ftp.xmission.com/2014.06.ftp.xmission.com.tar/ftp.xmission.com/pub/lists/abolition-usa/archive/abolition-usa.9812

Internet Message Format | 1998-12-30 | 517KB

From: Peace through Reason <[e-mail]>
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: [e-mail] - http://prop1.org ("Nuclear") *
_______________________________________________________________________

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: john burroughs <[e-mail]>
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: [phone]
        Fax: [phone]
        E-mail: [e-mail]
        Western States is part of Abolition 2000:
        A Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons
        *********************************************


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Robert Smirnow)
Subject: (abolition-usa) NEW NUKES IN SPACE VIDEO AVAILABLE NOW
Date: 02 Dec 1998 04:40:37 -0600 (CST)

----
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For Further Information Call:  Karl Grossman [phone]
                                               Steve Jambeck or Joan
Flynn [phone]

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 ôfly-byö and the consequences of an
accident. It reports on NASAÆs planned additional plutonium missions
and
investigates the U.S. militaryÆs aim to ôcontrol spaceö 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 ôare very brazen and almost inhuman in their
attitude, willing to run the risk of imposing a catastrophe on Earth
that manÆs never known before, where he cannot inhabit this space on
our
planet for the next million yearsàIt is inconceivable to me that you
would allow such high-risk of plutonium contamination on the Earth.ö

        Alan Kohn, a 30-year NASA veteran and a long-time emergency
preparedness officer for NASA, says in Nukes In Space 2: ôThe 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 wonÆt
stop themselves.ö

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 ôgravity assistö or ôslingshotö
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 EarthÆs atmosphere during the ôflyby,ö the probe will
break up, plutonium will disperse and ôapproximately five billion of
the
estimated 7 to 8 billion world population at the timeàcould 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 ôlack of vision at the highest level
of
NASA. I think they have another agenda behind-the-scenes.ö

The manufacturers of plutonium space systems, General Electric and now
Lockheed Martin, the U.S. governmentÆs 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.
ôStar Wars is the name of the game,ö declares Dr. Kaku in this
documentary.

Nukes In Space 2 probes the PentagonÆs 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, ôIn 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 conflictàlasers with reasonable
mass and cost to effect very many kills.ö However, says New World
Vistas, there are ôpower limitationsö currently for such weaponry. ôA
natural technology to enable high power is nuclear power in space,ö it
declares.

Nukes In Space 2 explores the U.S. Space CommandÆs desire to become
ômaster of spaceö in order to ôcontrol spaceö and the Earth below. It
exposes the U.S. Space CommandÆs Vision For 2020 report that describes
the commandÆs mission as ôdominating the space dimension of military
operations to protect US interests and investment.ö

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 WomenÆs 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 EnviroVideoÆs 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 worldÆs 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: [e-mail]
For more information visit the Stop Cassini Earth Fly-by Action Site:
www.nonviolence.org/noflyby



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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Robert Smirnow)
Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: FWB: Y2K Bug and Nukes
Date: 02 Dec 1998 11:32:31 -0600 (CST)

----

Sender: [e-mail]


Non-member submission from [Robert Cherwink <[e-mail]>]
-----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 <[e-mail]>
Usenet: alt.thebird
WHEN SPIDERS UNITE, THEY CAN TIE DOWN A LION  -- Ethiopian Proverb




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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
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, [e-mail]
 To:    [e-mail], [e-mail]
 To:    [e-mail], Epank, [e-mail]
 To:    [e-mail], [e-mail]
 To:    [e-mail], [e-mail], Zefalcon
 To:    RBLepley, [e-mail]
 To:    [e-mail], VOBARON, [e-mail]
 To:    Lthurston8, [e-mail]
 To:    [e-mail], [e-mail]
 To:    [e-mail], [e-mail]
 To:    [e-mail]
 To:    [e-mail]
 To:    [e-mail]
 To:    [e-mail]
 To:    [e-mail]
 To:    [e-mail]
 To:    [e-mail]
 To:    [e-mail]
 CC:    [e-mail]
 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:
[e-mail]

 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 >>

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "David Culp" <[e-mail]>
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: [phone]
fax: [phone]
email: [e-mail]
http://www.ceip.org


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
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:

[e-mail]

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

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Robert Smirnow)
Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: Nuke Waste Bills are BACK
Date: 04 Dec 1998 13:23:41 -0600 (CST)

----
Sender: [e-mail]
Organization: Public Citizen


Reply-To: [e-mail]
X-Sender: Auke Piersma <[e-mail]>

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




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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Robert Smirnow)
Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: Sustainable Energy Coalition: "Weekly Update"
Date: 06 Dec 1998 10:08:21 -0600 (CST)

----
     <[e-mail]>



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 <www.worldwatch.org>.

