/C=US/A=_/P=USDOE/O=SNL/OU=B891C/OU=A1/S=Nusbaum/G=Anna_at_400-mail@saix367. sandia.gov, mycall@somnet.sandia.gov, CCMAIL.GDRIVER_at_nm-cc-hub@saix367.sandia.gov, movahle@somnet.sandia.gov Subject: Heads Up! 4/10/95 X-UIDL: 797622178.012
Heads Up! Monday, April 10, 1995 Employee Communications Dept. 12622 Editor: Howard Kercheval Phone: (505) 844-7842 Fax: (505) 844-0645
DOE In an April 4 letter to Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., on proposals for the interim stor- age facility at Yucca Mountain, Presi- dent Clinton says, "...I want to make it clear that at this time my administration cannot support any legislation currently before Congress." Clinton is subjecting all waste proposals to an interagency review.
DOE The Senate drive to reform the cleanup program at DOE's Hanford Site met strong resistance from Washington Sens. Slade Gorton, a Republican, and Patty Murray, a Democrat, who told the Energy and Natural Resources Committee that by chopping cleanup money in meat-ax fashion, Congress would be reneging on commitments to local communities threat- ened by radioactive pollution.
DOE The Nuclear Waste Strategy Coali- tion, consisting of electric utility execu- tives, state regulators, and attorneys gen- eral who want DOE's high-level nuclear waste disposal program to be privatized, are offering an amendment to legislation that would streamline repository devel- opment at Yucca Mountain and compen- sate utilities that must build additional on- site storage because of delays in the fed- eral disposal program.
INTL Czech President Vaclav Havel says for- mer communist countries are gaining momentum in their drive for NATO membership. Havel told Reuters that a year ago, NATO membership did not seem likely soon, but the strength of ar- guments by central European nations seems to be hastening that possibility.
INTL Some 200 carloads of aircraft missiles blew up several days ago at an ammuni- tion dump near the Chinese border in Russia's far eastern maritime region. Lo- cal civil defense officials said the incident was triggered by a forest fire, and that there were no casualties.
MISC The Environmental Protection Agency is- sued final "opt-in" rules for industrial boilers and other combustion units seeking to enter the sulfur dioxide allowance program. The rules apply to all stationary combustion units burning fossil fuels that are not already covered by the federal acid rain reduction program.
MISC Plant workers at the Hope Creek nuclear generating station outside Wilmington, Del. allowed radioactive vapor gener- ated by a plant decontamination process to escape through a plant vent last Wednes- day. Plant operators stressed that the re- lease did not pose a threat to public health and safety.
MISC The NASA Federal Laboratory Review Task Force report says austere budget re- alities require the space agency to "create a lean organization from top to bottom." The report focuses on preservation of NASA's critical programs, recom- mending continued work on astrophysics, space physics, and fundamental earth sci- ence at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Goddard Space Flight Center, but says research at other NASA centers should be evaluated for transfer or closure.
MISC The President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) has formed a Fusion Working Group to provide "thoughtful advice on the outlook for the fusion program." House and Sen- ate conferees on the FY95 Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill sought the working group because of the "large budgetary requirements" in fusion research. Lockheed Martin President and PCAST member Norm Augustine was selected to serve on the working group.
NB "Politics are almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times." -- Sir Winston Churchill
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