* IBM will build supercomputer for nuclear test
simulations.
* Chernobyl radiation linked to
breast cancer increase.
* U.S. opposes Ukrainian turbine sale to
Iranian nuclear plant.
* City Council Meeting to air
Citizens' views on repeal of WIPP transport
ordinance.
* A new contract with the Department of Energy
(DOE) will give IBM $85 million dollars to build a new
supercomputer that will simulate nuclear warhead detonations in
order to enable scientists to evaluate the U.S. nuclear weapons
arsenal without performing actual test explosions. The contract
is part of a federal program to acquire super-powerful computers
for use in national defense laboratories. The program's success
will support White House efforts to persuade the Senate to ratify
a test ban treaty President Clinton signed two years ago, by
demonstrating that simulations can replace actual nuclear tests.
President Clinton's recent visit to New Mexico was primarily to
enable the President to visit Los Alamos National Laboratory and
experience first hand the simulation of a nuclear test
explosion. "We need new supercomputational powers so we can
certify that our weapons are safe, secure and reliable without
testing," said Secretary of Energy Federico Pe�a.
The new machine can execute up to 10 trillion calculations
per second, approximately 250,000 times faster than an ordinary
PC. It is scheduled for delivery to Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory in the year 2000. Its acquisition was only the latest
in a series of DOE purchases of supercomputers for national
laboratories. IBM, Intel Corp. and Cray Research will be
supplying other computers to Livermore and to the Sandia and Los
Alamos National Laboratories. In fact, in a budget request to
Congress this month, the DOE has asked for 49 million dollars for
two big new construction projects at Sandia National Laboratory
to house scientists working on nuclear weapons simulations.
The United States has not conducted nuclear testing since
President Clinton announced a moratorium in 1992. Instead, the
U.S. will be spending $40 billion over the next ten years to use
new technology to assure the reliability of the nation's
strategic stockpile of 6,000 to 7,000 nuclear weapons. Testing
systems use archived data from roughly 1,000 nuclear explosions
conducted over five decades before the moratorium.
* Evidence exists that a much-feared
increase in breast cancer is taking place, connected with the
Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident of 1986, say Russian
scientists in a recent study in the Ukraine.
In a study presented at a meeting of the American Assn. for
the Advancement of Science in Philadelphia, PA on February 15,
scientists announced that, in areas around Chernobyl where nearly
277, 000 people received moderate exposure to radiation, breast
cancer rates have increased about 150%. In areas where radiation
levels were much higher, within an 18 mile radius of the plant,
breast cancer incidence has increased 236%. Further study is
necessary to determine how much of the increase is due to
Chernobyl, said Anatoly Romanenko, a scientist with the Research
Center for Radiation Medicine in Kiev, capitol of the Ukraine.
* The United States is opposing the
proposed sale of turbines by the Ukrainian Government to Iran,
for use in a nuclear power plant, said a top security official on
Saturday, February 7. The Ukrainian government wants to permit
a factory in the eastern city of Kharkiv to sell Russia at least
one turbine for the nuclear plant it is building in Bushehr,
Iran. The U. S. is adamant against the sale, which, it says,
could help Iran develop nuclear weapons. U.S. envoy Steven
Sestanovich has had daily meetings with Volodymyr Horbulin,
secretary of Ukraine's Security and Defense Council to press
Washington's case.
Russia claims the $800 million dollar deal is completely
peaceful, and has given no response to U.S. pleas to cancel the
1995 contract. The president of the Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma,
promised last year that the Ukraine would not supply the plant
with turbines, but later, Ukrainian officials said the government
had given permission for the deal to go through.
* CCNS would like to encourage the
public to attend the City Council meeting on Wednesday, February
25, at 7:00 p.m., to say "No WIPP trucks on St. Francis
Drive."
The council is asking the public to voice its opinion on
whether Ordinance 1197-33, restricting the hours of WIPP nuclear
waste transport on St. Francis Drive, should be repealed The
ordinance was passed on October 1997 as a restriction, which the
Department of Energy has since misrepresented as a permission.
By misrepresenting the intent of this ordinance, the DOE has
attempted to divide our community--therefore we support its
immediate repeal and in its place a strong and unified stance by
the city council against WIPP and radioactive waste transport
through Santa Fe.
* Los Alamos National Laboratories (LANL) will hold an
Environmental Safety and Health meeting at Sweeney Center, on
Marcy St. in Santa Fe, on Tuesday evening, February 24.
For more information about these meetings, and their exact
times, please contact CCNS at 986-1973.
