September 13, 2016 – Boston Globe – It’s too risky to wait for Pilgrim plant’s shutdown – The Pilgrim nuclear power plant in Plymouth isn’t aging gracefully, and that’s reason to worry. Twice in less than three weeks the reactor had to be shut down as a safety precaution. Last Tuesday, operators pulled the switch after detecting an unexpected fluctuation in water levels. The prior stoppage, which lasted four days, was prompted by a malfunctioning valve that’s supposed to keep radioactive steam from leaking. While the Nuclear Regulatory Commission says neither incident put employees or the public in danger, they lend more credence to critics’ calls for an expedited decommissioning of the 44-year-old plant, which is now scheduled to go offline in the spring of 2019. In announcing the impending closure last October, the plant’s owner, Louisiana-based Entergy Corp., said cheap natural gas and the many millions of dollars needed for safety upgrades made it too expensive to keep generating electricity from the shore of Cape Cod Bay. The decision was made public shortly after regulators classified Pilgrim as one of the three worst-run nuclear stations in the country.

September 13, 2016 – Register-Herald – Deputies investigating theft of gauge containing radioactive materials – Police are working to recover a piece of construction equipment that contains a small, sealed amount of radioactive material. A press release issued by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Monday said that a portable moisture-density gauge was stolen Sept. 10 from a Thrasher Engineering truck parked in Beaver. Raleigh County Sheriff Steve Tanner said police believe the incident is a simple burglary and the public is not at risk. “We expect this was stolen to be sold as a unit — that the point of the theft was to sell it as a piece of equipment — not for the nuclear material to be removed,” he said.

September 13, 2016 – Trend News Agency – S.Korea says Armenia poses nuke threat to entire region – The Armenian Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) poses a nuclear threat and the international community must assess that fact, Choe Chong-dae, president of Dae-kwang International Co., said in an article in The Korea Times. Choe Chong-dae, who is also director of the Korean-Swedish Association, said that Hrant Bagratyan, former prime minister of Armenia, stressed that Armenia has created nuclear weaponry. The author said that Bagratyan’s comments raise profound concern. “Armenian former prime minister’s comments should not be taken lightly, the author said. “Armenian citizens have played an instrumental role in smuggling nuclear and radioactive nuclear waste materials, as reflected in media reports exposing them.”

September 13, 2016 – Expatica – More cases of leukaemia around Mol-Dessel nuclear site – Children living within a 15 kilometre radius of the Mol-Dessel nuclear facility have between twice and three times more chance of contracting leukaemia than children living in other parts of the country. The figures come from study and appear in an article published in Monday’s edition of the daily ‘De Morgen’. However, despite the study showing that children in the area are statistically more likely to contract leukaemia, in absolute figures still only “a handful of children are affected”. The Mol-Dessel facility has produced, processed and stored nuclear material for many years. After a German study revealed that children living in the vicinity of nuclear facilities run a greater risk of cancer, it was decided to carry out a study in the area around Mol-Dessel. Moreover, the study, the results of which are published in the European Journal of Cancer Prevention says that a correlation has been found between the instances of leukaemia and distance from the site and the wind direction “into which radioactive gas would be emitted”.

September 13, 2016 – Wall Street Journal – EPA Proposes New Water Rules for Nuclear Emergencies – In the wake of a nuclear emergency, the Environmental Protection Agency thinks it would be acceptable for the public to temporarily drink water containing radioactive contamination at up to thousands of times normal federal safety limits. The agency is proposing this in new drinking-water guidelines for use in the weeks or months after a radiological event, such as a nuclear-power-plant accident or terrorist “dirty” bomb. The EPA has been looking for years at issuing drinking-water guidelines as part of a broader set of recommendations about what to do if radioactive material is released into the environment. Agency officials have said the 2011 accident at the Fukushima nuclear complex in Japan, where radiation was released, influenced their thinking on the matter.

September 13, 2016 – GovConWire – VPI Wins $165M Contract to Develop Radiological Detection Tech for Army – The U.S. Army has awarded VPI Technology Group a potential $165.2 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to help the military branch develop a radiological detection system. Nine bids were submitted to the Army Contracting Command for the contract through an online solicitation, the Defense Department said Monday. VPI will perform work through March 11, 2027 and the service branch will determine work locations and funds upon issuance of each order. Draper, Utah-based VPI designs, engineers and manufactures hardware and software platforms as well as offers professional services to support customers throughout the product life cycle.

