* EPA Criminal Investigation Launched
at LANL.
* Former Los Alamos Scientist
Sentenced.
* Study Raises New Questions About Yucca
Mountain.
* Experts Call WIPP "The Wrong
Solution."
* Los Alamos National Laboratory is
under criminal investigation for illegal disposal of asphalt that
could be contaminated with radioactive or chemical waste.
The asphalt dumping under criminal investigation by the
Environmental Protection Agency took place at a rubble pile
related to an unspecified road project, according to an unnamed
source quoted in the Los Alamos Monitor . The asphalt
originated at Technical Area 54, which is the lab's radioactive
and chemical waste disposal facility.
The investigation has been ongoing for several weeks,
according to the New Mexico Attorney General's office. Upon
completing the investigation, the U.S. Attorney's office will
decide whether to present evidence on the case to a Grand
Jury.
* A nuclear physicist who was convicted
of sharing national defense secrets with Chinese nuclear
scientists and lying about it to U.S. investigators has been
sentenced. Fifty-eight year old Peter Lee, a native of Taiwan
now residing in Manhattan Beach, California...had worked as an
energy researcher at LANL. Lee was sentenced to spend one year
at a half-way house and pay twenty-thousand-dollars in fines,
plus perform three-thousand hours of community service. Lee
divulged classified information on the use of lasers to simulate
nuclear detonations during a 1985 visit to the government-run
Chinese Academy of Sciences.
A new study by the California Institute of
Technology or C-I-T, has raised new questions about the
advisability of government plans to bury thousands of tons of
highly radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The study's
findings show the site proposed for a permanent national nuclear
waste dump may be more susceptible to seismic activity, such as
earthquakes, than previously thought.
C-I-T researcher Brian Wernicke (Wer-nik-ee) concluded that
the site, located ninety miles north of Los Vegas, Nevada...could
experience an earthquake or lava flow every thousand years...ten
times more frequently than previously reported by government
geologists. Yet the highly radioactive materials slated for
burial at the site will remain deadly for tens of thousands of
years.
Nevada state officials and environmental groups nation-wide
have long objected to Yucca Mountain as a permanent dump site for
the nation's nuclear waste...their criticisms often pointing to
geological instability...among other issues such as the cultural
importance of Yucca Mountain to local Native Americans.
Although Energy Department officials told the Associated
Press they were not discounting the C-I-T study...they said they
did not believe the information would rule out the possibility of
a Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump.
* The highly controversial Waste Isolation
Pilot Plant or WIPP has been criticized by industry experts as
the wrong solution to the nation's military nuclear waste
problem. In its newly released three-hundred-page report
entitled, "The Cold War Mess," the Institute for Energy and
Environmental Research says opening WIPP runs contrary to the
Department of Energy policy which calls for prioritizing the
elimination of urgent risks associated with nuclear arms
production.
The Institute's report states that clean-up of plutonium
wastes which have laid buried in ditches, some for over 30 years,
should be given higher priority. According to DOE documents, the
WIPP site will accommodate less than 2% of the nation's munitions-
related nuclear waste when filled to capacity. DOE officials
told the Albuquerque Tribune last week that some of the
concerns raised by the Institute's report have merit, but will
not alter the department's goal of shipping waste to WIPP "as
soon as possible."
A coalition of environmental groups are threatening to file
lawsuits should the DOE persist in its plan to open WIPP this
year. Many citizens are concerned with the potential for
accidents on the nation's highways involving trucks carrying
trans-uranic waste to WIPP. These wastes will be shipped from
weapons facilities in eight states, ranging from California to
South Carolina.
* And finally, CCNS would like to invite all our friends and
supporters to celebrate with us at a "We're Not WIPP'd Yet"
benefit dance on April 5, 8:00 p.m., at Club Allegria. The
dance, which will help support CCNS, features the fabulous
Iguanas. The Iguanas have toured as an opening act with Jimmy
Buffet, playing to over a million people. It's music that will
make you want to get up and dance!
Tickets are will be fifteen dollars and are on sale at Rare
Bear Records and all TicketMaster outlets, or at the door. For
more information call 986-1973.
