House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) supported the Bush administration’s request to fund nuclear weapon research in the fiscal 2005 defense authorization bill (photo courtesy of Representative Hunter’s office). House Committee Backs Bush Nuclear Weapons Funding By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The House Armed Services Committee yesterday joined its Senate counterpart in approving the Bush administration’s nuclear weapons research and development and test readiness initiatives for fiscal 2005, while also cutting some missile defense funding (see GSN, May 12). Money to aid in securing and destroying weapons of mass destruction and associated materials in the former Soviet states was also approved in full as the committee unanimously sent the $422 billion defense authorization bill for fiscal 2005 to the full House of Representatives...Full Story

Democrats Seek Deadline for Port Radiation Monitors By Joe Fiorill Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — U.S. Representative Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) yesterday introduced a bill that would require the Homeland Security Department within 16 months to deploy portal-style radiation detectors in all U.S. ports (see GSN, April 9)...Full Story

Assad Criticizes New U.S. Sanctions on Syria Syrian President Bashar Assad today criticized the U.S. decision to impose economic sanctions against his nation and said that he would not expel Palestinian militant groups, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, May 12). ..Full Story

	Thursday, May 13, 2004

Assad Criticizes New U.S. Sanctions on Syria Syrian President Bashar Assad today criticized the U.S. decision to impose economic sanctions against his nation and said that he would not expel Palestinian militant groups, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, May 12).  “We do not have any reaction,” Assad said when asked about the new sanctions. “Not because that does not affect us, but we do not know so far how they will affect us.” The European Union has decided to ignore the new sanctions and is expected to send a high-level trade delegation to Syria this weekend, AP reported. Assad said today that he would not comply with U.S. demands to expel members of Palestinian militant groups such as Hamas. While the United States views such groups as terrorist organizations, Syria views them as legitimate political movements, according to AP. “If you ask them to go, where could they go?” Assad said. “They have to go back to their land and Israel could put them in jail. ... We don’t expel people. They should go back home,” he said. There is also no evidence that foreign fighters are crossing from Syria into Iraq to battle U.S. forces, Assad said. “We have no response [from the United States] to the request to give us one passport, one name, one evidence of that. So far, we haven’t received anything,” he said (Laura Myers, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, May 13). Meanwhile, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday that the United Kingdom shares the U.S. concerns over Syria’s suspected WMD efforts and ties to terrorism, according to Agence France-Presse. “We have concerns about WMD, terrorism, human rights and cooperation over Iraq. We expect Syria to take these concerns seriously,” the spokesman said (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, May 12). Back to top       Israel Strengthens Export Control System Israel late last month adopted an order strengthening its export control system to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems, Israeli U.N. Ambassador Yaakov Levy said today during a session of the U.N. Conference on Disarmament (see GSN, May 6). The order, which goes into effect July 1, establishes a licensing system for dual-use exports and expands a “catchall” provision that prohibits the export of any item if intended to be used to help develop weapons of mass destruction, Levy said.  The new order establishes a maximum penalty of three years in prison for export control violations, he said (U.N. release, May 13). Back to top       U.S., Panama Sign Reciprocal Shipboarding Agreement The United States and Panama yesterday signed a reciprocal maritime shipboarding agreement, intended to aid the Proliferations Security Initiative, a U.S.-led international effort to interdict shipments of WMD-related cargo (see GSN, May 12). The agreement establishes procedures to board and search ships in international waters suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction, delivery systems or related items. If a U.S. or Panamanian-flagged ship is suspected of carrying WMD-related cargo, either country can ask the other to confirm the ship’s nationality and, if necessary, to authorize the boarding, search and detention of the vessel, according to the U.S. State Department (U.S. State Department release I, May 12). U.S. President George W. Bush yesterday praised the agreement. “More ships sail under the Panamanian flag than that of any other nation. This agreement sends a strong signal to proliferators that the free nations of the world are determined to protect their people and preserve the peace,” Bush said in a statement (White House release, May 12). Panamanian Government and Justice Minister Arnulfo Escalona said yesterday that he hoped the agreement would provide an example for other countries in the Western Hemisphere. “We hope that this