use in monitoring DOE environmental activities and conducting technical reviews of the agency's performance. A publicly accessible database will be created about contaminated facilities and waste generated or controlled by DOE's cleanup, defense, science and nuclear energy programs, including domestic and foreign research reactor spent fuel. Characteristics such as waste type, volume, and radioactivity, as well as transfer and disposition plans will be listed. * * * U.S. GROUPS JOIN EUROPEAN PROTEST AGAINST UKRAINIAN REACTORS More than 80 environmental and consumer organizations Monday sent a letter to President Bill Clinton and to the U.S. representative at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) urging them to stop funding for Ukraine's proposed K2/R4 atomic reactors. 67 of the groups were from the United States. The letter was part of an international day of protest against what the groups say is an "unnecessary and dangerous project." Demonstrations took place in 30 European cities Monday, the end of a controversial "public consultation" period intended by the EBRD to solicit public comment on its participation in the project. The Clinton administration has supported construction of the new reactors as the price to pay for a permanent shutdown of the two remaining operable Chernobyl atomic reactors. But environmentalists and critics in Europe, and now the United States, point out safety shortcomings in these Soviet-designed reactors. ---------------------------- 5. http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec98/1998L-12-18-09.html AmeriScan: December 18, 1998 DOE REMOVES 18 TANKS FROM HANFORD DANGER LIST After years of extensive technical work, which included sampling and laboratory analysis of the waste from over 110 tanks, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has closed the safety issue associated with potentially explosive organic compounds in single-shell waste tanks, one of several safety issues associated with these tanks at Hanford. The DOE will remove 18 tanks from the site's organics waste tank watch list of potentially dangerous tanks. 28 of the 54 original tanks DOE placed on Hanford's tank waste watch lists will remain on the watch lists. Eight of the single-shell tanks removed from the organic complexant watch list will remain on Hanford's tank waste watch list for flammable gas - hydrogen. Hanford was established during the World War II as part of the secret Manhattan Project to produce plutonium for the United States' nuclear weapons. Weapons material production stopped in the late 1980s, and the site is now engaged in the world's largest environmental cleanup effort to deal with the legacy of radioactive and hazardous wastes that resulted from the plutonium production era. * * * FOUR VIRGINIA HOSPITALS RECEIVE RADIOACTIVE CONTAINERS An explosion at the Blue Ridge Nuclear Pharmacy in Roanoak, Virginia Thursday resulted in metal containers contaminated with radioactivity being sent to four regional hospitals. While a pharmacist was heating three 6-milliliter vials of liquid Tc99m cadiolite in a lead heating block at 100 degrees Centigrade, one of the vials exploded for unknown reasons contaminating the entire laboratory. "The pharmacist was not injured. He cleaned up and decontaminated the laboratory, its contents and the radiopharmaceutical metal delivery containers present in the lab," the pharmacy reported to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Still, later in the day four hospitals notified Blue Ridge that metal delivery containers received from Blue Ridge that morning had "removable contamination in excess of acceptable limits." The hospitals are Carilion Roanoke Memorial, Carilion Community, Radford, and Allegany Regional. Blue Ridge will retrieve and further decontaminate the containers. _______________________________________________________________________ * NucNews - to subscribe: prop1@prop1.org - http://prop1.org * Please forward -- help educate! _______________________________________________________________________ - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: smirnowb@ix.netcom.com (Robert Smirnow) Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: Sustainable Energy Coalition: "Weekly Update" Date: 19 Dec 1998 18:01:07 -0600 (CST) --- SUSTAINABLE ENERGY COALITION "WEEKLY UPDATE" December 20, 1998 The articles provided below were initially compiled by the SUN DAY Campaign (ph. 301-270-2258; fax: 301-891-2866) for the 36 member organizations of the Sustainable Energy Coalition (list available upon request). Feel free to distribute this newsletter to others. In addition, please let us know of other U.S. organizations, businesses, or government agencies that would like to be added to the e-mail list for this publication. This newsletter is presently sent to over 550 recipients nationwide. FEDERAL ENERGY BUDGET AND TAXES 1.) Sustainable Energy Coalition/FY'00 Budget: In a 2-page letter delivered to President Clinton on December 16, eighteen member groups of the Sustainable Energy Coalition urged the White House "to submit a budget for FY'2000 that will accelerate the pace of research, development, and deployment of sustainable energy technologies to the level charted by you in the 1998 State of the Union message." The signers noted that they "are concerned by reports that the proposed FY'2000 request for the U.S. Department of Energy's energy efficiency and renewable energy programs standards at a level that is less than the Administration's request for these programs for FY'1999." The Administration's FY'99 request for DOE's energy efficiency and renewable energy programs totaled $1.16 billion. There are reports that the FY'00 request is at least $40 million less. The Sustainable Energy Coalition has proposed a budget of $1.4 billion. The letter also noted that "coal, oil, and nuclear energy are now increasingly recognized as costly anachronisms" and, "in a budget full of tough choices," urged the President to phase them out. Let us know if you would like us to fax or e-mail you a copy of the letter. 2.) Senator Bingaman/Oil Funding: In a 4-page December 17 news release, Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) provided the text of a bi-partisan letter to President Clinton opposing proposed cuts in petroleum-related R&D. The letter states, in part: "We are ... disturbed by press reports that, in the midst of the current crisis facing the [domestic oil production] industry, the Office of Management and Budget has unilaterally decided to cut funding for petroleum-related R&D programs in your fiscal year (FY) 2000 budget. We strongly urge maintaining funding for these vital programs at least at their current levels." Bingaman is a co-chair of the Alliance to Save Energy as well as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Energy Committee. Let us know if you would like us to fax you a copy of the release. 3.) Polluter Tax Breaks: Friends of the Earth reports that new information released by the non-partisan Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation shows that tax breaks for polluting industries are estimated to grow to $17.8 billion over the next five years. The report, "Estimates of Federal Tax Expenditures for Fiscal Years 1999-2003" notes that the oil and gas industries will receive tax breaks totaling close to $11 billion with $2.4 billion for the Percentage Depletion Allowance, $0.3 billion for Enhanced Oil Recovery, $2.2 billion for Intangible Drilling Costs, and $6.2 billion for Nonconventional Fuel Production Credit. The report can be viewed at . 4.) Sustainable Energy Coalition/Climate Change Tax Package: Various members of the Sustainable Energy Coalition are putting forth ideas for the Administration's climate change tax package. Regarding transportation, some are proposing that the current electric vehicle credit (10% of purchase price up to $4,000) which will expire shortly, be extended to 2008 and cover electric and fuel-cell vehicles as well as hybrids that meet California's LEV-2 emission standards and are at least 1.5 times as efficient as the class average. Regarding biomass, the current "closed loop" incentive should be extended and broadened to include some form of "open loop" systems and possibly allocate available monies on an auction basis. Regarding housing, a credit capped at $2,000 should be offered to either builders or buyers of either new and existing buildings against 20% of the cost of building upgrades that yield efficiency savings of 30% or more. ELECTRIC UTILITY RESTRUCTURING 1.) Another Nuke Shutdown?: The December 10 "St. Louis Post-Dispatch" reports that Illinova, Inc. is preparing to sell or permanently shut down its 950-MW Clinton nuclear power plant located near Clinton, Illinois resulting in a loss the company claims may top $1.5 billion. Reportedly, PECO Energy Co. and Entergy Corp. are potential buyers for the facility which has a book value of $1.6 billion. Clinton shut down in September 1996 because of mechanical problems that Illinova estimates would cost $210 million to repair. If sold, the plant's sales price would likely be less than $80 million. 2.) Solar Electricity Plant: A December 10 news release from Sun Power Electric reports that solar power began flowing from the first generation facility to produce all its power from solar energy for sale in the competitive market. Thus far, Sun Power has completed installation of 60 of the 156 photovoltaic panels at Station #1, which are located on the roof of the BJ's Wholesale Club in North Dartmouth. The entire system is expected to generate 60,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, meeting the needs of 10 average homes for 20 years. Sun Power sells this solar power to AllEnergy as part of its "green" electricity product "Re- Gen." Station#1 was partially funded by a grant from DOE's Utility Photovoltaic Group TEAM-UP program. For further info, call 508-359-0155. 3.) Congressional Committee Assignments: House Commerce Chairman Bliley has named Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) as chairman of the House Energy & Power Subcommittee (which will handle electric utility restructuring legislation in the 106th Congress), according to Barton's office. Also, Rick Kessler (former personal staff of Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and lobbyist for Princeton) will be joining the minority staff of Commerce Committee, handling mostly Energy and Power subcommittee issues. In addition we have received the following information about Democratic assignments to the full House committees. There is still no subcommittee or lesser committee information available. No freshmen were assigned to these three major committees. Appropriations (gained 1 seat): left committee--Yates (IL), Stokes (OH), Fazio (CA), Skaggs (CO), Torres (CA); joined committee-- Clyburn (SC), Hinchey (NY), Royball-Allard (CA), Farr (CA), Jesse Jackson, Jr. (IL), Kilpatrick (MI), Boyd (FL) Commerce (gained 1 seat): left committee--Manton (NY), Furse (OR); joined committee--Barrett (WI), Luther (MN), Capps (CA) Ways and Means: left committee--Kennelly (CT); joined committee--Doggett (TX) 4.) Kucinich Restructuring Bill: We have received a 20-page section of the "Electricity Consumer, Worker, and Environmental Protection Act of 1998 (H.R.4798) introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH). The section details the bill's provisions for a Public Benefits Fund, net metering, and a Renewable Portfolio Standard. Let us know if you would like us to fax you a copy. CLIMATE CHANGE 1.) 1998 Warmest: The December 18 "Washington Post" reports that the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says that the earth's global temperature in 1998 will be the highest since 1860. In its "Annual Statement on Global Climate," WMO notes that the global mean surface temperature is estimated to be 0.58 degrees Centigrade above the recent long-term average based on the period 1961-1990. It also noted that the 10 warmest years have all occurred since 1983, with seven of them since 1990. In addition, from the surface to seven kilometers altitude, record temperatures in 1998 were 0.47 degrees higher than the average of the last 20 years, making 1998 by far the warmest year. 2.) Republicans/Climate Change: A December 18 "Inside EPA" article reports that Senate Republicans, including Senators Frank Murkowski (R-AK) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE), are considering offering legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through increased reliance on hydropower, nuclear power, and other "clean" technologies as an alternative to the Administration's commitment to the Kyoto Protocol. Such legislation might include easing the relicensing procedures from hydropower dams and nuclear power plants, and increasing research and tax incentives for a new generation of ultra-clean fossil fuel technologies. Republicans are apparently beginning to conclude they need to have an action agenda on climate change that goes beyond simply opposing the Kyoto Protocol. MISCELLANEOUS 1.) New Jersey Energy-Saving Homes: The December 10 "Newark Star-Ledger" reports that the State of New Jersey has agreed to offer up to $10 million in low-interest loans and tax credits to developers building energy-efficient homes as part of its Sustainable Development/Affordable Housing Pilot Project. Residents of these energy- efficient homes, which must be 30% more efficient than traditional homes, can expect to save an average of $30-$35 per month on their combined heating, cooling, and water heater bills. If the program meets its goal of developing 100 energy-efficient homes, it would result in the homeowners saving enough on their energy bills to pump $2-$4 million back into the economy. 2.) Nuclear Waste/Viability Assessment: More than 100 organizations signed on to a 3-page news release issued December 18 by Public Citizen and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service. It coincided with the release of the Department of Energy's Viability Assessment (VA) of Yucca Mountain's suitability as high-level nuclear waste repository. The statement charged that the VA snubs necessary public involvement; nonetheless, scientific data in the VA confirms that the site should be disqualified. Let us know if you would like us to fax you a copy of the release. 3.) Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy Executive Order: We have received an updated 11-page version of the Administration's draft executive order to mandate expanded use of efficiency and renewables by federal agencies. Members of the Sustainable Energy Coalition are presently drafting comments that will recommend that the executive order direct federal facilities to reduce carbon emissions by 20% by 2010, curb energy use by 30% by 2005, and meet 10% of electricity needs with solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and small hydro (i.e., less than 30 MW) sources by 2005. In addition, we have received a 2-page memo sent to the White House by the Alliance to Save Energy outlining several recommendations including carbon targets and removal of numerous loopholes. Let us know if you would like us to fax you a copy of either document. 4.) Expanding Photovoltaic Markets: The Renewable Energy Policy Project has released a new 20-page study "Expanding Markets for Photovoltaics: What To Do Next" which provides a "ten-point package of recommendations" including aggressive government procurement of PV, a multi-year PV communications plan, legislation to facilitate the deployment of distributed PV systems, and integration of PV's into the overall development strategy of developing countries. The full report should be available at . 5.) EPA/Solar Web Page: The U.S. EPA has announced the creation of "a new webpage on the environmental benefits of solar energy, including the ways in which air pollution can be curtailed by the use of solar power as an energy source." The new webpage can be reached through and is found by clicking "Pollution Prevention Calculator" under Pollution Prevention Benefits of Renewable Energy. 6.) Correction: A recent "Weekly Update" reported that a ribbon cutting ceremony marked the beginning of construction of the Vansycle Ridge Wind Farm in Oregon. In fact, the ceremony marked the beginning of the windfarm generating electricity. 7.) Happy Holidays: The "Weekly Update" will not be published on December 27. ## END ## - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Timothy Bruening Subject: (abolition-usa) New idea on Iraq! Date: 20 Dec 1998 16:12:02 -0800 (PST) I suspect that one reason the U.S. is reluctant to end the sanctions against Iraq is the fear that the U.S. will never be able to get the sanctions restored if Iraq misbehaves in a major way. To solve that problem, I propose that the sanctions be suspended for 30 days to test Iraq's willingness to cooperate with UN inspectors, with the provision that the UN Security Council would have to vote after 30 days to extend the suspension. This would ease the plight of the Iraqi people, give Iraq reason to cooperate, and preserve the option of restoring the sanctions if Iraq doesn't cooperate, so as to discourage Iraq from obstructing UN inspections again. I bet that the U.S. would be more willing to lift the sanctions if there was a provision for automatically reimposing the sanctions if Iraq misbehaves. - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Peter Weiss Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) Brief note - Iraq Date: 20 Dec 1998 20:52:03 -0500 This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------4DBBB53637F644A699DB1649 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit David et al: FYI Peter DavidMcR@aol.com wrote: > > Others have said very wise things. I sent along Edward Said's piece and hope > you got it. > > Most of you getting this are either in international groups or have contact > with them. > > All possible, immediate pressure is needed on the US and British governments. > Labour back benchers might get reported on the BBC TV and would have some > impact here (where at least in NYC we get BBC TV). Russia's withdrawal of her > ambassador underlines the seriousness of the situation. > > For those of you in the US, you may want to send a fax directly to the Iraqis > Mission - not to offer political support but to say that you are ashamed of > and oppose the US action, and do not accept that the people of Iraq are an > enemy of the people of this country. In any case, at a human level, I suspect > the folks at the Iraqi Mission are nervous and worried about what is happening > at home. In this situation that Mission is one of the few places we can > address notes of condolence (with the added and certain comfort that NSA will > monitor this traffic - and so we get double duty - it is filed for those doing > analysis of opposition to the bombing, and it is a human gesture of Iraq). > > Fax: 212 / 737.7770. > > I deeply appreciate the notes that have come in on Abolition 2000 from those > in Canada, Japan, England, etc. Please - we need those. > > Also as many of you may know, Peace Action, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, > War Resisters League, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, and the > Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee have called for THIS Saturday, the > 19th being a national day of mourning in the US with vigils and demontrations > where possible. > > I would add a personal note of quiet fury at watching the host of political > figures trotted out to assure us (as Tony Blair did - SHAME!) that there is no > connection to the impeachment. And a terrible sense of shame that we excuse > the bombing by saying we had to start it before Ramadan lest we give offense > to the Muslims. What about the Christians? Isn't this already the season of > the Prince of Peace? > > Peace, > David McReynolds > War Resisters League staff > NYC > > - > To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" > with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. > For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send > "help" to the same address. 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For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: smirnowb@ix.netcom.com (Robert Smirnow) Subject: (abolition-usa) "NUKES IN SPACE II" VIDEO AVAILABLE NOW!!!!! Date: 21 Dec 1998 02:30:38 -0600 (CST) ---- Reply-To: envirovideo@earthlink.net Organization: envirovideo FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For Further Information Call: Karl Grossman (516)725-2858 Steve Jambeck or Joan Flynn (718)318-8045 NUKES IN SPACE 2: UNACCEPTABLE RISKS POWERFUL NEW DOCUMENTARY RELEASED BY ENVIROVIDEO Nukes In Space 2: Unacceptable Risks provides an update on the Cassini space probe with 72.3 pounds of lethal plutonium on board, the scheduled August 1999 Cassini Earth “fly-by” and the consequences of an accident. It reports on NASA’s planned additional plutonium missions and investigates the U.S. military’s aim to “control space” and the Earth below with space-based nuclear-powered weaponry. Nukes In Space 2, produced by EnviroVideo, is hosted and written by investigative reporter Karl Grossman, professor of journalism at the State University of New York, directed by Emmy Award-winner Steve Jambeck with Joan Flynn as associate producer. Dr. Karl Z. Morgan, founder of the profession of health physics and former director of the Health Physics Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, states in Nukes In Space 2 that those behind the use of plutonium in space “are very brazen and almost inhuman in their attitude, willing to run the risk of imposing a catastrophe on Earth that man’s never known before, where he cannot inhabit this space on our planet for the next million years…It is inconceivable to me that you would allow such high-risk of plutonium contamination on the Earth.” Alan Kohn, a 30-year NASA veteran and a long-time emergency preparedness officer for NASA, says in Nukes In Space 2: “The people should rise up and protest this. We should not allow our democratic government to do this to us. It is our responsibility and our duty to prevent them from putting us at risk. We have to stop them. They won’t stop themselves.” Nukes In Space 2 tells how the Cassini plutonium fueled space probe, launched by NASA in October 1997, is slated to come hurtling back from outer space on August 18, 1999 at 42,300 miles per hour to buzz the Earth less than 500 miles high in a “gravity assist” or “slingshot” maneuver so it can reach its final destination of Saturn. It presents NASA's own acknowledgement in its Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Cassini Mission that if Cassini makes an "inadvertent reentry" into the Earth’s atmosphere during the “flyby,” the probe will break up, plutonium will disperse and “approximately five billion of the estimated 7 to 8 billion world population at the time…could receive 99 percent or more of the radiation exposure." Dr. Michio Kaku, professor of nuclear physics at the City University of New York, declares in Nukes In Space 2 that NASA could have substituted a solar energy system for plutonium power on Cassini by shaving off just 1 percent, about 130 pounds, from its weight. Former NASA scientist Dr. Ross McCluney agrees and cites a “lack of vision at the highest level of NASA. I think they have another agenda behind-the-scenes.” The manufacturers of plutonium space systems, General Electric and now Lockheed Martin, the U.S. government’s string of national nuclear laboratories involved in fabricating the systems, and the U.S. Department of Energy, have all been pushing nuclear power in space. There is also a military connection, according to Nukes In Space 2. “Star Wars is the name of the game,” declares Dr. Kaku in this documentary. Nukes In Space 2 probes the Pentagon’s plan to deploy weapons in space. It reveals a U.S. Air Force report, New World Vistas: Air and Space Power for the 2lst Century, which states, “In the next two decades, new technologies will allow the fielding of space-based weapons of devastating effectiveness to be used to deliver energy and mass as force projection in tactical and strategic conflict…lasers with reasonable mass and cost to effect very many kills.” However, says New World Vistas, there are “power limitations” currently for such weaponry. “A natural technology to enable high power is nuclear power in space,” it declares. Nukes In Space 2 explores the U.S. Space Command’s desire to become “master of space” in order to “control space” and the Earth below. It exposes the U.S. Space Command’s Vision For 2020 report that describes the command’s mission as “dominating the space dimension of military operations to protect US interests and investment.” Among others appearing in Nukes In Space 2 are: Dr. Helen Caldicott, president emeritus of Physicians for Social Responsibility; Dr. Ernest Sternglass, professor emeritus of radiological physics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; Dr. Rosalie Bertell, president of the International Institute of Concern for Public Health; Harvey Wasserman of Greenpeace U.S.A.; Helen John of the Menwith Hill Women’s Peace Camp; editor Loring Wirbel; Bill Sulzman of Citizens for Peace in Space; and Bruce Gagnon and Regina Hagen of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. Nukes In Space 2 also shows how the use of nuclear power and planned deployment of weapons in space are illegal under the Outer Space Treaty. Nukes In Space 2 follows EnviroVideo’s 1995 video documentary, Nukes In Space: The Nuclearization and Weaponization of the Heavens, which received three major film and video festival awards including the Worldfest Gold Award at the Houston International Film and Video Festival, the world’s largest film and video festival. TO OBTAIN A COPY OF NUKES IN SPACE 2: UNACCEPTABLE RISKS Send $19.95 +$2(s&h) to: EnviroVideo, Box 311, Ft. Tilden NY 11695 or call EnviroVideo 1-800-ECO-TV46 email: envirovideo@earthlink.net For more information visit the Stop Cassini Earth Fly-by Action Site: www.nonviolence.org/noflyby - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Peter Weiss Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) New idea on Iraq! Date: 21 Dec 1998 23:24:33 -0500 Interesting idea. Another would be to set a definite date for the end of sanctions provided certain psecific UNSCOM requirements, such as the production of the famous documents, are met. But I'm afraid Butler, in league with the U.S., would set unrealistic terms. Timothy Bruening wrote: > > I suspect that one reason the U.S. is reluctant to end the sanctions against > Iraq is the fear that the U.S. will never be able to get the sanctions > restored if Iraq misbehaves in a major way. To solve that problem, I > propose that the sanctions be suspended for 30 days to test Iraq's > willingness to cooperate with UN inspectors, with the provision that the UN > Security Council would have to vote after 30 days to extend the suspension. > This would ease the plight of the Iraqi people, give Iraq reason to > cooperate, and preserve the option of restoring the sanctions if Iraq > doesn't cooperate, so as to discourage Iraq from obstructing UN inspections > again. I bet that the U.S. would be more willing to lift the sanctions if > there was a provision for automatically reimposing the sanctions if Iraq > misbehaves. > > - > To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" > with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. > For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send > "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Kathy Crandall Subject: (abolition-usa) START in Spring? Date: 22 Dec 1998 10:31:17 -0500 Reuters and AP stories on the prospects of START II in Russia . . . RTos 12/22 0909 START-2 Pact On Duma '99 Plan But Fate In Fog By Ivan Rodin MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's lower house of parliament has kept a ratification debate on the START-2 nuclear arms reduction treaty on its agenda for 1999 despite its anger at U.S.-led strikes against Iraq. Vladimir Ryzhkov, first deputy speaker of the State Duma, said Tuesday that inclusion of the debate in the chamber's timetable for its spring session starting on January 12 "signals its intention to continue work on this international treaty." But he made clear any optimism that the 1993 treaty might finally be confirmed by the reluctant Russians was premature. "The document is on the agenda but there is no guarantee that it will be ratified or discussed during the spring session," Ryzhkov said. Many politicians, including Kremlin officials lobbying for swift ratification of START-2, say last week's U.S.