Press Pieces

The next scheduled update of this page is Tuesday, September 7, 2010.  Have a safe holiday weekend!

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The following are a few recent news items that involve radiation or radioactivity in some form or another.  They are unedited articles or excerpts.  Because very few (if any) have been through any form of scientific review, their technical validity and accuracy should not be taken for granted.  Please give Integrated Environmental Management, Inc. (IEM) a call if you would like some additional insights. (You may wish to press your "reload" button to be sure you are seeing the most current collection.)

September 2, 2010 - Prague Post - Temelín report draws doubts - Energy giant CEZ has defended the four-reactor Temelín, calling nuclear power the only viable option. The government of the neighboring Upper Austria region is preparing legal action over an environmental impact assessment (EIA) carried out on the planned expansion of the Temelín nuclear power plant, branding the study a "farce" that contravenes European Union law. It is the latest in a string of cases taken in recent years by the region against the Czech plant, which lies just 60 kilometers from the Austrian border. The latest dispute is over plans to add two new reactors to the south Bohemian facility. A coalition of Czech environmental NGOs also opposes the plans, calling the expansion "absolutely good for nothing." In May, the partially state-owned energy supplier CEZ, which operates the plant, delivered a 500-page environmental impact assessment (EIA) to the Environment Ministry. The report, which has been circulated to local communities and neighboring countries, including Austria, found that the additional reactors would not harm the environment.

September 2, 2010 - Morning Journal - NASA says safety a priority in decommissioning reactor - The walls keep tumbling down at the site of NASA Plum Brook Station’s test nuclear reactor. Contractors have razed four buildings and will recycle more than a half million pounds of metal from demolition that took place this spring and summer, according to the space agency. “We’re getting a lot done this summer,” Program Manager Keith Peecook said. “These are exciting times.” For years NASA has worked on the process of decommissioning the reactor — taking it apart piece by piece and building by building. When the weather turned warm this year, heavy equipment tore into the Services Equipment Building, which contained water, air and electrical controls, and a laboratory when the nuclear reactor was operational. Next on the tear-down list will be the reactor office and lab building, leaving only the reactor building, hot lab and primary pump house standing. Those buildings will be demolished next year.

September 2, 2010 - Rockford Register Star - Loves Park takes steps to clean radium from new well - City officials suspected they’d have to contend with radium when they drilled their newest well about three years ago. They were right. The City Council took the first steps Monday to reduce radium levels in that well — called Well No. 6 — which is located near Sportscore Two on Riverside Boulevard. The council approved a $115,000 contract with Baxter & Woodman Consulting Engineers of Crystal Lake for engineering services related to the required radium removal. The radium in the water does not pose a health threat for residents, said Dan Jacobson, director of public works and development, but levels must be lowered to meet standards of the Environmental Protection Agency. “We knew that we would likely encounter it when we drilled the well at that location,” Jacobson said. “It’s very typical of these deep wells. … It’s in the same general area as several of the Rockford wells that have had the same issue.” Radium is a naturally occurring radioactive metal found primarily in the northern third of the state within the deep rocks, soil and groundwater, according to the Illinois EPA. It can’t be seen or smelled in water.

September 2, 2010 - Penn Energy - Rosatom launches charm offensive to promote nuclear trade - Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned atomic power corporation, has launched an international charm offensive as the country’s most secretive and controversial industry attempts to come in from the cold, reports the Financial Times. In a rare meeting with foreign media last week, Sergei Kiriyenko, a former Russian prime minister and now president of Rosatom, outlined plans for the company to become a leading international player as nuclear power enjoys a surge in demand. “We want to double in size,” he told reporters in Toronto. Like the Gazprom and Russian Railways monopolies, Rosatom is a former ministry, converted into a state corporation in 2007. If the Kremlin achieves its ambitions, Rosatom could become to global nuclear power what Gazprom is to the natural gas industry. But as it looks outwards, Rosatom is burdened by the forbidding legacy of its Soviet past, including the catastrophic Chernobyl accident that cast a pall on the nuclear power industry for 20 years. More recently, Rosatom’s partnership with Iran at the Bushehr nuclear power plant has also provoked US antagonism. Mr Kiriyenko admitted that Russia’s reputation in nuclear power was “not the best”, and described steps taken to improve transparency, including the separation of civil and military aspects of the business and a new law allowing foreign investment. Rosatom is now looking for foreign partners across the full nuclear cycle, including uranium mining and enrichment, fuel assembly and nuclear reactor design and supply. “The most rational way to develop is to build global alliances,” Mr Kiriyenko said.

September 2, 2010 - Associated Press - Tritium Monitoring Continues At Vermont Yankee - The Vermont Yankee nuclear plant is checking a former drinking water well to make sure it hasn't been contaminated with radioactive tritium. William Irwin, radiological health chief at the state Health Department, says the 360-foot-deep well that supplied the plant until the well was closed in February is the closest drinking water supply to where tritium has been found. But Irwin said Wednesday that the chances of tritium contamination are still slim. He says tritium at the site has been found at a depth of 25 to 30 feet, while the drinking water well is 12 times as deep. The plant has been digging monitoring and extraction wells since January, when it was announced that tritium, a radioactive substance linked to cancer, had been found on the plant site.

September 2, 2010 - Associated Press - Los Alamos lab gets OK to design waste facility - Los Alamos National Laboratory has obtained federal approval to begin design of a new transuranic waste staging facility. The approval came Wednesday from the U.S. Department of Energy. The new facility would replace several buildings and fabric domes at the laboratory's Technical Area 54, which must be closed and remediated by 2015 under a state consent order. Lab officials say the new facility will be safer for workers and the public. The four-acre complex will serve as a staging area for low-level nuclear waste destined for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad. Waste shipped to WIPP includes items such as contaminated gloves, clothing and lab equipment.

September 2, 2010 - Asahi Shimbun - Thorium holds key to Japan's industrial future - Japan wants to shift to a low-carbon society, but the challenge will be how it goes about it. The key to achieving this difficult goal is industrial revitalization. This will require technological innovation and the ability to secure precious resources. Thorium may provide an answer. Thorium is a naturally occurring radioactive substance. Its use is almost exclusively limited to nuclear fuel. However, unlike uranium, it is not fissionable and has not been used as nuclear fuel up to now. But it can be burned if plutonium is used to ignite it. After more than 40 years of using nuclear power, the world has a 2,000-ton stockpile of plutonium. If thorium is used as a fuel for nuclear power generation, electricity can be supplied without discharging carbon dioxide. Another plus is that the method does not produce plutonium, which can be used to make nuclear weapons. Thus, thorium has a potential to help in efforts to curb global warming and bring about a world without nuclear weapons at the same time.

September 2, 2010 - GizMag - Neutrino observatory under Antarctic ice nearing completion - After two decades of planning, the world’s first kilometer-scale neutrino observatory should finally be completed by this December. Named IceCube, it will consist of an array of 5,160 optical sensors embedded within one cubic kilometer of the Antarctic ice shelf – to put the accomplishment in perspective, one of the next-largest such observatories is just 40 cubic meters in size. Its main purpose will be to try to establish, once and for all, the source of cosmic rays. Neutrinos are the second-most abundant particles in the universe, after photons, and are created when radioactive particles decay. In violent events like super novas and gamma ray bursts, high-energy neutrinos are the result. Neutrinos have no electrical charge, and have such a low mass that they typically pass unimpeded through matter, so they don’t often make their presence known. Occasionally, however, a neutrino can strike the nucleus of an atom, creating a particle called a muon. When this happens, the muon radiates blue light. At IceCube, the optical sensors will be monitoring the cubic kilometer of ice, and will detect the blue flares that occur when a neutrino collides with an ice atom. By observing the resulting muon, scientists can determine the direction from which the neutrino arrived, along with the cosmic ray that it was a part of.

September 2, 2010 - Montgomery Advertiser - Maxwell's nuclear defense center works to prevent disaster - Mark Conversino, dean of the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base, has a small booklet, "Survival Under Atomic Attack," that was distributed by the Civil Defense Commission during the 1950s, when the Cold War was reaching its height. The booklet is dated, almost laughable. The topic is neither. Back then fears were about the Red Scare, preemptive launches and mutually affirmed destruction. A half century later the fear has morphed into something smaller, but no less frightening -- a small rogue country or a small group of terrorists with nuclear weapons. It's a threat the Air Force takes very seriously -- seriously enough to have the Air Force's Counterproliferation Center at Maxwell. The Air Force is the only single military service with such a school, said Barry Schneider, the center's director. The Maxwell center was established in 1998 to educate military members and government officials on weapons of mass destruction and counterproliferation efforts. The center's staff currently is acquiring as many documents and other materials on nuclear weapons, with the goal of becoming a clearinghouse for all things nuclear for the Air Force and other government agencies, Schneider said.

September 2, 2010 - USNRC Press Release (09/01/10) - Nuclear Regulatory Commission takes steps to enhance small modular reactor license revew framework - - Acting on an initiative advanced by Commissioner George Apostolakis and Chairman Gregory B. Jaczko, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has taken steps to further improve the licensing reviews of potential applications to license small modular reactors (SMRs). Commissioners Kristine Svinicki, William Magwood and William Ostendorff concurred in the proposal that directs the NRC staff to produce a plan within six months on how to more fully integrate the use of risk insights into pre-application activities and the potential review of small modular reactor applications. “There is considerable interest in SMRs. The power level of these reactors would be significantly lower than that of existing reactors. Risk insights from PRAs could help focus resources on the most risk-significant aspects of a SMR design and enhance the safety focus of review guidance in the near term.” said Apostolakis. Jaczko added, “It is important that the NRC work to take steps to be even better prepared to conduct safety focused and effective reviews of potential applications. I appreciate the initiative that Commissioner Apostolakis has shown in this area.”

September 2, 2010 - Washington Post (09/01/10) - 'Best places to work' rankings put Nuclear Regulatory Commission at top of federal workplace heap - It happens in the federal government, too, where agencies facing intense public scrutiny, shifting priorities and unstable leadership can see nose dives in worker satisfaction. Both the Securities and Exchange Commission, a critical player in this battered economy, and the Office of Management and Budget, the agency responsible for implementing President Obama's government reforms - hit the skids in the fifth "Best Places to Work" rankings, a closely watched report of federal employees. Their plunges are dramatic exceptions to the overall results that show federal workers are the most satisfied with their employer - up 2.7 percent from 2009 - an encouraging sign as the government continues to woo applicants for hundreds of thousands of new positions. The survey, the fifth since 2003, is the first rank-and-file report card on the Obama administration. The rankings account for the perceptions of more than 263,000 workers at 290 federal organizations. It is compiled by the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan think tank devoted to promoting public sector careers, and American University's School of Public Affairs. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, however, had high scores for its senior leadership - 72 percent - and topped the list of large agencies for a third year. It was followed by the Government Accountability Office, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Smithsonian Institution. The Department of Housing and Urban Development and National Archives and Records Administration tied for last among large agencies.

September 2, 2010 - DOJ Press Release (08/31/10) - Former LANL Employee Sentenced for Stealing Irradiated Gold - Earlier today, Alex Maestas, 46, a former employee of the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), was sentenced in federal court in Albuquerque, New Mexico to a one-year term of imprisonment to be followed by three years’ supervised release by Senior United States District Judge C. LeRoy Hansen for stealing a two ounce piece of gold, valued at approximately $2,000, from a LANL processing facility. The gold, which was taken by Maestas on March 24, 2009, was contaminated with a small amount of americium and plutonimum, which rendered the gold radioactive. According to federal prosecutors, the radioactive plutonium in the gold posed a serious health risk because it could have proven deadly if inhaled or ingested. Maestas was charged by indictment in October 2009 with theft of government property, a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 641, and with engaging in a prohibited transaction involving nuclear materials, a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 831, based on an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The investigation was initated on March 24, 2009 after DOE personnel responded to an alarm sounded by a contamination monitor as Maestas attempted to leave the LANL processing facility at which he was then employed with the gold in hand. Maestas entered a guilty plea to theft of government property on January 28, 2010. During his plea hearing, Maestas admitted to stealing the gold and knowing that "the gold was taken from an area that was used to store materials that contained plutonium and nuclear material." During today's sentencing hearing, Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) Fred Federici argued that, at the time he took the gold, Maestas knew that he potentially exposing the public to radioactive contamination that could cause death or serious bodily injury. AUSA Federici asked Judge Hansen to increase Maestas' term of imprisonment based on the fact that Maestas was clearly conscious of the serious risks associated with his improper removal of the gold.

September 2, 2010 - Windham County Commons - Will VY’s license expiration benefit local economy? - The social, economic and political impact of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant remains a source of bitter debate even when — especially when — people with strong views from either side of the divisive issue forecast what happens when the facility will no longer generate electricity. As part of their argument to shut the substation, several organizations such as the New England Coalition, Safe and Green Vermont and other antinuclear groups point to conflicting studies and presumptions that minimize the economic impact of the plant’s closing to the state and to the region. In April, Gary Flomenhoft, a renewable-energy scholar who works as a research associate with the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont in Burlington, wrote about the economic impact issue in a blog post. “Lately supporters of Vermont Yankee have brought up the issue of job loss in Vernon to gain sympathy for their cause. They are right. Jobs will be lost, at least eventually after the mess is cleaned up,” Flomenhoft acknowledged. “The creative destruction of the free enterprise system can be disruptive, no doubt about it,” he continued. “It’s evolutionary; new organisms replace old ones which go extinct. Whenever an obsolete technology is replaced there are massive job losses. When cars replaced horses think of all the blacksmiths, saddle-makers, buggy whip makers, horse-trainers, etc. that went out of business.

September 2, 2010 - Asbury Park Press - Oyster Creek: Nearby aquifiers not affected by leaks - The state Department of Environmental Protection has received data on wells designed to test for leaks at the Oyster Creek Generating Station that show contamination has not reached area aquifers, DEP Commissioner Bob Martin said. Groundwater monitoring wells were required under the DEP's action plan in response to incidents of tritium leaks from the facility last year. The Forked River power plant is owned by Exelon Nuclear. Preliminary results from the wells indicate tritium has not reached the clay bottom of the lower portion of the Cohansey Aquifer and has not been detected in any of the wells in the Kirkwood Aquifer, which are local drinking water sources. The tritium plume appears to be moving toward the power plant's discharge canal, but no samples taken from the canal have indicated the presence of tritium, according to the DEP. Tritium occurs as a byproduct of nuclear power plant operations, and tritium leaks are not uncommon at nuclear power plants nationwide. "We have enough data now to determine that Exelon and the DEP should take remedial action as soon as possible," Martin said last week. "While there is no current risk to public health or safety, the sooner cleanup begins, the more we can limit the spread of current contamination."

September 2, 2010 - Augusta Chronicle - SRS leak prompts procedure evaluation - A slow response to a radioactive waste spill prompted Savannah River Site officials to re-evaluate its procedures for such incidents, according to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board report made public last week. The spill occurred in late July and involved a waste drum containing plutonium-238 that was packed in 1974 and placed in a carbon-steel "overpack" container in 2008. As workers moved drums in that area in July, about 13 gallons of the liquid gushed from the bottom of the overpack. Workers evacuated the area and monitors later detected contamination levels so high that cleanup teams had to leave. Three days later, workers with more substantial protective gear continued with cleanup work. The problem with the response, the report said, was that it took too much time to mobilize the resources to handle the accident. "While no workers have been contaminated so far, they were not dressed adequately during the initial two entries for the contamination present," the report said. "This prevented the facility from performing meaningful mitigation while the contamination was still wet and less dispersible." Instead of an immediate cleanup, several days were spent tracking down equipment and trained workers needed for the job. No contamination was detected outside the enclosure.

September 2, 2010 - Salt Lake Tribune - Storing spent nuclear fuel in Utah simply a bad idea - Tim Vollmann contends that the Goshute Tribe has the right to store spent nuclear fuel on tribal property (Opinion, Aug. 28). I do not contest his legal assertions. The fact that it may be legal, however, does not necessarily make it a good idea. In the field of risk assessment, some potential catastrophic events have a low probability of occurring, but they carry grave consequences if they do. In other words, some events have such dire consequences that the risk is simply not worth taking. A terror attack in Skull Valley may be an example of such a “low probability, high consequence” event. Despite the fact that spent fuel is deadly, I have little doubt that storage casks are designed to withstand extreme forces and temperatures. But a terror attack would not have to breach the casks to be successful. The whole point of terrorism is not the attack per se. Rather it is to instill fear, mistrust, and insecurity after an attack. How would the citizens of Utah feel after a terror attempt, successful or not, on Skull Valley? How would we feel if a plot were merely uncovered? Mr. Vollmann, an attorney representing the tribe, has harsh words for the NIMBY (not in my back yard) mentality of Utahns. Well, perception is reality. However improbable an attack, why should the citizens of Utah blithely accept a bullseye centered in Skull Valley? However improbable it may have seemed on Sept. 10, 2001, the events of the next day should have taught us that the unimaginable sometimes happens.

September 1, 2010 - Big Island Video News - Could Hawaii “fire tornado” be radioactive? - There is a new twist to the viral video spiral that made headlines all over the world last week. This video, filmed by Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources, has been appearing all over the internet and on television sets around the world, thanks to YouTube and the associated press. Now, some anti-military activists say its possible that the ongoing brush fire on the slopes of Mauna Kea could be kicking up trace amounts of depleted uranium, which was used decades ago in firing exercises at the Army’s adjacent Pohakuloa Training Area. Which means that the incredible “fire-tornado” brush fire (which in actuality was more like a dust devil created by a combination of the dry heat and the swirling winds of Saddle Road) could have been radioactive, if you believe the theories being proffered by Jim Albertini and the Malu-Aina group. The Army has admitted to the use of depleted uranium in the 1960s, deployed in spotting rounds used in then-classified Davy Crockett weapons systems. The Army says the depleted uranium is no longer being fired at the range, and has assured the public that there is no imminent or immediate threat to human health from the DU present on Hawaii’s ranges. Albertini is not ready to believe the Army, however, and has been a vocal watchdog on the matter of DU. At a recent meeting in Keaau, Albertini recalled a day of protest in 2007, when his measuring instruments detected a spike in radiation after a dust devil swept through Mauna Kea State Park.

September 1, 2010 - Brattleboro Reformer - Salmon releases Vermont Yankee decom fund report - State Auditor Thomas Salmon has suggested several improvements for lawmakers and regulators to monitor the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant’s decommissioning fund. In a management report issued Tuesday, Salmon put forth recommendations to increase review times of the decommissioning trust fund, proposing to develop a supervising process to entail recurring systematic comparisons of estimates for all components of site cleanup costs. Salmon said Entergy Corp., owner and operator of Vermont Yankee, and the state have expected controls in place for managing and monitoring more than $400 million of decommissioning trust fund assets, but the company could benefit from additional guidelines and more routine analysis of the funding status. Opponents of the Vernon-based nuclear plant have criticized Entergy for not fully funding the decommissioning costs to pay for the reactor’s eventual dismantling and removal of radioactive components. Cleaning the site of spent nuclear fuel and other decommissioning activities is expected to cost between $656 million to $991 million (reported in 2006 dollars). The fund value as of December 2009 was approximately $428 million. The suggested improvements from the auditor’s office would presumably increase the likelihood of adequate assets available in the future to cover the disassembling costs, primarily through more timely and complete oversight of the fund by the Vermont Department of Public Service (DPS).