signing will serve as a starting point for signings with other nations of the hemisphere because it's well known that the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and other types of illegal arms is a growing problem,” he said during a State Department press briefing with Undersecretary of State John Bolton (U.S. State Department release II, May 12). Back to top       CIA Ignored Warnings on Iraq Facility Information, German Officials Say German officials have said the CIA disregarded warnings about questionable information provided on prewar Iraq’s suspected mobile biological weapons facilities, the New York Forward reported this week (see GSN, April 7). German intelligence told the CIA prior to a February 2003 presentation by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell before the United Nations that information used in the speech on the alleged facilities came from an Iraqi defector with a questionable past, according to the Forward. The German BND intelligence agency was “upset” that the CIA did not heed its warnings, a senior German official said. “We gave the Americans all the information — including the possible problems — well in advance of Powell’s speech,” a German intelligence official said. The CIA refused to comment on the issue, but noted a Los Angeles Times article that indicated the German warning came after Powell’s speech, the Forward reported (Marc Perelman, New York Forward, May 14). Back to top

House Committee Backs Bush Nuclear Weapons Funding By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The House Armed Services Committee yesterday joined its Senate counterpart in approving the Bush administration’s nuclear weapons research and development and test readiness initiatives for fiscal 2005, while also cutting some missile defense funding (see GSN, May 12). Money to aid in securing and destroying weapons of mass destruction and associated materials in the former Soviet states was also approved in full as the committee unanimously sent the $422 billion defense authorization bill for fiscal 2005 to the full House of Representatives. The Republican-controlled panel, over Democratic objections, voted for full $36.6 million funding of the Energy Department Advanced Concepts Initiative, including $27.6 million for studying the feasibility of the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP). The administration is looking at upgrading existing warheads for increased reliability at striking deeply buried, hardened facilities, after the weapon slams into the earth. The committee also approved $30 million requested to reduce the preparation time to 18 months for conducting a nuclear test. The approved funding levels showed the committee “strongly reaffirms the importance of” the Advanced Concepts and RNEP initiatives, according to a lengthy summary of the bill released yesterday by committee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.). Outnumbered Democrats opposed the administration’s nuclear weapons priorities, though with little success (see GSN, May 7). Representative Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) unsuccessfully sought an amendment to transfer the Advanced Concepts Initiative funding toward pursuit of conventional bunker-buster weaponry and improving intelligence. She said in a press release that the administration is seeking “new uses for existing nuclear weapons and to design new nuclear weapons ð— weapons that the Pentagon hasn’t even asked for.”  Missile Defense Similar to the Senate committee, the House Armed Services committee cut overall funding for missile defense, approving $9 billion of a requested $10.2 billion. It notably cut $56 million off the administration’s $536 million request for sensor development and, like the Senate committee, eliminated $75 million for early development of a new kill vehicle in the Kinetic Energy Interceptor program. It added $130 million for Army missile defense activities, which includes buying an additional 36 Patriot missiles. The committee’s funding levels emphasized focus on “near-term missile defense capability development and testing,” the summary said. The administration has requested a $1.2 billion increase for missile defense over the fiscal 2004 funding levels, mainly to support the fielding of land- and sea-based interceptor systems and associated equipment by the end of 2005. The committee did not appear to cut funding for those efforts. The House and Senate versions of the bill are scheduled for possible debates and amendments, and votes next week. Nuclear Arms Control The committee also fully approved the Defense Department’s $409.2 million request for its Cooperative Threat Reduction program, which largely aims to secure and eliminate former Soviet nuclear, chemical and biological weapons capabilities. While Hunter has been an outspoken critic of the program, the summary praised the Pentagon for “positive steps” to oversee the effort. However, it noted “reasons for concern” about Russia’s commitment to the program’s goals, citing: *         Continued Russian strategic force modernization, including several new intercontinental ballistic missiles (see GSN, March 1); *         Questions about the completeness and accuracy of Russia’s declarations regarding its chemical weapons stockpile; and *         Russia’s lack of a credible plan to destroy its nerve stockpile agent. The committee also approved an additional $1.3 million to expand an effort by the