September 13, 2016 – OpenPR – Non Destructive Testing Market to Cross US$ 22.0 Billion by 2022 – The Global Non Destructive testing market is projected to reach USD 22.20 Billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 7.80% from 2015 to 2022. Non Destructive Testing (NDT) is viewed as an essential need in commercial ventures, for example, in aviation industry, oil and gas industry, petroleum industry, and in construction sector. Developments in the NDT equipment market have expanded economically after the presentation of cutting edge X-ray equipment, for example, micro focus X-ray apparatuses, integrated X-ray tubes, glass X-ray tubes with window, radiation protected X-ray tools, etc. Over the past few years, demand for Non Destructive Testing (NDT) services has expanded rapidly.

September 13, 2016 – (e) Science News – New laser provides ultra-precise tool for scientists probing the secrets of the universe – Researchers have developed a new laser that makes it possible to measure electron transition energies in small atoms and molecules with unprecedented precision. The instrument will help scientists test one of the bedrock theories of modern physics to new limits, and may help resolve an unexplained discrepancy in measurements of the size of the proton. The team will present their work during the Frontiers in Optics (FiO) / Laser Science (LS) conference in Rochester, New York, USA on 17-21 October 2016. “Our target is the best tested theory there is: quantum electrodynamics,” said Kjeld Eikema, a physicist at Vrije University, The Netherlands, who led the team that built the laser. Quantum electrodynamics, or QED, was developed in the 1940s to make sense of small unexplained deviations in the measured structure of atomic hydrogen. The theory describes how light and matter interact, including the effect of ghostly ‘virtual particles.’ Its predictions have been rigorously tested and are remarkably accurate, but like extremely dedicated quality control officers, physicists keep ordering new tests, hoping to find new insights lurking in the experimentally hard-to-reach regions where the theory may yet break down.

September 13, 2016 – NBC Montana – Developers plan subdivision near Bozeman’s old landfill – The north side of Bozeman is a less developed area with more open fields and unpaved roads. It’s also where the old Bozeman landfill used to be and where one developer hopes to build more than a dozen homes. Residents like David Cook appreciate areas like Bozeman’s north side. He walks his dog at the East Gallatin Recreation Area and doesn’t like the idea of seeing construction there. “It is nice, quiet and peaceful. A lot of people are out here walking their dogs and enjoying the day. All that would change. Then you would have traffic, commotion, and people will be unhappy,” he said. A new subdivision with up to 20 lots is in the works. It would sit next to the East Gallatin Recreation Area. The park was site of the city’s landfill in the 1960s. Some studies show it’s emitting small amounts of radon, a naturally occurring contaminant. The city spent millions in a settlement earlier this year after residents near the Story Mill Landfill filed a lawsuit. Commissioners want to avoid that in the future and expressed concern at their Monday night meeting.

September 13, 2016 – News-Medical – Adolescent females have low rates of pregnancy screening prior to cancer treatment – A new study indicates that adolescent females with acute leukemia have low rates of pregnancy screening prior to receiving chemotherapy that can cause birth defects. The findings are published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. Although many chemotherapy drugs can cause birth defects, there are no standardized guidelines for pregnancy screening in adolescent female cancer patients and little is known about how often they are screened prior to treatment. To investigate, a team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia examined pregnancy screening patterns among adolescents with acute leukemia compared with adolescents with an emergency room (ER) visit who received computed tomography scans of the abdomen or pelvis. (In emergency medicine, pregnancy screening protocols exist for adolescents prior to receiving radiation due to known teratogenic risks of radiation.)

September 13, 2016 – American Free Press – Fukushima: The Nightmare Continues – Some global problems fade from our consciousness all too early. One example is the continuing environmental disaster resulting from the 2011 meltdown of nuclear power reactors in Fukushima, Japan. While some clean-up progress has been made, the overall status of one of the world’s most horrific atomic disasters continues to deteriorate, with no solution in sight. We are speaking here of radioactive poisoning of unimaginable proportions, and not just in Japan, as the Pacific Ocean continues to carry significant radiation levels wherever its currents reach. On land and sea, God’s creatures continue to show high exposure levels and ensuing harm. Yet Pacific Ocean fish is still sold in America and elsewhere without a warning label. Moreover, the Japanese tourism industry is pushing the “safety” of the surrounding, still highly radioactive region, and Fukushima itself is so “hot” that robots sent into the plant fail almost immediately. The Japanese government promotes the lie, too, as it wants to stop paying relocation monies to displaced citizens.