September 1, 2010 - Chronicle Herald - Radiation program gets $7.9m - The province has put $7.9 million toward an expansion of the radiation treatment program at the Nova Scotia Cancer Centre. The money will help buy new equipment and radiation therapy suites at the cancer centre at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax. "We are approving this important investment because it will help Nova Scotians who require radiation therapy receive faster, better care," Health Minister Maureen MacDonald said in a news release Tuesday. Three linear accelerators, which deliver precise radiation therapy, will be purchased as part of the expansion. "With the funds announced today, we will be able to replace one old linear accelerator and add two additional accelerators to bring us to a total of eight," said John Gillis, spokesman for the Capital health district authority in an email Tuesday. "The linear accelerators deliver radiation treatment and are housed in suites or "bunkers" so the number of suites will also go to eight."

September 1, 2010 - Associated Press - Va atomic research center to get $73.2M upgrade - The U.S. Department of Energy is breaking ground on a $73.2 million expansion and renovation at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. The department is holding a ceremony Wednesday to inaugurate the construction phase of the Technology and Engineering Development Facility. There, scientists and engineers will focus on areas of nuclear physics, accelerator science, applied nuclear science and technology, and advanced superconducting radiofrequency instrumentation. The department also is modernizing a test lab originally built in the mid-1960s to house NASA's Space Radiation Effects Laboratory. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2011. The test lab renovation should be done by the end of 2012.

September 1, 2010 - SoftPedia - Radio Halos Produced Via Galactic Cluster Collisions - In a new research, a team of experts discovered that collisions between massive galactic clusters can trigger the formation of incredibly large and beautiful halos, which can be observed in the radio portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Studying the mergers in such manners may in the future yield additional insight into the processes and phenomena taking place inside the cosmic structures. The study team focused its attention on 32 cosmic clusters, including the one called Abell 1758. This particular structure is located some 3.2 billion light-years away from our planet. This vast distance allowed astronomers and astrophysicists to get a clear picture of how the galaxies within the cluster interact. They determined that two smaller cluster within the large one were colliding. Around these structures, telescopes identified impressive radio halos, which could easily be resolved. How these radio emissions are produced is still largely a mystery. In the new image, the blue portions of the photo are derived from data produced by the NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory, one of the American space agency's most important and complex telescopes. The instrument shows that large amounts of hot gas exist in the cluster. Its readings were combined with some obtained by the India-based Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope (GMRT), which produced the pink colors in this photo.

September 1, 2010 - Pottstown Mercury - Nuclear industry takes new path for next wave of plants - Power utilities are trying to buy the next wave of nuclear reactors much like a consumer buys a light bulb: right off the shelf. Of the nation's 104 commercial reactors, no two are exactly the same, a fact that experts blame for causing construction and regulatory delays and leading to bigger bills for power customers. The longer it took to approve and build a reactor a generation ago, the more electric customers ended up paying in the end. "That system just wasn't workable," said Richard Lester, head of the nuclear science and engineering department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As the nation moves closer to breaking ground on its first nuclear plant in decades, industry executives want to avoid the problems of the past by getting the government to designate a handful of reactor designs, then let companies choose from that list. Analysts and critics of the nuclear power industry still question whether the sector has absorbed the lessons from disasters such as the Three Mile Island accident. They also note that an off-the-shelf approach has its own risks: If a bad design is approved and not fixed, for instance, the problem could wind up at nuclear plants across the country, said Louis Zeller, science director of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League. The off-the-shelf strategy has its roots in the 1980s, when power plant owners urged the government to streamline the regulatory process and told suppliers to design reactors that were more reliable, less costly, quicker to build and based on a standard design easily replicated.

September 1, 2010 - TCPalm - St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant's warning sirens to be tested Thursday - The St. Lucie County Department of Public Safety and Communications and the Martin County Department of Emergency Services will conduct a quarterly test of the outdoor warning sirens for Florida Power and Light’s St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant at noon on Thursday. The test will involve a one-minute sounding of all 90 sirens within the 10-mile St. Lucie Emergency Planning Zone. Before and after the sirens sound, a message will be broadcast on the sirens’ public address system stating: “This is only a test.” There will be a 15-second wail of the sirens at the end of the final test announcement. The testing of the siren system is to improve public awareness of its function and ensure its operability.

September 1, 2010 - Las Vegas Sun - Walter Reed says it mishandled nuclear material - The military's flagship hospital has acknowledged it mishandled two packages of radioactive material in May, possibly exposing staff and patients to elevated radiation levels. Spokesman Chuck Dasey said Thursday that Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington doesn't dispute the allegations made by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The commission said the packages sat beneath a lobby counter for nearly two days after they were delivered. Dasey says the hospital has since reinforced its nuclear medicine safety program and retrained staff on the proper handling of radioactive material. The packages contained radioactive material used to treat and diagnose ailments such as cancer and heart disease. NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said no harm has been reported from the incident.

September 1, 2010 - KITV Honolulu - US Army: No Health Threat At Pohakuloa - The U.S. Army said there is no health risk from depleted uranium to those working on or living near the Pohakuloa Training area on the Big Island. The Army Tuesday allowed the media a first hand look at the area where depleted uranium is believed to have been used at Pohakuloa during weapons training between 1962 and 1965. Nearly two years ago, the army took samples of the soil and Tuesday released the results of their analysis. They found the radiological risk at Pohakuloa was well below the Environmental Protection Agency's acceptable risk of one in ten thousand. "Their orders of magnitude are way below what the EPA and NRC considers to be a risk to either humans or the environment," said Greg Komp, radiation safety officer with the U.S. Army Safety Office.

September 1, 2010 - World Nuclear News - Nuclear the example for safety culture  - Senior industry figures have explained to the US oil spill commission how the nuclear industry used self-regulation to transform levels of safety and performance. Appearing on 25 August before the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling were Jim Ellis, president and CEO of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operators (INPO), and the organisation's chairman emeritus, Zack Pate. On establishing the commission in May, President Barack Obama said, "First and foremost, what led to this disaster was a breakdown of responsibility on the part of BP and perhaps others, including Transocean and Halliburton." The purpose of the commission is to make recommendations to America on "how to prevent and mitigate the impact of any future spills that result from offshore drilling." INPO itself was born of a similar time, when the US nuclear industry was shocked by the partial meltdown of Three Mile Island 2 and thus was the subject of a similar commission, headed by John Kemeny. Ellis said that accident had been caused "by a combination of human error, equipment and design problems," but more broadly, "showed weaknesses in the industry's approach to operational standards, training, the sharing and use of industry operating experience, and emergency response."

September 1, 2010 - New York Times - New Warnings About Costs of Nuclear Power - As anticipation grows about a possible renaissance for the nuclear power industry — and about its potential for curbing greenhouse gas emissions — some politicians are stepping up warnings about the high cost of such projects. Last week, Traicho Traikov, the Bulgarian economy and energy minister, said the cost of building a second plant near the Danube River had reached 9 billion euros, or $11.4 billion, according to the Sofia News Agency. The original cost of the project for two reactors was expected to be just under $4 billion. Bulgaria was seeking to push down the price with a Russian company, Atomstroyexport, the report said. Last week in Britain, Charles Hendry, the minister of state for energy, told Bloomberg News that he expected the cost of each new plant in Britain to be about £6 billion, or $9.3 billion. Mr. Hendry also said that utilities would be expected to come up with that money themselves, without state support, according to the report. To improve incentives for building nuclear plants, Mr. Hendry has suggested imposing a supplemental levy on coal and gas plants to raise the cost of emitting carbon dioxide.

September 1, 2010 - WPTZ 5 - Auditor: More Oversight on Yankee Shutdown Fund Needed - Perhaps you've noticed your 401-k account isn't what it used to be? Neither are the balances in most of the nation's nuclear power plant decommissioning funds, money used to pay to decontaminate and cleanup each site. Vermont Yankee's decommissioning fund is no exception, though a new report by State Auditor Tom Salmon does not attempt to quantify by how much. Instead, auditors judged VY investment funds are too exposed to market ups and downs, and said fund managers lack adequate state oversight. The VY fund was valued at $446 million as of July 31, 2010, officials said, less than half what some nuclear experts say will be needed in coming years to restore the Vernon site. "We could have more stricter investment guidelines, like states like New Hampshire," Salmon said, which have insisted on more conservative fund management which pays for clean-up of the Seabrook nuclear power plant site.

September 1, 2010 - Knoxville News-Sentinel - High-value outage for Oak Ridge reactor - The longest outage of the year is under way at Oak Ridge National Laboratory's High Flux Isotope Reactor, one of the world's premier research facilities, and there's a bunch of activities planned to address concerns and help extend the reactor's lifetime. "There are 182 work activities planned for this 54-day outage," ORNL research reactors chief Ron Crone said via e-mail. "In addition to the routine testing and preventive maintenance activities, there are several larger scope activities planned." According to Crone, here are some major activities planned: * On the HFIR cold source, installation of two new beam room vacuum stations will be completed to improve reliability. Refurbishment of the helium expansion engines will be performed using a new crane system to improve the safety and reliability of this once a year activity. * The new pool water storage tank pipe installation will be completed. * One of the two new diesel generators will be set into its permanent location. * One of the three secondary coolant pump motors will be replaced. * The HFIR plant process computer will be upgraded. * Annual inspection of the reactor vessel and its components will be completed. * Hydrostatic proof test of the reactor vessel will be performed; this test occurs about every 4 years and is done to ensure the integrity of the reactor vessel.

September 1, 2010 - Associated Press - Army: Depleted uranium won't harm Big Island - The Army says its tests show depleted uranium at Pohakuloa Training Area isn't likely to adversely affect people living and working at or near the Big Island base. The Army said Tuesday the presence of depleted uranium in the soil results in radiological doses, as well as chemical and radiological risks, that are well within the limits of what's considered safe. The Army says it's going by standards set by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Big Island peace activist Jim Albertini says the Army has repeatedly made unreliable depleted uranium safety claims based on questionable assumptions and scientific methodology. He criticized the Army for failing to conduct peer-reviewed studies.

August 31, 2010 - Associated Press - Nuclear industry takes new path for new plants - Power utilities are trying to buy the next wave of nuclear reactors much like a consumer buys a light bulb: right off the shelf. Of the nation's 104 commercial reactors, no two are exactly the same, a fact that experts blame for causing construction and regulatory delays and leading to bigger bills for power customers. The longer it took to approve and build a reactor a generation ago, the more electric customers ended up paying in the end. "That system just wasn't workable," said Richard Lester, head of the nuclear science and engineering department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As the nation moves closer to breaking ground on its first nuclear plant in decades, industry executives want to avoid the problems of the past by getting the government to designate a handful of reactor designs, then let companies choose from that list. Analysts and critics of the nuclear power industry still question whether the sector has absorbed the lessons from disasters such as the Three Mile Island accident. They also note that an off-the-shelf approach has its own risks: If a bad design is approved and not fixed, for instance, the problem could wind up at nuclear plants across the country, said Louis Zeller, science director of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League.

August 31, 2010 - The TandD.com - NRC grant for $224,526 to fund joint program at OCtech, S.C. State - Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College and South Carolina State University have received a $224,526 grant from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a joint comprehensive radiation protection technology program. The first two years of the program will be offered at OCtech, with students earning an associate's degree to become health physics technicians. They will then be able to transfer to S.C. State as juniors and earn a bachelor's degree to become health physics managers. The technologists trained in the program will concentrate on the physical health of nuclear plants, coal-fired plants and any medical facility that uses radiation by calibrating radiation-producing machines. Dr. Jim Payne, principal investigator for the NRC Health Physics Project and OCtech National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education manager, says the "real uniqueness" of the program is that "it offers a seamless transfer to S.C. State University, which has the only undergraduate nuclear engineering program in the state." The program meets a growing workforce need, Payne said. "As long as the use of nuclear power grows, the possibilities for graduates of the program are limitless," he said. "For Orangeburg and Calhoun counties as well as beyond, this offers yet another unique opportunity to gain the skills and degrees needed to enter an in-demand job with starting salaries averaging $40,000 for technicians and more for managers."

August 31, 2010 - TechTree.com - Chandrayaan 2 to Carry 7 Payloads: ISRO - Almost two years after India's maiden moon mission, the Chandrayaan, it is time to turn our attention to the Chandrayaan 2. While we still have three years to go before the launch, a mission as complex as this requires meticulous planning - which is precisely what is happening now. While many mission related objectives are still under wraps, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has decided to let the world know that the Chandrayaan 2 will carry as many as seven payloads from various countries - including a Russian lunar-lander. The mission would also include a wheeled rover that would be used to scourge the lunar surface for soil and rock specimen. The other payloads include scientific instruments and mappers like the ones included on the Chandrayaan 1. Here are the details of the same: •Large Area Soft X-ray Spectrometer (CLASS) from ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC), Bangalore and Solar X-ray Monitor (XSM) from Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad for mapping the major elements present on the lunar surface. •L and S band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) from Space Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad for probing the first few tens of meters of the lunar surface for the presence of different constituents including water ice. SAR is expected to provide further evidence confirming the presence of water ice below the shadowed regions of the moon. •Imaging IR Spectrometer (IIRS) from SAC, Ahmedabad for the mapping of lunar surface over a wide wavelength range for the study of minerals, water molecules and hydroxyl present. •Neutral Mass Spectrometer (ChACE2) from Space Physics Laboratory (SPL), Thiruvananthapuram to carry out a detailed study of the lunar exosphere. •Terrain Mapping Camera2 (TMC2) from SAC, Ahmedabad for preparing a three-dimensional map essential for studying the lunar mineralogy and geology.

August 31, 2010 - PhysOrg.com - Radioactive decay rates vary with the sun's rotation: research - Radioactive decay rates, thought to be unique physical constants and counted on in such fields as medicine and anthropology, may be more variable than once thought. A team of scientists from Purdue and Stanford universities has found that the decay of radioactive isotopes fluctuates in synch with the rotation of the sun's core. The fluctuations appear to be very small but could lead to predictive tools for solar flares and may have an impact on medical radiation treatments. This adds to evidence of swings in decay rates in response to solar activity and the distance between the Earth and the sun that Purdue researchers Ephraim Fischbach, a professor of physics, and Jere Jenkins, a nuclear engineer, have been gathering for the last four years. The Purdue team previously reported observing a drop in the rate of decay that began a day and half before and peaked during the December 2006 solar flare and an annual fluctuation that appeared to be based on the Earth's orbit of, and changing distance from, the sun, Jenkins said. "If the relationship between solar activity and decay rates proves to be true, it could lead to a method of predicting solar flares, which could help prevent damage to satellites and electric grids, as well as save the lives of astronauts in space," Jenkins said. "Finding that the decay rates fluctuate in a pattern that matches known and theoretical solar frequencies is compelling evidence for a solar influence on decay rates."

August 31, 2010 - Channel 9 - Radiation technologists to strike - What began as low level industrial action by medical radiation technologists is set to escalate to a nationwide full day strike next Tuesday. The strike has been planned in response to Auckland and Manukau District Health Boards decision to suspend 7 MRT's in response to their participation in the industrial action. The industrial action has been ongoing since April this year after DHB's offer contained no wage rise despite an increase to their budget of 3.2% between 2009 and 2010. Radiographers will continue to provide life preserving cover as is legally required during the strike, but elective surgeries are expected to be postponed.

August 31, 2010 - RTTNews - Iran To Build First Indigenous Fusion Reactor By 2020 - Iran will build its first indigenous nuclear fusion-research reactor by 2020 to generate electricity and to produce "radio-pharmaceuticals" for medical purposes, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said Monday. "We aim to build... at least one home-made nuclear fusion experimental reactor," Asghar Sedigh-Zadeh, director of the AEOI Plasma Physics and Nuclear Fusion Research Center, was quoted by the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) news agency as saying. He said due to the high cost involved, fusion centers from other countries might also be associated with the construction of the the 15-billion-euro International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. The plan of designing and building the experimental nuclear-fusion reactor is being carried out in France. Besides generating electricity, Sedigh-Zadeh said, the proposed nuclear fusion-reactor would be used to produce "radio-pharmaceuticals, a cure for cancer, radiation-therapy and nanotechnology." Those working on the project would be increased from the current 36 to 2000 in the next decade, he added. The announcement of the target date came after Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, who heads the AEOI, said last month an initial budget of $8 million was allocated for the new research program. Fusion--which extracts energy from nuclear reactions with a process akin to how light and heat are produced by the sun-- is being studied for decades, but is yet to go commercial. While nuclear fusion creates no greenhouse gas and produces far less hazardous waste than fission, the reactors used in the process become radioactive and their waste will still require special disposal.

August 31, 2010 - Gantdaily.com - New Updates on Mammograms - A mammography is a specific type of imaging that uses a low dose x-ray system to examine breasts. The mammogram is a screening tool to detect early breast cancer in women experiencing no symptoms and to detect and diagnose breast disease in women with symptoms such as lumps, pain, or nipple discharge. Early breast cancer detection is the KEY to a good prognosis and the most successful treatment possible. The mammography images improve a physician’s ability to detect small tumors when cancers are small and women have more treatment options and a cure is more likely. The test also increases the detection of small abnormal tissue growths confined to the milk ducts. These early tumors cannot harm patients if they are removed at this early stage and mammography is the only proven method to reliably detect these tumors. No radiation remains in a patient’s body after an x-ray exam and x-rays don’t usually have any side effects in the diagnostic range. The standard approach has been to start regular mammograms at age 40. But in November of 2009 the United States Prevention Services Task Force created a shockwave with new guidelines recommending routine screening for women to begin at age 50 – a decade later. This decision was due to the fact that in younger women the “harm” from getting a mammogram may outweigh the benefit. Those harms are frequently false-positive findings in women in their 40s, causing needless anxiety with additional imaging studies and biopsies. The “benefit” in this group is the number of deaths prevented by getting regular mammograms. It is estimated that it would take about 1,900 mammograms in women under 50 to save one life as opposed to about 1,300 screening in women over 50. For women 50 and older, the Task Force also recommends a change in frequency from a mammogram yearly to one every two to three years, then yearly after age 59. However, not all experts and organizations like the American Cancer Society, agree with the Task Force recommendations. Some still advise to begin getting regular mammograms at age 40.