nongovernmental Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control to help governments improve their export control mechanisms. The committee expressed concern about the administration’s budget for U.S. chemical weapons destruction, which it said was $166.2 million less than requested for fiscal 2004. “The committee is concerned that the administration’s budget request … could undermine continued progress in this area,” it said. It did not increase that funding, but rather approved the request in full at $1.372 billion and requested reporting on facility plans and budget requirements. Back to top       Democrats Seek Deadline for Port Radiation Monitors By Joe Fiorill Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — U.S. Representative Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) yesterday introduced a bill that would require the Homeland Security Department within 16 months to deploy portal-style radiation detectors in all U.S. ports (see GSN, April 9). The bill from Sanchez, the senior Democrat on the House Select Committee on Homeland Security’s Infrastructure and Border Security Subcommittee, is part of a push by House Democrats to stake out antiterrorism-policy positions ahead of coming appropriations debates (see GSN, May 5). “Ports are a prime target for terrorist attack,” said the full committee’s top Democrat, Jim Turner (D-Texas), “and yet, this administration has not done all it can to protect thousands of miles of coastline and millions of cargo containers entering this country each year. We must move faster to protect our communities and the global economy from the impact of an attack at a U.S. port.” The bill, called the Secure Containers from Overseas and Seaports from Terrorism Act (Secure COAST Act), would require Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection Bureau by Sept. 30, 2005, to “deploy radiation-detection portal equipment at all U.S. seaports, other U.S. ports of entry and major facilities as determined by the secretary” of homeland security. It would authorize $297 million in fiscal 2005 for that work. “In order to facilitate the detection of nuclear weapons in maritime cargo containers,” Customs and Border Protection would also be required to develop a plan for bringing gamma ray-based radiation-detection portals to U.S. ports and to foreign ports participating in the Container Security Initiative, in which U.S. and foreign governments cooperate to screen U.S.-bound shipments. The plan would be due to congressional committees 180 days after enactment of the Secure COAST Act. Customs and Border Protection in late March announced a plan to use “highly sophisticated” radiation portals, saying it was “rapidly deploying these devices to all major U.S. seaports” (see GSN, March 23). The bureau also said at the time that it had deployed more than 300 hand-held radiation isotope identifier devices at seaports and land crossings. Besides the radiation-detection provisions, Sanchez’s bill would require Homeland Security to establish standards and a verification process for cargo-container security, authorize a port-security grant program that would total more than $500 million in fiscal 2005, compel the department to deploy a program to track long-range vessels and create a “maritime information-sharing analysis center.” The bill would speed the Coast Guard’s massive Deepwater acquisition program to acquire ships and other equipment, shortening the schedule from 22 to 10 years. The measure would also fund an automatic vessel-identification program for the Coast Guard and beef up the force from 39,000 to 50,000 members. The American Association of Port Authorities expressed support today for Sanchez’s bid to secure more funds for port security. “Port security, as we’ve said for some time, has been drastically underfunded,” said association spokeswoman Maureen Ellis. Back to top       North Korea Suggests Peace Treaty, May Meet With U.S. Envoys North Korea said yesterday that the Korean Peninsula’s nuclear crisis could best be solved by the United States and the two Koreas signing a peace treaty to end the Korean War, supplanting the 51-year-old armistice now in place, USA Today reported (see GSN, May 12). Han Song Ryol, North Korea’s deputy representative to the United Nations, made the comment as his country continues to develop economic ties with South Korea and the two nations prepare for high-level military discussions next week. Pyongyang is also apparently making progress in negotiations with Japan over the release of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea in the 1970s, according to USA Today. Han denied speculation that Pyongyang was attempting to improve relations with its Asian neighbors in order to isolate the United States. “It is not our strategy to put a wedge between countries but to improve relations with all countries,” he said. (Barbara Slavin, USA Today, May 13). Meanwhile, U.S and North Korean delegations at the six-party talks in Beijing were preparing to meet in bilateral discussions, Japan’s Kyodo News agency reported today, according to Reuters. The first day of talks ended with the United States and North Korea toughening their positions on the communist nation’s nuclear program, a Russian negotiator said (Reuters, May 13). China warned that significant issues remain unresolved. “There still exist differences between each side in some areas, and sometimes the differences are major,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said