Pad_stuff

The uranium enrichment plant in Paducah, Ky., and its sister facility in Ohio have been by far the country's largest industrial emitters of a chemical that eats the Earth's protective ozone layer.

The emissions of the chemical coolant, which are legal, are blamed on hundreds of miles of leaky pipes at the plants operated by the United States Enrichment Corp. This year the company consolidated its enrichment operation in Paducah, making the Kentucky plant the nation's only nuclear fuel factory for commercial reactors.

The production and importation of the refrigerant CFC-114, along with many other ozone destroyers, was largely banned years ago as part of a global treaty known as the Montreal Protocol and the Clean Air Act amendments of 1990. But the chemical can still be used in industry until supplies run out.

Critics point to USEC's CFC emissions -- more than 800,000 pounds in 1999, the most recent year available -- as another example of the hidden costs of nuclear power.

These include environmental damage during uranium mining; the difficulty of handling radioactive waste generated during enrichment and by reactors; the potential for devastating radiation leaks at power plants; and other kinds of waste from the Paducah plant.

Other waste and pollutants from the manufacture of nuclear reactor fuel include mercury, arsenic and cadmium, which are disposed of on and off site, and hydrochloric acid aerosols and chlorine gas, which are released into the air.

Merryman Kemp, a member of the Paducah plant's citizens advisory board, said she gets infuriated when she hears nuclear power described as environmentally clean.

''I can cuss real well, and I usually do,'' she said. ''It really angers me when they (nuclear power advocates) are not challenged on that.''

Kemp said she was alarmed to learn that the plant was a significant emitter of the ozone-eating chemical, and that most of it is from leaky pipes.

''We don't want those ozone holes getting bigger and bigger, and more skin cancer and whatever else they cause,'' she said. ''This is a matter for us to study.''

Company officials said the CFC-114 emissions will be cut in half this year, because the consolidation of the two plants means roughly half as many miles of leaky pipes. Further reductions will come in the future as the company plugs leaks with a new kind of sealant and finds a replacement coolant.

Nuclear power, they said, remains a clean source when compared to coal-fired power plants with their emissions of smog-causing chemicals and greenhouse gases linked to global warming.

''Yes, you do have this issue with (CFC-114 and) enrichment,'' said Elizabeth Stuckle, spokeswoman for the company. ''But we are also looking to replace this technology with a new technology toward the end of this decade. Unfortunately this is a necessary thing, because these are the only enrichment facilities that this country had. We don't want to become dependant on foreign enrichment.''

Stuckle said the plant produces a ''potpourri'' of emissions and discharges but operates within regulatory limits. In an investigation last year, The Courier-Journal found that the plant had been cited three times in 2000 by the state for exceeding toxicity levels at three locations.

''Everyone regulated . . . gets violations,'' Stuckle said. ''These were minor. We have an excellent record.''

In the enrichment process, CFC-114 is used to cool equipment, such as fans, as well as hot uranium hexafluoride gas that moves through the pipes, USEC officials said.

The CFC emission numbers are found within the EPA's toxic release inventory, a giant public database of self-reported pollution totals. In all, the Paducah and Ohio plants released 818,000 pounds of CFC-114 in 1999. It amounted to 88 percent of the national total of industrial sources, and 14 percent of an international industry estimate of all CFC114 emissions worldwide.

Global emissions of CFC-114 for 1999 are estimated at 5.7 million pounds, said Jim Elkins, a physicist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's climate monitoring laboratory in Boulder, Colo. However, some developing nations do not participate in the larger, international report, he said.

Companies are still allowed to produce CFC-114 for some medical purposes, such as propellent for asthma inhalers.

While CFC-114 is not as prevalent in the stratosphere as some of the other CFC's, such as those that were used in air conditioners and refrigerators before alternatives were found in the 1990s, it still damages the Earth's natural filter for ultraviolet radiation, Elkins said.

''Once you release this thing, it is around for 300 years. It's not only going to affect your kids, but several generations.''

Last fall the ozone hole over Antarctica was about 11 million square miles -- more than three times the size of the United States. Scientists are monitoring the size of the hole out of concern that too much ultraviolet radiation can cause skin cancer in humans and harm plants and animals.

''We expect the ozone to recover to pre-ozone-hole levels in 50 to 75 years,'' Elkins said. ''But there's a catch, which we are trying to get a better handle on.''

There is a concern that global warming may alter chemical reactions in the stratosphere to the extent that it may extend the hole for an additional decade or two, he added.

Supporters of nuclear energy, which supplies 20 percent of America's electricity, say it is clean because power plants do not emit carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases suspected of causing global warming. They also do not emit nitrogen oxides or sulfur dioxide that produce ground-level ozone pollution and acid rain, said Thelma Wiggins, spokeswoman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry group.

''It's unfair to go back to the fuel, and pick out one single (negative) element (such as CFC-114 emissions),'' Wiggins said.

''When we say nuclear energy is basically a clean, safe, reliable source of electricity, that is in fact what it is. The plants are clean, safe non-emitting sources of electricity.''

Scientists say there is evidence that low radiation doses can cause multiple changes in human DNA, that are passed on to future generations.

They found "an unexpectedly high increase" in mutations among children born after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

The children were born to parents who had cleaned up the reactor, and were conceived after it exploded.

The scientists do not rule out the possibility of prolonged effects from the mutations.

The scientists, from Israel and Ukraine, report their findings in the Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, a UK journal.