August 31, 2010 - The Guardian - New nuclear technology 'could benefit developing countries - The world is on the brink of a nuclear power renaissance, and developing countries may also benefit, according to researchers. In a study published in Science this month (12 August) British researchers outlined a vision for flexible and more user-friendly nuclear technologies, as worries over the climate change, energy supply security, and depletion of fossil fuels, are overturning decades of hesitancy over the safety of nuclear power plants. Robin Grimes, materials researchers at Imperial College London and William Nuttall, senior lecturer in technology policy at the University of Cambridge, believe nuclear power will become viable for energy production in developing countries post-2030. "Outside currently established nuclear countries, flexible nuclear technologies will be especially attractive, reducing the need for grid infrastructure," Grimes told SciDev.Net. The authors envisage ship-borne power plants providing energy to big cities, requiring less grid infrastructure and making it easier to invest in cost-effective nuclear energy from scratch. Grimes also suggested 'fuelled-for-life core reactors' — fully sealed modular reactors that could last 40 years and remove fuel handling from the energy production process. These would also reduce workers' exposure to radiation, reducing the need for expensive monitoring.

August 31, 2010 - Rutland Herald - Cause of Yankee fuse failures remains unknown - Entergy Nuclear engineers were searching Monday for the cause of an electrical problem that blew seven fuses in seven different power supplies to the control room alarms, putting the Vermont Yankee reactor into a low-level emergency Sunday night. The emergency was called off after 90 minutes on Sunday, but the cause of the problem remains unknown, said a spokeswoman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Diane Screnci said Monday that Entergy employees were ‘still troubleshooting” and the cause of the electrical problem was unknown. She said it also wasn’t known whether the seven fuses blew one by one as a cascade of problems or all at once. She said Entergy listed the warning lights in the control room, 75 percent of which were affected by the blown fuses Sunday, and are now operable. Meanwhile, the state nuclear engineer with the Department of Public Service, Uldis Vanags, said he was traveling to the Vernon reactor Tuesday to be briefed about the incident by Entergy officials. “We have many questions, the department has many questions,” said Vanags, who Monday afternoon said Entergy had so far not answered his questions about what led to the electrical problem and the declaration of the ‘unusual event,’ which is the lowest of four levels of emergency.

August 31, 2010 - San Diego Union - Full-body scanners to debut at Lindbergh Field - Just in time for the Labor Day rush, the Transportation Security Agency Tuesday at Lindbergh Field plans to debuts its controversial full-body scanner, which generates a primitive image of an air traveler’s body on a computer screen. The TSA is rolling out 450 of the scanners in U.S. airports this year, according to TSA public affairs spokesman Dwayne Baird from Salt Lake City. For now, San Diego will have one full-body scanner in Terminal 1. Baird says the airport can expect several more in the next few months. “Imaging technology is an integral part of TSA’s effort to continually look for new technologies that help ensure travel remains safe and secure by staying ahead of evolving threats,” according to an agency statement. Myriad legal and ethical issues have swirled around the TSA since it announced the launch of the high-tech scanner program late last year. Kevin Keenan, executive director of the San Diego-Imperial County American Civil Liberties Union on Monday referred to the scanner as a “virtual strip search.” According to the machine’s maker, Rapiscan Systems, a low energy x-ray beam images the front and back of a person, compiling the data into a computer-generated image that can reveal objects concealed under clothing.

August 31, 2010 - Washington Post (08/30/10) - Renewed battle against nuclear energy - It's been 33 years since Raye Fleming's arrest outside Southern California's Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, near the height of the furor against nuclear power. That was the first arrest of many, and Fleming thought such actions paid off as a generation of Americans turned against nuclear power. "It was just the correct, moral thing to do," said Fleming, 66. But after years of believing they had won the fight against nuclear energy, activists feel the battle is starting all over again. And they're trying to figure out how to win in an era of Facebook and Twitter and get the younger generation involved in the movement. Lately, the option for nuclear energy has gotten more popular. President Obama has backed billions of dollars in federal loan guarantees to build two nuclear reactors in Georgia. If approved, they would be the first nuclear power plants in the United States to begin construction in almost three decades. Political support for nuclear power has grown, especially after the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico highlighted risks of fossil fuel production. And people are more open to nuclear energy. For those like Fleming, that change is hard to understand. "A call for more nuclear power plants," Fleming, of Arroyo Grande, Calif., said with a sigh. "It's still not safe. There's still no solution to the waste storage and it's costly." For many, the issue isn't as simple as it once was. Concerns about global warming have left several environmentalists unsure about what really is the "green" side of the issue, and it's been more than 30 years since the last high-profile accident in the United States.

August 31, 2010 - New York Times - And You Thought Radiation Was a Problem for Nuclear Plants? - A power plant has overexposed its workers to radiation, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is proposing a fine. The plant, though, is not a reactor; it runs on coal. The commission said on Monday that it was proposing a fine of $24,700 against the Basin Electric Power Cooperative, which exposed 17 workers, six of them above regulatory limits, at a three-unit coal plant in Laramie, Wyo. The workers were exposed to a radioactive element, cesium 137, that is common in nuclear plants because it is produced when uranium atoms are split. The Laramie River Station, completed in the early 1980s, does not split atoms, but it does use cesium, as many coal plants do. Cesium 137 emits gamma rays. In coal plants and other industrial plants, the amount of radiation that passes through the material being measured gives an indication of its content, just as an X-ray gives an indication of what is inside a human body. Typically, the coal plants are measuring ash and moisture content of the fuel they burn, and the quantity passing through a coal chute. Laramie River Station has 216 monitors that use radiation, some of them in the pollution control system. Daryl Hill, a spokesman for the co-op, said the monitor in question measures the flow from a coal bunker down to a feeder, which spits the coal into a boiler. “If the flow stops, it detects there’s no fuel and sends a signal to the control room,’’ he said. The gauge has a shutter mechanism, akin to the shutter on a camera, and it was supposed to be closed and locked before the workers — welders — were sent into the area. But the shutter was left open. Unlike workers at a nuclear plant, the welders did not have equipment to measure the amount of radiation they were exposed to. The calculated dose was 647 millirems, about what the average American receives in two years from natural sources. That amount would not be a violation in a nuclear plant, although inadvertently exposing workers there would have been a problem. For non-nuclear workers, considered members of the general public, the limit is 100 millirems. The commission said the violation was significant because the workers could easily have been sent there for a longer period and could have absorbed a bigger dose. The exposures occurred in September 2009, and managers say they have made a variety of changes to prevent a repetition. The co-op has until Sept. 24 to decide whether to contest the fine, Mr. Hill said.

August 31, 2010 - Platts - Nuclear fuel reprocessing needs support, not subsidies: Areva exec - Federal loan guarantees and a clear US policy on nuclear waste -- not government subsidies -- are needed to support the deployment of advanced technology for reprocessing spent fuel from nuclear power plants, an Areva executive said Monday. Alan Hanson, Areva executive vice president of technologies and used fuel management, responded on the sidelines of a subcommittee meeting of the blue ribbon commission on nuclear waste after another executive advocated for more financial support. Marvin Resnikoff, senior associate of Radioactive Waste Management Associates, told the subcommittee that no plants to reprocess utility spent nuclear fuel would be built without government subsidies. Companies will not want to tackle the "first-of-a-kind" financial risk and cost associated with building and operating a reprocessing plant alone, Resnikoff said. His comments came as the subcommittee on reactor and fuel cycle technology heard presentations Monday and Tuesday in Washington on alternative technologies for managing the country's inventory of utility spent fuel. The commission has an administration mandate to submit recommendations to US Energy Secretary Steven Chu in two years on alternative strategies for managing the country's commercial spent nuclear fuel. President Barack Obama's administration plans to terminate the $10 billion repository project at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, September 30.

August 31, 2010 - Associated Press - WCS and State Reach Agreement on Waste Storage - State officials and a West Texas waste processing, storage and disposal facility have reached an agreement that allows hot low-level radioactive material to be stored at the company's site for up to three years. The agreement Friday resolves a dispute over how long the material could be stored. State officials initially wanted a 1-year limit. According to a compliance agreement with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists also will revise its inspection plan and properly handle surface water in a drainage ditch at its storage site in Andrews County near the Texas-New Mexico border. The disposal site handles some of the nation's low-level radioactive waste. The company says its remoteness and security make it a safe.

August 31, 2010 - Brattleboro Reformer - NRC considers long-term on-site storage of waste - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted earlier this month to explore the option of storing nuclear waste at decommissioned sites past the current 30-year standard. NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko wrote in his vote, "The Commission has made a generic determination that, if necessary, spent fuel generated in any reactor can be stored safely and without significant environmental impacts for at least 60 years beyond the licensed life for operation." He also recommended that the staff prepare an update to the Waste Confidence Findings and Proposed Rule, "to account for storage on site storage facilities, off-site storage facilities, or both, for more than 100 years, but no longer than 300 years, from the end of licensed operations of any nuclear power plant, which may include the term of a revised or renewed license." Now that all the chairmen have voted, the Secretary of the Commission will condense the information and provide guidance for the staff, NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said. "It's been proven you can store this material safely on site," Sheehan said. The Public Service Board issued a certificate of public good in 2006 allowing Entergy, which owns and operates the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, to store nuclear waste in dry casks on a concrete pad just to the north of the plant's reactor building.

August 31, 2010 - Cleveland Plain Dealer - FirstEnergy Corp. wants to operate Davis-Besse nuclear power plant until 2037 - FirstEnergy Corp. wants U.S. approval to operate its Davis-Besse nuclear power plant near Toledo until 2037, when it would be 60 years old. The Akron company on Monday said it had submitted an application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a 20-year license extension. Re-licensing typically takes months and includes public hearings. The extension request comes just 10 days before an NRC special inspection team is to present its preliminary findings in a public meeting about what caused the latest cracking in parts of Davis-Besse's reactor lid. The reactor was down from late February to late June for extensive weld repairs of key reactor lid parts. During a regular refueling and inspection in February, inspectors found cracks or indications of future cracks in welds securing what are supposed to be corrosion-and-leak-proof alloy tubes through the reactor lid. The alloy tubes, called nozzles, carry control rods into the nuclear core, allowing operators to control the rate of fission. The cracks surprised the company and the NRC because the company replaced the reactor's original lid in 2004 after a two-year repair shutdown with an old but never-used lid from an identical reactor. Inadequate inspections at Davis-Besse in the 1990s had led to a large corrosion hole in the original Davis-Besse lid by 2002 that came within 60 days of bursting.

August 31, 2010 - Huntsville Times - Nuclear safety remains issue - A decision by the Tennessee Valley Authority to increase nuclear power generation while idling some of its coal-fired units is a sign of the times. Nuclear can be more efficient when measured against the diminished cost of fewer fossil fuel plants and promoting conservation to users. Still, the public needs assurance that the new generation of nuclear reactors are safe: We don't need a repeat of the 1979 Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant meltdown. Renewable sources like wind and solar should also be looked at, and hydro-electric dams cannot be discounted as forms of clean power generation. Huntsville is sandwiched between two nuclear power plants - Browns Ferry in Athens and the unfinished Bellefonte Plant near Scottsboro. So any issue involving TVA nuclear power should be important whether it involves the old design of Browns Ferry or emerging nuclear technologies. The Tennessee Valley Authority approved $248 million Aug. 20 toward plans to finish Bellefonte's Unit 1 reactor as part of a long-range goal to produce cleaner, more efficient power. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will meet in the spring to decide whether to authorize the Bellefonte makeover. If approved, the plant could be churning out power by 2018 - more than four decades since construction began.

August 31, 2010 - Las Vegas Sun - Don’t treat Yucca Mountain like a political issue - Kudos to the Las Vegas Sun for its Friday editorial, “GOP loves a nuke dump,” recognizing the manner in which Republicans continue to politicize the Yucca Mountain project. Were the Yucca Mountain project to rise from the ashes like a nuclear phoenix — if Sen. Harry Reid were to fail in his bid for re-election — it would fly in the face of sound science. House Minority Leader John Boehner’s support of Yucca Mountain belies the many concerns expressed by the scientific community, including the dangers associated with the transportation of high-level radioactive waste. Over the years, Nevada’s staunch opposition to Yucca Mountain clearly has been bipartisan, and for good reason. Yucca Mountain was a bad idea from the start. The waste currently stored at nuclear power sites will remain safe until science provides us with other options. Further, recycling remains more in the realm of science fiction than safe science. The Obama administration has demonstrated courage in finally pulling the plug on Yucca Mountain. It was a decision long overdue, and one that should not be politicized.

August 30, 2010 - Daljie.com - Lady Gaga's phone fear - Lady Gaga is scared of mobile phones. The'Telephone' hitmaker is reportedly terrified of getting a brain tumour from using a portable device and now insists a member of her entourage holds her phone a short distance away from her whenever she has to make a call. A source said: "There have been various reports suggesting mobile phone use can increase your risk of developing cancer and brain tumours and even though there's no firm evidence, it really freaked her out. "She's now insisting that whenever she makes a call, one of her team keys the numbers into her phone, then holds it up to her face so when she speaks it isn't too close to her head. "She then listens to her calls on the speakerphone." According to the insider, the request is the latest in a series of bizarre demands from the eccentric singer. She is also said to ask members of her security team to carry her to various events because she has only designated a certain amount of time each day to walking. The source added: "Everyone around Gaga tries to tolerate her annoying and weird behaviour because they know it's likely to be just another phase."

August 31, 2010 - Sun Sentinel - Nuclear power offers safer, cleaner option to fossil fuel sources - Finally, we have a wake-up call for the immediate need for a safe, alternative energy source. With a hole in the Earth that released over 100 million gallons of crude oil along our Gulf coastline, we must act now for a safe, reliable, clean and economical means of providing energy to our homes and industries. For the past 50 years under strict government regulations, we have built, licensed and are operating over 100 nuclear power plants that have not resulted in one nuclear-related industrial fatality. This safety record can be compared to the dozens who have died in coal mining accidents and to those who perished on the BP oil drilling rig. To alleviate our demands on both domestic and foreign oil, we should build more nuclear power plants and reduce our reliance on offshore drilling for oil and the potential hazards it creates. Currently, FPL nuclear plants provide 21 percent of our power demands in South Florida. Nuclear power plants have both immediate and safe shutdown procedures, in addition to leak- and crash-proof containments. These safeguards will avoid a widespread environmental disaster like the one we witnessing in the Gulf. The most catastrophic accident in the history of our nuclear industry occurred at Three Mile Island. The subsequent fuel meltdown from this accident did not release any radioactive contaminants to our environment.

August 30, 2010 - Tri-City Herald - Vapor stacks raised at Hanford to increase safety - Workers are raising the height of exhaust stacks that emit fumes to ventilate Hanford tanks that hold radioactive and hazardous chemical wastes. It's a step to better protect workers who have reported that breathing in the chemical vapors gave them headaches, scratchy throats and watery eyes. Officials say the change also will help them prepare to resume retrieving waste from the underground tanks. Waste retrieval stopped near the beginning of summer when Washington River Protection Solutions hit an obstruction hidden in the sludge in Tank C-104, one of 142 single-shell tanks at Hanford that still have radioactive waste. Work is under way to pump waste from leak-prone tanks into sturdier double-shell tanks until the vitrification plant is operating to treat the waste for disposal. The Department of Energy contractor has been working to prepare to start emptying another tank, Tank C-111, and expects to be ready around Labor Day. Work will resume after the improvements to the vapor-protection system. It had been halted twice and then resumed during retrieval from Tank C-104 because workers were concerned about the vapors.

August 30, 2010 - MarketWire - US Ecology, Inc. to Purchase Waste Treatment and Storage Facility - US Ecology, Inc. /quotes/comstock/15*!ecol/quotes/nls/ecol (ECOL 13.65, +0.56, +4.28%) ("the Company") today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement ("Agreement") with Siemens Water Technologies Corp., to acquire substantially all of the assets of a permitted Treatment, Storage and Disposal facility ("the Facility") located in Vernon, California. The rail served facility, which has been in operation since 1981, principally provides hazardous liquid waste services to the Southern California industrial market. The Facility generated revenue ranging from $9 to $11 million annually over the last several years and has approximately 40 employees. Under the terms of the Agreement, the Company will purchase substantially all of the assets and assume certain liabilities for $8.65 million using cash on hand. The closing of the acquisition is subject to the transfer of certain regulatory permits, among other things, and is expected to be completed before December 31, 2010. The acquisition is initially expected to be neutral to earnings and accretive thereafter. "In addition to increasing our service capability, this acquisition provides US Ecology with a physical presence in the largest industrial market on the West Coast which is currently served by our hazardous waste disposal facility in Beatty, Nevada," stated President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Baumgardner. "This acquisition provides us with a well established facility with the ability to offer improved and incremental waste treatment and transportation capabilities to our customers in the region and will also provide a growth platform enabling us to cross-sell services to both new customers and existing customers."

August 30, 2010 - PR-USA.net - PREMIUM Analyse Leads In Beta-Transmitter Detection For Nuclear Sector - PREMIUM Analyse is at the cutting edge of innovation in beta-transmitter detection. The company produces and markets high-technology measuring devices designed to detect beta transmitters such as radon, krypton and tritium. Since tritium is the most difficult beta element to detect, the perfection of a complete range of tritium detectors, as both fixed and portable monitors, constitutes a major technological achievement. PREMIUM's innovative capacity has led it to focus on the nuclear industry - with applications that are relevant to both energy generation and the defence sector - in order to provide users with high-performance, reliable products that are constantly being developed and improved. Thanks to the company's complete mastery of the production process and the measurement of very low currents, the detectors developed by PREMIUM Analyse have a highly refined measuring capability. Their exceptional sensitivity enables them to detect the presence of tritium in volumes as infinitesimal as 2.5 kBq/m3, or, in the case of krypton, from 250 Bq/m3. The unrivalled performance of PREMIUM's detectors in terms of precision and stability combines with their speed of operation: they can perform up to eight measurements per second, with a response time of less than 20 seconds. As a result, the detectors are able to monitor phenomena in real time. The equipment developed by PREMIUM is also noticeable for its ease of implementation. Indeed, all the company's appliances can be used intuitively: they are ready to be connected, need no maintenance, and can be easily decontaminated. Depending on the desired sensitivity of the application concerned, measuring devices come as fixed or portable monitors, and systematically integrate an ionisation chamber, an airproof connection, a preamplifier and a digital display. The BETA IONIX detector integrates all the elements of the measuring device in a portable version and is mainly designed for radioprotection applications. The measuring devices in the DT IONIX fixed version are more particularly designed for environmental surveillance, atmospheric-emission monitoring, and process-optimisation applications.

August 30, 2010 - Lon's Article Directory - Laser technology used effectively on Laser marking systems - LASER is the mechanism for emitting electromagnetic radiation, as light or visible light, via the process of stimulated emission. Laser is the acronym of Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. The growing number of industries and the competition among them will always force them to introduce latest technology, this lead to implementation of Laser systems for many industrial applications including cutting, marking, stamping, embossing and engraving. The major difference of laser marking systems from other forms of marking is the unique combination of speed, permanence and the flexibility of computer control. The software used for laser marking system is accessed via a PCI interface card. This sends the digital signals of the computer based marking or etching files to the motors and directs the laser beam to the product being laser marked.