today (Peter Harmsen, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, May 13). Back to top       Washington May Be Shifting Stance on Iran; Blix Says Iran Could Make Nuclear Bomb Within Two Years Washington may be taking a less hard-line approach in its dealings with Iran, as U.S. involvement in Iraq pushes Washington toward greater engagement with the Islamic Republic, the Financial Times reported (see GSN, May 12). Iranian officials “have been, I think, relatively helpful” in dealing with Iraqi unrest, said Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, who is considered a “realist” in the administration. Iran has not been “intent on stirring things up” in southern Iraqi cities, where anti-U.S. forces have flourished. Armitage’s position is at odds with that of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who has accused of Iran of “meddling” in Iraq. The Bush administration is more united regarding questions of Iran’s nuclear ambitions, according to the Times. Both administration hard-liners and “realists” are skeptical of Iran’s denials that it is pursuing a clandestine nuclear weapons program (Guy Dinmore, Financial Times, May 12). Meanwhile, former International Atomic Energy Agency chief Hans Blix said today that Iran could develop a nuclear weapon within two years, but that the country is best off giving up all its uranium enrichment plans, the Associated Press reported. “It does not sound completely unreasonable,” Blix said in an interview with Swedish public radio. “It depends how far they’ve come in developing the centrifuges that are needed,” he added. “At the same time, they say that the intention is not to enrich uranium up to the high percentages needed for making bombs, but that they want to be self-sufficient with fuel for their nuclear power plants,” Blix said (Tommy Grandell, Associated Press, May 13). Iran said that it was prepared today to hand over a detailed report on its nuclear activities to the International Atomic Energy Agency. “During the last visit by (IAEA Director General) Mohammad ElBaradei (in early April), it was agreed that Iran would present a series of declarations to the IAEA, focusing in particular on the contamination of nuclear equipment and the P2 centrifuges,” according to a “well informed source,” Iran’s official newspaper reported. It was unclear whether the “declarations” referred to that report or a separate document addressing issues raised by the agency in March (Agence France-Presse/IranMania, May 13). Back to top       DOE Slow to Resolve Nuclear Security Issues, GAO Says By Marina Malenic Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The U.S. Energy Department’s efforts to increase security at U.S. nuclear installations since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have been slow and insufficient, according to a report released Wednesday by the General Accounting Office (see GSN, May 7). The report concludes that the department took almost two years after the attacks to develop a new design basis threat (DBT), a classified document that identifies, among other information, the potential size and capabilities of terrorist forces.  The extended time needed to develop the document was due to delays in developing an intelligence assessment of the terrorist threat to nuclear weapon facilities, as well as a lengthy review process for developing policy within the department, the GAO report states. Disagreements within the department and with other agencies on the size of the threat and the availability of resources to meet it also delayed preparation of the design basis threat, the report adds. The report also says that, while the May 2003 document assesses the terrorist threat as larger than previously estimated, it still does not match the threat level identified by the intelligence community’s Postulated Threat. The DBT report has in the past been based on the Postulated Threat. The General Accounting Office concluded that, because it might take several years to upgrade security at some nuclear sites to counter the terrorist threat, these sites should be considered to be at a higher risk. The Energy Department should take a series of security actions as quickly as possible to mitigate these risks, the office recommended. Linton Brooks, administrator of the department’s National Nuclear Security Administration, acknowledged that terrorist attacks remain a concern, but defended the department’s security programs last month during a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Oversight Subcommittee. “Today, no nuclear weapons, special nuclear material or classified materials are at risk anywhere within the nuclear weapons complex,” Brooks said, as reported by Agence France-Presse. Glenn Podonsky, director of the office of security and safety performance at the department, said he is hopeful that the agency can implement new security guidelines announced Friday by Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham (see GSN, May 7). “I am guardedly optimistic that the department will be able to carry them through,” Podonsky said, as reported by UPI. Back to top       1965 U.S. Report Predicted Japanese Nuclear Capability Almost 30 years ago, U.S. officials thought Japan could have the ability to become a nuclear weapons state during the 1970s, according to a declassified 1965 report, Kyodo News reported yesterday (see GSN, May 12). According to Japan’s Prospects in the Nuclear