They say that while exposure to ionizing radiation has for a long time been suspected of increasing the mutation load in humans, events like the atomic bombing of Japan "seem not to have yielded significant genetic defects."

Their study examined children born to the Chernobyl "liquidators" - members of the clean-up teams sent in after the reactor exploded who, the scientists say, "received the highest doses, presumably in some combination of acute and chronic forms".

The area around Chernobyl remains banned

Children born to liquidator families (now living either in Ukraine or Israel) conceived after their father's exposure to radiation (and in one case their mother's as well) were screened for the appearance of new fragments using multi-site DNA fingerprinting.

The children's siblings who had been conceived before their parents' exposure served as internal controls, in addition to external controls from families who had not been exposed.

The report says: "An unexpectedly high (sevenfold) increase in the number of new bands in individuals conceived after parental exposure compared with the level seen in controls was recorded.

"A strong tendency for the number of new bands to decrease with elapsed time between exposure and offspring conception was established for the Ukrainian families.

"These results indicate that low doses of radiation can induce multiple changes in human germline DNA."

The germline is the collection of genes that parents pass on to their offspring.

The authors consider the possibility that the DNA changes they found could have been caused in the children themselves, not in their parents. But they reject it.

They write: "One may assume that the origin of the changes is somatic mutation in the children conceived after parental exposure.

"But, if so, how can one explain the much lower frequency of such changes in their siblings born before exposure, who were subjected to the same environmental factors during the same or even a longer period?"

They also found several factors linked to decreasing changes: the passage of time between exposure and conception, and also the duration of the liquidators' work in the contaminated area.

The report concludes: "The small contribution of these changes to the immediate genetic risk does not exclude the possibility of prolonged effects.

Trees growing through buildings Alex Kirby

Nature resumes control round the plant

"The very fact that much lower doses of radiation than previously generally believed can double the number of genomic changes needs serious attention.

"This is all the more important when a significant proportion of the human population is subjected to increased mutagenic pressure."

Richard Bramhall, of the Low Level Radiation Campaign, told BBC News Online: "We agree: these findings are important because so many people are exposed to environmental mutagens.

"There are several indications in the report that the real problem is internal radiation.

"It shows a massive failure in the modelling of radiation risk by the International Commission on Radiological Protection.

"That is based on the Japanese bombs, single massive bursts of gamma radiation delivered externally.

Recycled uranium was shipped worldwide from 1952 until 1999, when distribution was halted by revelations of its contamination with plutonium and other radioactive elements.

USA Today, citing an examination of more than 1,000 pages of new reports and documents on recycled uranium, said the reports showed that the recycling program yielded 250,000 tons of tainted uranium, twice the amount estimated two year ago.

It said the material was handled at about 10 times the number of sites revealed previously, reaching more than 100 federal plants, private manufacturers and universities.

http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2002/11/06/ke110602s308475.htm

U.S. backs off plan to cut Paducah cleanup workers

By James R. Carroll and James Malone
or jmalone@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

Besides the staffing change, an Energy Department memo suggested opening an office in Lexington to oversee the work.

Facing opposition from local residents and Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning, the U.S. Department of Energy has backed away from a plan to cut the number of Paducah uranium plant cleanup workers by nearly half, from 13 to seven, and move management of the work to a new office in Lexington.

The changes, proposed in an undated memo addressed to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, called for the Lexington office to oversee cleanup at both Paducah and its sister plant in Ohio.

Each location now has its own onsite manager, but overall supervision of the work belongs to the department's sprawling complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and the Kentucky and Ohio sites compete with Oak Ridge for money and resources.

The proposed changes were criticized by Bunning and some local officials, environmentalists and plant neighbors who fear the reorganization would result in less accountability in a cleanup program that's been plagued with problems.

Bunning, R-Ky., called the plan ''a terrible idea.'' He has tangled regularly with Energy Department officials over the pace of Paducah work.

Mark Donham of Brookport, Ill., an environmentalist who's on the citizens' advisory board for the Paducah cleanup, said he was concerned that the plan was done without public comment or involvement.

''It looks like DOE is pulling back on its commitment,'' said Ronald Lamb, a mechanic who lives near the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant that for years had processed uranium for atomic weapons and, more recently, nuclear reactor fuel.

Jessie Hill Roberson, assistant energy secretary for environmental management and author of the 13page memo, said last week she made the recommendations based on congressional directives to accelerate cleanup of the Paducah plant and the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio.

The reorganization would accelerate the pace of the cleanups and ''establish strong leadership'' for them, Roberson said about her memo.

But in a follow-up interview yesterday, Roberson said, ''Don't assume this is decided'' and that ''all kinds of other alternatives'' are being studied, including keeping the two cleanups separate or having a combined management office somewhere other than Lexington.

Joe Davis, a Department of Energy spokesman, said Roberson's proposal has not been presented to Abraham and ''probably won't be going anywhere.''

The reorganization would not have a direct impact on Kentucky's 2010 cleanup deadline for Paducah, said Mark York, spokesman for Kentucky's Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet. York said the state had no objections to the proposal outlined in the memo.

''We feel we have a good line of communications open with DOE -- both in the state as well as in Washington -- and I don't anticipate this is going to change that,'' he said.

The government has spent about $600 million on the Paducah cleanup since 1990, and the Energy Department estimated two years ago it needed $1.3 billion to meet the 2010 deadline. Federal and state officials in recent months have been negotiating over a new plan from Washington that would accelerate some projects but possibly put off other environmental problems.