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:
<http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/july-dec98/oil_12-1.html>; in
addition, a statement by the Worldwatch Institute on the merger can be
found
at <www.worldwatch.org>.

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##







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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Robert Smirnow)
Subject: (abolition-usa) USA PLANS TO MILITARILY DOMINATE OUTER SPACE WITH NUKES, WEAPONS
Date: 06 Dec 1998 16:58:58 -0600 (CST)

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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 [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
(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: [e-mail])

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 ([e-mail]).=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: [phone]
Faxsimile: [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]
=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: [phone]=20
Email: [e-mail]



---2132565244-315033615-912979423=:48656--



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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (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.



-
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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: Stephen Young <[e-mail]>
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 "[e-mail]"
>  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 "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Hisham Zerriffi <[e-mail]>
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 "[e-mail]"
> 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: [phone]   *
* Institute for Energy             Fax:   [phone]   *
* and Environmental Research       E-mail: [e-mail] *
* 6935 Laurel Ave. Suite 204       Web:    www.ieer.org    *
* Takoma Park, MD  20912                                   *
************************************************************


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Robert Smirnow)
Subject: (abolition-usa) SIGN ON TO OPPOSE RUSSIAN REACTORS, WESTERN FUNDING
Date: 07 Dec 1998 16:51:52 -0600 (CST)

---
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: NIRS


Sender: [e-mail]

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 [e-mail]
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 "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Robert Smirnow)
Subject: (abolition-usa) OPPOSE RUSSIAN REACTORS, WESTERN FUNDING
Date: 07 Dec 1998 17:01:09 -0600 (CST)

---
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: NIRS


Sender: [e-mail]


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 [e-mail]
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




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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (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: [e-mail]
  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: [phone],
E-mail:
"Colette Brown" <[e-mail]>. 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 [phone]
FAX  [phone]

EMAIL  [e-mail]

A toll free telephone number has been established to receive public
comments.
Interested parties may call [phone] 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: [phone],
expecially for questions.]





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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Kathy Crandall <[e-mail]>
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: [phone] ext. 232 FAX: [phone] ext. 232
E-MAIL: [e-mail]
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: [phone] ext. 232 FAX: [phone] ext. 232
E-MAIL: [e-mail]
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



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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "David Culp" <[e-mail]>
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






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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Jackie Cabasso <[e-mail]>
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: [phone]
              Fax: [phone]
               [e-mail]
   ********** Part of ABOLITION 2000 **********
   Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Robert Kinsey" <[e-mail]>
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


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Robert Kinsey" <[e-mail]>
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


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Peace through Reason <[e-mail]>
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 -
[e-mail])

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: [phone]; Email:
[e-mail]

       * * *

"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: [e-mail] - http://prop1.org ("Nuclear") *
_______________________________________________________________________

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "David Culp" <[e-mail]>
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: [e-mail]

CTBT:  Ratification in 1999!


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Save Ward Valley" <[e-mail]>
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 [phone]

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


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "David Culp" <[e-mail]>
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



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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Jackie Cabasso <[e-mail]>
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: [phone]
              Fax: [phone]
               [e-mail]
   ********** Part of ABOLITION 2000 **********
   Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Shundahai Network <[e-mail]>
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"

<paraindent><param>out,out</param>5007 Elmhurst St., Las Vegas, NV
89108-1304

Phone:[phone] (FAX)647-9385

</paraindent>Email: [e-mail]

 <underline><color><param>0000,0000,fefe</param>http://www.shundahai.org


</color></underline>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


><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><<
><<><< ><<><<




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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Shundahai Network <[e-mail]>
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"

<paraindent><param>out,out</param>5007 Elmhurst St., Las Vegas, NV
89108-1304

Phone:[phone] (FAX)647-9385

</paraindent>Email: [e-mail]

 <underline><color><param>0000,0000,fefe</param>http://www.shundahai.org


</color></underline>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


><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><<
><<><< ><<><<




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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Timothy Bruening <[e-mail]>
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?