September 13, 2016 – The Guardian – Nigeria: How Ionising Radiation Damages Genetic Material, Causes Cancer – For the first time, researchers from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and their collaborators have been able to identify in human cancers two characteristic patterns of Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA)/genetic material damage caused by ionizing radiation. These fingerprint patterns may now enable doctors to identify, which tumors have been caused by radiation, and investigate if they should be treated differently. The results will also help to explain how radiation can cause cancer. Published in Nature Communications Monday, the results will also help to explain how radiation can cause cancer. Ionising radiation, such as gamma rays, X-rays and radioactive particles can cause cancer by damaging DNA. However, how this happens, or how many tumours are caused by radiation damage has not been known.

September 13, 2016 – The Republic – Radiation Detection, Monitoring and Safety Equipment Market Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Analysis To 2022 – Research Corridor has published a new research study titled “Radiation Detection, Monitoring and Safety Equipment Market – Growth, Share, Opportunities, Competitive Analysis and Forecast, 2015 – 2022”. The Radiation Detection, Monitoring and Safety Equipment market report studies current as well as future aspects of the Radiation Detection, Monitoring and Safety Equipment Market based upon factors such as market dynamics, key ongoing trends and segmentation analysis. Apart from the above elements, the Radiation Detection, Monitoring and Safety Equipment Market research report provides a 360-degree view of the Radiation Detection, Monitoring and Safety Equipment industry with geographic segmentation, statistical forecast and the competitive landscape. Browse the complete report at http://www.researchcorridor.com/radiation-detection-monitoring-safety-equipment-market/

September 13, 2016 – Birmingham Business Journal – Phoenix Energy submits $38M bid for Bellefonte Nuclear Plant – The Nevada-based Phoenix Energy submitted a $38 million bid for the Bellefonte Nuclear Plant near Hollywood – a fraction of the facility’s $5 billion overall investment. The company originally offered to buy the plant outright for the same amount as its bid for the site, but the Tennessee Valley Authority, which manages the facility, insisted the plant sell at auction instead. The company intends to use the facility for a new type of magnetic inductive power generation known as induction energy fuel conversion after investing a few hundred million dollars.

September 13, 2016 – CTV News – Amherstburg looks to update nuclear protocols – The Town of Amherstburg is looking to update its nuclear protocols in order to better align with industry standards. Officials say there are some gaps in the official emergency management program, one of which is the size of the primary zone. The current zone is 23 kilometres from Fermi, but stateside where the reactor is located, the zone is 16 kilometres. Amherstburg is looking for clarification on the standard. The Town is also looking to get more financial compensation from Detroit Edison, the owners of Fermi. It currently collects $25,000 each year to pay for training, staff, and facilities.

September 13, 2016 – BDlive – Nuclear industry welcomes request for proposals – THE Nuclear Industry Association of SA (Niasa) has welcomed the request for proposals for the nuclear procurement programme. In a statement issued on Friday, the nuclear trade association said it supported the calls for transparency in the nuclear programme but wanted local content and the development of skills to be considered as founding principles when venders were selected. “The nuclear project will not only support industry and create much-needed employment, it will also create a platform upon which our economy can grow and develop,” said Niasa director Knox Msebenzi.

September 13, 2016 – Gulf News – South Korea earthquake triggers nuclear safety concerns – Two earthquakes that jolted South Korea on Monday night, including the largest ever recorded in the country, prompted concerns about the safety of nuclear plants clustered in the quake-prone southeast. Korea’s Meteorological Agency said the two earthquakes, of magnitude of 5.1 and 5.8, occurred near the city of Gyeongju. They could be felt in the capital Seoul, over 300km to the northwest. Fourteen people were injured but there were no reports of serious damage, a Ministry of Public Safety and Security official said. Nonetheless, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co shut down four nuclear reactors at the Wolsong complex in Gyeongju as a precaution.

September 13, 2016 – NRDC.org – Expansion of the National Source Tracking System – In the wake of September 11th attacks, lawmakers and nuclear policy experts raised concerns over the possibility of terrorists using radioactive materials to construct radioactive dispersal devices – to try to harm people, damage cities and cause chaos and panic by blowing up stolen radioactive materials. These concerns strengthened the need for secure management and tracking of sealed radioactive sources which are abundantly used in various industries. A sealed radioactive source is radioactive material that is used as an ionizing radiation source (a radiation source with enough energy to overcome the binding energy of electrons in atoms or molecules) for a specific product or device – and that source is permanently sealed in a capsule or bonded in a solid form. The capsule of a sealed radioactive source is designed to prevent the radioactive material from escaping or being released from encapsulation under normal usage and probable accident conditions. In most cases, a sealed radioactive source is installed in a device that is designed either to allow the source to move safely out of the shielded device to where the radiation beam is used and to be returned to the shielded device after the operation is complete, or to allow a beam of radiation to be released from the device while maintaining shielding around the source.

