• Federal Funds Support New Nuclear Licenses
  
• 2,618 Fish Consumption Advisories Issued in 2001
  
• California State Fish Gets Endangered Review
  
• Mining Company Must Get License for Dams
  
• Successful Satellite Programs Monitor Earth
  
• Deep Drilling Monitors for California Earthquakes
  
• Indiana Bats Protected During Airport Expansion
  
• Tiny Nuclear Detector Produced at DOE Lab
  
• Georgia-Pacific Addresses Wisconsin PCBs
  

Federal Funds Support New Nuclear Licenses

The government will provide about $17 million to help the utilities apply for permits for new plants on land they already own, and which already support commercial nuclear power plants.

Virginia based Dominion Energy, Louisiana based Entergy, and Illinois based Exelon, with the DOE's help, will seek Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approval for three sites that will serve as demonstration projects for the department's Nuclear Power 2010 initiative, announced in February by Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.

The Nuclear Power 2010 initiative is designed to pave the way for new nuclear power plants with advanced safety characteristics to be built in the United States by the end of the decade.

"As a clean, affordable and reliable energy source, nuclear energy is important to the nation's future energy supply," Abraham said. "These public private partnerships are the first step toward seeing that new, safe nuclear plants are built in this country by 2010. By working with these utilities to put potential nuclear plant sites through the rigorous Nuclear Regulatory Commission Early Site Permit (ESP) process, we will remove one more barrier to seeing the nuclear option fully revived in the United States."

Dominion Energy will seek approval of an ESP application for the North Anna site in Virginia; Entergy will seek approval of the Grand Gulf site in Mississippi, and Exelon will seek approval of the Clinton site in Illinois. The utilities expect to submit applications by fall 2003, for NRC approval by mid-decade.

The Early Site Permit process was established by the NRC in 1989 for utilities to complete the site evaluation element of the process to license a nuclear power plant before the decision is made to build a plant. Once issued, an Early Site Permit is valid for up to 20 years and can be used in conjunction with a Design Certification to seek a Construction and Operating License.

With such a permit approved, a utility or other applicant can proceed with a license application to the NRC, providing a more predictable and streamlined process toward building a new nuclear power plant.

As part of the Nuclear Power 2010 initiative, the administration proposes to invest a total of $38.5 million in fiscal year 2003 on advanced nuclear power plant research and demonstrations of ESP permitting.

2,618 Fish Consumption Advisories Issued in 2001

That number represents a 107 percent increase from the 1,266 advisories issued in 1993, the first year that the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) compiled an annual list of fish advisories.

"Today I am commending the states for increasing their efforts in this very important public health initiative," said EPA Administrator Christie Whitman. "Although fish are a healthy part of our diet and fishing is an all American recreational pastime, some individuals, such as pregnant women and small children, may need to limit their intake of certain noncommercial fish."

"We are continuing to reach out to communities by helping the states issue fish consumption advisories," Whitman added.

Whitman reported that the EPA and the U.S. Public Health Service have distributed outreach materials to about 200,000 health care providers throughout the country, to alert their patients to possible contaminants in fish.

States can issue one or several types of fish advisories. For example, some advisories recommend no or limited consumption of some types of fish, while others may recommend certain preparation and cooking methods to reduce risk.

An advisory may be targeted to the population at large or to specific groups, such as pregnant women or children. It may also be limited to certain sizes or species of fish, or may apply to fish caught in a particular section of a waterway or to all waterways.

Although there are advisories for a total of 39 chemical contaminants, most advisories involved five primary contaminants: mercury, PCBs, dioxins, DDT and chlordane. Last year, the number of advisories increased for PCBs and DDT, and decreased for mercury, dioxins and chlordane.

All of these compounds can accumulate in fish tissues in amounts many times higher than their concentrations in water and are passed up through the food chain.

Almost 75 percent of the advisories have been issued at least in part because of mercury contamination. The 2,618 advisories in the national listing represent about 28 percent of the nation's total lake acreage and 14 percent of the nation's total river miles.

About 79,119 lakes and 485,205 river miles are under advisory, as well as all of the Great Lakes and their connecting waters. There are also various advisories in many other waterways, including Lake Champlain, the Chesapeake Bay watershed and 20 national estuaries.

Twenty-eight states have statewide advisories, up five states from 2000.

