By David Ruppe
Global Security Newswire
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate yesterday overwhelmingly approved a $30.5 billion fiscal 2006 energy and water appropriations bill that provides $130 million for controversial plutonium separation activities (see GSN, Nov. 8).
House-Senate conferees last week agreed to details of the bill, settling differences in their respective versions. The House has yet to vote on the legislation.
Approved in an 84-4 vote, the bill provides $6.4 billion for Energy Department nuclear weapons activities, along with $1.63 billion for nonproliferation and U.S. nuclear weapons fuel recycling. The bill does not provide $4 million requested by the Bush administration for study of the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, but adds $10 million to the $15 million sought for the Reliable Replacement Warhead Program, and fully funds the National Ignition Facility at $142 million. The bill significantly cuts money for development of the planned Yucca Mountain storage site, providing $450 million compared to $577 million last year. Lawmakers approved $220 million for constructing a mixed-oxide fuel processing plant at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, though the House earlier this year approved no funding for the program. The plant is to convert 34 tons of weapon-grade plutonium into fuel for nuclear reactors. It “is America’s first significant effort in moving ahead with reprocessing. It starts by a giant step [of converting] plutonium that comes from thousands of nuclear weapons that have been reduced, eliminated, and the plutonium remains,” Senator Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) said yesterday on the Senate floor. “We were able to fund it by long and hard negotiations. It was one of the items that held this bill up,” he said. ReprocessingThe bill also includes funding for two nuclear fuel reprocessing initiatives: roughly $80 million to continue spent fuel reprocessing research under the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative and $50 million to research advanced plutonium separation technology. Reprocessing separates plutonium in spent nuclear reactor fuel from remaining nuclear waste, making it available for use in reactors or weapons. The latter project would allow Energy to build an engineering-scale demonstration reprocessing plant, select sites for full-scale plants by fiscal 2007, and begin construction on those sites by fiscal 2010. The plants would be used for “extracting more plutonium from spent fuel. And in addition to some other unspecified advanced technologies, which they haven’t even chosen yet, it would presumably lead to a whole new generation of reactor types that would utilize this material,” said Ed Lyman, an analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Critics say reprocessing would create plutonium theft opportunities for terrorists and undermine efforts to discourage other countries from reprocessing. “These projects threaten our national security, our public health and our safety. And they are wildly expensive. This funding would be better spent finding safer sites for deep geologic disposal with strict, protective public health standards,” Natural Resources Defense Council Nuclear Program Director Thomas Cochran said in a prepared statement. Proponents of reprocessing say the resulting plutonium and uranium could be used for new fuel elements for nuclear power plants and could help deal with spent fuel storage issues associated with the incomplete Yucca Mountain site. The research program calls for developing and evaluating potential “proliferation-resistant” fuel recycling technologies. “It is … time to think about our reluctance to reprocess spent fuel. The Europeans are doing this very successfully, and there are some advanced reprocessing technologies in the research and development phase that promise to reduce or eliminate some of the disadvantages of the current chemical process,” House Energy and Water Appropriation Subcommittee Chairman David Hobson (R-Ohio) said on the House floor earlier this year.
