print bites/various topics

[marylia <marylia@igc.org>]

Print Bites: All the News That Fits to Print
by Marylia Kelley
from Tri-Valley CAREs' February 1998 newsletter, Citizen's Watch

*** Bad to the Bone. Workers at the Livermore Lab's National Ignition
Facility construction site uncovered more mammoth bones late last month
(see also January 1998 Citizen's Watch). This most recent discovery
includes seven ribs and a leg bone. They appear to be from the same ancient
animal as the skull, jawbone, three ribs, three vertebrae, tusk and partial
tusk found last December. Also found in the giant hole being dug to
accommodate the mega-laser's reactor vessel are bones from two ancient
horses likely belonging to the Pleistocene era that ended about 10,000
years ago. It appears as well that what were announced as bison bones in
the NIF pit may turn out to be from a giant ground sloth. Lab officials say
that NIF construction is moving forward at full speed.

*** No Rail Safety for Nuclear Waste. The Dept. of Transportation declined
requests from Bay Area Reps. George Miller and Ellen Tauscher for a safety
study of the rail routes proposed for nuclear fuel rod shipments from the
Concord Naval Weapons Station to Idaho. Officials did offer some safety
measures, however, including priority status, armed guards and railroad
inspectors for the deadly cargo. The Dept. of Energy plans five separate
shipments, with a total of 38 casks, containing 890 pounds of high level
nuclear waste, over the next 13 years. (See Citizen's Alerts on page 3 for
upcoming demonstrations.) In a related development, arguments will begin
March 6 in U.S. district court in the lawsuit filed against DOE by Contra
Costa County and the city of Concord. Too, DOE says the shipments will be
delayed again, from the projected April start date until June.

*** Nuclear Waste on the High Seas. The Pacific Swan, a British-flagged
ship hauling nuclear waste from France to Japan, is carrying three casks
with 60 cannisters of high level nuclear waste containing 30,000,000 curies
of radioactivity through the Panama Canal this month. As the ship slowed to
approach the canal, Greenpeace activists boarded it, attached themselves to
the mast and unfurled a banner reading, "Stop Plutonium." They were later
removed by security personnel. The plutonium remains.

*** Superphenix Will Not Rise Again. France formally agreed to shut down
the world's largest fast-breeder nuclear reactor, called the Superphenix,
which cost billions but furnished electricity for only six months in a
dozen years. The reactor, which produces extra plutonium while operating,
has been plagued with technical problems, including repeated leaks in its
flammable liquid sodium cooling system. While closing the Superphenix, the
gov't also decided, however, to restart a smaller reactor, called the
Phenix.

*** U.N. Circulates Model Treaty on Nukes. Costa Rica submitted, and the
U.N. is now circulating, a blueprint for an international treaty to
eliminate nuclear weapons. The model treaty was drafted by lawyers,
scientists, disarmament experts and others within the Abolition 2000
network.

*** Uranium Mines Delayed. The Eastern Navajo Dine' Against Uranium Mining
and the Southwest Research and Information Center won a stay against Hydro
Resources Inc., effectively halting the company's plans to develop three
uranium mines and a processing facility in northwestern New Mexico near
Crownpoint and Church Rock. The stay is for an indefinite period and
prohibits any physical activity, including ground clearing to prepare for
construction.

*** Wanna Buy? The U.S. Enrichment Corp., operators of the Atomic Vapor
Laser Isotope Separation plant at Livermore Lab, has begun taking
applications from potential buyers in its quest to "privatize." Or, it
says, it may offer public stock options.