Radioactive and hazardous materials from the plant have contaminated 10 billion gallons of ground water, along with surface water, soil and plants. Tests have shown widespread contamination in animals near the site, and numerous contaminated abandoned structures and waste burial grounds are spread throughout the complex near the Ohio River.

Paducah also faces another $1 billion in costs to convert nearly 500,000 tons of depleted uranium into a more stable form for reuse or storage.

Bunning has inserted language in a spending measure, still awaiting passage, that directs the Energy Department to bypass the existing bureaucracy and set up more direct planning between Washington and Paducah.

''My proposal directed the DOE to cut red tape and to send money directly to Paducah to help with environmental cleanup, not to build another office and to shuffle employees around in an effort to look busy,'' he said.

Paducah City Commission member Richard Abraham said he wants to keep the local contact person.

''Folks with a concern at least can go and get an answer face to face,'' he said. ''Something this large, you'd like to see people kept here.''

McCracken County Judge-Executive Danny Orazine called the proposed move ''quite surprising,'' since he believes the cleanup in recent years has made good progress.

''I would hate to see it, for the loss of jobs and because the current site manager, Don Seaborg, has worked very hard to change the image of the Department of Energy in this community,'' he said.

Seaborg did not return numerous calls to his office.

Bill Tanner, manager of the West McCracken Water District and a member of the citizens' advisory board, said despite the Energy Department's assurances of an accelerated cleanup, talk of moving the management to Lexington raises questions about how clean the government intends to make the site.

''If they start changing people who have been here for eight to 10 years, they will lose a lot of knowledge, people who know where things are buried,'' Tanner said.

Roberson, in her memo, said she wasn't satisfied with the existing organizational structure of the cleanup program formed in the 1980s, and she questioned whether it could carry out the objectives set by the agency. ''New leadership, staff, and organizational alignment tied directly to my office are essential for success at these sites,'' she wrote.

As the memo outlined, cleanup efforts at both sites have been hampered by competition for money and resources with Oak Ridge. But with the reorganization, that would no longer be the case, said William Murphie, the Energy Department's associate deputy assistant secretary for environmental management.

Murphie, who would head the Lexington office, said he wanted to assure local officials and residents that the work wouldn't be handled ''by remote control.''

''My priorities are Portsmouth and Paducah,'' he said. ''They won't be stepchildren.'' Lexington was chosen because it is equal distance from the two plants, about five hours to each, he said.

Paducah has an on-site cleanup staff of 13, and the Ohio plant has had a similar number. The 13 engineers, radiation specialists and regulatory experts oversee the cleanup project, which is conducted by a private contractor -- Bechtel Jacobs Co. LLC.

Under the proposed Lexington office, 31 people would run cleanup operations at both plants. Seventeen would be in Lexington, with seven each in Paducah and Piketon. Cleanup managers at each plant would be eliminated.

Roberson said in her memo that eliminating on-site managers and having the Lexington office report directly to her office rather than to Oak Ridge would remove two layers of management.

''These streamlining actions are expected to significantly improve communication, leadership, and progress at the sites,'' she wrote.

The reporters can be contacted at

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/news/state/4325899.htm
Posted on Sun, Oct. 20, 2002
Paducah plant celebrates 50 years
*SICK WORKERS, PROSPERITY MAKE FOR MIXED LEGACY*
*By Kimberly Hefling*
*ASSOCIATED PRESS*

*PADUCAH - *The sick workers come into the government's resource center pulling oxygen tanks and wearing hearing aids.

Some are skeptical. Others are angry. Many, sick and scared with tumors and incurable cancers, just want someone to listen to them.

This is the legacy of the Atomic Age. Unbeknownst to some at the time, workers were exposed to dangerous radioactive elements at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, the government would later admit.

Yet, the plant also has been an important economic engine, providing tens of thousands of workers with jobs through the years.

Some of the same sick people seeking help obtaining compensation from the government at Paducah's "sick workers office" say they would do it all again, said Stewart Tolar, site manager at the Energy Employees Compensation Resource Center.

The city will unveil murals painted on the Ohio River floodwall paying tribute to the plant's early workers as part of a 50th anniversary celebration of the plant.

The anniversary, Oct. 24, comes at a time when Paducah, population 27,000, is coming to terms with the plant's past as well as trying to ensure its future.

Opening the plant "was a major event in the history of the city," said Don Pepper, 78, a Paducah resident who moved to Paducah in 1951 to work as a reporter for the Paducah Sun. "It set the character of this city for a long time."

After U.S. Enrichment Corp., the plant's operator, last year almost completely suspended operations at a sister uranium plant in Ohio, the Paducah plant became the only place in the nation where uranium is enriched for the commercial nuclear industry. It employs more than 1,400 people, and is western Kentucky's top private employer. It is also one of the top employers in the state.

In 1950, the announcement that the plant would be built in western Kentucky was welcome news in the region, and native son Alben Barkley, vice president under Harry Truman, was praised for helping to secure it.

"When my grandfather put the place in, it was all new and no one knew what was going on," Barkley granddaughter Dottie Barkley said of the radioactive dangers the workers faced.

The then-equivalent of the chamber of commerce encouraged residents to take in workers to fill a housing shortage. There was an economic boom with new schools, churches and businesses constructed. Communities sprang up with names like "Cimota" -- "Atomic" spelled backward.

With the increase in demand for engineers and scientists at the plant, the middle and upper classes expanded in what had primarily been a railroad and river town.