September 13, 2016 – Katrina Pitas on the NNSA, producing Mo-99 and the future of SHINE Medical Technologies – SHINE Medical Technologies, a Monona, Wisconsin-based medical isotope manufacturer founded in 2010, announced back in October 2015 that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) had recommended approval of its construction permit for a new production facility in Janesville, Wisconsin. The facility is being built for the production of molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) without highly enriched uranium. Katrina Pitas, vice president of business development for SHINE, is in St. Louis this week to speak at the 2016 Mo-99 Topical Meeting. While preparing for her presentation, Pitas took time to speak with Health Imaging about what SHINE has been up to this year and what she will be discussing at the meeting.

September 13, 2016 – Cleveland.com – Davis-Besse reactor shut itself down over the weekend, no injuries or radioactivity reported – Davis-Besse engineers and electricians are wrapping up repairs to the electrical controls of the nuclear power plant’s generator today following an automatic shutdown over the weekend. In a routine filing with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, FirstEnergy reported that the reactor automatically and instantly shut itself down early Saturday morning after the plant’s main generator shut itself off.

September 13, 2016 – UKProgressive.co.uk – Fukushima Backlash Hits PM Abe – Nuclear power may never recover its cachet as a clean energy source, irrespective of safety concerns, because of the ongoing saga of the meltdown in March 2011 at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Over time, the story only grows more horrific, painful, deceitful. It’s a story that will continue for generations to come. Here’s why it holds pertinence: As a result of total 100% meltdown, TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) cannot locate or remove the radioactive molten core or corium from the reactors. Nobody knows where it is. It is missing. If it is missing from within the reactor structures, has it burrowed into the ground? There are no ready answers.

September 13, 2016 – Scoop – Will Christie Whitman Apologise for Her Nuke Shill Game? – Soon after the 9/11 terror attacks 15 years ago today, then-US EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman assured New Yorkers the air was safe to breathe. Today she has issued a “heartfelt” apology, admitting that her misleading advice caused people to die. But will she also apologize for pushing lethal atomic reactor technologies that could kill far more people than 9/11?

September 13, 2016 – Aiken Standard – Elite professionals handle nuclear cleanup – The men and women working to clean up the inactive PuFF facility are an elite team of experienced professionals. Called “the Dream Team” by facility management, the crew was handpicked to take on one of the site’s riskier environmental management cleanup activities. As the field activities associated with the cleanup of the inactive Plutonium Fuel Form (PuFF) facility in Building 235-F enters its second year, the risk reduction approach is paying off. To reduce the risk of a facility fire, the team has been able to safely and efficiently remove and control fixed combustibles, upgrade the fire detection system, and de-energize unneeded electrical circuits. To aid removal of materials from the cells and support material characterization, the team is draining and cleaning shield cell windows after their partial disassembly, installing lighting and mechanically isolating the cells. The 18-member crew was chosen primarily for their experience in handling radioactive materials, which – for most of the crew – came during the SRS transuranic waste, or TRU, campaign. TRU wastes typically consist of protective clothing, tools, rags, equipment and miscellaneous items contaminated with small amounts of plutonium.

September 13, 2016 – New York Ties – Unfinished Nuclear Plant, 4 Decades and $5 Billion Later, Will Be Sold – After spending more than 40 years and $5 billion on an unfinished nuclear power plant in northeastern Alabama, the nation’s largest federal utility is preparing to sell the property at a fraction of its cost. The utility, the Tennessee Valley Authority, has set a minimum bid of $36.4 million for its Bellefonte Nuclear Plant and 1,600 surrounding acres of waterfront property on the Tennessee River. The deal includes two unfinished nuclear reactors, transmission lines, office and warehouse buildings, eight miles of roads and a 1,000-space parking lot. Initial bids are due Monday, and at least one company has expressed interest in the site, with plans to use it for alternative energy production. But the utility is not particular about what the buyer does — using the site for power production, industrial manufacturing, recreation or even residences would all be fine, said Scott Fiedler, an agency spokesman.