August 30, 2010 - Burton Mail - Nuke test vets call for recognition - British veterans have called for better recognition in the UK after the Russian Government unveiled a monument to soldiers who took part in 1950s nuclear weapons tests. The Soviet Union carried out a series of weapons tests in the 1950s during which troops were sent into blast zones immediately after nuclear explosions. At the time the illness they suffered as a result of radiation exposure was covered up, but now the Russian Government has offered compensation to soldiers who took part. And last week a pink granite monument was unveiled during a ceremony in St Petersburg. Meanwhile veterans of British nuclear testing pointed out that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) had offered them no such tribute. More than 1,000 veterans, many of whom claim to suffer from illnesses caused by radiation to which they were exposed during tests, remain locked in a battle for compensation with the MoD. The veterans have claimed that their involvement in weapons tests carried out in the 1950s has resulted in their declining health. The MoD has denied negligence and a verdict on an appeal case is expected as early as next month.

August 30, 2010 - WCAX - Vt. Yankee: 'Unusual event' minor, under control - An "unusual event" was reported at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant on Sunday, but officials say there's no cause for alarm. The plant reported an "unusual event" shortly after 7:00 p.m. It was declared due to a loss of some control room alarm circuits. Yankee says no protective action was required and the plant was operating as normal. An unusual event is the lowest of four NRC-established emergency classifications.

August 30, 2010 - Bloomberg News - EDF Has Welding Problems at Flamanville EPR Reactor, French Watchdog Says - Electricite de France SA, Europe’s biggest power producer, experienced renewed problems with welding quality at the EPR nuclear reactor being built in Normandy, according France’s nuclear safety agency. Faults in welds of the containment liner of the Flamanville EPR, the utility’s first in France, were found during an inspection in July, the Autorite de Surete Nucleaire said in an Aug. 27 report on its website. EDF officials weren’t immediately available for a comment. “Welding difficulties caused by the ergonomics of the welder’s post” were the cause of similar problems at the building site in 2008 and 2009 and treatment by EDF “was not performed correctly,” according to the report. The agency also said EDF was slow in detecting “inferior weld quality.” EDF’s EPR, which was designed by Areva SA, is considered key to the utility’s ability to export nuclear technology to other countries. Earlier this month, EDF was asked for modifications of the control platform on the reactor, which is delayed and will cost more than expected.

August 30, 2010 - VNA - Vietnamese be first students at Russia’s new centre - Vietnamese students will be the first students to be trained at Russia’s newly opened nuclear training centre in Kaluga province’s Obninsk city. Vietnamese Ambassador to Russia Bui Dinh Dinh attended the opening ceremony of the International Training Centre for Nuclear Specialists in Obninsk city on August 27. Speaking at the ceremony, Ambassador Dinh affirmed that the traditional relations between Vietnam and Russia have been lifted to a strategic partnership in recent years and he praised Russia’s enormous contributions to training Vietnamese experts in the country. He added that with a growing economy, Vietnam needs to develop its energy sector, including nuclear power plants. Dinh said the opening of the centre with the first students from Vietnam is a practical action in implementing agreements reached during a visit to Russia by high-ranking Vietnamese leaders.

August 30, 2010 - Al Masry Al Youm - Banks vie to fund Egypt’s first nuclear project - A number of local banks plan to amend their credit policies in order meet the requirements to finance Egypt’s first nuclear project in Dabaa. Hassan Abdallah, chief executive officer at the Arab African Bank, said his bank is ready to fund the project if invited by the Egyptian government. Cairo Bank is prepared to finance the project as well, according to vice president Atef Ibrahim, but as part of a consortium of banks. Meanwhile, a ministerial committee charged with examination of funds for the Dabaa project is expected to explore three main financing options. In the first option the Egyptian government would provide the money for the project from its own resources. The second option would feature a government partnership with the private sector. That, however, would violate a new law that mandates the nuclear project be exclusively owned and operated by the state. The third option would present funding offers from firms who are jockeying to supply components of the nuclear station. Local banks may be able to exclusively finance part of the cost of the first station, estimated at US$4 billion--capital return periods are usually no longer than five years.

August 30, 2010 - Yokwe - First International Day Against Nuclear Tests and Marshall Islands Nuke Legacy - Today, Sunday, August 29, 2010, marks the first observance of the International Day against Nuclear Tests. The Day is meant to galvanize the efforts of the United Nations, Member States, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, youth networks and media in informing, educating and advocating the necessity of banning nuclear tests to achieve a safer world. Annika Thunborg, spokesperson, CTBTO -"Today it is difficult to imagine that nuclear bombs went off all the time in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Imagine that over 2000 nuclear bombs exploded in over sixty different locations. All over the world, affecting people, animals and land; Everywhere; In Islands in the Pacific, in the Arctic Ocean, in the Algerian desert, in inland Australia in North Western China in South Western United States; In what today Kazakhstan, up in the Arctic ocean, everywhere on Earth." "In the bikini atoll in the Marshall Islands for example the whole eco system has been completely changed. The flora and fauna look completely different now than it did before the testing and people are not able to move back there due to the radioactivity." The world witnessed over 2000 nuclear explosions. Before testing screeched to a halt in 1996 the year the Test Ban Treaty opened for signature. "It was finally in 1996 with the Comprehensive Nuclear Test- Ban- Treaty that nuclear testing came to an end. But the Treaty has not entered into force which means that the door to nuclear testing remains open and all this can come back to us if we don't close this door once and for all and put this legal instrument firmly in place. Erecting a firm barrier to any further nuclear weapons development."

August 30, 2010 - The Spoof - Colonel Juan Caught Up In Chernobyl Giant Radioactive Ant Scare/Panic - Exiled Bolivian dictator and part time scribe for popular satirical website theSpoof.com, Colonel Juan, today revealed that he suffered a terrifying ordeal at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown. The Colonel, a much reviled figure in his homeland, yet strangely revered in Chiswick has been enjoying a visit to the Ukraine, in what used to be the Soviet Union, but is now the Ukraine, when a day trip to Chernobyl went horribly wrong. As he explains: "We were at the Chernobyl tea rooms; the good lady wife was enjoying a cup of camomile tea, and I was quaffing a glass of Merlot. I'd set up the laptop and was about to start posting a story about sexy super-spy Anna Chapman's ginger vagina, when an ant - the size of a horse - scuttled across the terrace and chopped a rather athletic looking German lady from Dresden clean in two with its mandibles. Of course, utter panic ensued." The Colonel, struggling visibly to retain his composure, spoke emotionally about a swarm of giant ants, and of how they ruthlessly stalked tourists before mangling them up in their voracious mandibles. "There was blood and gore everywhere, dear boy," he choked. "It was horrendous. Truly terrifying."

August 30, 2010 - ISRIA - IAEA Calls for Cordon around Highly Contaminated Areas at Former Nuclear Site - At a gathering to mark the International Day against Nuclear Tests, held in Astana, Kazakhstan on 26 August, 2010, the IAEA expressed its commitment to the Kazakhstani government and its people to assist in rehabilitating and developing the closed, Soviet-era nuclear test at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, which was, in part, heavily contaminated by radioactivity. Addressing the commemorative meeting, Werner Burkart, IAEA Deputy Director General for Nuclear Sciences and Applications, explained the IAEA experts’ multi-year role in strengthening Kazakhstan’s capacity to conduct radiological measurements in the environment. Such assessments are crucial for planning the site’s remediation. Burkart said that several United Nations agencies, programmes and funds are contributing to making rehabilitation a reality “so that the local population can again make full economic use of this area”. The Semipalatinsk site covers more than 18 500 square kilometres. Burkart noted that the IAEA's initial assessment identified “different pockets of high-level contamination”. Since the local population and their grazing cattle could be inadvertently exposed to high levels of radioactive contamination, he urged authorities to appropriately mark and secure contaminated areas. On behalf of the IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano, Burkart also assured the Kazakhstani government that the IAEA will continue to help map and assess the contamination risks at the site. He commended the Kazakhstani government’s effort to conduct radiological measurements in the environment as part of its efforts to address the problem of the former test site.

August 30, 2010 - Hartford Business Journal - CT Paying Price In Fight Over Nuclear Waste Storage - Fed up with 12 years of delays in removing nuclear waste from Connecticut’s power plants, a coalition of business and utilities is demanding the Obama administration reverse its decision undoing three decades of planning for disposing of waste from the country’s nuclear power programs. These businesses, led by the New England Council, see the administration’s move to abandon a Nevada storage site as compounding a long-standing federal delay costing Connecticut millions in fees and inflicted untold damage on nuclear power’s reputation in the state and region. Connecticut ratepayers contribute more than $8 million per year to store more than 1,920 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel at its temporary sites in the state — including a 588-acre site in Haddam that seems prime for redevelopment. That annual fee comes on top of the $383 million state ratepayers have contributed since 1982 to develop a permanent disposal site for this waste. “It is frustrating for all of us — being ratepayers or utilities — to be paying into this fund for this long and have them not move the waste,” said Jim Brett, CEO of the New England Council, which represents more than 370 organizations in the region. “If you can’t dispose of this waste, then I don’t see any new nuclear plants being built in this country.”

August 30, 2010 - Associated Press - Questions raised about uranium study members - As an independent scientific panel is assembled to study the risks of uranium mining in Virginia, environmental groups are questioning whether some of its provisional members can be impartial because of their ties to the nuclear-power industry or mining interests. The Southern Environmental Law Center, for instance, objects to Henry A. Schnell, who is with the mining business unit of Areva, the French-owned nuclear-services company. The company is the world's largest producer of uranium, primarily in Canada, Africa and Eastern Europe. "Mr. Schnell, as an employee with the industry, clearly has a financial interest in the matter and as such presents a conflict of interest that could impair his objectivity," the SELC wrote in a letter to a division of the National Academy of Sciences. Areva did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The environmental law center offered praise for several other provisional members of the 13-member committee, as did other organizations that had specific objections to the committee's makeup.

August 30, 2010 - Quad City Times - Nuke plant's hatchery churns out healthy fish - In cartoons, fish that grow up in waters around nuclear power plants end up with three eyes or some other deformity. In reality, Exelon Nuclear's Quad-Cities Generating Station in Cordova, Ill., operates the only privately owned fish hatchery on the Mississippi River and has reared and released about 6 million healthy fish since 1984. "We work hard to be responsible environmental stewards," said Jeremiah Haas, a biologist at the nuclear plant. "We continue to work with local and state officials to stock the Mississippi River and various lakes in Illinois and Iowa to help the ecosystem and provide long-term stability to the bass population in the area." The fish hatchery happened by accident. When the power plant was built in 1972, a 3.5-mile canal was built around it as a means of cooling river water that had cooled the reactors. By the late 1970s, it was deemed ineffective, and the plant was modified to discharge the water directly into the river. "As engineers do, they didn't quite get it right," Haas said. When the plant decided to discharge the water directly back into the Mississippi, a grate was built to keep out debris. However, fish sometimes get stuck in the grate and die. To make up for the losses to the ecosystem, the plant struck a deal with state and national environmental officials to operate a fish hatchery on the premises. Now, striped bass are reared in aquariums and walleye come of age inside the canal. When they grow to a certain length, they are transported to area boat docks and released into lakes or the Mississippi River. "That is why, in my opinion, this is one of the top fishing spots in the Midwest," Haas said. "It's so easy to catch a 2-foot walleye you wouldn't believe. There's just so many fish out here."

August 30, 2010 - Tri-City Herald - PNNL scientists take on cancer with isotopes - Researchers worldwide have access to promising and newly available medical isotopes to advance cancer treatment thanks to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Both isotopes, thorium 227 and radium 223, emit alpha radiation, which holds promise to treat cancer that has spread from the main tumor. The high energy released by the alpha particles, with their short range and short half-life, can destroy cancerous cells with minimal damage to healthy tissue. However, alpha-emitting isotopes have been expensive and difficult for researchers to obtain, limiting the development of their use in treating cancer.  "We have reversed that trend," said Darrell Fisher, leader of the isotope sciences program for the Department of Energy's national lab in Richland. "We can make it on demand and ship it anywhere." It began shipping the isotopes June 1 for research into new drugs or other products. The lab starts with the isotope actinium 227, which is a natural decay product of uranium 235. However, it's present in such small amounts naturally that it's been made in reactors, including Hanford's defunct Fast Flux Test Facility. However, the actinium 227 being used for PNNL's program originally was made in France, was transferred to the oil industry and then sent to Hanford for disposal when it was no longer needed.

August 28-29, 2010 - Webmuenster took the weekend off.

August 27, 2010 - Ottawa Citizen - One accused worked near radioactive isotopes - Accused terrorist Misbahuddin Ahmed worked in a radiology facility at the Ottawa Hospital near to where radioactive isotopes are stored, the Citizen has learned. Isotopes, used by nuclear medicine technologists to diagnose and treat illnesses such as heart disease and cancer, can also be used to build so-called dirty bombs. Although Ahmed was not qualified to use the isotopes and had no official access to them, his potential access could explain, at least in part, why the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) was concerned enough to plant agents at the hospital's Civic Campus to monitor him. Ahmed might also have been tipped off about being the target of surveillance, forcing the RCMP and security services to make a quick arrest, said Martin Rudner, a counterterrorism expert at Carleton University. In such a situation, investigators would have to be confident that they had collected enough evidence to lay charges. "There's no point in going forward to an arrest without sufficient evidence because then you risk the ultimate embarrassment of the case being thrown out of court," said Rudner.

August 27, 2010 - Associated Press - Walter Reed says it mishandled nuclear material - The military's flagship hospital has acknowledged it mishandled two packages of radioactive material in May, possibly exposing staff and patients to elevated radiation levels. Spokesman Chuck Dasey said Thursday that Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington doesn't dispute the allegations made by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The commission said the packages sat beneath a lobby counter for nearly two days after they were delivered. Dasey says the hospital has since reinforced its nuclear medicine safety program and retrained staff on the proper handling of radioactive material. The packages contained radioactive material used to treat and diagnose ailments such as cancer and heart disease. NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said no harm has been reported from the incident.

August 27, 2010 - Tri-City Herald - Hanford workers close to answers about burial pits - Work is nearly complete to help identify the type and amount of radioactive and hazardous materials at the 618-10 Burial Ground, one of the most hazardous sites on the Hanford nuclear reservation. Washington Closure Hanford workers have dug test pits in burial trenches containing laboratory waste, drums -- including one with depleted uranium shavings -- and other material at the site about six miles north of Richland and just off Hanford's main highway. The discoveries will help determine exactly what was discarded in the trenches when the six-acre burial site was used between 1954-63.  That information will help guide a plan for cleanup that's expected to start in spring 2011, Washington Closure and Department of Energy officials said Thursday. The cleanup project is one of the most challenging to date at Hanford because records of what was dumped in the 12 trenches at the site are incomplete, said John Darby, Washington Closure project manager. And the information that is available "indicates we'll encounter some of the most hazardous waste on the site," said Mark French, DOE's federal project director for the River Corridor Closure project.

August 27, 2010 - Las Vegas Review-Journal - Boehner: GOP ready to revive Yucca - House Minority Leader John Boehner made headlines this week when he called for President Barack Obama to fire Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers. But for Nevadans, there was a buried news nugget in the presentation the Ohio Republican gave to the City Club of Cleveland. In answer to a question, the top House Republican indicated a GOP-led House of Representatives would revive the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste plan. Here is the audio, starting with the questioner and including Boehner expanding on GOP energy policy generally. Here is the specific exchange: Q: The only repository for nuclear waste planned or conceived or developed in this country is Yucca Mountain in Nevada, and it is stopped dead in its tracks by Harry Reid. If the Republicans can take back Congress, what position would the party take on opening Yucca Mountain so our nuclear reactors have someplace to put their waste? BOEHNER: Most Republicans have supported Yucca Mountain for the 20 years that I've been there and the American people would be shocked to know how much nuclear waste is laying just miles from their home. It's laying at every nuclear plant around the country and why? Because we can't get Yucca Mountain finished because it's not politically correct. We've invested tens of billions of dollars in a storage facility that's as safe as anything we're going to find." Boehner went on to say that even if nuclear waste is not stored underground "then why wouldn't we as a country begin to reprocess much of this nuclear waste, where you can reduce the waste by about 90 percent."

August 27, 2010 - USDOL Press Release (08/26/10) - US Labor Department reaches $6 billion in benefits paid under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act - The U.S. Department of Labor today announced that it has paid more than $6 billion in compensation and medical benefits to more than 61,400 claimants nationwide under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act. This milestone coincides with the 9th anniversary of the Labor Department's administration of the EEOICPA, which assists employees who became ill as a result of working in the nuclear weapons industry. "The Labor Department is charged with compensating eligible nuclear weapons workers and their survivors. I am very proud to announce that we have delivered more than $6 billion in compensation and medical benefits during the nine years we have administered the EEOICPA," said Shelby Hallmark, director of the Labor Department's Office of Workers' Compensation Programs. "It is with great pride that we mark this payment milestone. In the future we will continue focusing on delivering excellent customer service to the nuclear weapons community by strengthening the claims adjudication process, our timeliness in delivering benefits and our outreach campaigns." On July 31, 2001, the Labor Department began administering Part B of the EEOICPA. Part B covers current or former workers who have been diagnosed with cancers, beryllium disease, or silicosis, and whose illness was caused by exposure to radiation, beryllium or silica while working directly for the U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Department contractors and subcontractors, designated atomic weapons employers and beryllium vendors. Since 2001, the Labor Department has delivered $3.4 billion in compensation to nearly 42,000 claimants under Part B of the EEOICPA. Part E, created by an amendment to the EEOICPA on Oct. 28, 2004, provides federal compensation and medical benefits to contractors and subcontractors of the Energy Department who worked at covered facilities and sustained an illness as a result of exposure to toxic substances. Under the Labor Department's administration, the Part E compensation payout has exceeded $2 billion. Medical benefits under both Parts B and E of the EEOICPA total nearly $556 million.