-led air strikes against Iraq may have removed any chance of the Duma ratifying the treaty with the United States before a new parliament is elected in about a year's time. Duma speaker Gennady Seleznyov again sounded defiant Tuesday, saying the strikes had damaged the ratification process. "By giving the order to bomb Iraq, the U.S. president and British prime minister raised a serious obstacle on the path to ratification of START-2. We are now not reviewing this document," Seleznyov, a Communist, said. But Roman Popkovich, chairman of the Duma defense committee which supports the pact, told RIA news agency he had insisted on postponing the debate until next year not due to the air strikes but because of new documents which had to be studied first. "The postponement is in no way linked to the bombardment of Iraq...We had received the government's feasibility study for the development of the strategic nuclear forces and we needed time to study those materials," Popkovich said, adding he was convinced "Russia is more than anyone interested in the pact." He said the Duma could debate the ratification in the second half of February. All Duma parties condemned the U.S. action and a senior Communist figure has suggested dropping the issue from the Duma's timetable altogether. It has already missed a tentative schedule under which it would have been debated this month. President Boris Yeltsin's representative in the Duma, Alexander Kotenkov, said last week he thought ratification was unlikely before elections for a new Duma in late 1999. The U.S. Senate has already ratified the treaty. Momentum toward ratification had been building since the appointment of Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov and his compromise government on September 11. Under the treaty, each side would scrap up to two thirds of their deployed warheads to 3,500 each by 2007. The Kremlin and the government have been calling for ratification, saying Russia needs to slim down its forces to be able to afford to modernize them. But some deputies say Russia cannot afford the costly process of taking missiles out of service without more financial help from the United States. Some say Russia should not be reducing its defenses at all. ******************************************************************* APn 12/22 0846 Russia-START II MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia's parliament has put off debate on START II until next spring at the earliest, in part because the bombing of Iraq has stirred up anti-American sentiment. A visiting U.S. delegation had said earlier this month that Russia's parliament might ratify the arms control accord this year. But Vladimir Ryzhkov, the deputy speaker of parliament's lower house, said today the treaty was put on the agenda for the spring session of the State Duma. "This, of course, does not guarantee either the ratification of the START II treaty, or even that it will be considered by the State Duma," he told Russian news agencies. "It simply shows that the State Duma intends to continue work in this direction." Ryzhkov supports the treaty. But he said Russian lawmakers still had a "sharply negative attitude" toward last week's U.S. and British airstrikes against Iraq. The two countries bombed Iraq for refusing to cooperate with United Nations weapons inspectors. Russia and the United States signed START II in 1993, and the U.S. Senate ratified it in 1996. Communists and other hard-liners contend the pact could weaken Russia's security and would be too expensive to implement. The treaty calls for both countries to cut their nuclear arsenals in half to about 3,000 to 3,500 warheads each. Russian military officials say many of the country's nuclear weapons are nearing the end of their service life and will have to be dismantled in any case. -- DISARMAMENT CLEARINGHOUSE Nuclear Disarmament Information, Resources & Action Tools Kathy Crandall, Coordinator 1101 14th Street NW #700, Washington DC 20005 TEL: 202 898 0150 ext. 232 FAX: 202 898 0150 ext. 232 E-MAIL: disarmament@igc.org http://www.psr.org/Disarmhouse.htm http://www.psr.org/ctbtaction.htm A project of: Peace Action, Physicians for Social Responsibility and Women's Action for New Directions - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: ASlater Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: s4p-80: Stop the war against Iraq Date: 23 Dec 1998 10:15:36 -0500 >Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1998 15:55:14 -0500 >Subject: s4p-80: Stop the war against Iraq >To: s4pint@physics.utoronto.ca, inesnet@fy.chalmers.se, > ipra-l@hawaii.edu >From: fawcett@physics.utoronto.ca (fawcett@physics.utoronto.ca) > > >The USA and Britain, and their allies insofar as they support the bombing, >are engaged in warfare against Iraq, in open violation of international >law and in contempt of human suffering. Four items that support this >contention follow below: > >1] a comment by Noam Chomsky on the geopolitical significance; > >2] facts about the human tragedy of the UN Sanctions against Iraq, which >were precipated by the 1991 Gulf War and are compounded by the 1998 >bombing; > >3] a poem "My Name is Hammurabi" by David Morgan, which evokes a warning >to oppressors that echoes down the millennia; Hammurabi was Ruler of >Babylon >(now Iraq) more than 4,000 years ago, and was the first great law-giver of >history. > >4] international laws to which the USA and Britain are signatory that >explicitly forbid the bombing with its consequences for the people of Iraq. >--------------------------------------------------------------------------- > >1] http://www.fas.org/news/iraq/1998/12/21/981221-nc.htm >Bombing Iraq - A Response Noam Chomsky >21 December 1998 > >I think the major reasons are the usual ones. The USA and its increasingly >pathetic British lieutenant want the world to understand -- and in >particular want the people of the Middle East region to understand -- that >"What We Say Goes," as Bush defined his New World Order while the missiles >were raining on Baghdad in February 1991. The message, clear and simple, >is that we are violent and lawless states, and if you don't like it, get >out of our way. It's a message of no small significance. Simply have a >look at the projections of geologists concerning the expanding role of >Middle East oil in global energy production in the coming decades. I >suspect that the message is understood in the places to which it is >addressed. A very conservative assessment is that the US/UK attacks are >"aggression," to borrow the apt term of the Vatican and others. They are >as clear an example of a war crime as one could construct. In the past, >acts of aggression, international terrorism, and violence have sometimes >been cloaked in at least a pretense of legalism -- increasingly ludicrous >over the years, to be sure. In this case there was not even a pretense. >Rather, the US and its client simply informed the world that they are >criminal states, and that the structure of binding international law and >conventions that has been laboriously constructed over many years is now >terminated. It is still available, of course, as a weapon against >designated enemies, but apart from that it is without significance or >value. True, that has been always been operative reality, but it has >rarely been declared with such clarity and dramatic force. > >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > >2] Some facts about the Human Tragedy in Iraq: > >The ongoing United Nations sanctions against Iraq are regarded as the most >stringent imposed on any country in the history of the United Nations. > >More than one million Iraqis have died, 567,000 of them children, as a >direct consequence of the sanctions. As many as 12% of the children >surveyed in Baghdad are handicapped for life, 28% stunted in growth. By >1996, 4,500 children under the age of five were dying each month in Iraq, >primarily from malnutrition. The number is rapidly rising because of the >continuation of the U.N. sanctions. There are more than 1.5 million >orphans in Iraq. Up to 95% of all pregnant women in Iraq suffer from >anemia, and thus will give birth to weak, malnutritioned infants. Most of >these infants will either die before reaching the age of 5 due to the lack >of food and basic medicines, or will be permanently scarred. > >United Nations Resolution 986, the limited oil sale agreement (oil for >food), allocates less than 25 cents per day per person for all food and >medical expenses. Approximately 35% of revenue is designated to Kuwait and >other countries. More than 10% of revenue is designated to pay for U.N. >activities in Iraq. The U.N. charges Iraq approximately $900,000 for >generating each report about the situation in Iraq. > >Environmental Impacts: more than 500 tons of highly toxic and radioactive >depleted uranium (DU) were fired into the environment. Upon impact, more >than 70% of the uranium oxidizes into a fine aerosol mist which can be >readily inhaled into the lungs contaminating the food and water supply and >potentially resulting in numerous immune system related diseases, cancers, >congenital deformities, leukemia and renal and hepatic dysfunction which >are occurring throughout Iraq and among U.S., U.K. and o ther Allied >soldiers. > >Sources: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UNICEF. >--------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- > >3] From: David Morgan > >Hammurabi, was Ruler of Babylon, 2067-2025 BC., in what is now Iraq. He >lived about 800 years before Moses, and 1500 years before the founding of >Rome. He was the first great law-giver of history ..."to uphold justice >in the land" ..." in order that the strong should not oppress the weak, >and that widows and orphans should be rightly dealt with." He fused local >laws and precepts into a comprehensive legal code of 300 paragraphs. >(Ceram, 1968, p.305) > ********** > > MY NAME IS HAMMURABI > A message of comfort to the people of Iraq > and a warning to the people of America > >My name is Hammurabi, Law Giver >and I speak to you, my people >in the beloved land of the two rivers, >I speak to you across the centuries. >I, Hammurabi who gave the law to my people >in order that the strong >should not oppress the weak >and that the widows and orphans >should be rightly protected, >I speak to you in your hour of need >in an hour when this beloved land >is oppressed from afar by the strong >who lay-siege to it like a city >who cause the water channels to dry up >who make the farmer's land into a desert >who bring great hunger and starvation >who bring disease and death to our children. >This, while many of the people >in the lands of the strong, >in the lands of your oppressors, >know-not what they do, >and many who know, care-not; >I speak to you, beloved people >in this hour of pain and sorrow >and I say to you: >Be comforted. > >For did I not set out in this land >the words of the law? >and did I not cause this law to be written >on pillars of hard stone for all to see, in many places? >and did this law not grow from the ancient customs >and the wisdom of village, town and city? >and did this law not bring justice and peace >to our beloved land of the two rivers >so that water flowed in all the channels >so that our fields rippled with grain >and so there was laughter and song in the villages? > >And through these many centuries >has the law not spread to all lands? >Even to the lands of your oppressors? >And is it not written and set out there, >for all to see in many places? >And do the laws of your oppressors >permit and allow the strong >to oppress the weak? >And do they fail to protect >the widows, the orphans and the little children? >So I say to you: Be comforted. >For though your oppressors are strong >and come against you with great weapons of thunder, >yet their purposes are small >and they have no vision, >and those who do not obey their own laws >shall come to nothing. > >For the centuries are full >of those who brought fire and destruction >of those who did not follow the law >and those who lacked wisdom: >the stiff-necked, the haughty, >the cruel and the greedy, >and the nations that they led >have vanished and their names >have become a curse >in the mouth of mankind. >For the law is more enduring >even than hard stone >and the nations that have no law >and the nations that mock their own laws >come quickly to an end; >so your oppressors shall not endure >they will crumble and blow away like dust; >like a house of mud in the desert wind >they will vanish and be gone. > > by David Morgan, Vancouver BC, 6 April 1998. > >Note: if you wish to transmit this poem please do not edit or change it, >and if you print it for distribution please send David Morgan a copy. > >------------------------------------------------------------------------- > >4] International Laws to which the U.S.A. and Britain are signatory: > >CHARTER OF THE UNITED NATIONS, Article 2 >3. All members shall settle their international disputes by >peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and >security, and justice are not endangered. > >PROTOCOL TO THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS, 1977 Chapter III. Civilian Objects >Article 54. Protection of Objects Indispensible to the Survival of the >Civilian Population >1. Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited. >2. It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects >indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as >foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops, >livestock, drinking water installations and supplies, and irrigation >works, for the specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance value >to the civilian population, or to the adverse Party, whatever the motive, >whether in order to starve out civilians, to cause them to move away, or >for any other motive. > Alice Slater Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE) 15 East 26th Street, Room 915 New York, NY 10010 tel: (212) 726-9161 fax: (212) 726-9160 email: aslater@gracelinks.org GRACE is a member of Abolition 2000, a global network working for a treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons. - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Kathy Crandall Subject: (abolition-usa) A present for you Date: 23 Dec 1998 20:21:03 -0500 The Disarmament Clearinghouse wants to make sure you are well-prepared for 1999 nuclear disarmament advocacy. With thanks to Bruce Hall at Peace Action, we have for you a 4 panel postcard mailer alert with two post cards to send - one to President Clinton, and another to Russian Prime Minister Primakov. The text of the mailer is below. If you need to see it in full graphic detail, it will be posted on our web site on Jan. 5, 1999. But if you're ready to commit to nuclear disarmament activity in 1999 right now. . . Order as many cards as you think you can distribute. You'll only need to pay for postage. The cost of mailing each complete mailer-alert is .32 (going up to .33 on Jan. 10 - which should give you an incentive to order right now!) . **To order cards:** send an e-mail message to: Tell me: How many cards Tell me: Would you like cards printed with the Disarmament Clearinghouse return-address, or would you like the return address blank so that you can stamp/ label your own return address? Tell me: Your full address with zip code, and your phone number We'd like to have as many postcards out before the State of the Union Address - now scheduled for Jan. 19, but the postcards will have a valid and compelling message through the Spring of 1999. I'm going to be out of the office until Jan. 5, but retired elves are coming to help me fill your orders promptly - and I'll do my best to get them to you by Jan. 8th. HERE'S THE MAILER OUTSIDE PANEL 1 - It's our move... Time to Abolish Nuclear Weapons OUTSIDE PANEL 2 (in the return address... or this can be blank) Disarmament Clearinghouse A project of Peace Action * Physicians for Social Responsibility and Women's Action for New Directions 1101 14th Street NW Suite 700 Washington, DC 20005 OUTSIDE PANEL 3 The Honorable Yevgeni Primakov Prime Minister of the Russian Federation 2650 Wisconsin Avenue NW Washington, DC 20007 OUTSIDE PANEL 4 The Honorable William Jefferson Clinton The White House Washington, DC 20500 INSIDE PANELS 1 & 2 (reverse side of cover) Despite the end of the Cold War there remain an estimated 36,000 nuclear weapons in the world. Thousands of these are on hair-trigger alert, ready to launch on a moment's notice. THEY CAN'T AFFORD IT - NEITHER CAN WE Russia's plunge into economic chaos raises serious concerns about that country's ability to control it's vast nuclear arsenal. Kremlin officials now admit that Russia can no longer afford to maintain thousands of nuclear weapons as envisioned under existing arms control treaties. Immediate U.S. action is crucial to ensure that Russia's nuclear decline takes place in a controlled, verified manner instead of a chaotic and dangerous freefall. Even the United States Pentagon, faced with the prospect of spending billions of dollars on maintaining and nuclear weapons that we clearly no longer need, is quietly urging President Clinton to unilaterally scrap thousands of U.S. nuclear weapons. A NEW ARMS RACE OR A NEW AGENDA FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT? An ever-growing number of countries are lining up to join the nuclear club - increasing the risk of a nuclear catastrophe somewhere on the planet. But against this chilling backdrop, a new worldwide movement is taking shape among governments and citizen groups to abolish nuclear weapons once and for all. Only strong U.S. leadership can avert another nuclear arms race and put the world on the path to nuclear disarmament. What you can do: The United States and Russia hold the keys to a nuclear weapons-free 21st Century. Contact President Clinton and Russian Prime Minister Yevgeni Primakov today. Tear off and sign the post cards below and mail them to White House and the Russian Embassy in Washington, DC. (Remember, handwritten letters are always the most effective way to reach politicians, so if you have time, write a letter) Contact your Senators at U.S. Senate * Washington, DC 20510. Urge them to cut our massive Cold War nuclear arsenal. Contact the Disarmament Clearinghouse for more information. 202.898.0150 ext. 232 disarmament@igc.org http://www.psr.org/Disarmhouse.htm A project of: Peace Action, Physicians for Social Responsibility and Women's Action for New Directions INSIDE PANEL 3 The Honorable Yevgeni Primakov Prime Minister of the Russian Federation 2650 Wisconsin Avenue NW Washington, DC 20007 Dear Prime Minister: I am increasingly concerned about the continued existence and spread of nuclear weapons. Despite the dramatic reduction in tensions between our two countries, thousands of nuclear weapons remain on hair trigger alert. Surely, together, these two great countries can agree to relax this Cold War nuclear posture and greatly reduce the danger of an accidental or unauthorized nuclear strike. Only your leadership, along with the leadership of President Clinton, can move the world away from the dangers of nuclear weapons and toward a nuclear weapons-free 21st Cenutury. I urge you to work with President Clinton to reduce rapidly the number of nuclear weapons in the world. In addition, I urge you to take bold measures to lower immediately the alert status of the nuclear weapons in your country's arsenal. I have sent a similar message to President Clinton. These measures will set the stage for a much safer future. Sincerely, ______________________________________ (name) ______________________________________ (address) _____________________________________ (city, state, zip) INSIDE PANEL 4 The Honorable William Jefferson Clinton The White House Washington, DC 20500 Dear President Clinton: I am increasingly concerned about the continued existence and spread of nuclear weapons. Despite the end of the Cold War and the dramatic reduction in tensions between the United States and Russia, thousands of nuclear weapons remain on hair-trigger alert. It is time to relax this dangerous and costly Cold War nuclear posture. Even the Pentagon has come to the conclusion that our massive nuclear arsenal is too costly to maintain. Only your leadership, along with the leadership of the Russian governement, can move the world away from the dangers of nuclear weapons and toward a nuclear weapons-free 21st Cenutury. I urge you to take bold measures to reduce immediately the alert status of the nuclear weapons in the U.S. nuclear arsenal and to make a new round of nuclear reduction talks with the Russian government a top priority in 1999. These measures could become the most lasting and important part of your legacy and will set the stage for a much safer future. Sincerely, (name) (address) (city, state, zip) -- DISARMAMENT CLEARINGHOUSE Nuclear Disarmament Information, Resources & Action Tools Kathy Crandall, Coordinator 1101 14th Street NW #700, Washington DC 20005 TEL: 202 898 0150 ext. 232 FAX: 202 898 0150 ext. 232 E-MAIL: disarmament@igc.org http://www.psr.org/Disarmhouse.htm http://www.psr.org/ctbtaction.htm A project of: Peace Action, Physicians for Social Responsibility and Women's Action for New Directions -- DISARMAMENT CLEARINGHOUSE Nuclear Disarmament Information, Resources & Action Tools Kathy Crandall, Coordinator 1101 14th Street NW #700, Washington DC 20005 TEL: 202 898 0150 ext. 232 FAX: 202 898 0150 ext. 232 E-MAIL: disarmament@igc.org http://www.psr.org/Disarmhouse.htm http://www.psr.org/ctbtaction.htm A project of: Peace Action, Physicians for Social Responsibility and Women's Action for New Directions - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Robert Kinsey" Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) A present for you Date: 24 Dec 1998 17:54:24 -0700 Please send 200 post cards with return address blank. 6555 Ward Road Arvada, Colorado 80004 ____________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________ Bob Kinsey, Peace and Justice Task Force United Church of Christ, Rocky Mountain Conference bkinsey@peacemission.org 303-425-0348 "Two paths lie before us. One leads to death, the other to life." Jonathan Schell "Faith has need of the whole truth" Teilhard de Chardin - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: DavidMcR@aol.com Subject: (abolition-usa) Good news a bit late Date: 27 Dec 1998 02:20:45 EST I should have put this out on Saturday - but even if you missed it, you can take heart. The AFSC organized a quarter page ad on the Op Ed page of the Christmas Day NY Times - last Friday. It was an appeal to "Stop the Killing" and lift the Sanctions. The main funds came from the AFSC but certainly other groups helped and the signers included pretty much all the peace groups, including War Resisters League. I don't know if this is on the internet Times or not. But even if you missed this, I know you can take heart that there is some open statement against the bombing, and against the sanctions. Most of the signing groups were in the religious community. (The cost of an op ed quarter page is, I think, $32,000). Peace, David McReynolds - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: JTLOWE@aol.com Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) A present for you Date: 27 Dec 1998 10:25:00 EST Hi, With children home (can I blame it on them?) I have lost the address to request postcards. Do you still have it and if so can you forward it to me?? Thanks, Colby Lowe member, National Board, Peace Action - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: DavidMcR@aol.com Subject: (abolition-usa) Iraq Is a Pediatrician's Hell (if you don't get the NY Times) Date: 28 Dec 1998 01:09:18 EST I'm grateful to Ben, a member of the Socialist Party USA, for getting this in a form I can just send out to those who may have missed it. The NY Times has carried several quite powerful pieces of reporting, which I take may imply a shift in the position of the Establishment. Peace, David McReynolds << Subj: Iraq Is a Pediatrician's Hell Date: 12/28/98 12:53:29 AM Eastern Standard Time From: reporter@magicnet.net (Ben Markeson) To: socialistsunmoderated@lefty.techsi.com CC: redyouth@lefty.techsi.com Posted by Ben Markeson, Orlando Local, Socialist Party U.S.A. December 28, 1998 (New York Times) Iraq Is a Pediatrician's Hell: No Way to Stop the Dying By STEPHEN KINZER BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The greatest misfortune that has been visited on 3-year-old Isra Ahmed was not contracting leukemia. It was contracting leukemia in Iraq at a time when the country's medical system is all but paralyzed as a result of economic sanctions imposed by the United Nations eight years ago. Since Isra's illness was diagnosed earlier this year, she has spent most of her time in the Saddam Central Teaching Hospital for Pediatrics in Baghdad. She bleeds profusely from her nose, gums and rectum. Her mother has bought her earrings and a colorful clip to bind her thinning hair into a ponytail, but whatever diversion she has is likely to be only temporary. In developed countries, the cure rate for leukemia approaches 70 percent. In Iraq it is near zero. "It's still not too late to save this girl's life if we can give her a bone-marrow transplant," said Dr. Jasim Mazin, the hospital's chief resident. "But we don't have the equipment to perform that kind of operation. We're helpless." In his five years at Saddam Central, virtually all of his leukemia patients have died. Their deaths , coupled with those who die of gastrointestinal diseases, diarrhea, dehydration and other easily curable ailments, have clearly taken a toll on him. He often works 20 hours a day, and although he is just 28, he looks nearly twice that age. "Iraq used to be the best country in the Arab world in terms of science and medicine," Mazin said as he made his rounds on a recent morning. "Now we can't even read medical journals, because they are covered by the embargo." "I can't believe I use disposable syringes on one patient after another, or perform operations with worn-out instruments in operating theaters that are not even disinfected," he said. "It's very difficult to work very hard on a patient, try to care for him, and then lose him because you can't get some silly thing that you could pick up in a drugstore in any other country. "And this is the best-supplied children's hospital in Iraq. If you go out into the provinces, you see that things are much worse." The coordinator of U.N. relief programs here, Hans von Sponeck, toured hospitals outside Baghdad last month and reported that much of the equipment he saw "was fit only for a museum." He said some of it is actually endangering the health of patients and staff, such as X-ray machines that leak radiation and malfunctioning incinerators that leave residues of toxic medical waste. Although the effect of sanctions is evident in every aspect of Iraqi life, there are few places where it is more poignantly visible than at hospitals like Saddam Central. According to U.N. figures, government spending on medicine and medical equipment has fallen by more than 90 percent since the sanctions were imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 and the country began spiraling into economic collapse. Not a single new hospital has been built in that time, although the country's population has grown from 15 million to 22 million. Iraqi doctors say conditions have improved since 1996, when the U.N. began allowing the government to sell limited amounts of oil and use some of the income it earns to buy food and medicine. About $450 million worth of drugs and medical supplies have entered the country since then, though the United Nations says distribution is inadequate owing to "transport and logistic difficulties." The Clinton administration defends sanctions as an indispensable part of the Western campaign to bring down President Saddam Hussein, whom Western powers have accused of threatening the Middle East by building weapons of mass destruction. The administration has, however, signaled its willingness to consider an expansion of the oil-for-food program that could allow Iraq to improve the abysmal conditions into which its heath care system has fallen. Any improvement would probably come too late for most of the children now lying listlessly in their hospital beds here. "Inside the hospitals is where you have to go if you want to see why so much antagonism and resentment is building up here," said Kathy Kelly, who runs a Chicago-based group called Voices in the Wilderness that is campaigning against the sanctions and who is making her ninth visit to Iraq since 1990. "I've seen doctors go from super-heroes to almost clinically depressed." At Saddam Central, Mazin said he maintains his equilibrium by concentrating on the children he has been able to save. He said his worst period came last April, when he lost about 75 children during a two-week epidemic of chest infections and gastroenteritis. Every one of them, he believes, could have been saved with antibiotics that are commonly available in neighboring countries. Some patients at Saddam Central need more than medicine. Among them is 16-month-old Affaf Hussein, whose facial irregularities suggest congenital deformity. He suffers from recurrent pneumonia, and his mother spends several hours each day holding a respirator over his face so he can inhale moist oxygen. "This child is very sick," Mazin said. "I believe he has some kind of genetic disorder, but we don't have the tools to diagnose what it is. We can't do anything for him." One of the few bright spots at Saddam Central is a beaming 10-year-old named Marua Tariq, who comes in for a checkup every month wearing her favorite brightly patterned sweater. She has leukemia, but was released from the hospital six