By Joe Fiorill
Global Security Newswire
WASHINGTON — The just-completed cleanup of a plutonium pit-production facility in Colorado should serve as a model for future U.S. cleanup work, senators and officials said at a committee hearing here today (see GSN, Nov. 10). Of particular importance to completing the Rocky Flats project on a tight schedule, said the officials and lawmakers, were financial incentives for speed and performance built into the Energy Department's contract with Kaiser-Hill Co. “This contract was clearly the flagship in being innovative in this approach,” Assistant Energy Secretary James Rispoli said at the Senate Energy and Commerce Committee hearing. Witnesses drew attention to 1995 estimates that the cleanup would take 70 years and cost $35 billion. The United States contracted with Kaiser-Hill in 2000 to clean up Rocky Flats, and the company declared the project finished last month at a cost of $7 billion. The cleanup involved removing the site’s remaining plutonium, as well as nuclear and other waste; decontaminating and demolishing buildings; and decontaminating groundwater and soil. “Few believed that they would be alive when the site was finally cleaned up,” said Colorado Senator Wayne Allard (R), speaking as a witness at the hearing. Kaiser-Hill managers and workers responded to incentives for good work and for keeping on schedule, witnesses said. They stressed the importance of worker “buy-in” — employees’ belief in the importance of the job, and their acceptance of cleanup employment as temporary — and of local and state governments’ willingness to agree to “accelerated” planning approaches forgoing certain notifications for work that was to be conducted at the plant. “The community viewed Rocky Flats as a greater asset gone than it did as a job provider,” said Kaiser-Hill Chief Executive Officer Nancy Tuor. The site is now being turned into a wildlife refuge, an approach that has drawn environmentalists’ ire because it can mean allowing higher contamination levels to remain than if the site were to be used for purposes such as housing or development. Tuor said high standards were enforced with the future wildlife-refuge workers in mind. “It has literally been turned from an environmental liability to an asset for the community,” she said. “The site has been returned to the way it was before plutonium production at Rocky Flats began,” added Allard, citing radiation levels that now reflect only standard background radiation. Senators were effusive in praising the job done at Rocky Flats, which Allard called “one of the Department of Energy's greatest achievements.” Lawmakers and witnesses said the project should serve as a model for other Energy Department nuclear cleanups, such as those at Hanford in Washington state and Savannah River in South Carolina. “I am very pleased to hold it up, because it does set forth something that can be done,” said committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.). “I wish you would get a lot more notoriety in the country, because all we hear about is, ‘We can't clean up radiation, therefore we should just give up,’” Domenici said.
The latest Sept. 11 commission report on government antiterrorism efforts found that the Bush administration has made “insufficient progress” in efforts to prevent nuclear terrorism, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, Aug. 8). The now-private commission said President George W. Bush must make nuclear terrorism prevention “his top national security priority and ride herd on the bureaucracy to maintain a sense of urgency.” The report found that “good progress” has been made in stopping the financing of terror organizations and in the promotion of economic improvement policies in Arab and Muslim countries. However, the commission reported “minimal” or “insufficient progress” in seven of the 13 areas it explored. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said that the president “appreciated all the hard work of the commissioners, and our focus is on building upon the steps already taken.” She said the administration had already taken action on 37 of the 39 recommendations made by the committee in summer 2004. “The administration holds prevention of a potential nuclear terrorism attack as an extremely high priority, and we are implementing an aggressive and comprehensive strategy against such a possibility,” Perino said, noting that the president has asked for $316 million in fiscal 2006 for a new Domestic Nuclear Detection Office. In the report, the commission expressed surprise that the White House had not made more of an effort to prevent terrorists from acquiring nuclear weapons. That is the case even considering an agreement reached this year to increase the number of Russian nuclear sites open for security improvements and inspections, according to the commission (see related GSN story, today). Experts said that Russian nuclear sites terrorists could easily obtain weapon-grade nuclear material from poorly secured Russian sites. “The most striking thing to us is that the size of the problem still totally dwarfs the policy response,” said commission Chairman Thomas Kean. “We have no greater fear than a terrorist who is inside the United States with a nuclear weapon. The consequences of such an attack would be catastrophic for our people, for our economy, for our liberties.” Kean said the Russian agreement was one of the “good steps” taken by the president, but warned, “they’re not nearly enough” (Philip Shenon, New York Times, Nov. 15). Half of the nuclear materials in Russia have not had needed security upgrades, Kean said, according to Reuters. The commission also found that little progress has been made on issues such as weapons proliferation. “This kind of grade — unfulfilled, insufficient, minimal progress — those grades are failing grades. … That is an unacceptable response,” said commission member Timothy Roemer (Carol Giacomo, Reuters/ABC News, Nov. 14).