"Everybody thought we were doing a necessary job to help our country," retired plant worker B.J. Bond, 75, said of the Cold War era, when workers helped enrich uranium for weapons. "I think it's one of the best things that's happened in the area. It's been the foundation of the financial community in the area for years."

The government long denied there was a link between cancer and the plant. If you filed a medical claim, it was a "David and Goliath" fight, said Jim Owens, a Paducah attorney involved with litigation against the government and private companies contracted to run the plant. The government's policy on claims was "fight them all," Owens said.

People like Joe Harding, a former plant worker, were denied significant compensation -- even though before he died of cancer in 1980, his bones contained 34,000 times the expected concentration of uranium.

In 1999 the government conceded that many uranium enrichment workers did get sick because of on-the-job exposure. Then-Energy Secretary Bill Richardson issued an apology in Paducah in 1999 to workers who may have been exposed to dangerous radiation.

An entitlement law later provided lifetime medical care and a tax-free lump sum of $150,000 to sick workers exposed to cancer-causing radiation and silica or beryllium, which can cause lung diseases.

Since the program began last year, about $62.8 million has been distributed to former and current workers and their survivors through the resource office in Paducah -- a majority of whom worked at the plant in Paducah, Tolar said.

"People come in here very sick. ... They feel like they've lost their dignity," Tolar said. After working with the center on the paperwork, "We've seen people who are able to buy cars, get out of debt, buy homes in better neighborhoods."

In addition to the health concerns of the workers, a 2000 report by the General Accounting office said the Energy Department estimated it would take 10 years and $1.3 billion more than the $400 million already spent to clean up environmental contamination around the plant.

Susan Zimmerman Guess, a former plant employee who is an organizer of the plant's 50th anniversary celebration, said the murals and other activities are meant to honor the workers at the plant and nearby facilities associated with the Paducah plant: TVA's Shawnee Steam Plant, Electric Energy Inc.'s Joppa Steam Plant and Honeywell's Metropolis (Ill.) UF6 Conversion Works.

Another purpose of the celebration is to draw attention to the community support as USEC weighs where to build a new plant using a technology known as centrifuge that is more efficient than the outdated gaseous diffusion process now used at Paducah, Guess said.

The former plant site in Piketon, Ohio, is also vying for the new plant.

"This community and this region has been supportive of the plant over the last 50 years," Guess said of Paducah. "The next technology should be located here in Paducah, McCracken County. That is a goal of ours for economic development purposes and long term viability of the community."

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/news/state/4325884.htm
Posted on Sun, Oct. 20, 2002
PLANT HISTORY

------------------------------------------------------------------------

December 1950: Kentucky Ordnance Works site in Paducah selected for new uranium enrichment plant.

December 1950: Carbide and Carbon Chemicals Co. (now Union Carbide) named to operate plant.

September 1952: First production cells go "on stream."

November 1952: Operator withdraws first product and ships it to Oak Ridge, Tenn.

Mid-1960s: Plant shifts from military to commercial focus, supplying enriched uranium to nuclear power plants.

April 1984: Martin Marietta Energy Systems Inc. takes over Union Carbide's operating contract for plant.

October 1992: Energy Policy Act creates United States Enrichment Corporation to take over government's uranium enrichment enterprise.

July 1993: USEC assumes responsibility of Paducah and Piketon, Ohio, uranium enrichment plants. The Department of Energy retains responsibility for environmental restoration and waste management activities resulting from its operations at the site.

July 1993: USEC contracts with Martin Marietta Utility Services, a newly created subsidiary of Martin Marietta, for operation and maintenance of enrichment plants.

June 1995: Lockheed Martin Corp. forms after merger of Lockheed and Martin Marietta corporations. Lockheed Martin Utility Services Inc. continues operation of USEC's Paducah and Portsmouth plants.

July 1998: USEC is privatized, becomes USEC Inc., an investor-owned corporation.

May 1999: USEC takes over direct operation of Paducah and Ohio gaseous diffusion plants.

September 1999: Then-Energy Secretary Bill Richardson issues an apology in Paducah in 1999 to workers who may have been exposed to dangerous radiation.

June 2000: USEC announces plan to consolidate all enrichment activity at Paducah by June 2001.

May 2001: USEC ceases enrichment activities at plant in Piketon, Ohio.

July 2001: Energy Employees Compensation Resource Center opens in Paducah for employees seeking federal compensation for cancers linked to working at the plant.

http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2002/10/20/ke102002s298168.htm
Paducah plant's future uncertain as it turns 50
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* By Nancy Zuckerbrod and Kimberly Hefling *
Associated Press

Photo
In this February 1952 photo, an administration building at the Paducah uranium-enrichment plant was under construction.

Photo
As part of the Gaseous Diffusion Plant's 50th anniversary, Paducah has commissioned murals on the Ohio River floodwall. The works pay tribute to the operation and its employees.

Associated Press photo

WASHINGTON -- As past and present workers of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant celebrate the Western Kentucky installation's 50th anniversary on Thursday, many wonder if the site will continue to provide the jobs they and their communities have come to depend on.

U.S. Enrichment Corp. operates the Energy Department plant in Paducah and is the only U.S. company that enriches uranium for the commercial nuclear industry.

USEC has signed an agreement with the government to build a new, more efficient plant within a decade in either Paducah or Piketon, Ohio, home to a now-closed uranium plant.

*MORE THAN 1,400 *people work at the Paducah plant, making it the largest private employer in that part of Kentucky. Leon Owens, president of a union local that represents plant employees, said the community would have a hard time economically if it does not get the replacement operation.