months ago after her case stabilized, and has shown no symptoms since then. If she can stay healthy for another four and a half years, she will be considered cured, the first such case since the sanctions began. "I'm feeling good and I'm studying hard at school," Marua said with a broad smile. "When I grow up I want to be a doctor who treats children." -- The lefty.techsi.com server is not operated by the owners of the techsi.com domain. Views expressed in this email do not reflect the opinions of TSI, its officers, customers, or minions. To unsubscribe, send email to SocialistsUnmoderated-request@lefty.techsi.com with "unsubscribe" in the Subject line. Send complaints that can't be resolved by unsubscribing to doumakes@novia.net. - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Timothy Bruening Subject: (abolition-usa) Dan Quayle Makes Stunning Admission About Operation Desert Date: 27 Dec 1998 23:47:21 -0800 (PST) I found the following Dan Quayle Quote on the Feb 18 page of the 1999 "365 Stupidest Things Ever Said" page a day calendar written by Ross and Kathryn Petras, authors of "The 776 Stupidest Things Ever Said": "Desert Storm was a stirring victory for the forces of aggression and lawlessness". If you have any stupid quotes, I urge you to send them to Ross and Kathryn Petras at STUPIDEST@aol.com, or at 365 Stupidest Things Ever Said, c/o Workman Publishing, 708 Broadway, New York, NY 10003-9555. - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: JTLOWE@aol.com Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) A present for you Date: 28 Dec 1998 08:44:04 EST In a message dated 98-12-27 10:26:36 EST, you write: << With children home (can I blame it on them?) I have lost the address to request postcards. Do you still have it and if so can you forward it to me?? Thanks, Colby Lowe member, National Board, Peace Action >> Hi, This is what I sent to you. Do you know how I can order the postcards?? Thanks, Colby - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Peace through Reason Subject: (abolition-usa) NucNews-US: 12/28/98 - Reactors; Waste; Tritium; Russian Date: 28 Dec 1998 09:23:54 -0500 1. http://www.latimes.com/excite/981227/t000118098.html Nuclear Research Reactors Dwindling in U.S.as Funding, Interest Drop 2. http://insidedenver.com/news/1227rad3.shtml Flats workers uncover radioactive drum Toxic container found after wall collapses 3. http://www.savannahmorningnews.com/smn/stories/122698/OPEDone.html Editorial: A win for Savannah River Site 4. http://www.econet.apc.org/igc/en/hl/9812257741/hl9.html Tennessee Reactor To Make Tritium 5. http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,30003148,00.html PFS, landowners reach agreement on N-dump But Leavitt believes ranchers were bought off 6. http://www.nebweb.com/news/thursday/local2.htm NPPD plugs into Russian warheads (Lincoln, Nebraska Power) -------------------------- 1. http://www.latimes.com/excite/981227/t000118098.html Nuclear Research Reactors Dwindling in U.S.as Funding, Interest Drop Sunday, December 27, 1998, Los Angeles Times By WILLIAM MCCALL, Associated Press Technology: High-profile accidents at commercial reactors and at Chernobyl contribute to unpopularity. Medical progress could be impeded without the devices. CORVALLIS, Ore.--Fans who stormed the field after Oregon State University's double-overtime victory over Oregon in the annual "Civil War" game may never know they were just a parking lot away from a relic of a far more dangerous conflict--the Cold War. The university is home to one of the last research nuclear reactors operating on a college campus. It was built there with the belief that the atom could be harnessed for good instead of evil. But that optimism has been worn away by a generation of apocalyptic visions of nuclear war. And with the Cold War threat a distant memory, students these days are mostly unaware of the power in their midst. "I'd say the average OSU student doesn't spend much time thinking about nuclear power or nuclear war," said Mike Caudle, student government president. "A lot of them probably don't even know where the reactor is." The waning support and lack of interest in nuclear power research has been followed by decreasing funding for programs around the country, forcing the closure of two to three reactors a year and cutting the number of campus reactors from 50 three decades ago to about half that today. "It could be we're looking at a vanishing technology," said Michael Glascock at the University of Missouri, which has the nation's largest research reactor. "Within the next 20 years, it may be gone." Reactor directors say nuclear research is drying up at universities everywhere, which may cost the nation some of its best engineers and physicists along with valuable improvements in technology and advances in basic science. Most of the reactors were built in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when the public was swept up in the space program and the Disney promise of a "great big wonderful tomorrow" at the 1964 World's Fair in New York. But faith in nuclear power diminished after accidents at commercial reactors, such as Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, along with the nation's largest bond default after the Washington Public Power Supply System halted construction on two of its three nuclear plants. And researchers say a generation of Americans weaned on anti-nuke sentiment during the 1960s are unlikely to reach into their pockets for the tax funding needed to keep university reactors operating. It doesn't matter that the reactors are small, have never caused an accident and have contributed to scientific discoveries such as the reasons for the extinction of dinosaurs or analyzing evidence in the assassination of President Kennedy. "I don't think that people realize there are different reactors," said John Bernard at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research reactors generally are used to produce streams of atomic particles called neutrons, which can be used to analyze everything from moon rocks to paint chips from freighters suspected of midsea collisions. Neutrons also have shown promise for treating rare brain tumors and advanced melanoma by targeting cancer deep inside the body with particles that destroy only the malignant cells. "The public thinks they're all producing electricity, but these research reactors are much like a microscope," Bernard said. "You're producing a beam of neutrons to see the world." At Reed College in Portland, the reactor is student-run. Students on the small, wooded campus say they're comfortable with the reactor because they all know the people operating it, said Jenne Wonner, a senior biology major whose boyfriend, Toby Boes, just got his reactor license. "I've seen Toby working on it," Wonner said. "I know how careful he is." Most of the paranoia of the Cold War is long gone, at least from Reed, said student Bob Foster. "There might be some dreadlocked people who get totally flipped out about it at first--like, 'Wow, man, what's a reactor doing on campus?' But it doesn't last long," Foster said. At Oregon State, which has a larger reactor, the style is equally laid-back. Erwin Schutfort, one of the principal OSU researchers, admits he feels a little like Homer Simpson--a cartoon favorite of university scientists--when yanking on a fishing pole to pull test samples from the glowing blue core of the OSU reactor. "It's a rather low-tech solution," Schutfort says with a grin, dangling a line over the top of a deep pool of water lined with 82 rods of enriched uranium. Unlike the animated nuclear plant in "The Simpsons," safety has never been a problem for university reactors, which are reliable and well operated, even by young students, said Marvin Mendonca, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman in Washington, D.C. Funding is the real problem. Most universities can't afford state-of-the-art measurement equipment and instruments needed to run experiments. Many also must charge fees for research time, unlike national laboratories such as Oak Ridge in Tennessee, funded by the federal government, Bernard said. Foreign governments and corporations plow huge amounts of money into their own research reactors. "Europe outspends the United States 10 to 1 on neutron-scattering research," he said. University reactors may be aging, but their basic design is sound. The NRC has been approving relicensing requests because the operating lives of the research reactors can extend well into the next century. And building new plants would be incredibly costly. Glascock said the Missouri reactor cost about $3.5 million when it was built in the early 1960s. To build a similar reactor today would cost at least $200 million, he said. The only hope for increased funding to maintain existing reactors may be neutron capture therapy, the technique used to target deep brain or melanoma tumors. A clinical trial is under way at MIT, and research also is being done at OSU and at Washington State. If the therapy proves successful, medical funding may rescue many reactor centers. "If that doesn't happen, the future of nuclear reactors is pretty grim," Bernard said. Copyright 1998 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved --------------------------- 2. http://insidedenver.com/news/1227rad3.shtml Flats workers uncover radioactive drum Toxic container found after wall collapses; expanded searches for more material planned Associated Press, Inside Denver, December 27, 1998 BOULDER -- A small radioactive drum has been found in a trench at the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant where workers dumped containers of depleted uranium 40 years ago. Workers who were pouring clean fill dirt into the excavated trench discovered the three- to five-gallon drum Tuesday after part of a wall collapsed, said Jennifer Thompson, a spokeswoman for Kaiser-Hill, which is cleaning up the property under an Energy Department contract. The outside of the drum did not register as radioactive, but its contents did, she said. Crews plan to excavate the drum in the next few weeks and to conduct more radar searches of the area. "We're not sure if there might be anything else outside that boundary as well," Thompson said. Between June and September, Kaiser-Hill employees removed about 30 tons of depleted uranium from the trench after conducting ground-penetrating radar studies and interviewing employees. Because the main portion of the trench contained tons of debris, Thompson said it was not surprising the radar search missed the small drum. The workers conducted radioactivity surveys along the lining of the trench after it was excavated, but the drum apparently was set far enough into the wall that the equipment did not detect it. LeRoy Moore of the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center said the discovery is "a reminder of how unpredictable and potentially dangerous the cleanup work is." "Nobody really knows where everything is," he said. The plant, about eight miles south of Boulder, manufactured triggers for nuclear weapons before it was closed. --------------------------- 3. http://www.savannahmorningnews.com/smn/stories/122698/OPEDone.html Editorial: A win for Savannah River Site Savannah River Morning News, December 26, 1998 AFTER SEVEN years of cutbacks prompted by the end of the Cold War, the government's nuclear weapons plant near Aiken, S.C., finally earned a dividend this week: A $500 million plant to disassemble nuclear warheads, probably including many it helped build. The sprawling, thousand-acre Savannah River Site, 100 miles upstream from Savannah, has laid off thousands of workers since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The new plant will create 400 permanent jobs and 500 construction jobs over the next five years. The United States has 7,000 nuclear warheads. The number is slated for cutback to 3,500 when the Russians ratify a second strategic arms limitation treaty. The new SRS plant will take apart the plutonium core of nuclear warheads and convert the highly radioactive plutonium so it can be made into fuel for commercial reactors or be deactivated for long-term storage. However, the SRS lost out in bidding for a second nuclear plant -- a $3.5 billion linear accelerator to produce tritium, a form of hydrogen that makes nuclear bombs more powerful. The Energy Department awarded that massive contract to two nuclear power plants of the Tennessee Valley Authority -- Watts Bar, near Knoxville, and Sequoyah, near Chattanooga. Using existing nuclear reactors, they will become the nation's first commercial producer of tritium. Georgians and South Carolinians are better off without the tritium plant at SRS. A radioactive gas which was produced at SRS until 1988, tritium has leaked into the Savannah River more than once -- never in sufficient quantity to pose a health risk, but a 1991 spill led to a brief shutdown in pumping river water to treatment plants. With a major reduction in U.S. nuclear warheads impending, it is unfortunate that more tritium is needed, but it deteriorates at the rate of 5.5 percent a year and must be replenished. Without additional tritium, the explosive power of warheads in the American arsenal would be sharply reduced. Cost considerations in building a new tritium production plant tilted against SRS from the start of the bidding. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the cost of building and operating a tritium plant at SRS at $9.5 billion over 40 years, $6 billion more than at Watts Bar/Sequoya. At Watts Bar, the tritium plant will use an existing TVA reactor; a production test has been underway there for the past year. At SRS, a new reactor would have had to be built. The two decisions of the Energy Department require the concurrence of Congress, but they appear to be the most sensible from the standpoint of both cost and national security. When, and if, the Russians ratify the Start II treaty, less tritium will be required -- and fewer dollars will have been invested to produce it. In the meantime, SRS will play an important role in deactivating the nuclear warheads that were, for a generation, the nation's bulwark against Soviet aggression. --------------------------- 4. http://www.econet.apc.org/igc/en/hl/9812257741/hl9.html Tennessee Reactor To Make Tritium December 23, 1998 Econet By RACHEL ZOLL CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) _ For the first time in U.S. history, the government is about to breach the long-standing wall separating civilian uses of nuclear power from military ones. The Energy Department announced Tuesday that it is awarding a billion-dollar contract to the Tennessee Valley Authority to produce tritium at a TVA nuclear reactor near Knoxville that generates electricity for homes and businesses in the Southeast. Tritium is an isotope that enhances the explosive force of nuclear warheads. The decision marks the first time in the nation's history that a civilian nuclear plant will be used to produce weapons material. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said that awarding the contract to the Watts Bar nuclear plant will be cost-efficient while providing needed tritium. TVA's Sequoyah nuclear plant outside Chattanooga will serve as a backup. ``Watts Bar-Sequoyah is our best option for our national security. It is a proven technology. It's the best deal by far for the taxpayer,'' Richardson said. ``It has the flexibility to meet our present and future tritium needs.'' Some congressmen and anti-nuclear groups opposed the decision, arguing that using a commercial reactor would fuel the arms race. ``The use of a civilian nuclear reactor for the production of nuclear weapons materials is very troubling, and I believe that Secretary Richardson has underestimated the longterm nuclear proliferation implications,'' said Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., who is stepping down this year as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Bruce Hall of the anti-nuclear group Peace Action in Washington said: ``I think what we're doing is dangerous from a nonproliferation standpoint because we're blurring the lines between civilian and military applications of nuclear power.'' Richardson noted that the TVA _ a utility created during the New Deal _ is a government agency whose charter includes preserving national security. The Watts Bar decision ``gives us the maximum arms control flexibility. It allows us to produce tritium when we need it,'' he said. He said details about the cost would be made public in a few weeks. A report issued in August by the Congressional Budget Office said that using an existing reactor such as Watts Bar would cost $1.1 billion over 40 years. Tritium, a gas inside warheads, decays over must time and must be replenished. It has not been produced in the United States since 1988, when the government shut down its last weapons reactor at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. The House approved legislation earlier this year that would have blocked the use of a commercial nuclear reactor to product tritium, but the measure failed in the Senate. Among other options that had been considered by the Energy Department was the TVA's unfinished Bellefonte nuclear plant outside Scottsboro, Ala. It also weighed the idea of building equipment at Savannah River or using a reactor at the government's Hanford weapons complex in Washington state. TVA officials had pushed the Bellefonte option, hoping to obtain financial help from the government to complete construction of the plant. Richardson also announced Tuesday that a $500 million plant to disassemble the plutonium cores of nuclear bombs would be built at Savannah River. --------------------------- 5. http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,30003148,00.html Deseret News, December 24, 1998, Associated Press PFS, landowners reach agreement on N-dump But Leavitt believes ranchers were bought off Private Fuel Storage announced an agreement with ranch owners on Wednesday that it says assures landowners' concerns about a proposed high-level nuclear waste facility will be mitigated. Castle Rock Land and Livestock, Skull Valley Co. and Ensign Ranches of Utah, L.C., announced an agreement with PFS, which plans to build a temporary storage facility for spent nuclear fuel rods on the Goshute Indian Reservation in Skull Valley. The companies have withdrawn their opposition to the licensing of the proposed facility by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission because PFS said it would address landowners' concerns during construction and operation of the facility. Gov. Mike Leavitt, who has long opposed the facility, told KSL television on Wednesday that he believes the ranchers were bought off. Neither PFS nor the companies would disclose terms of the agreement. PFS said the withdrawal should not affect the licensing process. The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, which is a three-judge panel appointed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, will still hear from other opponents. "With this agreement, we have been able to address the concerns of some of the facility's closest neighbors," said PFS project manager Scott Northard. "This is a step in the right direction." Earlier this year, the Legislature attempted to impede the shipment of the nuclear waste to Tooele County by designating the only access road to the site as a state highway, thereby forcing PFS to comply with tough, some would say onerous, state regulations. There has even been talk of state tolls on the road that would make the transportation of nuclear waste prohibitively expensive. In November, PFS responded by proposing to bypass the state road - and any state regulations on that road - with a new railroad spur that would be located exclusively on federal and Indian lands on the west side of Skull Valley. If it becomes fully operational, the PFS site could store 40,000 metric tons of highly radioactive spent fuel rods from nuclear reactors on a 100-acre facility on the reservation. The economically depressed Goshute Indian Tribe views the facility as a multimillion-dollar boon and actively courted PFS. "We were environmentalists in the beginning and we continue to be the environmentalists today," said Leon Bear, chairman of the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes. "We feel that the economic development is appropriate for us because of the facilities already around us." But state lawmakers, including Leavitt, have opposed the facility. "They say it is safe because it is stored at nuclear power plants in the East, Midwest and California," Leavitt said in May. "If it is so safe, it can stay where it is." --------------------------- 6. http://www.nebweb.com/news/thursday/local2.htm NPPD plugs into Russian warheads BY AL J. LAUKAITIS Lincoln (Nebraska) Journal Star / Associated Press December 24, 1998 Uranium from Russian nuclear warheads once aimed at the United States is heating living rooms and powering toasters in Lincoln this winter. In a strange footnote to the Cold War, the Nebraska Public Power District is using uranium harvested from Soviet nuclear weapons to generate electricity at its Cooper Nuclear Station near Brownville. NPPD officials stressed that the weapons-grade uranium has been diluted and can no longer be used for military purposes. The Columbus-based utility purchased the uranium through the federal Megatons to Megawatts program. "This program has effectively eliminated the equivalent of more than 2,000 nuclear warheads to date," said Charles Yulish, a spokesman for USEC, Inc., a private company that is responsible for implementing the program and supplying the uranium. The Lincoln Electric System, which gets about 12.5 percent of its power from Cooper under a long-term contract, is one of the utilities getting the Russian uranium energy. So will customers of MidAmerican Energy Co. in Iowa, which also gets power from the plant. Officials said the special uranium fuel did not cost NPPD any additional money. Since shipments began in 1995, the Russians have processed about 45 metric tons of nuclear warhead materials for U.S. nuclear energy plants, Yulish said. A $12 billion agreement between the U.S. and Russian governments calls for diluting 500 metric tons over 20 years. Forty U.S. utilities are using uranium fuel derived from the Soviet-era warheads, according to a USEC spokeswoman. On Sunday, Cooper Nuclear Station began generating electricity using the Russian fuel when workers restarted the plant after a 79-day refueling outage. The 801-megawatt plant is located south of Brownville near the banks of the Missouri River. "During the succeeding 18 months, approximately 30 percent of our power will come from fuel that perhaps was once contained in nuclear missiles pointed toward the West," said Eugene Lanning, Cooper's nuclear fuel procurement engineer. Lanning estimated the Russian nuclear fuel accounts for about 6 percent of all the electricity used daily in Nebraska. The Russian uranium was delivered to Paducah, Ky., where it was diluted and blended with other uranium owned by NPPD. It was then shipped to Wilmington, N.C., for further processing before arriving at Cooper Nuclear Station. Lanning said the uranium arrived via truck in about 100 fuel bundles and was loaded into the reactor core during Cooper's 1996 refueling outage. Without going into a complex scientific explanation, Lanning said it takes at least 18 months for the energy in the uranium fuel rods to build up to their maximum output. During the next 18 months, the plant will expend the energy until it is slowly depleted. However, some energy will remain and it will be another 18 months before the fuel bundles containing the Russian uranium will be removed from the reactor core. Cooper officials refuel the plant about every 18 months. No former weapons material was available for manufacturing into the 160 fuel assemblies loaded during Cooper's most recent refueling outage. _______________________________________________________________________ * NucNews - to subscribe: prop1@prop1.org - http://prop1.org * Please forward -- help educate! _______________________________________________________________________ - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Peace through Reason Subject: (abolition-usa) NucNews-US: 12/30/98 - Radioactive Tumbleweeds; etc. Date: 30 Dec 1998 20:01:51 -0500 1. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-Radioactive-Tumbleweeds.html Radioactive Tumbleweeds on Rise 2. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-12/30/081l-123098-idx.html Secret Deals, Awkward Bargain U.S. Probes Firm's Covert Acquisition of Arms for CIA, DIA 3. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-12/23/028l-122398-idx.html Cities Plan Legal Assault On Makers Of Handguns Tobacco Lawsuits Viewed as Model 4. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-12/24/088l-122498-idx.html Preparing for the Millennium (Letter to Editor; web links) ---------------- 1. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-Radioactive-Tumbleweeds.html Radioactive Tumbleweeds on Rise By The Associated Press, December 30, 1998 RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) -- First, radioactive ants, flies and gnats were found at the Hanford nuclear complex, which for years churned out plutonium for nuclear weapons. Now a government report says there has been a dramatic increase in the number of radioactive tumbleweeds found blowing around the place. The Department of Energy found 20 contaminated tumbleweeds in the first six months of 1998, compared with 11 during all of 1995, an increase likely due to stepped-up efforts to search the area. With roots that can stretch 15 feet into the soil looking for water, the weeds suck up contaminated groundwater and spread radioactivity when the top of the plant is blown away by the wind. The plants sprout across the 560-square-mile government reservation, which is one of the nation's most heavily contaminated nuclear sites. When they tumble, so does radioactivity. The Department of Energy found that Fluor Daniel, the company that manages Hanford for the government, and other contractors spent $1.68 million last year to control vegetation like tumbleweeds, as well as various mice and insects that also spread radioactivity. Hanford stopped producing plutonium in the 1980s, but some areas remain highly radioactive. Billions of dollars are being spent to clean up the site along the Columbia River. ---------------- 2. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-12/30/081l-123098-idx.html Secret Deals, Awkward Bargain U.S. Probes Firm's Covert Acquisition of Arms for CIA, DIA By John Mintz Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, December 30, 1998; Page A01 The federal agents who burst into the Alexandria office of Vector Microwave Research Corp. one morning late last year got right to the point. "This is a court-authorized search," an agent announced. "Stand up, don't turn off your computers. We'll take care of that." The raid, which netted U.S. Customs Service and Navy investigators boxes of records and computer disks, came as a shock to a firm that made a business of eluding attention. For years, Vector had performed secret tasks for the CIA and the U.S. military, using guile, experience and connections, including those of its president, retired Lt. Gen. Leonard Perroots, a former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Vector was a leading entrepreneur in a classified or "black" specialty with high stakes and few rules: covertly acquiring foreign missiles, radar, artillery and other weapons for U.S. intelligence agencies. Its work was seen as crucial by some U.S. officials who study innovations in foreign weaponry as part of efforts to protect Americans from the global spread of ballistic missiles and other arms. But the rise and fall of Vector illustrates the awkward bargain that can result when agencies such as the CIA and the DIA privatize covert operations. When Vector went out of business earlier this year, it left a trail of mysterious dealings, some that may have run counter to U.S. policy, according to government officials, former Vector employees and the firm's competitors. Today, investigators are trying to determine at whose behest the firm bid for a batch of North Korean missiles. Also unresolved is whether the firm, trying to sweeten a deal for the purchase of Chinese missiles, provided China sensitive technical specifications on the U.S. Stinger antiaircraft missile. So complex was the web of connections surrounding Vector that its founder, Donald Mayes, became a business partner with China's state-owned missile manufacturer while secretly buying Chinese weapons for the U.S. government. Government officials admit they may never know the scope of Vector's activities. "Where's the reality?" said a U.S. official who has pursued Vector for years. "We'll never untangle some of this." No charges have been brought in the federal inquiry, and attorneys for Vector and its executives deny wrongdoing. The agents who led the Nov. 20, 1997, raid are looking into a number of Vector projects, as well as a private side deal in which Mayes sold Russian helicopters to the Mexican