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Timothy Bruening <[e-mail]>
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 [phone].  Senators Boxer and Feinstein (U.S.
Senate, Washington, D.C., 20510).  Representatives (U.S. House, Washington,
D.C., 20515).


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Jackie Cabasso <[e-mail]>
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: [phone]
              Fax: [phone]
               [e-mail]
   ********** Part of ABOLITION 2000 **********
   Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Jackie Cabasso <[e-mail]>
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: [phone]
              Fax: [phone]
               [e-mail]
   ********** Part of ABOLITION 2000 **********
   Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons


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 To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Sally Light" <[e-mail]>
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 <[e-mail]>
> To: [e-mail]; [e-mail];
[e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail];
[e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail];
[e-mail]; [e-mail]
> 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"
>
> <paraindent><param>out,out</param>5007 Elmhurst St., Las Vegas, NV
> 89108-1304
>
> Phone:[phone] (FAX)647-9385
>
> </paraindent>Email: [e-mail]
>
>  <underline><color><param>0000,0000,fefe</param>http://www.shundahai.org
>
>
> </color></underline>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
"[e-mail]"
>  with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Sally Light" <[e-mail]>
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 <[e-mail]>
> To: [e-mail]; [e-mail];
[e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail];
[e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail];
[e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail];
[e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail];
[e-mail]
> 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 [phone].  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
"[e-mail]"
>  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 "[e-mail]"
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Boyle, Francis" <[e-mail]>
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)
[e-mail]


> ----------
> From:     Timothy Bruening[SMTP:[e-mail]]
> Reply To:     [e-mail]
> Sent:     Thursday, December 10, 1998 7:57 PM
> To:     [e-mail]; [e-mail];
> [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail];
> [e-mail]; [e-mail]
> 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
> "[e-mail]"
>  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

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV=3D"Content-Type" CONTENT=3D"text/html; =
charset=3DUS-ASCII">
<META NAME=3D"Generator" CONTENT=3D"MS Exchange Server version =
5.5.2410.0">
<TITLE>RE: (abolition-usa) A newsletter article about Iraq</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>

<P><FONT COLOR=3D"#0000FF" SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">1. have not seen =
those articles, but they are true</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR=3D"#0000FF" SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">2. The CIA =
estimated Israel had 200 nukes about a decade ago. So you figure it out =
from there.</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR=3D"#0000FF" SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">3. The United =
Nations.</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR=3D"#0000FF" SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">fab</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"MS Sans Serif">Francis A. Boyle</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"MS Sans Serif">Law Building</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"MS Sans Serif">504 E. Pennsylvania =
Ave.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"MS Sans Serif">Champaign, IL 61820</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"MS Sans Serif">217-333-7954(voice)</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"MS Sans Serif">217-244-1478(fax)</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"MS Sans Serif">[e-mail]</FONT>
</P>
<BR>
<UL>
<P><FONT SIZE=3D1 FACE=3D"MS Sans Serif">----------</FONT>
<BR><B><FONT SIZE=3D1 FACE=3D"MS Sans Serif">From:</FONT></B>   =
<FONT SIZE=3D1 FACE=3D"MS Sans Serif">Timothy =
Bruening[SMTP:[e-mail]]</FONT>
<BR><B><FONT SIZE=3D1 FACE=3D"MS Sans Serif">Reply To:</FONT></B> =
      <FONT SIZE=3D1 FACE=3D"MS Sans =
Serif">[e-mail]</FONT>
<BR><B><FONT SIZE=3D1 FACE=3D"MS Sans Serif">Sent:</FONT></B>   =
<FONT SIZE=3D1 FACE=3D"MS Sans Serif">Thursday, December 10, 1998 7:57 =
PM</FONT>
<BR><B><FONT SIZE=3D1 FACE=3D"MS Sans Serif">To:</FONT></B> =
    <FONT SIZE=3D1 FACE=3D"MS Sans =
Serif">[e-mail]; [e-mail]; =
[e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; =
[e-mail]; [e-mail]</FONT></P>

