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Tri-Valley CAREsCommunities Against a Radioactive Environment |
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Citizens Watch Newsletter January 2006In This Issue...- Nukes Emerge as "Real Winners" in Los Alamos Lab Contract- Workers at Lab Exposed to Plutonium - Bio-Warfare Research at Los Alamos Will Get New Review - Citizen's Alerts
Nukes Emerge as "Real Winners" in Los Alamos Lab Contractby Tara Dorabjifrom Tri-Valley CAREs' January 2006 newsletter, Citizen's Watch On December 21, a consortium featuring the University of California (UC) and Bechtel, Inc. beat out the Lockheed Martin/University of Texas team to win a $512 million, 7-year contract to manage the Dept. of Energy’s Los Alamos National Lab (LANL) in New Mexico. UC has managed LANL since the lab was founded to develop the world’s first atomic bomb more than 60 years ago. Amid multiple security, accounting and management scandals, DOE competed the Los Alamos contract for the first time in history. Tri-Valley CAREs and Nuclear Watch New Mexico submitted a bid, showing how LANL could be brought into compliance with international treaty obligations and transitioned toward civilian science. But DOE rejected our proposal, and, in the end, the “competition” came down to two teams of nuclear weapons proponents. On one side was “business as usual,” represented by UC, now teamed with Bechtel, the world’s largest construction and engineering company. On the other was the University of Texas and Lockheed Martin or “LockMart,” the world’s largest weapons maker, which would have scored a virtual monopoly on all aspects of nuclear weapons, from warhead design to missile production, had it won the contract. The DOE had structured the competition so that no matter which team won, the result would be a “nuclear weapons lab on steroids,” remarked Tara Dorabji, Tri-Valley CAREs’ Outreach Director. Marylia Kelley, the Executive Director at Tri-Valley CAREs noted, “This contract marks a sad day for civilian science. The only real winner here is the nuclear weapons enterprise. The losers include the workers who want a change, the surrounding communities that face continued radioactive pollution, and the country, which will be impacted by rising dangers from the planned expansion of weapons activities at Los Alamos Lab under the new contract.” One provision of the bidding process involved scoring points by demonstrating readiness to increase the nuclear weapons manufacturing activities at LANL. In awarding the contract, DOE officials repeatedly stressed that, in their view, a great strength of the UC/Bechtel team was that it “provides a forum for the integration of the nuclear weapons complex as a whole.” Indeed, Bechtel is no stranger to the nuclear weapons enterprise. Bechtel has multiple management contracts for DOE sites, including the Nevada Test Site and the adjacent Yucca Mountain dumpsite, the Y-12 production facility in TN, and the Pantex Plant in TX.It was not surprising that Bechtel joined UC to bid for Los Alamos. LANL is not only one of two locations where all U.S. nuclear weapons are designed (the other being Livermore Lab), but, in DOE’s own words, LANL is the nation’s second largest production site, with increased plutonium pit (“trigger”) production on the way. Los Alamos Lab funding currently runs two-thirds for nuclear weapons research, development, testing and production, and, for example, zero for renewable energy technologies. To bid for the contract, UC and Bechtel, along with partners BWX Technologies and the Washington Group, International formed a limited liability corporation called, Los Alamos National Security LLC. As the ink on the LANL contract was still drying, reports became public that showed that Washington Group, International had exposed workers to plutonium the previous year when it executed at subcontract at Livermore Lab to package waste for shipment to a dump in New Mexico (see page 2). Bechtel also has a long history of similar problems. In December 2005, DOE released a report highly critical of Bechtel’s construction of the Hanford Vitrification Plant, designed to glassify high-level radioactive waste. In May 2005, BWX Technologies and Bechtel were fined $123,750 for nuclear safety violations at Pantex. In 2003, Bechtel was fined $192,500 for a series of violations at Oak Ridge, TN and Paducah, KY. In July 2003, Bechtel and BWX Technologies refused to release investigation reports on a nuclear accident at DOE’s Oak Ridge site. Still, DOE asserts that Bechtel’s corporate expertise will bring business excellence to LANL. Michael Anastasio, the former director of Livermore Lab, will be the director of Los Alamos under the new management team. An interim director will soon be named for Livermore. The contract competition for the Livermore nuclear weapons lab is slated to begin in Spring 2006. UC and Bechtel are expected to partner again with BWX Technologies and Washington Group, International to bid on the Livermore Lab contract. It is widely believed that the award of the LANL contract to this team will give it the upper hand in the upcoming Livermore competition. Tri-Valley CAREs will stay involved in order to focus real attention on the need to fundamentally change the nuclear weapons mission at Livermore, not merely dabble in the question of who manages Armageddon.
Workers at Lab Exposed to Plutoniumby Marylia Kelleyfrom Tri-Valley CAREs' January 2006 newsletter, Citizen's Watch Workers at Livermore Lab were repeatedly exposed to airborne plutonium particles while packaging transuranic (TRU) wastes for shipment to a New Mexico dumpsite, according to a December 22, 2005 Dept. of Energy report. The report discloses that the contractor cut dangerous corners, including operation of a mobile waste packaging facility without safety basis documentation. Further, the vendor declared the facility “operational” for Livermore workers to handle TRU waste (e.g., plutonium), even though it had been clearly marked as having “indeterminate quality” problems. Terms like “uncontrolled radioactive releases” and “unplanned uptakes” are scattered throughout the report. It says that “abnormal events occurred frequently” and tells of workers packaging plutonium-contaminated wastes while alarms went off around them. The DOE determined that workers had been packaging plutonium wastes with bags that had not been inspected prior to use, though the vendor certified they had been. A faulty and leaking bag seal was listed as a source of contamination. Plutonium was also found on tools and external surfaces outside the mobile facility’s “glovebox” area. Workers “wiped the contaminated areas,” further spreading the plutonium particles into the air, according to DOE. Workers were allowed to remove their protective gear on the assumption that the area was safe. One particularly chilling sentence says, “The bioassay results identified that workers without respirators had been exposed to airborne radioactivity on several occasions.” A spokesperson for the contractor, Washington TRU Solutions (WTS), told the San Francisco Chronicle that three employees who were contaminated might face a lifetime of special medical scrutiny. The contamination occurred at Livermore Lab between April and August 2004, when WTS brought its mobile packaging facility on-site to ready the Lab’s TRU wastes for shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, NM. The DOE has fined WTS $192, 500 for multiple nuclear safety violations. The vendor says it does not plan to contest the findings or the fine. WTS is part of Washington Group International, which is a partner in the winning bid to manage the Los Alamos Lab. In its report on the plutonium accidents, the DOE cited WTS for having a “less than adequate level of understanding” of the mobile TRU waste facility it was managing. At the press conference to award the Los Alamos Lab contract, the DOE lauded the company’s expertise.
Bio-Warfare Research at Los Alamos Will Get New Review
by Loulena Miles, |