navy. Guidelines for Bribes The ongoing investigation had not been made public previously, and, besides scant references in the business press, Vector itself has hardly been mentioned in print. The firm quietly went out of business recently after spinning off parts of the company to competitors. Perroots, 65, did not respond to messages left at his Virginia home. Mayes, 60, who is living in Mexico, responded through his Washington attorney, Thomas Green. "It's hard for me to get into Mr. Mayes' activities, but they were appropriate and didn't violate any laws," Green said. Green also read a statement issued by Mayes, which said: "Anything we've done for the U.S. government was completely approved." Vector's allies said any prosecution would fail because of Vector's intelligence ties. Executives of Vector and its competitors in the "foreign materiel acquisition" business, such as BDM International of McLean and Electronic Warfare Associates of Dulles, stride the marble halls of defense ministries from Moscow to Minsk to Beijing competing for weaponry on secret CIA and DIA wish lists. Because they can deny any direct tie to the U.S. government, they can buy from people who wouldn't deal with Washington, or require deniability to do so. The contractors, in turn, are held to secrecy by the U.S. government. Operating largely on their own in this shadowy world, people who scour the globe for arms on the government's behalf acknowledge that they could face legal trouble if U.S. investigators questioned them about their methods. U.S. officials say people who bribe foreign officials while on authorized U.S. government assignment won't be prosecuted under statutes that prohibit such corrupt practices. But people who bribe seeking foreign arms "on speculation" -- in the hopes of finding a government buyer -- may be in legal jeopardy, officials said. "If you say what you do, you can go to jail" because of U.S. anti-bribery laws, said a Vector competitor, who acknowledged that people in his industry commonly retain middlemen to bribe foreign officials. "The U.S. is paying us to go to a foreign country and find somebody to do an illegal thing for us. . . . Do you want a Boy Scout doing it, or somebody who can get the job done to save U.S. lives?" 'Name and Access' Mayes, who was described by an employee as "one of the most cunning individuals I've ever met," learned the arms acquisition trade at a cluster of firms in Virginia's Tidewater area in the 1970s. He founded Vector in 1984, and it was soon acquiring missiles, electronics and ships from China, France and elsewhere. Many of Vector's 150 employees tested the materiel at a California Navy base, or designed classified computer networks for the government. Other employees worked on purely commercial projects, such as a plan to bury waste from South Korean nuclear reactors in the Mongolian desert, and a plan to build a Russian casino -- until Moscow mobsters seized their slot machines. In 1989 Mayes hired retiring Air Force Lt. Gen. Perroots, who had spent three years as DIA director. A favorite of former CIA director William J. Casey, Perroots had superb intelligence connections. "Mayes told people, 'We got Len for his name and access,' " a former Vector executive said. "Len did what he was told" by Mayes, who often left Perroots in the dark, former employees said. Several people who worked at Vector's headquarters on South Washington Street in Alexandria said freewheeling foreign missions brought out a swagger in Mayes, who cultivated a disdain for law enforcement officials who wanted to question him about his activities. They said the hulking 6-foot-4 Oklahoman boasted that federal agents were too stupid to nail him. "He bragged about how his phone was tapped, and he was outsmarting them, and they'd never get him," a Vector consultant said of Mayes. Green, Mayes' lawyer, denied Mayes ever said that. "Mayes compartmented everything from his own employees," a firm official said. "We called him 'prince of darkness.' He'd go overseas on a trip, and no one would know what he was doing." His wife, a former CIA employee, "would call and say, 'Where's Don?' " Former Vector associates said the firm performed a variety of "little tasks" for the government, nearly all of them secret. The company maintained contact with people the government wanted to keep tabs on, including a businessman from Bahrain with ties in Iran, a former company executive said. U.S. officials unsuccessfully used Mayes to try to lure the man to this country in connection with a Customs investigation, the former executive said. Government officials also used Vector to pry information from an Iraqi official with whom it had grown close: the flamboyant, Rolls Royce-driving Iraqi Brig. Gen. Nabil Said, military attache at Baghdad's embassy here in the years before the Persian Gulf War. Vector also informed intelligence officials about its dealings with Moscow. In 1990, while trying to buy a supersonic Soviet antiship missile, officials of the firm met a Soviet general who was defense attache at the embassy in Washington. The attache, Grigoriy Yakovlev, ended up working with Vector on numerous deals. "The relationship was prejudged [by U.S. officials] and guidance was provided" by U.S. agencies, said Patrick Sweet, who worked with Vector. What guidance did U.S. officials give? "Our policy is not to get into that," Sweet replied. Yakovlev later became a paid Vector deal-spotter in Moscow. In addition, U.S. officials asked traveling Vector executives to make specific inquiries of Russian space officials about production methods on new electronic and optical technologies, a former company executive said. Vector's practices have earned some enemies within the U.S. government. In the late 1980s, naval intelligence officials accused the firm of overcharging for Chinese missiles and delivering Chinese missile electronics that were different from what the firm had promised. The Navy refused to pay the firm's $390,000 fee, but after Vector's sustained lobbying, Navy officials ultimately paid in full, industry executives said. In 1993 Navy officials launched a criminal probe of the firm for alleged fraud, which was later dropped. Mayes wrote an eight-page, single-spaced letter to Congress complaining that Navy intelligence was out to destroy Vector by leaking its proprietary proposals to competitors in "a war of innuendo, investigations and outright abuse." The resentment flared again last year, when Perroots persuaded the Pentagon inspector general to investigate Perroots's old agency, the DIA, for allegedly giving a competitor details of Vector's plan to acquire Russian missiles. Vector's allies say the current probe of Vector was engineered by enemies of the firm in DIA and Customs, which has simmered at the unregulated importing of arms into this country by firms such as Vector. DIA and Customs declined comment. Customs is investigating Mayes for a private deal that apparently had no links to the government. Mayes allegedly lacked a State Department license when his employees repaired Russian helicopters for the Mexican navy and trained its pilots to fly them. Mayes sold the Mi-8 copters to the Mexicans for search-and-rescue work. While the copters lacked military equipment, Mayes' associates allegedly advised Mexico on how to outfit them with guns, an industry executive said. Maintaining or upgrading aircraft without a license could violate U.S. arms exports law. "What the Mexican government does with the copters is its business," said Green, Mayes' lawyer. North Korean Missiles Another investigation by Customs agents has examined Vector's efforts to acquire a North Korean missile. Vector officials said they had U.S. approval for a deal, according to industry executives and the National Security News Service, an independent investigative group that conducted research on Vector. U.S. officials asked The Washington Post not to identify the type of missile to avoid jeopardizing future covert operations. Industry executives familiar with Vector's work said Perroots arranged for a South Korean consultant to approach a Seoul company to broker a $33 million deal to buy four missiles and a launcher from Pyongyang. They said Vector also had a U.S. consultant pay a Venezuelan military official $50,000 for a phony "end-user certificate," a document used in import-export work to indicate an item's destination. In this case, the North Koreans were meant to think the missiles were headed to Pakistan and then Venezuela. Vector never got the missiles. Customs has reviewed the indirect dealings between Vector and North Korean officials, which took place in Beijing, since any financial transactions with North Korea would be a violation of U.S. laws banning commercial ties to the country. Agents are also looking into whether Vector had approval to seek the missiles, since some U.S. agencies had said such a mission could be illegal, in part because it would threaten weapons agreements to which the United States is a signatory. A U.S. government official said that Vector's efforts were "amateurish," and that it stumbled into the deal without U.S. authorization. "I thought we were doing everything by the book," said a former Vector executive. "DIA said they needed it." Perhaps the most baffling and sensitive area of Vector's enterprise has been in China, which also has sparked the Customs Service's interest. Chiefly, investigators are exploring whether, in efforts to secure Chinese missiles in about 1991, Mayes gave Chinese engineers technical advice that could help them pirate the design of the U.S. Stinger antiaircraft missile. Through his attorney, Mayes denied giving China any data; the lawyer, Green, said "it's a canard circulating for several years." Former Vector officials said that when Beijing's officials tried to barter sensitive U.S. data from Mayes as a condition for deals, he play-acted, disclosing material that already was public. Industry officials said the government at times allows contractors to give away such "trading material." Whatever his tactics, sources said, Mayes scored many acquisition successes in China, at times by telling the Chinese that the weapons were destined not for this country but for Peru. He obtained the C-801 antiship missile for the CIA around 1987, when Iran was threatening to fire those weapons at U.S. Navy ships in the Persian Gulf. He also landed the similar C-601 missile in 1991 for $9.9 million, according to industry executives and an internal company report. Over the same period, Mayes had developed close ties to China Precision Machinery Import & Export Corp. (CPMIEC), Beijing's missile builder. A Vector affiliate, Mayes & Co., became CPMIEC's official, global marketer of a number of its missiles, including the HN-5A, a crude forerunner of the shoulder-fired Stinger. For the Chinese, Mayes' traceable ties to U.S. intelligence made him an odd choice of a partner. In any case, piles of CPMIEC promotional materials were stacked inside Vector's offices, and Mayes tried to sell CPMIEC arms to Saudi Arabia and other nations. At the same time, Mayes was informing U.S. intelligence about China's missile sales, industry officials said. But now investigators are asking whether Mayes, to ingratiate himself with the Chinese, helped them figure out how to place the Stinger's electronics in the nose cone of China's primitive shoulder-fired missile. An industry executive said that around 1991 Mayes boasted that, with the CIA's approval, he gave the Chinese some of the Stinger's technical specifications to deepen his relationship with them. The agency declined comment, but U.S. officials expressed doubt that Mayes had CIA approval to do so. A joint promotional brochure of CPMIEC and Mayes & Co., aimed at marketing China's HN-5As, said the Chinese agency "utilizes the research, design, marketing and tactical capabilities of Mayes & Co. to evaluate and improve" Chinese missile designs. "Mayes & Co. is a small group of highly specialized engineers and technicians that have a unique understanding of the problems associated with electronic and missile systems." The Chinese appear to have incorporated Stinger technology in a new missile that entered Chinese military service in 1996, called the QW-1 Vanguard, the CIA told a Senate committee two years ago. But it is impossible to know where the Chinese got the technology because China is thought to have secured some of the 1,000 or so Stingers the CIA gave Afghan rebels to repel Soviet troops in the 1980s. The Pentagon is now concerned the Vanguard could be fired at U.S. aircraft. CPMIEC, which is notorious for violating global agreements by distributing Chinese missiles around the world, has sold Vanguards to Iran and Pakistan. The Chinese Agent U.S. aviation officials are "increasingly concerned" for the traveling public's safety because of the proliferation of such mobile antiaircraft missiles, said a 1994 State Department report. It noted that rebel militias around the world have shot down 25 commercial airliners using these missiles, killing 536 people. Perhaps the most puzzling aspect of this story, though, is the role played by a Chinese military intelligence agent stationed at Beijing's embassy here in the 1980s. The FBI spotted Hou Desheng early on as a bumbler; there was his odd talkativeness, for example. He complained of his difficulty surviving on the $75 a month he was paid as assistant military attache, said a reporter who used to take him to lunch. Hou showed up weekly at Vector's offices mounting clumsy efforts to learn classified secrets about a Navy electronics program it worked on, a Vector official said. U.S. agents urged Vector to play along, and the firm once left a sensitive-looking file for him, so he would become even more reckless and blunder into a trap, the official said. In 1987 Hou was arrested for espionage in a Washington restaurant after he received what he thought were classified National Security Agency documents from an FBI agent posing as a U.S. traitor. Days later the U.S. government expelled Hou as a spy. Soon after, working out of an office in a Beijing hotel, Hou became Mayes & Co.'s representative in Beijing. He helped Mayes line up the missile deals he swung with China's military, industry executives said. Hou "was a conduit to other people" and remained a Chinese government employee while working for Mayes, a former Vector executive said. Did Mayes and Vector employ a Chinese spy as part of a U.S. intelligence operation? "I can't get into that," he replied. Green, Mayes' lawyer, declined comment on Hou. "It's too sensitive," he said. 3. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-12/23/028l-122398-idx.html Cities Plan Legal Assault On Makers Of Handguns Tobacco Lawsuits Viewed as Model By Roberto Suro Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, December 23, 1998; Page A01 In a sudden wave of litigation that could rival the recent legal assault on the tobacco industry, city governments across the country are preparing lawsuits seeking to hold handgun manufacturers responsible for the multibillion-dollar costs of violent crimes. New Orleans and Chicago led the way with suits filed this fall. Boston, San Francisco, Bridgeport, Conn., and Miami-Dade have announced they are putting together legal teams to develop complaints. And Philadelphia Mayor Edward G. Rendell (D) has proposed a simultaneous filing by as many as 100 cities on the same day sometime next year. "This is just the beginning," Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley said this month after hosting officials from 15 cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors to discuss litigation plans. Inspired by the success of anti-tobacco lawsuits, elected officials and gun control advocates see a chance to hit handgun manufacturers with so many suits in so many places that the industry will be forced not only to pay huge dollar settlements but to accept tough new regulations on the sale of their products. "The tobacco suits prompted some new strategic thinking," said Kristen Rand, director of federal policy at the Violence Policy Center, a Washington-based research and advocacy group. "Both tobacco and gun manufacturing have largely escaped regulation in the past, and now the justice system has emerged as the best way to ensure that they are held accountable for their products." Gun manufacturers, like cigarette makers, have successfully defended themselves against numerous lawsuits brought by individuals. But gun control advocates hope to end that streak by bringing the public sector's vast resources and powerful new legal arguments into the battle. That strategy has worked, at least to a degree, with tobacco. So far, cigarette manufacturers have agreed to payments of $246 billion to settle lawsuits brought by state governments and have accepted restrictions on advertising and the sponsorship of sporting events. The settlements are narrower than an unsuccessful deal proposed last year, but gun control advocates and city officials still see great potential in pursuing similar litigation against gun manufacturers. And many believe they have an easier target. "The gun manufacturers are not nearly as big, as rich, or as unified as the tobacco people, and so they may well buckle when they have to fight lawsuits in every major city in America simultaneously," said a top aide to a big-city mayor who asked not to be named. Acknowledging their vulnerability to big-time legal warfare fought on many fronts, gun company executives have expressed concern that they might simply be driven out of business by the costs of fighting the suits. "The survival of a domestic gun manufacturing industry is at stake," said Bob Ricker, director of government affairs at the American Shooting Sports Council, a trade association and lobbying organization for gun manufacturers, which is a defendant in the New Orleans suit. The litigation campaign against the gun industry is still in its opening phase and no central leadership or common strategy has emerged on either side. The National Rifle Association, for example, is not playing as prominent a role as it has on other occasions when the gun industry felt under assault, and the industry itself is fragmented among big international firms such as Beretta and Glock that have large military and law enforcement contracts and a great many downscale manufacturers of Saturday night specials. Meanwhile, gun control advocacy groups are divided over legal tactics and have not played a dominant role. For example, the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, an influential Washington-based organization, advised New Orleans on developing a complaint that relies on product liability law, while the Violence Policy Center that is recommending the approach behind the Chicago suit has spent a decade fighting lawsuits against gun manufacturers and has developed a theory that seeks to declare gun manufacturers and distributors a public nuisance. In the meantime, attorneys such as Wendell H. Gauthier who were prominent in the tobacco litigation are helping guide some of the gun suits. For the moment there is no drive to agree on a unified strategy. "Every city is going to have to tailor a legal theory to its local circumstances and its state laws," said Tom Cochran, executive director of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which has a long record of promoting gun control measures and is acting as a clearinghouse of information for cities that are undertaking lawsuits. Indeed, some attorneys involved in the lawsuits see an advantage in starting out with a variety of approaches, because if many different assaults are launched, there is a better chance that a few at least will make it through the uncharted legal territory ahead. Anti-gun advocates also hope to get an unprecedented glimpse into the inner workings of the gun industry by smoking out whistleblowers and forcing them, through litigation, to turn over corporate documents. "We are going to get into a phase of discovery, just as with tobacco, that will open the gun industry to a kind of scrutiny that it has never experienced," said David Kairys, a professor of law at Temple University, who helped Chicago develop its lawsuit and is now working with other cities. The attorneys, for example, hope to find evidence that manufacturers of Saturday night specials exploit the guns' extensive use by criminals or that industry marketing strategies are based on large numbers of illegal, or at least questionable, sales. Even if only one proceeding generates damaging revelations, the entire effort will benefit, the lawyers said. Several different battle plans are already developing. The Chicago lawsuit argues, in effect, that handgun manufacturers have knowingly profited from crime and fear of crime, while the New Orleans suit contends more narrowly that the industry has violated state gun safety laws by failing to install devices, such as high-tech gun locks, that would prevent accidental shootings, especially by children. Regardless of the allegation, the goal is to make handgun manufacturers collectively liable for the municipal costs of handgun violence, expenses that can range from law enforcement salaries to the purchase of emergency medical equipment. Individual gun manufacturers and industry groups insist they should not be made to answer for the acts of criminals. "The idea that guns in and of themselves are responsible for crime is ridiculous," said Ricker, of the shooting sports council. The key development, first in the tobacco litigation and now in the gun lawsuits, is a change in the nature of the plaintiff -- the party that brings the legal action. "When one person has sued, whether it's on tobacco or guns, the industries have scored points by attacking that person and claiming the harm was all their fault," said Dennis Henigan, director of the legal action project at the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence. For example, judges and juries routinely concluded that smokers had freely chosen to light up and so tobacco companies could not be held liable for the health consequences of that choice. Similarly, gun manufacturers successfully argued that it was not their fault when someone chose to commit a crime and fired a gun at someone else illegally. "The states' lawsuits to recover health care costs from tobacco companies showed that a public plaintiff can overcome these obstacles and focus attention on the broad costs to society," said Henigan. Still, the analogy to tobacco is by no means perfect. In tobacco cases, plaintiffs could argue that even when cigarettes were used properly, as the manufacturers had intended, a defect -- the carcinogenic effect of smoke, for example -- inflicted harm on the smoker and the manufacturer should be held liable for it. Moreover, the tobacco suits also argued that manufacturers misled smokers both about those dangers and about the addictive powers of nicotine, which furthered the harm and diminished the consumer's ability to avoid it. There is no chemical addiction when it comes to guns. And there is no secret they are dangerous. And courts have repeatedly rejected claims that guns are somehow defective when they fire bullets. "No one has been injured when using a gun properly," said Ricker, expressing the industry view that it can not be held liable for injuries that result from crimes or accidents. So far, two legal theories have been developed to try to get around these roadblocks and others are under consideration. The New Orleans suit argues that under Louisiana's unusually strict product liability law, guns are "unreasonably dangerous" because manufacturers failed to take steps that would prevent the guns' use by children and other unauthorized users. For example, the suit alleges that manufacturers failed to include adequate warnings of the risks that minors could gain access to weapons or instructions on how to store a gun to avoid that risk. The suit also claims that a number of devices have been available for more than 20 years that would prevent an unauthorized person from firing the weapons. These include simple combination locks built into the handgun and more technologically complex "personalized" guns that will only fire when the shooter is wearing a ring equipped with an encoded chip. "The taxpayers of my city should not bear the continuing increase in hospital costs and police costs and ambulance costs associated with this spate of violence," said New Orleans Mayor Marc M. Morial. The New Orleans suit names 15 major handgun manufacturers, three industry trade associations and several local gun dealers as defendants. Without specifying an amount, the suit seeks damages to cover the city's costs for "police protection, emergency services, medical care, facilities and services, as well as lost tax revenues due to defendants products and actions." In response, the gun manufacturers will argue that "the single most important gun safety device is the brain of the owner, and if the owner does not use the gun responsibly then there is no device that can make it absolutely safe," Ricker said. The Chicago lawsuit, by contrast, argues that gun manufacturers have become a "public nuisance" by using marketing and distribution methods designed to circumvent the city's highly restrictive gun laws, which forbid handgun sales. The gun makers "knowingly oversupply" gun shops just outside the city's boundaries with the intention that many of those weapons will be sold to city residents, according to the suit. The suit seeks $433 million in city costs related to gun violence over the past five years and names 16 gun stores and 22 manufacturers as defendants. "Handgun manufacturers knowingly participate in an illegal market that supplies criminals, and then they turn around and feed off the fear of crime by convincing people they can protect themselves by buying these products," Kairys said. "They profit from crime and so they should pay the public costs of crime." Ricker responds: "How can a city claim that guns cause crime when it gives guns out to police officers, in order to stop crime? It is not the guns that are at fault when a criminal commits a crime." In the Line of Fire Firearm deaths, 1996 AgeDeaths 0-4 88 5-9 95 10-14 510 15-19 3,950 20-24 4,816 25-29 3,989 30-34 3,414 35-39 3,318 40-44 2,746 45-49 2,289 50-54 1,693 55-59 1,317 60-64 1,077 65-69 1,191 70-74 1,161 75-79 1,027 80-84 785 85+ 546 Unknown 28 Total 34,040 SOURCE: National Center for Health Statistics ------------------- 4. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-12/24/088l-122498-idx.html Preparing for the Millennium Thursday, December 24, 1998; Page A16 While I was happy to see a front-page article on preparedness for the Year 2000 (Y2K) computer problem [Dec. 7], it may do a net disservice to the movement toward community preparedness because it leaves the impression that people trying to prepare their communities for Y2K-related disruptions are nuts. This is what FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has to say on its Y2K website (http://www.fema.gov/y2k/): "The efforts of FEMA and all emergency management and fire service organizations cannot be viewed as a substitute for personal responsibility and personal preparedness. Every organization and every individual, in public and private life, has an obligation to learn more about this problem [Y2K] and their vulnerability, so that they may take appropriate action to prevent a problem before it occurs. FEMA is working with the emergency management and fire service communities to raise awareness, to increase preparedness, and to stand ready to provide federal response assistance to state and local governments, if that is required." Many of the "yuppies" who are worried about Y2K are far better informed than the average citizen about the pervasiveness of the Y2K bug and the difficulty of fixing the problem. Further, no one I know through the Northern Virginia Y2K Community Action Group believes that corporate announcements of progress toward Y2K compliance are "a ruse to keep stock prices from falling." The problem is that progress is too slow, and many companies and government agencies have done too little, too late. Historically, software projects almost never have been finished on time, and Y2K remediation can be seen as the largest software project ever undertaken. Joel Achenbach's article would have been a lot more effective if he had played it straight, instead of linking Y2K community preparedness groups to fringe subcultures. During the coming months, I expect to see government organizations calling for an increasing focus on personal preparedness. The grass-roots community-preparedness movement is ahead of the curve. Readers who would like to learn more about the likelihood of Y2K-related threats to their personal lives can visit the Northern Virginia Y2K Community Action Group's website at http://www.novay2k.org or come to one of our free seminars. INGRID SCHULZE Falls Church _______________________________________________________________________ * NucNews - to subscribe: prop1@prop1.org - http://prop1.org * Please forward -- help educate! _______________________________________________________________________ - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.