Whitman also announced the release of a special edition of the "Should I Eat the Fish I Catch?" brochure in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Clean Water Act.

A listing of the 2001 National Listing of Fish and Wildlife Advisories is available at: http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/fish

California State Fish Gets Endangered Review

Trout Unlimited (TU) petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), a division of the Interior Department, to list the California golden trout as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act in October 2000. In November 2001, TU sued the USFWS in an attempt to force action on its petition.

By law, the USFWS must decide whether or not a listing petition has merit within 90 days of receiving it. A listing decision is then made within a year of the decision that a petition has merit. On Friday, the U.S. District Court in San Francisco ordered the USFWS to make a decision on the petition.

"Trout Unlimited is, as a rule, disinclined to litigate, but we have exhausted all other options and there is a certain urgency to this situation," said Steve Trafton, TU's California policy coordinator. "Golden trout could very well face extinction if they had to wait for the Fish and Wildlife Service to get to our petition, and the fact is we've lost nearly two years already since we filed for listing. Neither we nor the state fish can afford to lose more time."

The California golden trout is native to just two streams, the South Fork of the Kern River and Golden Trout Creek, in the rugged Sierra Nevada range just south of Mt. Whitney. Non-native trout stocked into these watersheds threaten to interbreed with and hybridize the golden trout, and livestock grazing continues to damage habitat, despite last year's well publicized removal of cattle from the area grazed by former permittee Anheuser-Busch.

"The court's decision reaffirms that the Service must honor its obligation under the law to confront the science and determine whether our state fish is in danger of extinction and in need of protection," said Greg Loarie, attorney for Earthjustice, representing TU in the case.

Mining Company Must Get License for Dams

In its decision published today, FERC found that many of the power lines and other facilities used to transmit the water and electricity exist on federal lands, one of the conditions requiring federal dam licensing. Homestake Mining Company has been operating the two dams for about 80 years in Spearfish Canyon with no license.

The Spearfish Creek cuts a spectacular gorge through western South Dakota with bluffs from 600 to 1,000 feet high looming over the river gorge below. Little Spearfish Creek, a tributary of Spearfish Creek, was the site of some of the most outstanding scenery from the movie "Dances With Wolves."

The creek is one of the only places where species common to both the prairie and the Rockies are found in the same place.

The Homestake Mining Company's dams divert river water into pipes for hydropower, draining almost 20 miles of river and creek. In 2000, Earthjustice attorney Jay Tutchton took legal action to force FERC to order Homestake to get a federal license for the dams.

Earthjustice and its clients succeeded in convincing the federal government that Homestake's pre-1930 permits were no longer valid and therefore Homestake will have to get a current license for its power plants. Licensing of the dams is expected to force modifications in dam operations to require the return of at least some water to portions of the river that the dams have left high and dry.

"We're hopeful that forcing Homestake into the modern era will force the return of water into Spearfish Creek," said Earthjustice attorney Jay Tutchton. "These outdated power plants should be preserved as historic structures but the public is much better served by having a free flowing river."

Earthjustice represented two conservation groups - Action for the Environment and The Spearfish Canyon Preservation Trust - in this case.

Successful Satellite Programs Monitor Earth

The Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite was launched to test the new technology and confirm that it was suitable for a long term satellite mission, such as the next generation of Landsat satellites.

"EO-1 has been a very successful mission. It has remained fully functional since launch and has now produced over four times the volume of imagery originally expected," said Bryant Cramer, EO-1 Implementation Manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

Two instruments in particular, Hyperion, the world's only hyperspectral satellite sensor utilizing 220 bands of the spectrum, and the Advanced Land Imager (ALI), a lightweight, high performance, multi-spectral sensor, have already proven their use in monitoring the Earth's surfaces.

The Hyperion instrument enables scientists to distinguish the types of plant communities, such as hardwood bogs, mixed conifers and spruce swamplands, growing in a particular region. The Hyperion data can indicate healthy grasslands and dormant vegetation, and can distinguish riverbeds from brush, paved and dirt road surfaces, and planted areas, down to the details of what type of crop or species of tree is growing.

Some of the results from the ALI technology include a sharp image of the path of the La Plata, Maryland tornado from May 2002.