''The economic impact would be devastating,'' Owens said. ''It would have a ripple effect throughout this entire area.''

USEC plans to decide by the end of the year whether Paducah or Piketon will become home to a demonstration project aimed at showcasing the technology it plans to use, which is known as centrifuge.

The economic stakes for the Paducah area are high, as they were when the plant opened 50 years ago.

*OPENING THE PLANT* ''was a major event in the history of the city,'' said Don Pepper, 78, who moved to Paducah in 1951 to work as a reporter for the Paducah Sun. ''It set the character of this city for a long time.''

In 1950, the announcement that the plant would be built in Western Kentucky was welcome news, and native son Alben Barkley, vice president under Harry Truman, earned praise for helping to secure it.

The equivalent of the chamber of commerce encouraged residents to take in workers because of a housing shortage. There was an economic boom with new schools, churches and businesses constructed. Communities sprang up with names like ''Cimota'' -- ''Atomic'' spelled backward.

With the increase in demand for engineers and scientists at the plant, the middle and upper classes expanded in what had primarily been a railroad and river town.

''Everybody thought we were doing a necessary job to help our country,'' retired plant worker B.J. Bond, 75, said of the Cold War era when workers helped enrich uranium for weapons. ''I think it's one of the best things that's happened in the area. It's been the foundation of the financial community in the area for years.''

But the plant also brought problems.

The government long denied there was a link between cancer and the plant. But in 1999, the government conceded that many uranium-enrichment workers got sick because of onthe-job exposure.

An entitlement law later provided lifetime medical care and a tax-free lump sum of $150,000 to sick workers exposed to cancer-causing radiation and silica or beryllium, which can cause lung diseases.

*AND IN ADDITION* to the health concerns of the workers, a 2000 report by the General Accounting Office said the Energy Department estimated it would take 10 years and $1.3 billion more than the $400 million already spent to clean up environmental contamination around the plant.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
*The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant has ''been the foundation of the financial community in the area for years.'' *

*-- B.J. Bond, 75, a retired plant worker *

------------------------------------------------------------------------

As part of the 50th-anniversary celebration, Paducah will unveil murals painted on the Ohio River floodwall paying tribute to the plant's early workers.

Susan Zimmerman Guess, a former plant employee who is an organizer of the celebration, said the anniversary events also aim to draw attention to the community support as USEC weighs where to build the demonstration project and its new centrifuge plant.

*USEC HOPES* that by building a successful demonstration project, it will be better able to lure financial partners to help fund construction of the commercial plant. Analysts predict that will cost at least $1 billion.

Whichever community is chosen for the pilot project will have an edge, but not a guarantee, in the competition to win the commercial facility, according to USEC spokeswoman Elizabeth Stuckle.

Kentucky and Ohio officials are putting together financial incentive packages to win both the demonstration and commercial projects. The proposals are due to USEC by the end of the month.

J.R. Wilhite, commissioner of Kentucky's Department of Community Development, would not provide details about the state's proposal but said it would be competitive.

Stuckle said, ''We're going to be looking at which state provides the greatest economic incentives as well as other noneconomical factors.''

*OTHER FACTORS* that could affect the choice of a plant site include geology, existing infrastructure and electricity costs.

Paducah is near the New Madrid fault, which means additional money would be needed to make the plant secure in the event of an earthquake.

The existing gaseous diffusion technology heats uranium into a gas and then filters it to separate the desired lighter isotopes from the heavier ones. Experts say that technology is thought to be less vulnerable to earthquake damage than centrifuge, which takes place in tall, spinning cylinders that use gravity to separate uranium molecules.

Aanother factor that could work against Paducah is that the Ohio facility is home to existing buildings designed by the government in the 1980s for centrifuge technology but then abandoned. USEC could use those buildings if it selects the Ohio site, lowering its capital costs.

*STUCKLE SAID* low electricity rates at Paducah helped the company decide to keep that plant open and close the Piketon facility two years ago. While centrifuge uses less energy than gaseous diffusion, lower energy costs in coal-rich Kentucky could benefit Paducah's efforts to get the plant.

Wilhite said Paducah's current operations also help its bid.

''Paducah continues to be the sole uranium-enrichment operation for USEC,'' he said. ''They have a work force that they value and know the capability of, and those are tremendous strengths.''

In the end, the competition may not be just between Paducah and Piketon.

A consortium of U.S. and European companies has announced plans to build a uranium-enrichment plant in Tennessee by 2007. Should the group succeed, it remains to be seen whether there is room in the U.S. market for two such operations.

http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2002/07/31/ke073102s250937.htm

Paducah deal unlikely before tomorrow
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* By Nancy Zuckerbrod *
Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- It's unlikely Kentucky and the federal Energy Department will reach an agreement by tomorrow to dispose of waste at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant under the Bush administration's new accelerated cleanup program, but that deadline is no longer critical, state Natural Resources Secretary James Bickford said.

The Bush administration previously set the Aug. 1 deadline for states to enter into agreements with the department and qualify for extra funding under a program that would refocus attention on waste that poses the biggest threat to the environment.

The agency plans to spend $1.1 billion on the program nationally next year, besides $6 billion it plans to spend on overall cleanup efforts. Bickford said Jesse Roberson, DOE assistant secretary for environmental management, said at a recent meeting that this week's deadline was flexible.

Bickford said state and federal officials were still negotiating how to clean up Paducah more quickly. He said some consensus had been reached, and Gov. Paul Patton would provide details at a news conference in Paducah on Friday.