Weapons Field, the country could have tested its first nuclear weapon in 1971 “without violating existing reactor safeguard provisions,” and then could have produced 10 to 30 weapons per year, the report stated. The report also said Japan could have developed as many as 100 ICBMs and intermediate-range ballistic missiles armed with nuclear warheads by 1975. The estimated nuclear arsenal would have cost Japan $1.3 billion to $2.5 billion, the report said. While Japan was capable of developing nuclear weapons, the U.S. report said the country was committed to continuing as a non-nuclear state. “Its constitution prohibits the maintenance of any ‘war potential’ and the Japanese public is overwhelmingly opposed to the presence of nuclear weapons, foreign or domestic, on Japanese soil,” the report said (Kyodo News/Japan Times, May 12). Back to top

Military Personnel Suffer More Heart Troubles Than Expected After Smallpox Vaccinations, Researcher Says By Chris Schneidmiller Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — More than 70 people suffered heart troubles after receiving smallpox vaccinations from the U.S. Defense Department, a surprisingly high figure compared to the limited cases of other health problems linked to those inoculations, a Walter Reed Army Medical Center researcher said this week (see GSN, April 13). “Reported rates of noncardiac complications have been very low, in line with the rates of complications we saw historically, when children were routinely vaccinated for smallpox,” Dimitri Cassimatis, a Walter Reed cardiology fellow, said in a prepared statement on his clinical review of reactions to smallpox vaccinations among military personnel. “The rate of cardiac complications, however, has been higher than expected,” he added. The American Medical Society today presented Cassimatis’ review, which was finished last summer. More than 615,000 military personnel, contractors and “emergency-essential civilians” have received smallpox vaccinations since the Pentagon began inoculations in January 2003 in an effort to protect its forces from biological attack (see GSN, Oct. 23, 2003). Seventy-seven men and women subsequently suffered from myopericarditis — inflammation of the heart muscle or the sac around the heart, the department said in April. As of April 30, 21 civilians had also contracted the heart condition amongst the 39,500 U.S. medical professionals who have been vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  In addition, the British biotechnology company Acambis last month halted enrollment for clinical trials on a new smallpox vaccine last month after three people contracted myopericarditis. No deaths have been connected to the heart illness when brought on by the vaccination. Something about the vaccine causes a “cross-reaction” that triggers the heart response, Cassimatis told Global Security Newswire. The exact cause remains under investigation, said CDC spokesman Von Roebuck. Myopericarditis causes continuous chest pains that can last for “hours and often days,” Cassimatis said. Patients experience fatigue, shortness of breath and heart palpitations. The heart trouble becomes serious only for a small percentage of patients, and will usually dissipate naturally over a period of weeks, he said.  The rate of incidence for myopericarditis in the armed forces in 2002, prior to vaccinations, was two per 100,000 people every 30 days, Cassimatis said. That rate was maintained for military personnel who had previously been inoculated against smallpox; however, those being vaccinated for the first time saw an incidence rate of 16 per 100,000 over 30 days. “That’s about a 7 1/2-fold increase for primary vaccinations,” he said. Military personnel received anti-inflammatory drugs and were barred from “high-level exertion” for several weeks while recovering, Cassimatis said. Most returned to full health. Myopericarditis was by far the most prevalent health side effect linked to the smallpox vaccinations, the Defense Department reported. A 22-year-old U.S. Army reservist died last year after receiving vaccinations against smallpox and other diseases. Two panels of experts concluded that the inoculations likely caused her death from a “lupus-like illness,” but they were unable to identify a specific shot as the fatal agent. Post-vaccination deaths of five other military personnel were not caused by the smallpox treatments, the department said. The Pentagon also reported 36 cases of generalized vaccinia — a widespread rash and sores caused by the injection ð— and 34 cases in which the infection from the smallpox shot was transferred by contact to another person. There were 24 civilian cases in which a health worker spread the infection to another part of the body by touching the vaccination site and then an eye or another body part, the CDC reported. The agency also found one case of brain swelling and three incidents of generalized vaccinia among inoculated civilians. Cassimatis said he hopes in coming months to organize a study of 600 to 800 people who would receive the smallpox vaccination. By studying the group over a period of weeks, he hopes to better learn who is at risk for heart problems and why it occurs after inoculations. Smallpox vaccinations would continue as needed, the CDC and Defense Department said. Mass injections can be performed safely through staff training, patient education, screening out of people with medical conditions that could make vaccinations