North Korea’s reported five-stage plan for dismantlement of its nuclear programs was not tabled as a unified proposal at last week’s multilateral talks, a Western diplomat said today (see GSN, Nov. 14). Instead, South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-Young apparently assembled the five steps from discussion points at the negotiations, the diplomat told the Associated Press. “It’s not new, the real issue is whether they will fulfill this without asking for concessions first,” the diplomat said. “We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us.” Seoul is still studying the points the North Korean delegation put forth in Beijing, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon told AP today. “We are not in a position in which we can say whether we either support it or do not support it,” Ban said. “Whoever made what proposals, those are subject to consultations and participants should review them when they meet again,” he said (Kwang-Tae Kim, Associated Press, Nov. 15). A State Department official said last week’s round of negotiations “fulfilled expectations,” according to Yonhap News. The official added that the meeting would help delegates to prepare for the next talks, possibly to take place in January (Yonhap/Korea Times, Nov. 15). Meanwhile, U.S. national security adviser Stephen Hadley said yesterday that Washington remains firm in its position that North Korea would not receive rewards until it dismantles its nuclear programs, Reuters reported. Hadley said President George W. Bush was seeking unity on the issue with his Asian allies as he travels in the region, Reuters reported. “We’ll want to continue to have a dialogue on that issue to make sure that we continue to see that issue the same way,” Hadley said. He added that Bush also expects Pyongyang to provide specific details on how it plans to verifiably disclose and dismantle its programs, Reuters reported (Reuters, Nov. 15).
A U.S.-Russian nuclear threat reduction working group is scheduled to issue a report to the countries’ leaders on Dec. 15, U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency Director Alexander Rumyantsev announced Wednesday (see GSN, May 5). Presidents Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush established the Bratislava Nuclear Security Initiative in February (see GSN, Feb. 24). A bilateral senior interagency working group was also created and charged with reporting on the status of cooperation on securing nuclear materials in Russia and other nations. The upcoming report is the second from the working group. It is set to cover progress in security efforts and planned initiatives, according to the Energy Department (U.S. Energy Department release, Nov. 9).
Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami yesterday urged all religious leaders to press for abolition of nuclear and chemical weapons, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Nov. 14). Khatami said it was the duty of “the entire religious community to save the world from atomic bombs and chemical weapons.” Khatami was seemingly expressing support for Iran in its nuclear standoff with the United States and European Union, AP reported. Tehran has steadfastly argued that its program is meant for energy development rather than weapons production (Brian Murphy, Associated Press/USA Today, Nov. 14)
Russia yesterday initiated the disposal of one final railway-based missile launcher for the year, Interfax reported (see GSN, Sept. 21). “It is this year’s ninth railway-based missile launcher. Its cannibalization is to be over before the end of the week,” a military spokesman told Interfax. A U.S. inspection team is observing the disposal, as mandated by the START 1 treaty, he said (Interfax I/BBC Monitoring, Nov. 14). Meanwhile, Strategic Missile Troops Commander Col.-Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov yesterday said that Moscow plans to expand its missile arsenal, RIA Novosti reported. “The state arms program envisages the number of launching sites and missiles provided by the (defense) industry to be raised by 10, 12, or 15,” Solovtsov said. Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said earlier that he expected six new ICBMs to be deployed next year, according to RIA Novosti. “The main problem now is the funds needed for capital development,” Solovtsov said. “Introducing silo-based and mobile systems requires a lot of investment. This is a serious problem” (RIA Novosti, Nov. 14). Solovtsov also said yesterday that Topol-M missile units would be equipped with new warheads that are being tested, Interfax reported. “In [the] future, the missile forces will have only two types of missile units, the silo-based and vehicle-based Topol-M, on which all newly tested weapons will be mounted,” he said (Interfax II/BBC Monitoring, Nov. 14).
Congress last week approved $27 million in fiscal 2006 for the Dual-Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test Facility, but requested a review of the Los Alamos National Laboratory project that is long overdue and over budget, the Albuquerque Journal reported yesterday (see GSN, July 5). National Nuclear Security Administration managers have said they now addressed problems with the project, an X-ray machine for studying nuclear weapons. The project at the New Mexico facility has exceeded its budget by $250 million and is 18 years late, according to the Journal. The JASONS, a group of senior scientists sometimes called upon for independent studies of U.S. defense programs, will conduct the review. “We’ve built in a number of reforms and directives to force (the Energy Department) to take a critical look” at the X-ray and other programs, Senator Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) said in a statement (John Fleck, Albuquerque Journal, Nov. 14).
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