August 27, 2010 - Right Pundits - Van-Mounted Body Scanners Hitting the Streets? - Despite the furor that the new airport scanning machines have caused, it seems the demand for privacy-invading technology is insatiable among law-enforcement agencies. This time, the technology comes in the form of van-mounted body scanners, and they might already be employed by a law-enforcement agency near you. According to Forbes, American Science & Engineering, based in Billerica, Massachusetts has already sold over 500 of their Z Backscatter Vans, which can x-ray passing vehicles on the road to check out their cargo. Their biggest customer is the U.S. military, which uses the vehicles to search for car-bombs in war zones, but it has apparently also sold some units to national law-enforcement agencies. It is unclear how the van-mounted body scanners will be implemented by law-enforcement, the idea of randomly searching passing cars has Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) up in arms.  “Americans have a reasonable expectation for a degree of privacy,” he said. “I can’t imagine that that is legal and lawful. If (it is), then we’re going to have to change the law.”  Jay Stanley of ACLU’s Technology and Liberty program wrote about the possible complication that technology could have in the hands of the law. “If they are in fact being used on public streets, that would be a major violation of the Constitution,” he writes. “In fact, it’s hard to believe that any counsel at any government agency would sign off on allowing these vans to be used in that way. The use of this technology constitutes a search, and under the Fourth Amendment, a search can only be carried out with a warrant. There are exceptions to that, but none of them would apply if this technology is being used on public streets.” The devices are apparently able to see through any non-lead object with startling clarity, and locate such dangerous items as bomb-making materials, plastic weapons, or radioactive material. The problem is, the use of these vehicles without probable cause would be a blatant violation of the Constitution. Therefore, aside from relatively rare circumstances, enforcement agencies would have relatively little use for the vehicles if keeping to lawful use.

August 27, 2010 - Medical News Today - To Address Medical Imaging Overuse Radiologists Call For National Strategy - Overutilization of medical imaging services exposes patients to unnecessary radiation and adds to healthcare costs, according to a report appearing online and in the October issue of the journal Radiology that calls on radiologists to spearhead a collaborative effort to curb imaging overutilization. "In most cases, an imaging procedure enhances the accuracy of a diagnosis or guides a medical treatment and is fully justified, because it benefits the patient," said the article's lead author, William R. Hendee, Ph.D., distinguished professor of radiology, radiation oncology, biophysics and bioethics at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. "But some imaging procedures are not justified, because they are unnecessary for the patient's care. These are the uses of imaging that we, as medical physicists, radiologists, radiation oncologists and educators, are trying to identify and eliminate."

August 27, 2010 - Port Strategy - ISOTRACK sends a message from the box - ISOTRACK sends a message from the box. Technical details are not being revealed so far, but the partners behind ISOTRACK, an €2m EU-funded project to develop a container tracking and monitoring system, are promising a failsafe device capable of detecting low-level radiation, VOCs, etc., just as soon as any such material is placed inside the container. A prototype of the device, which is designed to be integrated into the container, tamper-proof, capable of low-cost retrofitting and with very long battery life, will be ready in October and a working model will follow in April 2011, says Dougie Bryce, exploitation manager for the consortium and a director of timber shipping group TTS. ISOTRACK developed from TTS’s initial concept simply to track containers. The company got into discussions with innovation and technology R&D company PERA ISRI – both are based in Melton Mowbray – and the consortium went live in November 2008 with FP7 grant funding from Europe. Other partners include Lloyd’s Register, Astrata, Bluetraker and Finnish line Containerships. “The benefits offered by our system would far outweigh the current ‘static scanning’ currently being promoted along the US border. To be frank, by that stage it’s too late – the device is on US soil,” says Mr Bryce.

August 27, 2010 - Small Cap Network - Long-awaited good news may be coming for Cleveland BioLabs - We are hearing some very loud and credible chatter that long-awaited good news may be coming for Cleveland BioLabs (Nasdaq: CBLI), the company that engages in the discovery, development, and commercialization of products for human protection from radiation. In the first quarter of this year, the company submitted additional paperwork about Protectan CBLB502 (a radioprotectant molecule with multiple medical and defense applications for reducing injury from acute stresses, such as radiation and chemotherapy) to a potential customer- the U.S. Government's Department of Defense. Many on Wall Street believe that the company has the best chance of not only getting significant funding from the DoD, but also a potentially bigger order from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) who would acquire doses of the drug for the Strategic National Stockpile. Share prices began to see some appreciation yesterday afternoon after we broke this news to our subscribers, but could rise significantly higher in anticipation of news and subsequent developments involving these government contracts.

August 27, 2010 - Namibia Economist - Uranium Institute inaugurated - The drive to enhance and promote the Namibian uranium brand culminated in the long-awaited official launch of the Chamber of Mines Uranium Institute this week. The establishment of the Uranium Institute and the Swakopmund Medical Centre, reaffirms uranium mining companies’ collective commitment to sustainable development, ensuring the health and safety of their employees and protecting the environment. With the Chamber of Mines acting as the initial driving force behind the establishment of the Uranium Institute, AREVA Resources Namibia and operating mines Rössing Uranium Ltd and Langer Heinrich, joined in to add momentum to the realisation thereof. Also supporting the initiative were the exploration companies Swakop Uranium, Bannerman Resources, Reptile Uranium and Zonghe Resources. In his address at the inauguration of the institute, Mr. Mike Leech, President of the Chamber of Mines, referred to the early days of the initiative: “In 2007, the Chamber of Mines made a strategic decision to develop minimum standards for health and the environment with respect to uranium exploration and mining activities. This was at the height of what has now come to be popularly known as the uranium rush in the Erongo region. The chamber employed the services of one of the most distinguished scientist in the field of health radiation, Dr Wotan Swiegers as technical advisor to champion the process.” Leech expressed satisfaction with the progress that has been made in the last two years, mentioning the establishment of minimum health and environmental standards, the Uranium Stewardship Committee and the Uranium institute.

August 27, 2010 - Huntington News - Yes, Workers Did Atomic Weapons Related Work in Huntington - After examining hundreds of pages of CDC transcripts, news clippings, interviewing retirees, and scanning on-line files of enough government agencies to list a page of acronyms, HNN now officially disputes the 1987 Elimination Recommendation [from potential hazardous/potential Superfund sites] and a December 14, 1994 letter from James W. Waggoner II, director Office of Environmental Restoration. The letter stated: “DOE performed a radiological survey [in 1981 and 1987] at the former Reduction Pilot Plant site and we are pleased to reaffirm our determination that conditions at this site meet applicable requirements for protection of the public health , safety and environment. We have concluded that additional investigations of this site are unnecessary.” As a cloaked and shrouded piece of Cold War history, many references to Huntington Pilot Plant/Reduction Pilot Plant which operated from 1951-1962 and 1978-1979 (for dismantling), simply state activities at the location were nickel related. Others, offer a veiled glimpse of a facility where radioactive materials were dipped into pits , burned, and separated for recycling creating radioactive dust and fog that would regularly be discharged into the air after midnight. The finished products were shipped under the watchful eyes of FBI/Secret Service to Tennessee.

August 27, 2010 - Earth Times - Berlin backpedals on tax plans for nuclear energy firms - The German government is reconsidering its stated aim of imposing an extra charge on the country's four nuclear energy giants, days after top officials said the industry would have to pay more to develop green energy. A report published in the Suedddeutsche Zeitung daily Friday said that Chancellor Angela Merkel's government was instead leaning toward allowing Eon, RWE, EnBW and Vattenfall to pay a voluntary contribution. On Monday ruling-Christian Democrat (CDU) general secretary Hermann Groehe said that the industry would have to pay an extra fee in addition to an annual 2.3-billion-euro tax on fuel rods. The government wants to extend the legally-mandated life-cycle of Germany's 17 nuclear plants. However, facing furious opposition from Greens, Social Democrats and some members of her own party, Merkel has said the industry must share the extra profits it would make.

August 27, 2010 - Xinhua - Why U.S. reacts mildly to Bushehr nuclear power plant's fuel loading? - Fuel loading to Iran's first nuclear power plant, which started on Aug. 21, is scheduled to finish on Sept. 5, when 163 fuel rods will have been transferred into the core of the reactor after required inspections, and the Bushehr nuclear power plant will become operational soon. Prior to the fuel loading, many analysts believed the United States would reacted fiercely to the fuel injection into the power plant. However, what totally out of their expectation is that the U.S. responded mildly by saying "we recognize that the Bushehr reactor is designed to provide civilian nuclear power and do not view it as a proliferation risk." It may seem surprising, but it is actually not if one always bears in mind what the U.S. pursues concerning Iran's nuclear program. Whatever the U.S. does is to help realize its political goal. Then two reasons may explain the unexpected U.S. response. Firstly, the United States does not have enough excuses to oppose Iran using peaceful nuclear energy, since Iran is a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Obviously, what the U.S. has been wanting to realize is for Iran to completely stop uranium enrichment activities, and Russia providing nuclear fuel for the Bushehr nuclear power plant could serve as a proof that Iran does not need to enrich uranium within its borders for its nuclear power plant, and the nuclear fuel needed for peaceful purposes can be supplied by other countries like Russia.

August 27, 2010 - Press of Atlantic City - DEP identifies tritium pollution plume at Oyster Creek; Exelon Corp. now trying to determine best cleanup method - The state said Thursday it has determined the extent of a pollution plume at the Oyster Creek Generating Station. The head of the Department of Environmental Protection said the next step would be for the plant's owner, Exelon Corp., to begin the cleanup. About 180,000 gallons of water containing radioactive hydrogen called tritium leaked last year from transfer pipes into the Cohansey Aquifer, an underground reservoir of drinking water that serves 1 million residents in southern New Jersey. The radiation in some samples taken from the spill was 50 times higher than what the Environmental Protection Agency considers safe for drinking water. But the spill poses no threat to public drinking water, the state said. The latest tests found tritium in just one of the eight test wells, which is good news, company spokesman David Benson said. "Seven came back with less than detectable levels," he said.

August 27, 2010 - Amarillo Globe-News - Pantex following up on employee's safety; Workers exposed to contaminated water - Two Pantex workers were monitored as a precaution after they spilled radioactively contaminated water on their clothes during flood cleanup operations, but follow-up sample results were below detectable limits, Pantex officials said Thursday. Plant officials are conducting radiation surveys of several hundred plutonium storage containers reached by floodwaters during a deluge last month, but plant officials said there's no evidence water breached the sealed plutonium storage drums. Pantex, located about 17 miles northeast of Amarillo, assembles, dismantles and modifies U.S. nuclear weapons. A July 7 flood dumped more than 10 inches of water at Pantex and federal officials estimate $60 million will be needed to return the plant to full operations. During the flooding, radiation safety technicians entered a nuclear explosives bay and found several containers used to hold tritium, a radioactive gas used to enhance the power of nuclear weapons, had come in contact with floodwaters. While the workers were waiting for radiation survey results, they were told it was acceptable to reseal the tritium containers. While lifting a container, one worker spilled contaminated water on his lap and onto his leg through his coveralls, according to a report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, an agency that monitors safety at U.S. nuclear weapons facilities.

August 27, 2010 - Deccan Herald - Ex-USSR awash in radioactive 'dirty bomb' substances - It has been one of Europe's worst nightmares: traffickers obtaining highly-radioactive materials on the loose in the former Soviet Union with the help of corrupt officials and passing them on to rogue groups looking to make a dirty bomb. The seizure this month of two kilograms of uranium in Moldova, an impoverished ex-Soviet nation bordering the EU member Romania, is a stark reminder of just how available and poorly guarded nuclear materials can be, analysts said. Moldovan police said this week they had seized a container with 1.8 kilograms of highly-radioactive Uranium-238 and arrested a group of suspected traffickers who had sought to sell it for nine million euros (USD 11 million). The United States has said it provided technical assistance to Moldova in the case, which the US State Department described as a "serious smuggling attempt". "Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of uranium lie in storage at industrial sites, one can take bagfuls of them," independent Russian military expert Pavel Felgenhauer told AFP. "There are people who try to sell them at a high price and most often they fall into the hands of security services," he said. The SBU security service in Ukraine, site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, have recently reported three cases of seizing radioactive materials.

August 27, 2010 - USNRC Press Release (08/26/10) - NRC to hold public meetings in Texas and Maryland on physical protection rules for radioactive maerials - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold two public meetings, in Austin, Texas, and Rockville, Md., to solicit public comment on draft guidance for implementing new security requirements for certain radioactive materials. The first meeting will be held Sept. 1 at the Doubletree Hotel, 6505 Interstate Highway 35 North, in Austin. The second meeting will be Sept. 20 at the NRC Auditorium, Two White Flint North, 11545 Rockville Pike, in Rockville. Both meetings will run from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Participants may join the Rockville meeting on Sept. 20 online at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/join/221305272 and by calling (888) 469-1280 (passcode 56389) for the audio. Participants wishing to participate virtually are urged to contact Amanda Noonan in advance at (301) 415-2552 or amanda.noonan@nrc.gov to ensure that sufficient phone lines are available. The NRC published proposed regulations for the physical protection of Category 1 and Category 2 radiation sources in the Federal Register on June 15. These sources, as categorized by the International Atomic Energy Agency, are considered the most risk-significant from a safety and a security standpoint. The public comment period for the proposed rule ends Oct. 13.

August 27, 2010 - The Times Record - Yucca Mtn. is safe - Betty King’s Aug. 20 letter-to-the-editor on Yucca Mountain (“Not at any price”) is filled with misinformation. She apparently has not inspected Yucca Mountain, nor read the test results. Yes, the mountain is semi-permeable and will transmit about 5 percent of rain water falling on top of the mountain, but the stainless steel drip shields used to protect the sealed storage casks prevented any signs of erosion. What water problem was she imaging? Dozens of other tests performed on the Yucca Mountain test site proved that the “storage site” could be used safely for long-term storage. Of particular interest, Betty King and your readers should be aware of the remote monitoring of every storage cask to be sure they are not corroding, leaking or experiencing any damage. Each cask is capable of being retrieved for needed repairs and or reprocessing to recover usable uranium and other radioisotopes. There is no good scientific reason to reject Yucca Mountain. No site is perfect, but Yucca Mountain is certainly one of the best, if not the best, options available. As a taxpayer who has contributed to the nuclear waste fund, I protest the “political decision” to close Yucca mountain and waste the $13 billion already invested in the development of this perfectly good and safe waste storage facility. John Orth, Grafton, Wisc.

August 27, 2010 - World Nuclear News - US MOX plant clears licensing hurdle - A mixed oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication facility being built in the USA to turn ex-military plutonium into fuel for nuclear power reactors has taken a step forward in the licensing process with the publication of a draft Safety Evaluation Report (SER) by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The report documents the NRC's technical safety review of Shaw Areva MOX Services' application for an operating licence for the facility, under construction at the Department of Energy's (DoE) Savannah River site in South Carolina. In it, the NRC has concluded that the descriptions, specifications, commitments and analyses provided by MOX Services provide an adequate basis for safety and safeguards operations, and that operation of the facility "would not pose an undue risk to worker and public health and safety." Unlike projects to build new nuclear power reactors, for which the NRC will issue combined construction and operation licences (COLs), the MOX facility is being licensed through a two-part process, firstly authorising construction of the plant and secondly licensing MOX Services to operate it. Construction authorisation was granted in March 2005, and work began on the plant, being built under the remit of the DoE's autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, in 2007. The second stage of the licensing process, which includes NRC reviews of a licence application to possess and use special nuclear material (in other words, plutonium) and an Integrated Safety Analysis summary, is now ongoing.

August 27, 2010 - Red Wing Republican Eagle - NRC delays decision on safety violation at Prairie Island plant - Regulators with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are still trying to determine whether the potential for internal flooding at the Prairie Island nuclear plant was a violation of federal licensing requirements. Regulators with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are still trying to determine whether the potential for internal flooding at the Prairie Island nuclear plant was a violation of federal licensing requirements. In a letter submitted to Xcel Energy Monday, the NRC announced that it is withdrawing a preliminary violation issued against the facility in order to further review Xcel Energy’s claim that the agency reviewed the plant on standards that do not apply to facilities built before 1975. “We have been going through their licensing documents to determine whether we agree with their assessment or not,” said NRC spokeswoman Victoria Mitlyng. Both sides agree that the potential for a pipe breakage in the plant’s turbine building did pose a risk to public safety. Xcel Energy, which owns and operates the plant, has since corrected the problem. Look to this Saturday’s edition of the R-E for the full story.

August 26, 2010 - Slash Food - Atomic-Age Side Dishes and Other Radioactive Treats - Try dropping this fun fact the next time that you're trying to get your kids to eat their lima beans: "Hey, did you know lima beans are radioactive?" Depending on whether you've got a daredevil superhero-in-the-making at the dinner table or an atomic age Chicken Little ("The A-bombs are falling! The A-bombs are falling!") will probably determine just how willing you are to let them in on another secret: there are a number of foods that are radioactive. Potatoes...carrots...hamburger...and that favorite breakfast staple: bananas. (Beer and brazil nuts are on the list as well, but presumably you aren't serving these up to your kids before school.) As Katharine Shilcutt, writer for the Edible Science blog at the Houston Press, points out, it's the relatively high level of potassium in these foods, coupled with a little radium, that make them naturally prone to send any nearby Geiger counter sputtering. But as is often the case with these sensational (but nevertheless interesting) stories, there's no real danger that the carrots on your plate of crudités are going to turn your party guests into nuclear zombies -- the radiation levels are miniscule. Even if you ate a banana a day, your radiation exposure would still be far less than your average chest X-ray.

August 26, 2010 - RIA Novosti - U.S. hails arrest of uranium smugglers in Moldova - The U.S. State Department has congratulated Moldova on the successful detention of three men suspected of trying to sell about two kilograms of uranium. The alleged smugglers, two of whom were identified by Moldovan officials as former policemen, were arrested on Wednesday in a police sting operation. Moldovan police found 1.8 kilograms of uranium-238 in a garage Chisinau, the country's capital. The Moldovan police said the men were seeking about $11 million for the uranium. "We congratulate the Moldovan Ministry of Interior for its work in thwarting what was a serious smuggling attempt," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said at a briefing on Wednesday. He added that "an FBI team had cooperated with Moldovan police on technical analysis." "The U.S. government continues to work with partners worldwide to thwart nuclear smuggling cases, providing assistance with investigations, provisions of radiation detection equipment, training, and legal assistance to increase sentencing for these crimes," he said. "We did in this case offer law enforcement and technical assistance to the Moldovan Ministry of Interior."

August 26, 2010 - Reno News & Review - Yucca, caucuses linked - Maine’s Portland Press Herald published an Aug. 16 editorial blaming the early Nevada presidential caucuses for preventing the opening of the proposed dump for high level nuclear wastes at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain. The editorial also called for reviving the moribund nuclear power industry. “One of the worst decisions in U.S. energy policy was letting the two major political parties move the Nevada caucuses into the early weeks of the presidential selection process,” the newspaper’s editorial read. “So, in addition to having to promise New Hampshire voters that they will be independent and pledging Iowa voters permanent fealty to farm subsidies, anyone who wants to be president has had to express deep opposition to the Yucca Mountain federal nuclear waste dump. … Having a reliable dump for nuclear waste could … spur the growth of the nuclear power industry, which would provide needed balance in our energy portfolio.” The newspaper’s stance wasn’t all that surprising—some radioactive material from the now-defunct Maine Yankee nuclear power plant is still stored in Wiscassett. More surprising was the near unanimity in reader comments opposing the editorial’s views, both on Yucca and reviving the industry. Samples: • Moving it to Yucca doesn’t make the problem ‘go away.’ This generation needs to learn from the last and not remake the mistakes of the past.” • “There’s no such thing as ‘a reliable dump for nuclear waste.” • “It’s facile and naive to say ‘Pick a spot, do it the safest way possible and move on.’ At Yucca Mountain they tried exactly that, but it turned out to not be so ‘safe.’” Congress targeted Yucca for the dump 23 years ago, and the dump was supposed to open in 1998, 10 years before the first Nevada caucuses were held, so there have probably been more factors at work in stopping the dump than just the caucuses.