Some Kentucky lawmakers have expressed concern that Paducah could lose out on federal funding if it doesn't sign up for the Energy Department's accelerated program.

A Senate appropriations bill calls for Paducah to receive $134 million in cleanup funds next year, while a House bill calls for about $100 million in spending.

Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., said yesterday it might be hard to sustain the higher amount if the state does not enter into an agreement with the agency. ''This may jeopardize the $134 million (that) has been secured so far in the appropriations process,'' Bunning said.

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/news/state/3738058.htm

Posted on Fri, Jul. 26, 2002
Bill aims to benefit energy workers
*ASSOCIATED PRESS*

*PADUCAH - *A spending bill approved by a U.S. Senate committee would pay for an early cancer screening program for workers at three U.S. Department of Energy sites, including the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.

The Bush administration has attempted to cut funding for the program.

At the urging of Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Energy and Water Appropriations bill approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday included $5.2 million to pay for the three-year-old testing program.

McConnell said the money would be used to operate a mobile health unit to screen current and former workers for lung cancer. The health unit travels among DOE sites in Paducah; Portsmouth, Ohio; and Oak Ridge, Tenn.

The Bush administration had recommended only $1 million for the program, which would have caused major reductions in testing.

McConnell, R-Ky., said the health and safety of workers at Paducah should be the government's first priority.

"The workers deserve full access to early detection screening for lung cancer," he said. "This is an important step in recognizing the government's responsibility to the Paducah work force."

The bill must be approved by the Senate. If it passes, McConnell said, he would work to keep the higher funding in the final version of the bill crafted by a House-Senate conference committee.

Richard Miller -- a policy analyst for the Government Accountability Project, a Washington watchdog group -- said the effort by McConnell saved a portion of the program for early screening of certain at-risk workers.

"An assistant secretary was interested in rolling the program back and not doing as much testing," Miller said. "They used the argument they didn't want to expose workers to an unnecessary dose of radiation" they would receive through the testing.

He said there also were concerns about the trauma associated with false readings that would indicate early signs of cancer.

However, Miller said the radiation dose is small compared with the benefit of early detection of lung cancer.

"The program detects early signs of lung cancer in which the cure rate is 70 to 80 percent," he said. To wait until after signs of cancer appear reduces the cure rate, he said.

Also, he said "false positive" results are less than 20 percent, compared with 90 percent in testing for some other cancers.

Miller said the early testing program is voluntary and limited to those over 45 who worked in production areas and were smokers.

Since the early cancer screening program began, 3,100 former and current workers have been tested at the three sites. Of that number, 14 have been determined to have primary lung cancer, according to a report prepared by Dr. Steven Markowitz of the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems at Queens College in New York.

The report also said about 30 percent of the workers will require follow-up testing to monitor suspicious findings.

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/news/state/3647577.htm
Posted on Fri, Jul. 12, 2002
Radiation training in Paducah
PARTS OF PLANT WERE CONTAMINATED WHEN GOVERNMENT RAN IT
ASSOCIATED PRESS

PADUCAH - The operator of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant has
ordered workers to attend radiation training classes.

A spokeswoman for the United States Enrichment Corp., based in Bethesda,
Md., called the measure routine but said it is the first training day at
the plant since the mid-1990s.

The corporation leases parts of the plant from the U.S. Department of
Energy to produce uranium fuel for nuclear reactors.

Parts of the buildings and grounds were contaminated with radiation from
weapons operations or fuel reprocessing at the plant when it was run by
the government. But the contamination is not considered an imminent hazard.

"The stand-down will happen Friday," said Georgann Lookofsky, a plant
spokeswoman in Paducah. "There will be a designated time for managers to
sit down with workers face to face" to discuss safety.

Victoria Mitlyng, a spokeswoman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
office in Chicago, said an inspector found a number of issues "in the
radiation protection area" but they were "fairly minor" and "do not
represent a safety or health hazard to the public or to workers."

http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2003/08/30ky/wir-front-paducah0830-6920.html
U.S. joins lawsuit against uranium plant contractor
Company allegedly concealed hazards from government
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*By JAMES R. CARROLL
*jcarroll@courier-journal.com <mailto:jcarroll@courier-journal.com>
The Courier-Journal

WASHINGTON — Formally joining a whistleblower lawsuit as promised, the Department of Justice has accused a former Paducah uranium plant contractor of knowingly deceiving state and federal regulators for years about chemical and radioactive hazards.

The government alleged that a Lockheed Martin Corp. subsidiary violated federal environmental laws for 14 years by failing to properly determine whether the waste it was generating at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant was hazardous, illegally storing or burying a variety of dangerous chemicals at the facility, and shipping waste to other locations without required labeling.

The company failed to obtain proper permits, and from 1991 to 1998 "did not maintain and operate the (plant) in a manner that minimized the possibility of a fire, explosion or unplanned ... release of hazardous waste" that could threaten human health and the environment, the Justice Department charged in papers filed late Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky.

"No one can read this complaint and fail to appreciate what a serious lawsuit this is," said Joseph Egan, a suburban Washington attorney who represents the Natural Resources Defense Council and a group of current and former Paducah plant workers in a 4-year-old suit against Lockheed Martin. That suit claims Lockheed Martin collected $328million in fees, awards and bonuses during the 14 years its corporate predecessor or subsidiary operated the plant, from 1984 to 1998, for the Department of Energy.

The government's filing makes it the lead plaintiff in the case. Lockheed Martin has 30 days to file a reply.

