Food Safety:  Federal, State Officials Discuss Agriculture Security

U.S. and Mississippi officials met yesterday to discuss ways to prevent a terrorist attack on the state’s agricultural industry, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, June 12).

Mississippi could be an attractive target for terrorists seeking to attack the U.S. food supply because agriculture is the state’s largest industry, said state Agriculture Commissioner Lester Spell.  In addition, terrorists could attempt to steal cropdusting aircraft for use in bioterrorist attacks, he said.

Steve Gains of the U.S. Agriculture Department said the department is working to educate farmers on how to protect themselves against terrorist attacks.  “Terrorist groups are interested in agricultural commodities,” he said (Deborah Bulkeley, Associated Press/Jackson Clarion-Ledger, July 31).

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Nuclear Waste:  U.S. to Delay Releasing Nuclear Waste Shipment Routes

The U.S. Energy Department has decided to withhold until 2006 information on how nuclear waste will be transported to a repository slated to be built at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, the Las Vegas Sun reported yesterday (see GSN, July 21).

Energy is set to release a strategic plan in September on how spent nuclear fuel shipments to Yucca Mountain will be organized, acting Transportation Director Joe Williams said.  Decisions on waste shipments routes and methods, however, will be delayed, he said.

Energy is set to begin construction of the Yucca Mountain repository in 2007, with the first waste shipments to arrive in 2010 (Mary Manning, Las Vegas Sun, July 28).

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