On Monday, a new environmental satellite that will improve weather forecasting and monitor environmental events around the world soared into space from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 17 spacecraft is the third in a series of five Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites with instruments that will provide improved imaging capabilities over the next 10 years.

Meanwhile, NASA's newest Earth Observing System satellite, Aqua, is providing data and engineering images. After more than six weeks in orbit, the spacecraft and its six instruments are almost midway through their checkout period and are performing well.

"These engineering images are great, which tells us that we have a healthy spacecraft and all instruments are performing nominally. Everything indicates that we are on schedule to go operational in early September," said Phil Sabelhaus, Aqua's project manager at the Goddard Space Flight Center.

A sea surface temperature map created by Aqua shows the high level of detail the satellite's microwave imager will provide even through cloud cover.

"After years of preparation on Aqua, I and hundreds of other scientists are thrilled to have the spacecraft launched and its Earth observing instruments sending down high quality data," said Claire Parkinson, the Aqua project scientist at NASA Goddard. "If all goes as planned, these data will lead to improved weather forecasts and a better understanding of Earth's climate system - especially the role of water in it."

Information about NASA's Earth Science programs is available at: http://www.earth.nasa.gov

Deep Drilling Monitors for California Earthquakes

When drilling is completed this summer, the research team - spearheaded by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Stanford University - will make field and laboratory measurements and install a variety of underground instruments that will help scientists better predict the timing and severity of earthquake activity along the 800 mile long fault.

"One important goal of the Parkfield Experiment is to try to catch a moderate earthquake," said Stanford geophysicist Mark Zoback. "The last 6.0 quake struck Parkfield in 1966, so right now we're overdue."

The project will provide geological data for an even more ambitious drilling project called the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) - a parallel borehole designed to cross the fault some 2.4 miles below the surface. If approved by Congress, SAFOD would be the first underground earthquake observatory to penetrate an active fault zone.

The Parkfield drill rig at night. (Photo courtesy USGS)

"The pilot hole is really a warm up exercise for SAFOD," Zoback explained. "It was conceived about a year ago as a way to begin studying the upper crust adjacent to the fault zone, while at the same time helping us identify earthquake targets for SAFOD."

Zoback, along with geophysicists Stephen Hickman and William Ellsworth of the USGS Earthquake Hazards Team in Menlo Park, California, are longtime proponents of the Parkfield drilling effort.

When drilling is completed, researchers will lower instruments into the hole to measure stress, fluid pressure, heat flow and other properties to characterize the geologic environment of the San Andreas Fault Zone and to determine the amount of stress required to make the fault slip. They will then install an extensive array of seismometers and other instruments in the hole to help study and locate earthquakes within the fault zone that will be targets for later SAFOD drilling.

"The earthquakes that occur here are quite remarkable," Ellsworth said. "Many of them recur time and time again with near clocklike regularity. The pilot hole instruments will give us a powerful new tool for understanding what makes them tick."

Indiana Bats Protected During Airport Expansion

The Indiana bat Habitat Conservation Plan, unveiled Monday by state and local officials and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (UFSWS), will provide long term conservation for the Indiana bat and will allow for airport expansion, commercial development and road construction in wooded areas where Indiana bats roost and search for food.

The plan provides for restoration of additional forested areas bats need to survive and permanent protection for key blocks of bat habitat.

Female Indiana bats roost with their young in large trees and hunt for insects in forested areas. A maternity colony of about 150 female bats and their young roost on and near Indianapolis International Airport land each summer.

Planned airport expansion - including the new Six Points interchange on Interstate 70, associated road construction, and related commercial development - will impact a wooded area used by the colony.

The plan will provide permanent protection for 373 acres of existing bat habitat, and planting and protection of 346 additional acres of hardwood trees used by Indiana bats. Wildlife managers will monitor the Indiana bat population in the project area for 15 years, monitor planted trees for five years, and provide for public education and outreach.

In return for developing the plan, the USFWS has issued an incidental take permit allowing for the accidental harming or killing of Indiana bats during the airport expansion.

"What could have been the proverbial train wreck - a clash between progress and conservation of endangered species - is instead a remarkable example of partners searching for ways to achieve vastly different goals," said William Hartwig, director of the USFWS Great Lakes-Big Rivers region.