dangerous and attention to bandaging, officials said. “We feel it’s very much of importance to have people vaccinated before a smallpox event,” Roebuck said. “We hope we never have to see it, but if it’s there we’ll have a plan to deal with it and folks who have been vaccinated can help from the very beginning” (see related GSN story, today). Back to top       Mass Smallpox Vaccination Not Needed, Scientists Say Mass vaccination might not be necessary to contain a smallpox outbreak in the event of a terrorist attack using the virus, a team of scientists headed by a researcher at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico said yesterday (see GSN, May 12). “Our results suggest that outbreaks can be contained by a strategy of targeted vaccination [of first responders] combined with early detection without resorting to mass vaccination of a population,” Stephen Eubank said in a report in the science journal Nature, Reuters reported. The scientists tested several strategies to restrict the spread of the disease by using models of a smallpox outbreak in a city similar to Portland, Ore. Researchers concluded that the time it takes for people to get home is the most important factor in the spread of infection, followed by delays in response to the outbreak. “This indicates that targeted vaccination is feasible when combined with fast detection,” Eubank added (Reuters, May 12). Back to top

DuPont Hits Snag in Chemical Weapon Disposal Plans DuPont is barred from treating neutralized VX nerve agent wastewater at its New Jersey plant pending a ruling by the four-state Delaware River Basin Commission, the Delaware News Journal reported today (see GSN, May 6). “We’re saying we don’t think military waste was contemplated” in the facility’s operating permit, commission spokesman Robert Tudor said yesterday. “And, in fact, we don’t think this facility is necessarily that effective in treating VX waste,” he added. A May 6 letter from the commission, comprised of officials representing New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, informed DuPont that it is “not authorized” to begin treating 4 million gallons of wastewater at its plant in Deepwater, N.J., until the company seeks an amendment to the 1991 permit. The letter also asks DuPont to explain how its current permit allowed it to begin a project in 2002 that could eventually treat 7 million gallons of wastewater from a mustard agent stockpile at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. DuPont has 30 days to acknowledge the ban on treating VX byproducts and to provide details on the mustard waste project. The company said in a prepared statement yesterday that it was surprised by the decision, noting that it consulted with the commission on the mustard project in 2002 without public objection (Jeff Montgomery, Delaware News Journal, May 13). Back to top

U.S. Lawmaker Warns Energy Department of Possible Slash in Yucca Mountain Funding A member of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee has warned that the Energy Department may receive only a small amount of the funding it requested to build a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Feb. 19). The Energy and Water Development Subcommittee is considering a department request for $880 million for the project in fiscal 2005. In a recent letter, though, subcommittee Chairman David Hobson (R-Ohio) told Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham that the project might only only $131 million, an amount agency officials said would effectively end the program. Hobson, who supports the planned repository of 77,000 tons of nuclear reactor and defense waste, has asked Abraham for information on how the reduced funding would affect the project and the nuclear power industry, according to AP. “We’re working closely with chairman Hobson to address his concerns ... and advance the ball forward in getting the money we need,” department spokesman Joe Davis said (Josef Hebert, Associated Press/Washington Post, May 13). Meanwhile, scientists working for the state of Nevada, which opposes the Yucca Mountain project, yesterday conducted a public experiment in Washington to demonstrate that water would drip through the mountain to corrode the nuclear waste containers to be stored inside, according to the Las Vegas Sun. Project opponents argue that if the containers corrode, radioactive material could leak into the groundwater underneath Yucca Mountain. In experiments conducted at the National Press Club, April Pulvirenti of Catholic University and Don Shettel of the Geosciences Management Institute attempted to show how water would move through the material of the mountain above the storage area, and how water would corrode the containers, the Sun reported. “It will be many lifetimes before we face the repercussions of our actions, but our descendents will be faced with an environmental disaster of epic proportions,” according to a video prepared by the state outlining the experiments. The Energy Department has said, though, that the containers will remain intact for the required 10,000 years. “What the state of Nevada demonstrated this morning was good theater,” Yucca Mountain project spokesman Allen Benson said. “Our experiments and analysis demonstrate that the waste package will provide a robust barrier in excess of 10,000 years,” he said (Suzanne Struglinski, Las Vegas Sun, May 13). Back to top

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