<P><B><FONT SIZE=3D1 FACE=3D"MS Sans Serif">Subject:</FONT></B> =
       <FONT SIZE=3D1 FACE=3D"MS Sans =
Serif">(abolition-usa) A newsletter article about Iraq</FONT>
</P>

<P><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">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?</FONT></P>

<P><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">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.</FONT></P>

<P><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">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?</FONT></P>
<BR>

<P><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">-</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial"> To unsubscribe to =
abolition-usa, send an email to =
"[e-mail]"</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial"> with "unsubscribe =
abolition-usa" in the body of the message.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial"> For information on digests or =
retrieving files and old messages send</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial"> "help" to the same =
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</P>
</UL>
</BODY>
</HTML>
------_=_NextPart_001_01BE24E6.FFF08B70--

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Peace through Reason <[e-mail]>
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 - [e-mail]
    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: [e-mail] - http://prop1.org *

                   Please forward -- help educate!
_______________________________________________________________________

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 To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Shundahai Network <[e-mail]>
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"

<paraindent><param>out,out</param>5007 Elmhurst St., Las Vegas, NV
89108-1304

Phone:[phone] (FAX)647-9385

</paraindent>Email: [e-mail]

 <underline><color><param>0000,0000,fefe</param>http://www.shundahai.org


</color></underline>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


><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><<
><<><< ><<><<




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 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Robert Smirnow)
Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: Y2K and  nuclear power
Date: 11 Dec 1998 14:22:55 -0600 (CST)

----
Reply-To: [e-mail]


Sender: [e-mail]

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: [phone]; [e-mail], 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 plansà"
    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: [phone]
[e-mail]; http://www.nirs.org




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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Robert Smirnow)
Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: US SIGN ON - URGENT! DOE COMMERCIAL/MILITARY LINK
Date: 11 Dec 1998 16:29:04 -0600 (CST)

---

Sender: [e-mail]

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:[phone]  fax:[phone]





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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (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 <[e-mail]>
 Organization:
               Environmental Health Coalition
           To:
               [e-mail]





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
[phone]

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
[phone]


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
[e-mail]
[phone]
FAX [phone]








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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Shundahai Network <[e-mail]>
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"

<paraindent><param>out,out</param>5007 Elmhurst St., Las Vegas, NV
89108-1304

Phone:[phone] (FAX)647-9385

</paraindent>Email: [e-mail]

 <underline><color><param>0000,0000,fefe</param>http://www.shundahai.org


</color></underline>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


><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><< ><<><<
><<><< ><<><<




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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
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).

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (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

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Kathy Crandall <[e-mail]>
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 "[e-mail]"
>  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: [phone] ext. 232 FAX: [phone] ext. 232
E-MAIL: [e-mail]
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



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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Robert Smirnow)
Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: Sustainable Energy Coalition: "Weekly Update"
Date: 12 Dec 1998 22:51:27 -0600 (CST)

----
     <[e-mail]>



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: [phone]) 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:<http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/aeo99/homepage.html>.

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
<http://www.epa.gov/acidrain/egrid/egrid.htm> 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
<http://www.populationaction.org> 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 <www.smud.org/green>.

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 ##





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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Timothy Bruening <[e-mail]>
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?


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Timothy Bruening <[e-mail]>
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."


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Robert Smirnow)
Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: PRESS RELEASE RE UKRAINIAN NUKE REACTORS
Date: 14 Dec 1998 19:22:09 -0600 (CST)

----
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: NIRS


Sender: [e-mail]


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: [phone]; [e-mail]; 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--




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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Jackie Cabasso <[e-mail]>
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 [phone]
              Marylia Kelley, Tri-Valley CAREs [phone]

"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: [phone]
              Fax: [phone]
               [e-mail]
   ********** Part of ABOLITION 2000 **********
   Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Peter Weiss <[e-mail]>
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 <[e-mail]>
>
> Sender: [e-mail]
> Subject: US SIGN ON - Urgent!
> To: [e-mail]
>
> To  :  Abolition caucus
> From: Brad Morse <[e-mail]> and Bruce Hall <[e-mail]>
> 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:[phone]  fax:[phone]
>
>
> -
>  To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
>  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.