"This agreement will help preserve and protect our local Indiana bat population now and into the future," added Indianapolis International Airport project director John Kish. "It's good for the Indianapolis airport, good for central Indiana travelers, good for the environment and good for the Indiana bat. This agreement helps ensure that airport expansion will be done in a environmentally responsible way."

Listed in 1967, Indiana bats were among the first animals identified as endangered under a law that preceded the current Endangered Species Act. Indiana bats numbering in the millions were once found throughout the eastern United States, hibernating in caves and spending summer months in forested areas.

"Although many of us may never see an Indiana bat, these shy, gentle creatures have a fascinating life history and play a critical role in the human environment," Hartwig said. "Measures like the Habitat Conservation Plan can help us keep this species from extinction while ensuring that needed development proceeds."

Tiny Nuclear Detector Produced at DOE Lab

When fully developed, the device could assist international inspectors working to prevent terrorists from smuggling or using nuclear weapons and materials.

The heart of the Argonne device is a small wafer of gallium arsenide (GaAs), a semiconducting material similar to silicon. When coated with boron or lithium, GaAs can detect neutrons, such as those emitted by the radioactive materials that fuel nuclear weapons.

The wafers are small, require less than 50 volts of power and operate at room temperature. They also can withstand high radiation fields and do not degrade over time.

This small wafer could become the key component in small, portable detectors for finding concealed nuclear weapons and materials. (Argonne National Laboratory photo)

The key to detection, he said, is to coat the gallium-arsenide with something like boron or lithium. When neutrons strike the coating, they produce a cascade of charged particles that is easy to detect.

The wafers are made by inexpensive, conventional microchip processing techniques, Klann said. They can be altered for specific applications by varying the type and thickness of the coating.

Compared to other neutron detectors, Klann's have a number of advantages. One common type of neutron detector is based on a tube of gas, which is ionized when neutrons pass through the tube. These detectors are larger in size and require more power than the GaAs detector.

Another common neutron detector uses silicon semiconductors. Compared to the GaAs wafer, silicon based detectors use more power, require cooling and degrade faster when exposed to radiation.

Klann's team also found that detection is improved by etching the wafer with cylindrical holes, like the dimples on a golf ball.

"We're testing various coating materials and thicknesses," Klann said, "as well as various combinations of hole sizes and spacings to find the best configurations for specific applications."

Klann's group has built and demonstrated prototype detectors, and Argonne is now looking for commercial partners interested in developing the detectors for the commercial marketplace.

Georgia-Pacific Addresses Wisconsin PCBs

On Monday, the natural resources trustees for the Lower Fox River a proposed settlement with the Fort James Operating Company, a subsidiary of the Georgia-Pacific Corporation, for damages to the environment caused by widespread contamination of the Fox River and Green Bay with PCBs.

The trustees are the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin, Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin and, representing federal agencies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (UFSWS).

The basis for the agreement is several restoration and recreation projects chosen from a comprehensive list created by the trustees working with local communities, organizations and individuals over the past several years. The projects in the settlement represent the priority requests sought by the affected communities.

Among the proposed projects are the acquisition of 1,063 acres of threatened habitat on the west shore of Green Bay including about 900 acres along the shores of the Peshtigo River, giving the state almost contiguous shoreline ownership from Peshtigo to the mouth of the river at Green Bay. Also included are 75 acres of Green Bay shoreline just south of the mouth of the Peshtigo River, about 50 acres near Long Tail Point and within the Green Bay West Shore Wildlife Area, and about 38 acres near the Suamico River and adjoining the Sensiba Wildlife Area.

The land acquisitions will be managed to protect and restore wetland ecosystems that provide habitat for red-shouldered hawks, osprey, beaver and other species, foraging territory for bald eagles, northern harriers, Forster's terns and common terns. The waterways they contain provide spawning areas for northern pike and forage fish, and nursery areas for fish, waterbirds and shorebirds.

"The set of projects in this agreement are very significant in assuring the long term protection and restoration of the Lower Fox River and Green Bay ecosystem," said DNR secretary Darrell Bazzell. "This settlement is also significant in that it represents both a spirit of cooperation among the trustees and the kind of ongoing progress that everyone wants to see in the restoration and cleanup of the Lower Fox River and Green Bay."

A number of recreation projects, including new river front trails, construction of a nature center, and improvements to waterfront facilities, would also be funded under the agreement.