August 26, 2010 - Cincinnati Enquirer - Ex-Fernald workers can get free tests - Ray Beatty is looking for former Fernald workers. Beatty, coordinator of a program that offers free health exams for men and women who used to work at the old uranium foundry here, is trying to get the word out about an early lung cancer detection program available to them. Through the Worker Health Protection Program, former Fernald workers can get free low-dose CT scans. The foundry, which operated from 1951 to 1989, refined raw uranium ore for use in nuclear weapons and atomic power plants. Over the years, workers were exposed to many toxins, including the uranium itself and its byproduct, radon. Radon is the second-leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S. From October 2009 through July, 247 former Fernald workers got the scans, but many more are eligible, he said. "Our biggest dilemma has been trying to find folks," he said.

August 26, 2010 - Ashland Daily Times - CT scans may do more harm than good - Dear EarthTalk: Should I fear radiation exposure associated with medical scans such as CT scans, mammograms and the like? — Shelly Johansen, Fairbanks, Ark. The short answer is "… maybe. Critics of the health care industry postulate that our society's quickness to test for disease may in fact be causing more of it, especially in the case of medical scans. To wit, the radiation dose from a typical CT scan (short for computed tomography and commonly known as a "cat scan") is 600 times more powerful than the average chest x-ray. A 2007 study by Dr. Amy Berrington de González of the National Cancer Institute projected that the 72 million CT scans conducted yearly in the U.S. (not including scans conducted after a cancer diagnosis or performed at the end of life) will likely cause some 29,000 cancers resulting in 15,000 deaths two to three decades later. Scans of the abdomen, pelvis, chest and head were deemed most likely to cause cancer, and patients aged 35 to 54 were more likely to develop cancer as a result of CT scans than other age group. Another study found that, among Americans who received CT scans, upwards of 20 percent had a false positive after one scan and 33 percent after two, meaning that such patients were getting huge doses of radiation without cause. And about seven percent of those patients underwent unnecessary invasive medical procedures following their misleading scans. CT scans are much more common today than in earlier decades, exacerbating the potential damage from false positives and excessive radiation exposure.

August 26, 2010 - Washington Post - Walter Reed patients, staff may have been exposed to radiation in May - Two packages of radioactive material sat under a counter in the main lobby of Walter Reed Army Medical Center for 44 hours, possibly exposing patients and staff to elevated radiation, according to an investigation by federal regulators. The packages were delivered May 1 to the hospital's concierge, who stored them under the counter, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The intended recipient, the hospital's administrative officer, didn't locate the package until the next Monday, two days later. An NRC spokesman said that the agency is not aware of anyone being harmed. The administrative officer noticed that the medical center had not received the expected delivery and unsuccessfully tried to find it, according to an NRC spokesman. On May 3, the next workday, hospital officials continued their search and found the package at the concierge desk.Walter Reed officials determined that radiation levels at the concierge desk were 2 millirems an hour, which exceeds allowable limits. The average American is exposed to 620 millirems a year, said Neil Sheehan, an NRC spokesman. The violations at the Northwest Washington hospital follow a similar lapse there last year. The commission has scheduled a Sept. 1 hearing to help determine what, if any, enforcement action the commission will take. Chuck Dasey, a spokesman for Walter Reed, said there are no reports of illnesses or adverse effects from the exposure. He said hospital officials will attend the hearing and "provide information on Walter Reed's radiation safety and nuclear medicine programs and the mitigation measures taken since the incident occurred in May." He declined to comment further.

August 26, 2010 - Daily Kos - NV-Sen: Boehner pledges GOP support for dumping nuclear waste in Nevada - John Boehner, Tuesday in Cleveland, giving Harry Reid a political gift by calling for the reopening of Nevada's Yucca Mountain as the nation's dumping ground for nuclear waste: QUESTION: The only repository for nuclear waste planned or conceived or developed for this country is Yucca Mountain in Nevada, and it is stopped dead in its tracks by Harry Reid. If the Republicans can take back Congress, what position would the party take on opening Yucca Mountain so our nuclear reactors have someplace to put their waste? BOEHNER: Most Republicans have supported Yucca Mountain for the twenty years that I've been here and the American people would be shocked to know how much nuclear waste is laying just miles from their home. It's laying at every nuclear plant in the country and why? Because we can't get Yucca Mountain finished because it's not politically correct. We've invested tens of billions of dollars in a storage facility that's as safe as anything we're going to find. Why is that a gift to Harry Reid? For three reasons: Yucca Mountain is incredibly unpopular in Nevada -- nobody in Nevada wants the Silver State to become the nation's dumping ground for nuclear waste. Harry Reid is the number one reason why Yucca Mountain has been effectively closed (though a recent court ruling has given it a weak pulse). Sharron Angle opposes Reid's position -- and supports Boehner's plan to reopen Yucca. That's right, she believes Nevada should become the nation's nuclear waste dumping ground.

August 26, 2010 - Treatment Abroad - Medical travellers with brain cancer to benefit from new gamma knife in Hawaii - Surrounded by thousands of square miles of ocean, Gamma Knife Center of the Pacific is the only Gamma Knife center in Hawaii. Since 1998, Gamma Knife Center of the Pacific has treated more than 1300 patients, many not from the island. The radiosurgery centre has retired its first Leksell Gamma Knife system and replaced it with Elekta’s latest generation radiosurgery system, Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion. Gamma Knife radiosurgery is a gentler alternative to traditional brain surgery for illnesses such as metastatic disease, which is cancer that has travelled to the brain from elsewhere in the body. With pinpoint accuracy, the system delivers up to thousands of low-intensity radiation beams to one or more targets in a single session. Perfexion provides even greater speed and ease of use than previous models. Neurosurgeon Dr. Maurice Nicholson explains, "Perfexion is a much faster, more efficient machine to treat multiple metastases in a single visit. This is important because the pendulum is swinging toward treating with stereotactic radiosurgery [SRS] rather than whole brain radiation therapy [WBRT]. Studies have shown that there is decreased mental function at four months in a higher percentage of WBRT patients. Perfexion will be good for the patients and good for doctors." More than one-third of the 140 patients who come to Gamma Knife Center of the Pacific each year have brain metastases. The numbers are rising due to advances in tumor imaging and better screening, which result in earlier detection and diagnosis. With new treatments, people who are diagnosed with cancer live longer; therefore, there is a greater chance of developing metastases." With Perfexion, the center's staff of eight neurosurgeons, five radiation oncologists and one physicist is well equipped to handle increasing demand. The new system allows them to easily double the number of patients they have been treating. This extra capacity means the centre can now actively seek medical travellers, rather than just wait for them to approach.

August 26, 2010 - IFandP - Egypt selects first nuclear site - Egyptian officials announced the site for the country’s first nuclear power plant. The new plant will be located in el-Dabaa, northwest of Cairo on the Mediterranean coast. However, local business officials had criticized the choice as they fear a negative impact on the region’s tourism. The plant is scheduled for completion by 2019, the first of four to become operational by 2025, according to government plans. The new plants would go some way in providing the country with its power requirements as its oil and gas resources are depleting as well as combating power outages.

August 26, 2010 - Reuters - Details about Institute of Nuclear Power Operations - The White House oil spill commission is considering a push for offshore oil drillers to create a self regulating agency similar to the nuclear industry's Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, or INPO. The commission will hear from two representatives of the nuclear industry agency at a public meeting on Wednesday. Below are some details about INPO: - Established in 1979, following recommendations from a presidential commission set up to address the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident. - Sets performance objectives and guidelines for nuclear power industry. - Evaluates nuclear plants for personnel performance, effectiveness of management, quality of programs and conditions of equipment. - Provides training for nuclear industry workers. - Assesses individual plant training programs to identify strengths and weaknesses. - Assists in analyzing significant events that occur in nuclear power plants. - Provides assistance when nuclear plants request help with technical and management issues related to operations and support.

August 26, 2010 - Boston Globe - NRC has strict safety controls in place for radioactive materials - YOUR AUG. 20 article “US conducts antiterrorism drill at MIT; Theft of radioactive material is feared’’ (Metro) leaves the misimpression that dangerous radioactive materials at MIT and other facilities across the country are vulnerable to theft by terrorists and protected only by voluntary security measures. In fact, such materials are subject to enhanced federal and state regulatory security requirements, and public health and safety are protected at all times. Security and control of radioactive materials are a top priority for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and its state partners, such as Massachusetts. The NRC has a rigorous security program, including licensing, inspection, and enforcement, for high-risk radioactive materials to reduce the potential threat from a radiological dispersal device (“dirty bomb’’) or a radiological exposure device. The voluntary security measures described in your article are being implemented in addition to strict mandatory controls already in place. David McIntyre, Public affairs officer, US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

August 26, 2010 - Cincinnati Enquirer - Fernald meeting reviews findings - Former workers and neighbors of the old Fernald uranium foundry can hear an informational update tonight on the medical monitoring program. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. at the Fernald Preserve Welcome Center, 7400 Willey Road. Speakers will include researchers and physicians, who will give an overview of what the program has found and future health research centering around the site. The site operated as a uranium foundry from 1951 to 1989. Workers at the site refined raw uranium ore for use in nuclear weapons and as fuel for nuclear reactors. In 1984, residents were outraged to learn uranium runoff from the site had contaminated drinking water wells at three homes neighboring the site. The families sued the owners of the site, resulting in a 10-year, $4.4 billion cleanup that ended in 2006. The site was rehabilitated and now serves as a federal nature preserve with prairie, wetland and forest areas. Work to clean up contamination of the Great Miami Aquifer continues.

August 26, 2010 - Baltimore Sun - Ship oily trash to Yucca Mountain - Having read several accounts of the problems encountered in finding a place to get rid of the oily trash collected during the Gulf cleanup, especially the burdens placed on neighboring states as well as inland Louisiana, it occurs to me that we currently have an ideal site for this trash which would relieve these southern states of the ecological damage they are currently suffering and will probably incur in the future. We have an unused waste site which will probably be unused for a good while, maybe forever. This is the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada, which was intended for spent nuclear fuel and other radwastes. It seems to me that there is so much public outcry over the prospect of these wastes being put in what is felt to be an unstable environment, that these facilities, which cost millions, will never be used for their intended purpose, but might have an alternate use. How about someone in a position of authority, like one of our senators, representatives, or perhaps the Majority Leader, Senator Harry Reid, contacting the Environmental Protection Agency or some such organization and suggesting that all this junk be transported to the wastelands of Nevada? It would enable a use of these facilities and would lessen the burden currently placed on these unfortunate Gulf localities. Seismic instability should not be anywhere near the problem with oily rags as it might be with radioactive fuel rods. Rail transportation is probably possible.

August 26, 2010 - Columbia Examiner - Violations reported at $4.8 Billion MOX facility - The most recent inspections conducted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) cites four violations in the construction of the $4.8 billion Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MOX) being constructed at the Savannah River Site. In a copy of a report recently made public, the NRC cited four minor violations identified as priority level IV, the least serious on the agency's scale. According to the report, the violations were for failure to provide adequate quality assurance oversight of a structural welding vendor; failure to verify critical characteristics of materials procured from commercial suppliers; failure to identify and correct improperly installed rebar prior to enclosure of wall panels; and an inadequate construction change specification. The $4.8 billion MOX facility being constructed at SRS near Aiken, S.C. is scheduled to open in 2016, is designed to dispose of 34 metric tons of surplus weapons-grade plutonium by using small amounts to make fuel for commercial reactors. The inspections involved the observation and evaluation of the contractor, Shaw Areva MOX Services', programs for facility construction of principle structures, systems, and components and included quality assurance activities related to design verification and documentation control as well a other areas.

August 26, 2010 - Knoxville News-Sentinel - Bechtel Jacobs' swan song - OK, it's not really a swan song for Bechtel Jacobs Co., the Dept. of Energy's Oak Ridge cleanup manager since 1998, but I kind of got that feeling the other day when a BJC pamphlet -- titled, "Cleaning Up the Manhattan Project Legacy -- came across my desk. The pamplet has out been for a while, maybe a year, but I hadn't seen it before. What it does is focus on the contractor's accomplishments over the past decade or so. It's pretty impressive. Despite the criticism (and Bechtel Jacobs has endured a bunch of that, with some of it surely deserved for safety missteps, cost overruns and project delays), the contractor has accomplished a lot. The Bechtel Jacobs contract is due to expire in 2011, with a transition of contractors expected to take place in the summer. The follow-on contract for environmental management in Oak Ridge is currently up for bids.

August 26, 2010 - Carlsbad Current-Argus - WIPP site being considered for DOE plutonium disposal - The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad is being eyed as a potential site for the disposal of surplus plutonium by the Department of Energy. The material represents approximately 13 metric tons (MT) of surplus plutonium, including about 7 MT from retired nuclear weapons and 6 MT of non-pit plutonium. A "pit" is the plutonium core of a nuclear weapon, while "non-pit" plutonium comprises plutonium oxides or metals that existed when the Cold War ended. The material under consideration for potential disposal at the WIPP facility is 6 MT of surplus non-pit plutonium to be moved from the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina. It could be disposed of as transuranic (TRU) waste at WIPP in the same way other TRU waste is disposed of currently. A public scoping meeting was held Tuesday at the Best Western Stevens Inn as part of the process to determine subjects to be considered and evaluated in a supplemental environmental impact statement (EIS) required by the project. According to the DOE, it could be as many as 10 years before any actual waste found its way to WIPP. "Right now it would be about seven to 10 years down the road," said Randy Kaltreider of the DOE Office of Environmental Management.

August 25, 2010 - Reuters - Kuwait seeks assurances on Iran atomic plant safety - Kuwait, just across Gulf waters from Iran, wants more assurances from the Islamic Republic about the safety of its first nuclear power reactor which Tehran has started fuelling up, its foreign minister said. Tehran began loading fuel on Saturday into the Bushehr plant, a potent symbol of Iran's growing regional sway and its rejection of international sanctions designed to prevent it building a nuclear bomb. Tehran denies any such intention. "We received assurances from Iran in addition to Russian assurances that the technology used in that plant is top notch," Kuwait's state news agency KUNA quoted Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad al-Salem al-Sabah as saying late on Tuesday. "But I remain worried that a nuclear plant is so close to me, whether it is in Iran or any other location. That is why we want to be reassured that the technology used is top of the line." Kuwait, an OPEC member, fears any accidents at the reactor could pollute Gulf waters. Analysts have long said Kuwait also worries about the potential environmental effects of any Western or Israeli military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.

August 25, 2010 - OpenSecrets.org - Trial Lawyer Embraces Approach of Energy Tycoons to Influence Elections In New Orleans - In the final hours before primary election day, a shadowy new political group is comparing Louisiana Democratic congressional candidate Cedric Richmond to a comic book villain and accusing him of committing all seven deadly sins. Want to know who’s funding the attack? Too bad. Campaign finance reports detailing the identities of donors behind the project won’t be revealed until weeks after Saturday’s Democratic primary. The most the public can glean is that the group -- known as the Louisiana Truth PAC -- has poured nearly $30,000 into the race through independent political expenditures and was recently registered with the Federal Election Commission by New Orleans-based trial lawyer Stuart H. Smith, who specializes in environmental law, class-action lawsuits and mass torts. His firm, Smith Stag, has pioneered litigation surrounding the build-up of radioactivity in oilfield equipment used for petroleum and natural gas production. And Louisiana has been fertile ground for such a law practice. The state produces a quarter of the nation's crude oil and one-third of its natural gas, according to the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation. Furthermore, eight of every 10 offshore rigs in the country drill in the state’s coastal waters, and 20 percent of all workers in the New Orleans region are employed by the energy industry. A decade ago, Smith helped win a $1 billion verdict against ExxonMobil for environmental contamination near the Crescent City stemming from the company’s allegedly hazardous, radioactive oilfield waste. After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Smith began representing commercial fishermen in a suit against BP, Transocean, Halliburton and other companies involved with the operation.

August 25, 2010 - domain-b.com - Medical isotopes shortage likely to push up medical scan costs news - A severe global shortage of medical isotopes is likely to push up costs of medicals scans in India. Medical isotopes are minute amounts of radioactive substances used in the diagnosis and treatment of a number of diseases. According to reports confirmed by doctors, hospitals have been facing acute shortage of Technetium-99m the isotope most extensively used in scans of most body parts. The shortage has resulted from the shut down of a nuclear reactor in eastern Ontario, Canada, that caters to a third of the global requirement. The development has triggered the crisis leading to the escalation in prices of Molybdenum 99 from which from which Technetium 99m is derived. The shortage has also left the US medical fraternity concerned.

August 25, 2010 - Sify News - Greenpeace activists held for protesting n-bill - Six activists of environmental group Greenpeace were detained Wednesday for protesting the civil nuclear liability bill in front of Parliament House here. 'No charges have been levelled against the six activists till now. According to latest reports, they're still waiting for the station house officer to arrive,' Greenpeace India media officer Derek J. Wheeler told IANS. The demonstration started around 10 a.m. when Greenpeace activists put up banners of 'People before Profit' and beat drums with danger radioactive symbols. A crowd gathered as two activists climbed lampposts and tied themselves with chains to them. Four activists below stood on the ground as police intervened and tried to move them out. Fifteen minutes later, police brought down the two demonstrators perched on the lampposts. All six demonstrators were detained and bundled into a van.

August 25, 2010 - New York Times - Little Hope, Help for DOE's Displaced Yucca Mountain Contract Workers - . Steve Hommel has had a difficult year by almost any standard: He lost his job on the Yucca Mountain project, uprooted his family to South Carolina and sold his Las Vegas-area house for a third of the price he paid for it. But Hommel still considers himself "one of the lucky ones." Unlike many of his former Yucca co-workers, he found a new job and was able to settle his home mortgage with the bank. At 30, he is relatively young; he can start over and learn new skills. "It was scary. It was not an easy decision," Hommel said in a recent interview about his move. "Just the thought of not being able to support my family made me start looking everywhere." After three decades spent studying Yucca Mountain for nuclear waste storage, the Department of Energy is now preparing to close the site by Sept. 30. Funding for the site has decreased in recent years -- thanks partly to the efforts of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) -- but President Obama put the final nail in the coffin by zeroing out the project's funding in his fiscal 2011 budget request. Hommel is among hundreds of contracted employees who have lost their jobs in the process. While DOE has scrambled to find landings for the project's federal employees, the contracted scientists, computer experts and managers were left with few options. Some had worked on the project for decades, and many have skills that are hard to transfer anywhere else.