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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (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: [e-mail]


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.





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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Janet Bloomfield <[e-mail]>
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.


-
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Peace through Reason <[e-mail]>
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: [e-mail] - http://prop1.org *

                   Please forward -- help educate!
_______________________________________________________________________

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From: [e-mail]
Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: Minnesota Protests
Date: 17 Dec 1998 01:36:29 EST

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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


______________________________________________________
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From: ASlater <[e-mail]>
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 ôto demonstrate an unequivocal
commitment
to the speedy and total eliminationö 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 AgendaÆs
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 GermanyÆs 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.  CanadaÆs 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 ôargue forcefullyö for a re-examination of NATOÆs 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.  ItÆs 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 ôrogueö 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:  [phone]
fax:  [phone]
email:  [e-mail]

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 "[e-mail]"
 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 <[e-mail]>
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 ôto demonstrate an unequivocal
commitment
to the speedy and total eliminationö 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 AgendaÆs
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 GermanyÆs 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.  CanadaÆs 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 ôargue forcefullyö for a re-examination of NATOÆs 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.  ItÆs 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 ôrogueö 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:  [phone]
fax:  [phone]
email:  [e-mail]

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 "[e-mail]"
 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 <[e-mail]>
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 ôto demonstrate an unequivocal
commitment
to the speedy and total eliminationö 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 AgendaÆs
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 GermanyÆs 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.  CanadaÆs 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 ôargue forcefullyö for a re-examination of NATOÆs 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.  ItÆs 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 ôrogueö 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:  [phone]
fax:  [phone]
email:  [e-mail]

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 "[e-mail]"
 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 <[e-mail]>
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:[phone]  fax:[phone]
>
>
Alice Slater
Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE)
15 East 26th Street, Room 915
New York, NY 10010
tel:  [phone]
fax:  [phone]
email:  [e-mail]

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 "[e-mail]"
 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: [e-mail]
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:    [e-mail] (antiatom)
 Sender:    [e-mail]
 To:    [e-mail]

 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 "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
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,
[e-mail] writes:

<< Subj:     Not yet ready: Menno response to bombing
 Date:    12/17/98 10:52:36 PM Eastern Standard Time
 From:    [e-mail] (Mennonite Church Peace and Justice Committee,
Orrville Ohio)
 Sender:    [e-mail]
 Reply-to:    [e-mail] (Mennonite Church Peace and Justice
Committee, Orrville Ohio), [e-mail],
[e-mail]
 To:    [e-mail], [e-mail]

 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 [phone]
 [e-mail]
 http://www.MennoLink.org/peace/
  >>

-
 To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
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,
[e-mail] writes:

<< Subj:     Re: Just in case
 Date:    12/17/98 8:57:15 PM Eastern Standard Time
 From:    [e-mail]
 To:    [e-mail], [e-mail],
[e-mail] (David McReynolds, New York City),
[e-mail], [e-mail]

 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 [phone]
 [e-mail]
 http://www.MennoLink.org/peace/

  >>

-
 To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
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 "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Robert Smirnow)
Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: YUCCA MOUNTAIN VIABILITY RELEASE
Date: 18 Dec 1998 20:07:35 -0600 (CST)

---

Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: NIRS


Sender: [e-mail]


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 *




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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (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: [e-mail]
Sender: [e-mail]

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) [e-mail].
    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








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 To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Peace through Reason <[e-mail]>
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: [e-mail] - http://prop1.org *

                   Please forward -- help educate!
_______________________________________________________________________

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Robert Smirnow)
Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: Sustainable Energy Coalition: "Weekly Update"
Date: 19 Dec 1998 18:01:07 -0600 (CST)

---
     <[e-mail]>


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: [phone]) 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
<www.foe.org/DLS>.

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 <www.repp.org>.

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 <www.epa.gov/solar> 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 ##







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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Timothy Bruening <[e-mail]>
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.