"Lockheed Martin regrets that the Department of Justice has filed this complaint," company spokeswoman Gail Rymer said yesterday. "We strongly believe that the allegations are without merit. We will vigorously defend this lawsuit, and the facts of this case will prove that Lockheed Martin was not involved in any wrongdoing."

She added: "Throughout the period during which the corporation managed the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, we partnered closely with the Department of Energy representatives at the plant and ensured that actions and decisions with respect to environmental management or remediation were coordinated with, or approved by, the Department of Energy."

In whistleblower cases, the law allows the recovery of triple damages, which could approach $1billion in this case. In addition, the company could be charged between $25,000 and $27,500 per day for each violation of various environmental laws, plus $5,000 to $10,000 for each violation of laws against filing false claims with the government.
* UPDATE *
# A variety of hazardous waste has contaminated areas around the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant for years. The waste includes degreasing solvents that have contaminated groundwater, drums containing acid and other dangerous chemicals and scrap metal contaminated by radiation.

# Earlier this month, Gov. Paul Patton signed a letter of intent that state regulators expect will hasten the cleanup of older waste. The agreement with the U.S. Energy Department, which owns the 50-year-old Paducah plant, sets a timetable to complete major cleanup work by 2019.

The government said in late May that, after its own extensive investigation, it intended to join the earlier suit.

The government's complaint said that, starting in the early 1990s, company subsidiaries "submitted and caused to be submitted false and fraudulent statements, and concealed material information from the government" regarding environmental violations at the plant. The statements were used to get payments from the government, the complaint alleged. False statements about the disposal of various hazardous chemicals, including large quantities of a degreasing solvent called trichloroethylene, or TCE, also were aimed at avoiding state and federal penalties, the Justice Department said.

In 1990, when the Energy Department asked about the source of the TCE, which has substantially contaminated groundwater under and near the plant, the company responded that it was coming from "drippings" from enrichment equipment.

In fact, the government charged, the quantities of TCE were large and the company knew it.

Although it had no permits to do so, the company stored hazardous waste in at least 22 places on the plant grounds, according to the complaint. In one case, it said, the waste included a deteriorating drum of hydrofluoric acid, a container of two other strong acids, a container of nitric acid mixed with radioactive neptunium, and other chemicals including laundry bleach.

The government complaint also alleges that Lockheed Martin abandoned an effort to check certain stored wastes for radiation and inventory them. As a result, the complaint said, the government now is spending more money trying to determine what kinds of waste it is dealing with at various sites around the plant. Likewise, the government said, thousands of containers of hazardous waste have to be re-examined because the company failed to properly evaluate what was in them. Some of the containers were improperly stored or illegally dumped in landfills, the government said.

The government's action follows a four-year investigation during which the Justice Department, the FBI and the Environmental Protection Agency dug up large trenches to see what was in them. The agencies used ground-penetrating radar to search for buried drums and other contaminated debris.

Many former workers were interviewed, and computer records were seized by government agents. Investigators also pored over millions of pages of records.

http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2003/07/14ky/met-4-paducah07140-4907.html

Paducah plant workers receive medical testing
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Associated Press

PADUCAH, Ky. — James "Smoothy" Wilkerson is thankful for his $150,000 share of the more than $110 million paid to compensate sick Paducah nuclear workers.

He's even happier that a tiny tumor in his right lung was detected early by a scanner that sees lung images as thin as paper.

Wilkerson, 72, of South Fulton, Tenn., said the thousands of current and former workers at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant should take the government-paid tests that saved his life.

Comparing Wilkerson's second and third scans, technicians detected slight growth in a half-inch node in August 1991 and doctors removed the lower third of his right lung. Recent tests showed a recurrence. The whole lung may be removed if his other lung is healthy enough to compensate.

"Even if I lose the whole lung, I have a pretty good chance of survival," Wilkerson said. "An X-ray would never have seen it."

Funded by the Department of Energy, the plant Worker Health Protection Program is run locally by workers and retirees affiliated with Local 5-550 of Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International. Medical screening is done by local physicians working in concert with Queens College of Flushing, N.Y.

Dr. Steven Markowitz, a Queens College epidemiologist and head of the program, said 1,760 Paducah workers and retirees have been screened, out of which 1,188 have qualified for scanning based on age, smoking habits and job health factors that put them at high risk for lung cancer.

Four cases of lung cancer have been detected, two in the early stages. That is less than has been found at closed enrichment plants in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and Piketon, Ohio, but the results may be "statistical variations," he said.

Markowitz said 12 percent of the tested Paducah workers have indications of asbestos exposure, 15 percent have chronic bronchitis or emphysema and 70 percent have hearing loss.

"For people breathing hydrofluoric acid vapors at the plant and at the same time smoking, really their lung problem was caused by both," he said.

Wilkerson, who retired in 1994 after 37 years at the plant, said he smoked and helped clean equipment containing mildly radioactive, toxic uranium hexaluoride. The most dangerous component of toxic uranium hexaluoride is caustic hydrofluoric acid.

Wilkerson worked in a now-closed building where workers made toxic uranium hexaluoride and fed it into the plant's massive production buildings.

"We would clean the equipment up before the maintenance people would cut into it, but you couldn't get all the (hydrofluoric acid) out of it," he said. "You didn't have to be rocket scientist to know you didn't need to be breathing it."

An Energy Department investigation revealed three years ago that Paducah plant workers machined beryllium, a highly toxic metal, while dismantling nuclear weapons parts during the Cold War. As a result, beryllium testing has been added to the health screening program and workers with chronic beryllium disease quality for $150,000 compensation.