August 25, 2010 - Huffington Post - Sorry, But Nukes Still Don't Pencil Out - One topic that always seems to attract lots of blog comments is my contention that the present generation of pressurized-vessel nuclear power plants makes so little economic sense that we shouldn't even need to recognize the safety and proliferation issues before deciding to end all public support and subsidies for them. And once those have been ended, the pressurized-vessel nuclear revival would simply blow away like a tumbleweed in a hurricane. The latest evidence is in Florida's capital, where Florida Power and Light and Progress Energy are asking the state Public Service Commission for another $200 million in advance payments to cover the cost of four nuclear reactors that are unlikely ever to be completed. These kinds of advance payments are exactly the kind of financial shenanigans that brought the last nuclear-construction boom to an end, leaving utility ratepayers with billions of wasted dollars in costs. The Florida PSC has already approved $269 million in such advance payments. The delivery date for the reactors in question has been pushed back five years -- remember, one of them, at Turkey Point, is likely to be virtually underneath the Atlantic Ocean (because of sea level rise) long before its useful lifetime is over. And FPL now concedes that it has not yet decided whether it will build these plants at all -- it simply wants to keep spending rate payers' money on them.

August 25, 2010 - Las Vegas Review-Journal - NRC staff gives Yucca overview a passing grade - The plan to bury nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada passed an initial test on Monday when a safety review team gave a passing grade to an introductory part of the project's license application. A staff of scientists and consultants for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission released the first volume of a five-volume safety evaluation report that will dissect the 8,600-page application submitted two years ago by the Department of Energy. The Obama administration is seeking to terminate the project, and the commissioners who guide the NRC, an independent agency, are expected to rule soon whether the license process can be brought to an end. In the meantime, the staff of the NRC has not been directed to stop its evaluation of the application. A second volume is expected to be released this fall. The Nuclear Energy Institute, the nuclear power industry's chief lobbying arm, said the NRC was following procedure. "The project continues until it is officially ended and no earlier," spokesman John Keeley said. The initial review issued Monday involved descriptions of the site, proposed construction schedules and summaries of the geology and hydrology research conducted over 20 years.

August 25, 2010 - KPVI 6 - New Navy Project May Come to Eastern Idaho - Two U.S. Navy nuclear projects in the works could possibly come to eastern Idaho. The total cost of both is estimated up to $1 billion. But before any construction can begin, the public’s input must be considered. The project is called the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program. It’s in the beginning stages, but has been an idea for the past 2 to 3 years. The collaboration between the U.S. Navy and the Department of Energy intends to recapitalize on facilities in the Arco Desert. Using them as a place to handle used nuclear fuel from the Navy’s fleet. Idaho is the only place in the U.S. where facilities already exist. Rehabilitating them would be most financially feasible. Two projects that Navy officials estimate will cost up to $1 billion and will create a large number of local construction jobs. Local input will be heard to factor in stakeholder’s concerns of potential environmental hazards from the projects. “We really anticipate that the environmental impacts will be little if any associated with the new facilities and the recapitalization,” said Alan Gunn, a representative of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program.

August 25, 2010 - Huntington News - Come and Get It --- Free Plutonium Sludge to Fertilize Your Organic Garden - Back in 1999 Joe Harding told the Washington Post, “Everything was so safe, so riskless [at the Paducah enriched uranium gaseous diffusion plant] … We know the truth, I can feel it in my body.” Harding is no longer alive; he’s one of the workers who died of cancer. At the height of the Cold War in 1952, 1,800 men and women labored in hot, stadium sized buildings turning trainloads of dusty uranium powder into material for bombs, Joby Warrick wrote on August 8, 1999. However, plant management claimed that workers were safe due to an “insignificant amount of plutonium” processed at the Kentucky site. The workers were not monitored. From 1953 to 1976, the Post said , 103,000 metric tons of used uranium were sent to Paducah arriving in freight cars as fine black powder. Left from the plutonium –making process, “fission byproducts like technetium-99 and heavy metals known as "transuranics": neptunium and plutonium (which according the then Institute for Energy and Environmental Research is 100,000 times more radioactive per gram than uranium.) Workers were told respiratory protection was optional, they almost jokingly “salted” their bread in the cafeteria with green uranium dust, and when they got out of bed in the morning their linens would glow green.

August 25, 2010 - stv.tv - Dounreay faces court action after radiation scare - Dounreay’s operators have moved a step closer to facing criminal proceedings over a radiation leak at the plant towards the end of last year. A group of workers were exposed to higher than expected levels of radioactivity while working with an intermediate level waste container. A probe by on site-regulator, the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate has resulted in it preparing a report for the procurator fiscal’s office. Between six and nine operatives were involved. The detected an enhanced level of radioactivity as they prepared to shift the solid waste which was contained within a shielded flask. While below both the statutory and the lower site-imposed maximum, the reading gave concern as it was above that which was anticipated. The extra radiation is thought to have come from a neutron source. As soon as the raised levels were detected, the movement was suspended and barriers erected around the flask. Site licence company DSRL also implemented new controls to govern ILW waste transfers throughout the site. The NII has meanwhile completed its probe into an overnight fire at the site’s prototype fast reactor. Dounreay’s fire brigade were called out to extinguish the blaze which involved several kilogrammes of radioactive metallic sodium.

August 25, 2010 - Anti-War.com - Brief Panic: Trivial Amount of Unenriched Uranium Seized in Moldova - There was a brief media stir this morning following reports that police in the city of Chisinau, the capital city of the Republic of Moldova, seized approximately four pounds of yellowcake uranium that a criminal gang had obtained and was trying to sell. According to the initial reports the gang had been asking for 9 million Euros, or around $11 million, for the chunk of unenriched uranium, but it did not have any takers so far. Which is perhaps unsurprising, because the current spot price for yellowcake uranium on the open market is only about $46 a pound, meaning the small rock was worth less than $200 at best. But it did spark a bit of speculation about terrorists buying the thing and using it for the creation of a “dirty bomb,” speculation that is readily refuted however and doesn’t appear to have been based on anything but how scary the word “uranium” sounds. The whole block of ore contains only about 1.08 millicuries of radioisotope, meaning it is roughly the same amount of radioisotope as you’d get from a few of those glow in the dark radium watchdials.

August 25, 2010 - Times of India - Breast imaging technologies linked to cancer risks - A new study has revealed that some nuclear-based breast imaging exams may increase a woman''s risk of developing radiation-induced cancer. However, the radiation dose and risk from mammography are very low. "A single breast-specific gamma imaging (BSGI) or positron emission mammography (PEM) examination carries a lifetime risk of inducing fatal cancer greater than or comparable to a lifetime of annual screening mammography starting at age 40," said the study''s author, R. Edward Hendrick, clinical professor of radiology at the University of Colorado-Denver, School of Medicine in Aurora, Co. The risks and benefits of screening mammography are under constant scrutiny. Meanwhile, newer breast imaging technologies, such as BSGI and PEM have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and introduced into clinical practice. Preliminary studies have shown both to be promising at detecting cancer; however, both involve the injection of radioactive material into the patient. BSGI uses a high-resolution gamma camera that allows for imaging with mild compression of the breast along with an injection of a nuclear radiotracer, which is absorbed at a higher rate by cancerous cells. In PEM, radioactive material is injected into the body to measure metabolic activity and determine the presence of disease. Other technologies, not yet approved by the FDA, include dedicated breast CT and digital breast tomosynthesis.

August 25, 2010 - Lockport Union-Sun - Simonds study shows no 'imminent' dangers - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finds no "imminent threat to public safety or human health" at the former Guterl Specialty Steel/Simonds Saw and Steel site, where atomic work was done for the federal government in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the agency announced Monday. ACE has documented varying degrees of radiologic contamination around the 70-acre site along Ohio Street, according to a newly released remedial investigation report. Ground, water, air, sediment and building material samples were taken in 2007. The site consists of three general areas: the 52-acre Allegheny Ludlum Corporation property, a 9-acre landfill area and the 9-acre "excised" area where Simonds Saw and Steel rolled two radioactive metals, uranium and thorium, for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission between 1946 and 1956. In the excised area, "some degree" of radioactivity was detected above background level, in all of the buildings, the soil and surface water/sediments, ACE said. The most heavily contaminated areas are Buildings 6 and 8, where the metals were received, heated, rolled, packaged and shipped. Soil and groundwater contamination is documented around the Guterl site, but ACE said it doesn't pose an immediate danger to "receptors" such as onsite workers or trespassers.

August 25, 2010 - Augusta Chronicle - Minor infractions found at MOX plant - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's most recent round of inspections at the U.S. Energy Department's mixed oxide fuel facility yielded four notices of violation for minor procedural infractions, according to a copy of the report made public this month. Inspectors, who conducted extensive reviews at the construction site from April 1 to June 30, also noted that many programs -- including testing, mechanical and electrical work, adherence to policies and other construction activities -- were "performed in a safe and quality- related manner." The $4.8 billion MOX facility, scheduled to open at Savannah River Site in 2016, is designed to dispose of 34 metric tons of surplus weapons-grade plutonium by using small amounts to make fuel for commercial reactors. The inspections evaluated construction of principal structures and included quality assurance and documentation activities, the report said. The four violations identified by the NRC were assigned a priority level of IV, the least serious on the agency's scale. All are being corrected.

August 24, 2010 - Philadelphia Inquirer - NRC fines VA $39,000 over radiation violations in prostate cancer programs - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday levied a $39,000 fine against the Department of Veterans Affairs for radiation safety violations at prostate cancer programs in 12 VA hospitals nationwide. The penalty followed a $227,500 fine in March against the veterans agency for failures in the prostate brachytherapy program at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center, where dozens of veterans got incorrect doses of radiation over six years. Those mistakes prompted investigations at other VA hospitals of brachytherapy, which involves using radiation to kill tumor cells. The NRC said it was particularly concerned that even after the Philadelphia hospital's problems were discovered, the VA missed similar issues at other hospitals. Still, the nuclear agency declined to take the most severe action against the VA: removing the VA oversight of radiation safety at all its hospitals. The VA did not respond to requests for comment. Rep. John Adler (D, N.J.), the area's only congressman on the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, said: "The NRC has found widespread medical misconduct throughout the VA's brachytherapy program. It is time the VA acknowledges and fixes their mistakes." The NRC said it would hold a public meeting "to further discuss the actions" needed to improve the VA's radiation safety oversight. The fine imposed Monday stemmed from two violations; the brachytherapy programs lacked procedures to ensure the implants followed a preoperative plan, and they failed to notify the NRC within 24 hours of a failed procedure. "These violations should have been identified by the [VA] during their own independent inspections," said Mark Satorius, the NRC regional administrator for Region III, which oversees the VA's radiation safety program. "We expect the [department] to ensure all facilities with prostate brachytherapy programs not only fully understand and follow NRC regulations but also rigorously implement their oversight role to ensure medical procedures with nuclear materials are delivered safely."

August 24, 2010 - Chattanooga Times Free Press - A nuclear ‘living laboratory’ - The Tennessee Valley Authority was created in 1933 to be a “living laboratory” for harnessing the power of the Tennessee River. But 77 years later, the development efforts of the federal agency are going nuclear. TVA directors agreed last week to spend up to $400 million to buy nuclear fuel using a new laser method of uranium enrichment. The pioneering effort, which TVA hopes eventually could cut the cost of uranium processing for up to 12 percent of its nuclear fuel, is one of a half dozen new technologies being pursued in TVA’s nuclear power program. “We want to be the nation’s leader in increased nuclear production,” TVA President Tom Kilgore told the TVA board last week. TVA expects to spend up to $8 billion by 2020 to finish its Watts Bar Unit 2 near Spring City, Tenn., its Bellefonte Unit 1 in Hollywood, Ala., and to add more than 500 megawatts of extra generation at existing plants. Within those plants, TVA also is helping to make a key material for nuclear bombs and to reprocess abandoned bomb material for nuclear fuel — the only U.S. utility to do so. “There’s been a lot of talk about a nuclear renaissance for some time, but TVA seems to be the one utility so far that is making it happen,” said Steve Hedges, editor of the Nuclear Townhall newsletter that promotes more nuclear power. TVA’s new vision also calls for the agency to test out small reactor designs and pursue reprocessing spent nuclear fuel. Eventually, TVA also may build one of the next generation of nuclear reactors at its Bellefonte plant. Agency officials say nuclear power plants will generate cleaner energy than the coal plants they will replace, and that testing new enrichment and processing technologies could lessen nuclear wastes and cut fuel costs.

August 24, 2010 - AAP - Alcoa pleads guilty to lesser charge - Aluminium company Alcoa has pleaded guilty to contravening its licence conditions in relation to dust pollution from a West Australian refinery that residents say caused illnesses. Alcoa had been charged with allowing pollution to occur at its Wagerup refinery, about 130km south of Perth, but pleaded not guilty to that charge. The lesser charge of contravening licence conditions was accepted in Perth Magistrates Court today as an alternative charge, after lawyers for the defence and prosecution made a deal outside court last week. Advertisement: Story continues belowWA's Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) alleged that in May 2006, dust emissions from the refinery's stockpile deposits affected the surrounding community, including the nearby town of Yarloop. The DEC alleged that red dust blew from Alcoa's waste stockpiles containing toxic materials, such as radioactive thorium and heavy metals, causing many people to become sick. Alcoa faces a maximum penalty of $125,000. The company will be sentenced on September 15.

August 24, 2010 - Occupational Health & Safety - IAEA, China Sign Stronger Nuclear Security Deal - The International Atomic Energy Agency and the China Atomic Energy Authority signed a new cooperation agreement Aug. 16 in Beijing, continuing their partnership and pledging both to work on nuclear security issues in East Asia. This builds on their June 2007 arrangement signed in advance of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano and CAEA Chairman Chen Qiufa signed the latest agreement, titled Practical Arrangements on Nuclear Security. The 2007 agreement, announced in June of that year along with a second IAEA agreement with Qatar, called for IAEA to: •Advise the two member states on physical protection measures for nuclear facilities. •Help to provide equipment for preventing and detecting criminal acts involving nuclear and other radioactive material. •Provide information related to illicit trafficking and other unauthorized activities. The 2007 arrangements allowed IAEA to provide nuclear security consultation, advisory missions, training, and assistance in response to nuclear or radiological security incidents if requested. IAEA helped Greece set up a nuclear security plan for the Athens Olympic Games and also worked with Brazil on security for the 15th Pan-American Games in Rio de Janeiro in July 2007.

August 24, 2010 - io9 - The Sun is changing the rate of radioactive decay, and breaking the rules of chemistry - The Sun is changing the supposedly constant rates of decay of radioactive elements, and we have absolutely no idea why. But an entirely unknown particle could be behind it. Plus, this discovery could help us predict deadly solar flares. It's one of the most basic concepts in all of chemistry: Radioactive elements decay at a constant rate. If that weren't the case, carbon-14 dating wouldn't tell us anything reliable about the age of archaeological materials, and every chemotherapy treatment would be a gamble. It's such a fundamental assumption that scientists don't even bother testing it anymore. That's why researchers had to stumble upon this discovery in the most unlikely of ways. A team at Purdue University needed to generate a string of random numbers, a surprisingly tricky task that is complicated by the fact that whatever method you use to generate the numbers will have some influence on them. Physics professor Ephraim Fischbach decided to use the decay of radioactive isotopes as a source of randomness. Although the overall decay is a known constant, the individual atoms would decay in unpredictable ways, providing a random pattern. That's when they discovered something strange. The data produced gave random numbers for the individual atoms, yes, but the overall decay wasn't constant, flying in the face of the accepted rules of chemistry. Intrigued, they checked out long range observations of silicon-32 and radium-226 decay, both of which showed a slight but definite variation over time. Intriguingly, the decay seemed to vary with the seasons, with the rate a little faster in the winter and a little slower in the summer.

August 24, 2010 - Trend - United States to give Georgia radiation detectors - The U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi will provide Georgia with personal radiation detectors worth 382,000 lari. The equipment will presented to the authorities today at the Tbilisi City Hall's Emergencies Situations Service, the embassy told Trend. The equipment will be given to the government under the embassy's Export Control and Border Security Program. The Emergencies Situations Service will receive 21 detectors. Seventy-one detectors will also be presented to the Georgian Interior Ministry's Patrol Department. Employees will undergo special training on how to use the equipment. Personal radiation detectors are designed to ensure public safety and will help Georgia to better fulfill its obligations in maintaining control over radioactive substances. The program launched in Georgia in 2006. Over $6 million has been spent on its implementation.

August 24, 2010 - Health Jockey - Cisplatin drug with radiotherapy supposedly benefit cervical cancer patients - Cervical cancer that seemingly occurs between 40 and 55 years of age cannot be treated easily. This investigation can probably help physicians to provide a more effective treatment for such patients and improve the rate of survival. A latest study triggered by the University of Leicester affirms that a combination of the drug cisplatin and radiotherapy display better results than only radiotherapy in patients with cervical cancer. The cisplatin drug is believed to be a platinum-based molecule directly affecting the DNA strands within cells for controlled cell death or ‘apoptosis’. The investigators analyzed case histories of 1,412 patients from 42 different cancer treatment centers. This data was accumulated by the experts in 2001-2002. These case histories included information about the treatment given and follow-up notes which continued for five years on an average. These notes informed whether or not cancer recurred in the pelvic area.

August 24, 2010 - Manila Bulletin - Solon seeks restrictions in laser pointer use - Warning that accidental exposure to laser radiation could cause serious eye or skin injuries, a Mindanao lawmaker has sought restrictions in the use of laser pointers popularly used in classrooms. Rep. Antonio F. Lagdameo Jr. (Lakas-Kampi-CMD, Davao del Norte) batted for the approval of House Bill 1860 which provides regulations for the manufacture, sale and use of laser pointers which many lecturers are now using during presentations. Lagdameo said many of such devices are easily accessed by students who are unaware of the health hazards they may cause. “These pointers have become accessibly misused by students in classrooms or by children at home with less awareness on the health risks from use of such device,” he explained. According to him accidental exposure to laser radiation could cause injuries to the skin or eyes. He added that in some cases, the radiation could cause blindness. Under HB 1860, a laser pointer device is defined as any portable, battery-operated, hand-held laser device that emits a red-colored light at wavelengths between 630 to 670 nanometers.

August 24, 2010 - Jakarta Post - Survey says most people accept nuclear power plant - A survey jointly conducted by the National Nuclear Agency (Batan) and University of Indonesia’s School of Social and Political Sciences found that 57.6 percent of respondents could accept nuclear power plant. The survey discovered public opposition to the nuclear power plant was not that tough as expected as only 24.6 percent of the respondents were against the program, while 17.8 percent abstained, Antara news agency reported. Even in Jepara regency in Central Java, where the first nuclear power plant will be built, approval rate of the nuclear energy reached 55.30 percent. Conducted in May and June on 3,000 respondents in 22 regions in seven provinces across Java and Bali, the polling showed that most government officials, legislative council members, community figures, non-governmental organization activists and housewives supported the government’s plan to go nuclear. They said nuclear technology could help solve power deficit the country has long been facing.