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 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Peter Weiss <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) Brief note - Iraq
Date: 20 Dec 1998 20:52:03 -0500

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
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David et al: FYI
                Peter

[e-mail] 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 "[e-mail]"
>  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.
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--------------4DBBB53637F644A699DB1649--




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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Robert Smirnow)
Subject: (abolition-usa) "NUKES IN SPACE II" VIDEO  AVAILABLE NOW!!!!!
Date: 21 Dec 1998 02:30:38 -0600 (CST)

----
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: envirovideo


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For Further Information Call:  Karl Grossman [phone]
                                               Steve Jambeck or Joan
Flynn [phone]

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 ôfly-byö and the consequences of an
accident. It reports on NASAÆs planned additional plutonium missions
and
investigates the U.S. militaryÆs aim to ôcontrol spaceö 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 ôare very brazen and almost inhuman in their
attitude, willing to run the risk of imposing a catastrophe on Earth
that manÆs never known before, where he cannot inhabit this space on
our
planet for the next million yearsàIt is inconceivable to me that you
would allow such high-risk of plutonium contamination on the Earth.ö

        Alan Kohn, a 30-year NASA veteran and a long-time emergency
preparedness officer for NASA, says in Nukes In Space 2: ôThe 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 wonÆt
stop themselves.ö

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 ôgravity assistö or ôslingshotö
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 EarthÆs atmosphere during the ôflyby,ö the probe will
break up, plutonium will disperse and ôapproximately five billion of
the
estimated 7 to 8 billion world population at the timeàcould 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 ôlack of vision at the highest level
of
NASA. I think they have another agenda behind-the-scenes.ö

The manufacturers of plutonium space systems, General Electric and now
Lockheed Martin, the U.S. governmentÆs 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.
ôStar Wars is the name of the game,ö declares Dr. Kaku in this
documentary.

Nukes In Space 2 probes the PentagonÆs 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, ôIn 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 conflictàlasers with reasonable
mass and cost to effect very many kills.ö However, says New World
Vistas, there are ôpower limitationsö currently for such weaponry. ôA
natural technology to enable high power is nuclear power in space,ö it
declares.

Nukes In Space 2 explores the U.S. Space CommandÆs desire to become
ômaster of spaceö in order to ôcontrol spaceö and the Earth below. It
exposes the U.S. Space CommandÆs Vision For 2020 report that describes
the commandÆs mission as ôdominating the space dimension of military
operations to protect US interests and investment.ö

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 WomenÆs 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 EnviroVideoÆs 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 worldÆs 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: [e-mail]
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 "[e-mail]"
 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 <[e-mail]>
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 "[e-mail]"
>  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.


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Kathy Crandall <[e-mail]>
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: [phone] ext. 232 FAX: [phone] ext. 232
E-MAIL: [e-mail]
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



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 To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: ASlater <[e-mail]>
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: [e-mail], [e-mail],
> [e-mail]
>From: [e-mail] ([e-mail])
>
>
>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.
><snip>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>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 <[e-mail]>
>
>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:  [phone]
fax:  [phone]
email:  [e-mail]

GRACE is a member of Abolition 2000, a global network working for a treaty
to eliminate nuclear weapons.

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 To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Kathy Crandall <[e-mail]>
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: <[e-mail]>
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 [e-mail]
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: [phone] ext. 232 FAX: [phone] ext. 232
E-MAIL: [e-mail]
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: [phone] ext. 232 FAX: [phone] ext. 232
E-MAIL: [e-mail]
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 "[e-mail]"
 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" <[e-mail]>
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
[e-mail]
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 "[e-mail]"
 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: [e-mail]
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 "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
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 "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
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:    [e-mail] (Ben Markeson)
 To:    [e-mail]
 CC:    [e-mail]

 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."


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Timothy Bruening <[e-mail]>
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 [e-mail], or at 365 Stupidest Things Ever Said, c/o
Workman Publishing, 708 Broadway, New York, NY 10003-9555.


-
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 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
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 "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Peace through Reason <[e-mail]>
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: [e-mail] - http://prop1.org *

                   Please forward -- help educate!
_______________________________________________________________________

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Peace through Reason <[e-mail]>
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


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