I'll admit it: I'm annoyed that FSRN hasn't replied to me. I sent them three emails today and haven't heard a peep. I find it very disrespectful. Acknowledgement of receipt, if nothing else, is warranted by all my hard work.
Anyway, here's the script for them, including the transcriptions of my interview subjects.
It's cut down to four minutes.
LEAD IN:
RECENTLY, SECRETARY OF ENERGY SPENCER ABRAHAM ANNOUNCED A SET OF NEW INITIATIVES TO IMPROVE SECURITY ACROSS THE ENERGY DEPARTMENT'S NETWORK OF LABORATORIES AND DEFENSE FACILITIES, PROMPTING STRONG REACTIONS FROM GOVERNMENT WATCH DOG GROUPS. ROGI RIVERSTONE HAS MORE.
SCRIPT:
Peter Stockton served under Bill Richardson in the Energy department during the Clinton Administration. He is a Senior Investigator with Project On Government Oversight, a watchdog group committed to open government.
STOCKTON: "I will tell you about an exercise, a test that was run in October of two thousand, down at T A 18 in Los Alamos. The bad guys got into one of the facilities where they had these plates of highly enriched fuel for a reactor. And the good guys couldn't get 'em out. And the bad guys would have created one of these improvised nuclear devices, which is a nuclear detonation. Now, it'd be a kiloton, two kilotons, maybe three kilotons. But that would have made a huge mess out of northern New Mexico."
Computer simulations could replace nuclear-defense experiments at the Sandia Pulse Reactor facility in New Mexico, according to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. He says removal of the reactor's fuel and shipment to a permanent storage area could occur within three years.
STOCKTON: "Clearly at Sandia, which is in Albuquerque, inside Kirtland Air Force Base essentially, he suggests moving the material which is a fuel for a burst reactor, which is no more than a machine down there. Their point is to actually get rid of the reactor, 'cause they feel they can do what the reactor does with computer simulation. There's several hundred pounds of highly enriched uranium that go into this reactor. And you save approximately thirty million dollars in security costs there. It's a brilliant move."
The Energy Secretary also recommends expediting construction of a Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee to allow consolidation of nuclear materials stored there. Mr. Stockton describes the situation.
STOCKTON: "At Y-12, Oakridge, in Tennessee, getting that material in a berm facility as quickly as possible (it's in six targets currently) and the time lines are so short that the bad guys would be in those places before you could stop 'em."
The Department of Energy will also assess whether essential defense-related work at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California could be relocated, allowing removal of special nuclear material from that facility.
Greg Mello is director of the Los Alamos National Study Group, a non-profit, research oriented, nuclear disarmament organization based in Albuquerque. He describes the security concerns of storing weapons-grade uranium at Livermore.
MELLO: "His announcement in essence, is a reality check, saying, 'Look, Livermore Lab in California is surrounded by light industry and very-closely-packed subdivisions. Should we really have hundreds of kilograms of plutonium in the midst of a residential area?'"
In his press release, outlining the responsibilities and risks to DOE, Secretary Abraham is quoted as saying, "Since the stakes are so high, everything is on the table."
Paul Robinson recommends consideration of other concerns, not mentioned in Abraham's statement. He is research director with Southwest Research and Information Center, an environmental education and social justice group.
ROBINSON: "The recently-disclosed yard holes and the mixed-waste landfills are risks of contamination of ground water, air and soil. Those materials were disposed of by dumping, rather than by management in an engineered landfill. In general, they're tossed in a hole. The yard holes themselves have only recently been disclosed. And a number of Sandia-based commentators were unfamiliar with those materials. It was disclosed to Citizen Action in a Freedom of Information Act."
Energy Secretary Abraham proposes a three-year time table for removal of weapons-grade uranium at sites he outlines. This would put the deadline at the middle of the next Presidential administration.
Greg Mello recommends public involvement, vigilance and persistence to remove weapons-grade uranium in our communities.
GREG MELLO: "We have to
realize that these institutions operate with relative impunity, as kind-of isolated, non-democratic islands within our, within our culture."
This is Rogi Riverstone
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Now, don't you think that deserved a reply? jees...
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