Radiological Weapons:  Al-Qaeda Seeking U.S. Radioactive Materials

U.S. officials have said that five to six al-Qaeda cells are actively seeking radioactive materials in the United States, NBC News reported yesterday (see GSN, June 17).  Such materials could be used to create a “dirty bomb” — a conventional explosive laced with radioactive materials.

When the United States arrested Jose Padilla in May on suspicions he was working with al-Qaeda to produce a dirty bomb, al-Qaeda plans for a radiological attack were apparently well under way, NBC reported.  The cells possibly had been seeking radioactive materials even before the Sept. 11 attacks.

U.S. officials, who obtained the information from top al-Qaeda members in custody such as Abu Zubaydah, said there is no evidence to indicate that al-Qaeda has been successful in its attempts or that an attack is imminent.  There have been increasing threat warnings from al-Qaeda, but they do not mention specific targets, officials said (see GSN, July 10).

Emergency teams trained to respond to radiological or nuclear disasters, however, have been on high alert for major events such as the Olympics (see GSN, July 3).  Additionally, U.S. agencies have been checking facilities that store radiological and medical wastes to ensure that materials are not missing (see GSN, June 27).

Padilla apparently told Abu Zubaydah that acquiring radioactive materials in the United States would be an easy task, NBC reported (Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News, July 10). 

Possibly 5,000 Al-Qaeda in United States

FBI officials are investigating Padilla and looking for other supporters in the Chicago area who might be connected to the dirty bomb plot, the Washington Times reported today.

The FBI and other intelligence agencies are watching small groups of men in Seattle, Chicago, Detroit and Atlanta who are suspected of having ties to al-Qaeda, intelligence officials said.

“One (intelligence) estimate is that there are up to 5,000 people in the United States connected to al-Qaeda,” a U.S. intelligence official said.

Earlier this year, U.S. officials estimated that there were more than 100 active al-Qaeda members in the United Sates plus hundreds of sympathizers, according to the Times.  Another U.S. official said that determining the exact number of al-Qaeda members in the United States is difficult due to the organization’s secrecy.

“It depends on how you define an al-Qaeda member,” the official said.  “There are hardened members and Muslims with sympathies to [Osama] bin Laden.”

“The number of people that are really key to this organization is probably much smaller than the number in the hundreds of people who have some loose affiliation,” U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said, adding that the top al-Qaeda leadership consists of “dozens of key people, not in the hundreds.”

Some al-Qaeda members who had been based in Afghanistan have fled to the United States and other countries, particularly Pakistan and Iran, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last month (Bill Gertz, Washington Times, July 11).

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Nuclear Waste:  Nevada Turns to Courts in Yucca Mountain Fight

Now that the U.S. Congress has given its final approval to build a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, the state’s fight against the plan resides in the legal system, where the state has filed several suits to stop the project, the Chicago Tribune reported today (see GSN, July 10).

“We think we have some excellent legal cases,” said Marta Adams, Nevada’s senior deputy attorney general.  “We’re hopeful that in arguing our case before an unbiased tribunal we’ll prevail.”

Nevada has filed five lawsuits against the Yucca Mountain repository project, according to the Tribune.  The lawsuits claim, in part, that U.S. Environmental Protection Agency radiation standards are insufficient to protect Nevada residents near the site and that the final environmental impact statement on the project contains several flaws (see GSN, July 7).

The state’s lawsuits also claim that the repository plans would violate the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which requires that geological features of the repository site be primarily responsible for isolating the nuclear waste (see GSN, April 12).  Nevada has claimed that the federal government plans to rely on manufactured waste storage canisters to provide the bulk of protection, the Tribune reported.

“Almost any of the lawsuits has the potential to kill the project,” said Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects.  “The federal government has to win all the cases to go forward” (V. Dion Haynes, Chicago Tribune, July 11).

Nevada will have a better opportunity in court to have its arguments against the Yucca Mountain project more fairly evaluated, Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn said in a press statement released Tuesday after the Senate’s vote.

“Now the process moves to the federal courts, where the playing field is level and Nevada’s factual, scientific arguments will be heard by impartial judges,” Guinn said (see GSN, June 7).   “The Department of Energy and the nuclear industry will no longer be able to hide behind the political process and wield their influence to move the Yucca Mountain agenda.  Now, for perhaps the first time in this process, the DOE will finally be held accountable for its many imprudent and unsound decisions, and we are highly confident that Nevada will prevail” (Guinn press release, July 9).

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, however, said he does not believe Nevada will be successful in the courts (see GSN, March 14).

“Everybody is talking optimistically about the court fight.  I’m a lawyer.  I don’t trust the legal system to come up with a right decision,” he said, adding that he was considering filing a lawsuit against the project under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

Nevada’s lawsuits against the Yucca Mountain repository project will add more delays to what will be a lengthy process before any work can begin, according to the Tribune.  The Energy Department is expected to submit its license application for the repository to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission by 2004.  The NRC then is expected to take at least three years to review the application, the Tribune reported.

“We still have several steps to go,” said Gayle Fisher, spokeswoman for Energy’s Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Office (V. Dion Haynes, Chicago Tribune).

House Subcommittee Funds Project

Meanwhile, the House Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee yesterday approved $26 billion in discretionary spending for fiscal 2003, including $524.7 million for the Nuclear Waste Fund to determine the suitability of Yucca Mountain as a site for the nuclear waste repository.

“We have fully funded Yucca Mountain as a result of action in the Senate yesterday,” subcommittee Chairman Sonny Callahan (R-Ala.) said (CongressDaily, July 11).