Markowitz said 1,107 current and former Paducah workers have been tested for beryllium exposure, which requires two positive tests to determine beryllium sensitivity. Thirty-four workers had one positive test and 28 of them had a second test. Of the 28, seven have shown beryllium sensitivity, which does not mean they have the disease but qualifies them for free medical screening the rest of their lives.

Wayne O'Keefe of Vienna, Ill., said he was diagnosed as beryllium-sensitive and recently had a free lung biopsy in Oak Ridge. Although he has some symptoms — stiff joints and hot flashes — associated with the disease, he has not yet been diagnosed as having it. Incurable but treatable by steroids, the malady can cause loss of lung function.

O'Keefe, 79, retired in 1985 after 28 years at the plant in two stints, the first starting in 1951 when construction began. He later worked in a building housing the machine shop. "I never heard of beryllium until they told me it was in my blood," he said.

Posted on Sun, Nov. 03, 2002
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/news/state/4433276.htm
Workers called to testify about Paducah plant
***ASSOCIATED PRESS*

*PADUCAH - *A lawyer who filed a "whistle blower" lawsuit alleging false environmental reports at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant said workers who may have witnessed violations have been subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury, The Paducah Sun reported yesterday.

Washington environmental lawyer Joe Egan told the newspaper he learned late Thursday that subpoenas were being issued for several current and former workers.

Lockheed Martin Corp., which operated the plant from 1982 to 1992, has strongly denied the allegations.

Harold Hargan of Pulaski County, Ill., who worked at the plant for 39 years, said he was notified late Friday that he will be subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury Wednesday morning in Louisville.

Hargan said that while working at the plant, he witnessed workers and supervisors diluting samples of chemicals and radionuclides for dumping purposes, leaving deteriorating drums of highly radioactive substances leaching into a ditch, handling a hazardous degreaser carelessly throughout the plant and drinking on the job.

He said his complaints about such activity were ignored and that he often was chastised for raising his concerns. "It looks to me they are finally looking into what went on," Hargan said.

Since retiring, Hargan has been outspoken about former plant operations and has talked with federal investigators who have been looking into allegations made in the suits, including the one filed by Egan.

One of the people with whom Hargan met was Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Campbell, who on Friday would not comment on whether a grand jury is being impaneled to investigate the claims.

He noted that it is the policy of the Department of Justice not to confirm or deny whether investigations were in progress.

Egan's suit received national attention, and Energy Secretary Bill Richardson came to Padu-cah and admitted that workers in the past had been exposed to toxic chemicals that caused illness and death.

Congress then approved a compensation program to pay sick workers $150,000 each.

Bill McMurry, a Louisville attorney who has filed a separate class-action suit seeking $10 billion for workers who became ill because of contamination at the plant, said he also had been informed that a grand jury will launch a criminal investigation.

"It is very refreshing that government officials are finally realizing the criminality of the conduct of those who have operated the plant," McMurry said.

WASHINGTON — People exposed to toxic chemicals while working at nuclear weapons plants, including the Paducah uranium plant in Kentucky, may have to wait at least seven years before getting compensation for their illnesses from a federal program, congressional investigators say.

The government has yet to start processing more than half the claims filed under the program, according to a preliminary report by the General Accounting Office that was obtained by The Associated Press.

The program, mandated by Congress three years ago, is supposed to help thousands of people who were exposed to toxins while working for Energy Department contractors. The most common illness is cancer.

Once medical experts determine that the illnesses are job-related, the department must help workers file claims under state worker compensation systems, according to the program. That is a reversal of a decades-old policy in which the department helped contractors fight claims.

The report found that the program does not have enough doctors to review claims and that the department was far short of its goal of moving 100 cases per week through the first stages of the process by last August. The department currently is processing only 40 a week, the report said.

Assistant Energy Secretary Beverly Cook said the department needs more money in order to better comply.

Cook said yesterday that the agency has asked Congress if it can spend an extra $9million this year on the compensation program, which has a $16million budget.

The department's own statistics show that only 74 out of approximately 19,000 people who filed claims under the program were told by medical experts whether their jobs made them sick.

Congressional investigators say it will take seven years for the department to process all pending cases. The backlog could worsen as more workers file.

Cook said the agency was making improvements, but noted that it is "a very difficult investigative process. ... It is labor intensive, because most of these records are not electronic."

Some lawmakers want the Labor Department to take over part of the program. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, attached an amendment to the Energy Department spending bill that, if approved, would let the Labor Department handle some claims processing.

Rep. Ed Whitfield, a Republican who represents Kentucky's 1st District, which includes the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, supports that idea, saying the Labor Department has more experience running compensation programs. "Legitimate claims for compensation should be processed in an efficient and timely manner," Whitfield said. "The Labor Department has the experience and know-how to get the job done."

Whitfield has introduced legislation requiring the government, rather than the federal contractors, to pay the claims for workers exposed to chemicals. That would be similar to a law requiring the government to pay $150,000 and medical costs for weapons workers sickened by cancer-causing radiation.

The Energy Department has no authority to pay the claims directly because the workers were employed by contractors, not the government.

Besides the staffing change, an Energy Department memo suggested opening an office in Lexington to oversee the work.

Facing opposition from local residents and Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning, the U.S. Department of Energy has backed away from a plan to cut the number of Paducah uranium plant cleanup workers by nearly half, from 13 to seven, and move management of the work to a new office in Lexington.