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Nuclear Waste:  U.S. Senate Approves Yucca Mountain

By Mike Nartker
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate yesterday approved a resolution supporting Yucca Mountain in Nevada as the site for the first U.S. long-term nuclear waste repository (see GSN, July 9).

“This vote is a great step forward in securing America’s energy future.  Now more than ever, we need a safe central and secure facility for our nation’s nuclear waste,” Senator Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska), who had called the joint resolution to the floor of the Senate for the vote, said in a press release.  “Today the Senate spoke, and the Senate agreed.”

The Senate voted 60-39 to pass a procedural motion on considering the resolution, which was later approved by a voice vote.  Senate Republicans were nearly united in their support of the resolution, the final step in overriding Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn’s veto of the site.  Only three Republicans — Senators Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.), John Ensign (R-Nev.) and Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) voted against the resolution.  Senate Democrats, however, were more divided with 35 voting against it and 15 voting in favor.

To maintain Yucca Mountain as the site of the nuclear waste repository, both houses of Congress needed to pass the override resolution.  The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the resolution in May (see GSN, May 9).

Yesterday U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham praised the outcome of the Senate vote.

“We are pleased that the Congress agrees moving forward is the right thing to do, rather than cutting off the process now and leaving nuclear waste for future generations to deal with,” he said in a press release.

The Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry’s main lobby group, also praised the decision, calling it a “clear signal” of support for nuclear energy.  The activist group Public Citizen, however, criticized the industry’s influence over the Senate and the Bush administration’s decisions to support the project (see GSN, April 2).

“This vote was paid for, and records likely will show more contributions poured into campaign coffers in recent weeks,” Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook said in a statement released yesterday.  “With today’s vote, lawmakers have not only succumbed to industry influence but have again failed to check the Bush administration’s inappropriate coziness with the energy industries.”

Guinn said he is “disappointed” with the vote.  His state still plans to continue the fight against the Yucca Mountain repository, he said.

“Now the process moves to the federal courts, where the playing field is level and Nevada’s factual, scientific arguments will be heard by impartial judges,” Guinn said in a statement (see GSN, June 7).   “The Department of Energy and the nuclear industry will no longer be able to hide behind the political process and wield their influence to move the Yucca Mountain agenda.  Now, for perhaps the first time in this process, the DOE will finally be held accountable for its many imprudent and unsound decisions, and we are highly confident that Nevada will prevail.”

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Nuclear Waste:  U.S. Senate Expected to Approve Yucca Mountain

The U.S. Senate is expected to pass a resolution today supporting Yucca Mountain for the site of the first long-term U.S. nuclear waste repository (see GSN, June 26).

Senator Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) is expected to offer a motion today to consider a joint resolution that would override Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn’s veto of the site, according to CongressDaily.  The motion is likely to cause a procedural vote, which Republican supporters of Yucca Mountain are expected to win closely, CongressDaily reported.

The Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which designated Yucca Mountain as the sole site for a potential nuclear waste repository, allows 10 hours of Senate debate on the resolution before a vote.  To override Guinn’s veto, both houses of Congress must pass the joint resolution, which the U.S. House of Representatives passed in May (CongressDaily, July 9).

A CongressDaily survey indicated that yesterday 51 senators were in favor of the Yucca Mountain repository plan, 25 were opposed and 23 undecided.

Almost all Senate Republicans have said they are backing the plan, with the only opposition coming from Senators Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.) and John Ensign (R-Nev.), according to CongressDaily.  Democrats in the Senate have been more divided, with 23 against the repository and 10 in favor.  Out of the senators still publicly undecided on the issue yesterday, 16 were Democrats and six were Republicans (CongressDaily, July 8).

If the Senate approves the override resolution, the U.S. Energy Department will have 90 days to file a license application with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, according to the New York Times.  Many Yucca Mountain supporters, however, have said that Energy will not be able to meet that deadline and that it might take up to two years to file an application.

Once Energy files an application, the commission will probably decide based on rules prepared by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to the Times (see GSN, April 12).  The state of Nevada and the Natural Resources Defense Council, however, are currently challenging the EPA rules (Mitchell/Wald, New York Times, July 9).

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Radiological Weapons:  States Debate Accepting Potassium Iodide

Fewer than half of eligible U.S. states have accepted medicine from the federal government to guard against thyroid cancer during a nuclear disaster, USA Today reported today (see GSN, May 24).

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced a program six months ago to provide a two-day supply of potassium iodide pills for people living within 10 miles of a nuclear power plant (see GSN, Feb. 15).  Of the 33 states eligible for the program, 15 have accepted the drug, according to USA Today.

Some states have rejected the program, saying that it might give people a false sense of security or that the two-day supply of the drug is not enough because people must take the drug for 10 to 14 days after exposure to radioactive iodine.  The NRC has said a two-day supply is sufficient to protect people as a supplement to evacuation.

Iowa, one of the states that rejected the NRC offer, did so partly because potassium iodide does not protect against other potential consequences of radiation exposure, such as cancers other than thyroid cancer, Iowa’s Public Health Director Stephen Gleason said.  He also expressed concern about giving the drug to people without checking their medical conditions.

States that have accepted the NRC offer are distributing tablets in different ways.  Florida is storing its pills in secret locations to be distributed if a nuclear disaster occurs.  New Hampshire plans to distribute its pills soon after it completes a plan, and New York’s Westchester and Rockland counties began distribution in June.  Other states that have asked for the pills include Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Maryland (see GSN, Jan. 14), Massachusetts (see GSN, Jan. 11), New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Vermont (Haya El Nasser, USA Today, July 9).

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