August 24, 2010 - Auto-mobi.info - EnergySolutions and Exelon Nuclear Agree on Target Date for the Zion Station Decommissioning - EnergySolutions, Inc. (NYSE: ES) announced today it has reached an agreement to close its transaction with Exelon Nuclear to officially transfer the Zion Station licenses to EnergySolutions for the purpose of beginning the accelerated decommissioning of the Zion Station. The anticipated date for officially transferring the licenses is September 1, 2010. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) conditionally approved the license transfer in 2008, a major milestone in the EnergySolutions' license stewardship program. "It is very important for EnergySolutions and Exelon to have agreed to close this transaction, so that decommissioning operations at the Zion Station can begin," said Val Christensen, President and CEO of EnergySolutions. "We appreciate the confidence Exelon has in EnergySolutions to safely and effectively perform the work." The license stewardship program is a first-of-its-kind approach to accelerate the decommissioning of nuclear power plants. Under this program EnergySolutions will acquire the Zion Station assets and conduct its work as the owner and NRC licensee. EnergySolutions will process and dispose of all Zion low-level radioactive waste at its Clive, Utah facility and will place the spent nuclear fuel in NRC-approved dry cask storage containers on site. The goal of the program is to safely accelerate the cleanup at least 12 years ahead of schedule, enabling the land to be restored for beneficial reuse sooner than originally planned. There will also be considerable economic benefit to the local community in terms of jobs, goods and services.

August 24, 2010 - Associated Press - Emergency officials to conduct exercise at Prairie Island nuclear plant - The Minnesota Department of Public Safety is conducting an emergency preparedness exercise at the Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant. The exercise scheduled for Tuesday will include officials from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Xcel Energy, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the federal Department of Homeland Security. Officials from Minnesota's Dakota and Goodhue counties and Wisconsin's Pierce County will also participate. Officials say the exercise will test those agencies responsible for protecting the health and safety of area residents in the unlikely event of a nuclear incident. A scenario for the exercise will be chosen at random. The Department of Homeland Security requires that each nuclear generating plant conduct an exercise every other year. DHS will evaluate the drill.

August 24, 2010 - NextBigFuture.com - Russias Fast Neutron Reactor Plans - Russian President Medvedev has prioritized fast reactor technology in 2009 and assured the projects sufficient federal spending amid Russia's uneasy recovery from the global economic crisis. The government has allocated 110.4 billion rubles ($3.6 billion) for research in this and other nuclear energy areas until 2020 under the New Generation Nuclear Technologies program adopted in February. The fast breeder reactor achieves what industry insiders call a closed fuel cycle, the ability to use byproducts from one nuclear reaction as fuel for another, allowing for a spectacular expansion of fuel reserves. It usually uses mixed oxide fuel made up of about 20 percent plutonium and 80 percent plain, unenriched uranium that transmutes into more plutonium as it burns.

August 24, 2010 - USNRC Press Release (08/23/10) - NRC proposes $39,000 fine against Department of Veterans Affairs for violations of NRC requirements - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has proposed a civil penalty of $39,000 against the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) for two violations of NRC regulations. The NRC identified that the DVA failed to recognize that problems with prostate brachytherapy programs existed at other VA facilities after similar problems were previously cited at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center’s program. “These violations should have been identified by the DVA during their own independent inspections of the VA facilities,” said NRC Region III Regional Administrator Mark Satorius. “We expect the DVA to ensure all facilities with prostate brachytherapy programs not only fully understand and follow NRC regulations but also rigorously implement their oversight role to ensure medical procedures with nuclear materials are delivered safely to patients.” The NRC identified the violations after conducting numerous inspections and reviews at other VA facilities with prostate brachytherapy programs across the country from Oct. 8, 2008 to April 22, 2010. NRC inspections of the other VA facilities began after the VA hospital in Philadelphia failed to report 97 medical errors out of 116 prostate cancer treatment procedures performed between 2002 and 2008. The violations are associated with the DVA’s failure to develop and implement written procedures across all VA brachytherapy programs to verify the administrations of nuclear material according to the patients’ treatment plan and written directive; as well as a failure to notify the NRC no later than the next day after the discovery of a medical event. The DVA has taken corrective actions to fix these two violations.

August 24, 2010 - GlobalSecurity.org - Small Reactors and the Military's Role in Securing America's Nuclear Industry - Faced with the dual-obstacles of growing worldwide energy demand and a renewed push for clean energy, the stage is set for a vibrant revival of the nuclear power industry in the United States. During his 2008 campaign, President Barack Obama committed to setting the country on the road to a clean, secure, and independent energy future - and nuclear power can play a vital role in that. With abundant energy resources available and near-zero emission levels, nuclear power offers a domestically-generated, clean, and long-term solution to America's energy dilemma. While countries around the world are building new reactors though, the U.S. nuclear power industry has remained dormant - and even borders on extinction - as no new plants have been approved for construction in the more than three decades following the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. Although Congress and the Executive Branch have passed laws and issued proclamations over the years, little actual progress has been made in the nuclear energy realm. A number of severe obstacles face any potential entrant into the reactor market - namely the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which lacks the budget and manpower necessary to seriously address nuclear power expansion. Additionally, public skepticism over the safety of nuclear power plants has impeded serious attempts at new plant construction. However, despite the hurdles facing private industry, the U.S. military is in a position to take a leading role in the advancement of nuclear reactor technology through the integration of small reactors on its domestic bases.

August 24, 2010 - South Florida Sun-Sentinel - Investigation: FPL gave regulators outdated information - Florida Power & Light employees didn't give state regulators the most up-to-date cost information on planned nuclear projects, during hearings over how much FPL customers should pay. That's the conclusion of a report from Concentric Energy Advisors, of Marlborough, Mass., the company FPL hired to look into an employee complaint about the issue. The result, say some utility critics, may be that FPL customers are paying more for nuclear planning than regulators would have allowed had they been given the latest information. Regulators approved charging customers $63 million this year for planning the proposed nuclear projects. PSC hearings start Tuesday on FPL's proposal to charge customers for $31 million for nuclear projects next year. Concentric investigated allegations of old data in a signed letter sent in February to Lew Hay, president of FPL's parent company, NextEra Energy. About the same time, three anonymous letters were sent to FPL management and newspapers alleging FPL managers doctored data sent to regulators to support FPL rate requests. "Most of the factual assertions in raised in the [signed] letter were shown to be accurate," Concentric wrote in a 23-page report obtained by the Sun Sentinel.

August 24, 2010 - Associated Press - Hot Tennessee River Costs TVA millions of Dollars - The Tennessee Valley Authority is losing tens of millions of dollars in power generation at its largest nuclear plant to avoid overheating the Tennessee River in Alabama. The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports the nation's largest public utility has already lost nearly $50 million in power generation at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant near Athens, Ala. Unless the summer cools down, TVA could lose more, pushing up fuel costs and consumer electric bills even after seven straight monthly increases. The utility supplies power to nearly 9 million consumers in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia. TVA executives said the Browns Ferry Plant has operated at about half power for most of the past month and could remain slowed down through September.

August 24, 2010 - Deseret Morning News - EnergySolutions gets license to decommission nuclear plant near Chicago - In what is being touted as a first-of-its-kind approach, EnergySolutions has been granted a "stewardship license" to begin the largest nuclear plant dismantling ever undertaken in the United States. The company announced Monday that it has reached an agreement to close a transaction with Exelon Nuclear for its Zion Station, which includes two nuclear reactors on the shores of Lake Michigan. "It is very important for EnergySolutions and Exelon to have agreed to close this transaction so that decommissioning operations at the Zion Station can begin." said Val Christensen, president and chief executive officer of EnergySolutions. The power station is about 45 miles north of Chicago. Construction on the facility began in 1968, and by 1973-74, both reactors were operational. In 1998, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the reactors were shut down because of economic reasons. Ten years later, Exelon applied for a license transfer to Zion Solutions, a subsidiary of EnergySolutions formed to handle the management and decommissioning of the site.

August 23, 2010 - WSWS - Illinois uranium workers locked out over health care dispute - The lockout of more than 220 workers at a uranium enrichment plant in Metropolis, Illinois has entered its ninth week. Honeywell International Inc., the plant’s owner, is seeking to offload health care costs onto workers, who are exposed on a daily basis to cancer causing radioactive substances. The workers were locked out after contract negotiations over pensions and health care broke down June 28 between Honeywell and the United Steelworkers union, which represents the majority of the Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility workforce. A public march on August 8 is reported to have involved hundreds demonstrating widespread support in Metropolis, a working class town of about 6,500 people. The immediate dispute revolves around the attempt of Honeywell to raise the medical contributions of its union employees on par with that of the nonunion workforce at the plant. For its part, the company is offering an overall raise in pay as compensation, an offer rejected by the workers because of the inherent health risks associated with their work. The plant, which is the only one of its kind in the nation, uses hydrofluoric acid to convert uranium yellowcake into uranium hexafluoride gas, also known as UF6. The gas is liquefied, then solidified and sent off for further enrichment. It eventually makes its way to one of the more than 100 commercial reactors in the United States.

August 23, 2010 - Medical News Today - Research Program To Develop Medical Countermeasures Against Radiological, Nuclear Threats - A major research effort to develop medical products to diagnose, prevent and treat the short- and long-term consequences of radiation exposure after a radiological or nuclear terrorist attack has been renewed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. NIAID's Centers for Countermeasures Against Radiation (CMCR) program, first established in 2005, will support research at seven institutions nationwide. NIAID will provide five years of additional funding to the program beginning in fiscal year 2010, for an estimated total of $105 million. "Medical countermeasures are vital to protecting the public and caring for patients in the event of a deliberate or accidental exposure to radiation," says NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. "Such treatments also might help diminish the organ and tissue damage that occurs after radiation exposure in other settings, such as in cancer therapy." The CMCR program, part of NIAID's larger medical countermeasures program, supports research in radiation biology as well as projects to develop diagnostic tools to measure radiation exposure and therapeutics to treat the resultant tissue injury. Each center conducts its own research projects and also supports pilot projects proposed by investigators outside the CMCR core program.

August 23, 2010 - Laboratory Network - Xradia Introduces UltraXRM Microscope: Ground-Breaking 3D X-Ray Imaging For Laboratories - A new lab-based computed tomography (CT) system, capable of delivering synchrotron-like 3D imaging at 50 nanometer resolution within a laboratory setting, was announced today by Xradia, Inc. The UltraXRM-L200 is the newest addition to the ultra-high resolution UltraXRM™ nanoscale family of X-ray microscopes. The microscope uses state of the art X-ray optics originally developed for synchrotron research facilities to enable best-in-class resolution and efficiency in lab settings. "Our commitment is to continually develop systems that move research forward," said Wenbing Yun, Ph.D., founder, president and CTO of Xradia. "Ultimately, in lab settings as well as at synchrotron facilities, where we have a strong leadership position, we want to help researchers focus on their research rather than invest their time and resources into building their own tools. Only Xradia offers X-ray CT microscopes at this resolution level commercially." Xradia's UltraXRM-L200 microscope combines a high-flux laboratory X-ray source with proprietary X-ray optics into a standalone CT scanner. It addresses a growing range of applications that include advanced materials development, life science studies for soft tissue and bone, rock porosity studies for oil and gas drilling feasibility models, and semiconductor package failure analysis.

August 23, 2010 - Jamaica Observer - Breakdown of CT scan machines hits top institutions - The island's top three hospitals are now without the service of functioning Computed Tomography (CT) multi-detector imaging machines, used to confirm diagnosis of major illnesses of patients, the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA) has confirmed. The Kingston Public Hospital, the major trauma hospital in the English-speaking Caribbean, has been without a functioning machine since March and its repair bill is US$175,000 or J$15 million. The bill at the University of the West Indies Hospital is US$28,000, (J$2.4 million) and at Cornwall Regional Hospital it is US$18,000 or J$1.6 million. The absence of the functioning machines is forcing some patients to find thousands of dollars for use at private health facilities, and where they cannot afford to pay costs, the referring public hospitals are footing the bill for the more seriously ill patients. The CT machine at the Kingston Public Hospital has been out of service since March 2010 because the x-ray tube had exceeded its maximum capacity. "Once a CT scan is recommended for a public patient and the hospital's CT machine is not functioning, then we (KPH) are responsible for covering the cost of the procedure", SERHA said in response to questions from the Observer.

August 23, 2010 - Trading Markets - Final Effect of Designation of a Class of Employees for Addition to the Special Exposure Cohort - HHS gives notice concerning the final effect of the HHS decision to designate a class of employees from the Bethlehem Steel Corporation facility in Lackawanna, New York, as an addition to the Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000. On July 14, 2010, as provided for under 42 U.S.C. 7384q(b), the Secretary of HHS designated the following class of employees as an addition to the SEC: All Atomic Weapons Employer employees who worked at the Bethlehem Steel Corporation facility in Lackawanna, New York from January 1, 1949 to December 31, 1952, for a number of work days aggregating at least 250 work days, occurring either solely under this employment or in combination with work days within the parameters established for one or more other classes of employees in the Special Exposure Cohort. This designation became effective on August 13, 2010, as provided for under 42 U.S.C. 7384 l (14)(C). Hence, beginning on August 13, 2010, members of this class of employees, defined as reported in this notice, became members of the Special Exposure Cohort.

August 23, 2010 - Auto-Mobi.info - Treatment with Elekta's Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion Introduced to Cancer Patients in Australia  - On August 3, Macquarie University Hospital (MUH) performed Australia's first Gamma Knife® surgery with its new Leksell Gamma Knife® Perfexion(TM) system, making it the country's first and only center capable of providing dedicated intracranial radiosurgery. MUH and the Australian School of Advanced Medicine (ASAM) partnered with Genesis Care, Australia's leading provider of cancer management services, to procure the system, which is located in Genesis Care's radiation therapy department at MUH. MUH's first radiosurgery patient, a 33-year-old man with multiple small brain tumors, underwent a 100-minute Gamma Knife surgery treatment and was able to return home the same day, according to John Fuller, M.D., Macquarie neurosurgeon and Gamma Knife program co-director. "He was awake during the whole procedure and received only a local anesthetic," Dr. Fuller reports. "The gentleness of Gamma Knife surgery not only benefits patients, but also extends to their families, our treatment team and the healthcare system as a whole." Gamma Knife radiosurgery is a patient friendlier alternative to traditional brain surgery for illnesses such as metastatic disease, which is cancer that has travelled to the brain from elsewhere in the body. With pinpoint accuracy, the system delivers up to thousands of low-intensity radiation beams to one or more targets in a single session. Perfexion, the latest generation Gamma Knife model, provides even greater speed and ease of use than previous models.

August 23, 2010 - Voice of Russia - Radiation levels in wildfire-hit Russian regions within normal - Radiation levels in the Russian regions where wildfires were raging only recently are within normal, says the Federal Service for Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare. The Service nonetheless continues measuring the maximum allowable concentrations of hazardous substances in the air. So far carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and hydrocarbon black have only exceeded maximum permissible concentration levels in some districts of the Vladimir and Sverdlovsk Regions.

August 23, 2010 - Wales Online - Why we must protect our children from mobile phones - Mobile phones have become a regular feature in our lives and an essential communication tool. They offer obvious attractions for personal security and staying in touch with others. Indeed, for many, the latest mobile phone has become a fashion accessory and status symbol. But, as with many great technological advances, there are certain risks and I feel parents and young people should make their own informed choices about the use of mobile phones. There is a body of evidence that suggests mobile phone use has a damaging effect on our health, especially that of children. The problem is illnesses take years, even decades, to emerge, by which time it will be too late to do anything. The warning signs are present now and we owe it to our children to encourage responsible mobile phone use.

August 23, 2010 - Radio New Zealand - Radiographers working at district health boards throughout New Zealand are set to strike on 7 September - Their union, the Association of Professionals and Executive Employees, says they are outraged at the suspension of four radiographers by the Counties-Manukau DHB on Monday. About 1000 medical radiation technologists, or radiographers, carry out X-rays, imaging and scans at public hospitals. They have been involved in rolling industrial action over a lack of progress in pay talks. The union says the suspensions are an attempt to bully staff into accepting a pay offer they have already rejected. The DHBs have offered radiographers a 1% rise, followed by another 1% increase later. There has been no response from the boards regarding the strike notice. Union delegate Bernadette Gourley says the DHB's actions is being seen as an extreme bullying tactic in order to coerce radiographers into withdrawing their planned strike action and accepting the offer that the DHBs have made. The Counties-Manukau DHB says it suspended the radiographers because health boards have had enough of industrial action. The DHB's general manager of medicine, Brad Healey, says industrial action is causing considerable disruption and health boards cannot continue to pay people for work that is not being performed.

August 23, 2010 - Boston Herald - Seabrook nuke plant celebrates first two decades - As it wades into the approval process for a 20-year operating license extension, Seabrook Station marks 20 years providing nuclear fuel to the Seacoast and beyond. The nuclear energy plant, owned by NextEra Energy Resources, began operations on Aug. 19, 1990 -- the same day on which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission held two public hearings on the plant’s extension request. In 1990, the plant was granted a 40-year operating license by the NRC. This followed 10 years of construction beginning in 1976. Two units were planned, but the second unit was never built due to construction delays and cost obstacles. The plant -- protected by stringent security measures and sited among 900 acres off Route 1 in Seabrook -- provides 1,244 megawatts of power to 1.4 million homes across the country. It is one of 104 operating nuclear power plants in the United States -- eight owned by NextEra Energy.

August 23, 2010 - The National Newspaper - UAE sets peaceful precedent in nuclear design - The UAE has set a precedent with the ‘peaceful by design’ cornerstone to its fledgling nuclear energy programme, and in doing so has won the economically essential promise of US co-operation. Sean McLain investigates what this means for other countries in the Middle East. When the nuclear reactor in Braka begins generating electricity sometime in 2017, the UAE will not only be the first Arab nation to produce nuclear energy. It will also have the first nuclear programme in the world that is “peaceful by design”. This phrase has been used to describe a nuclear programme that cannot produce nuclear weapons. According to a UAE official involved in the programme, this was the government’s intent when it set about to bring nuclear energy to the UAE. “We wanted to make our programme not only safe and transparent but completely proliferation-proof.” This is an important consideration in a region long considered a hub and possible source for the proliferation of nuclear materials. Some members of the US Congress gave proliferation concerns as reasons to block the US-UAE nuclear co-operation agreement. That is one reason why nuclear energy has taken so long to catch on in a rapidly growing and energy-hungry Middle East. But according to Mark Fitzpatrick, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, fear of proliferation is not the main reason for the region’s relative slowness to join the nuclear energy club. “There is just as much, if not more fear, of proliferation today as there was then. If it were a contributing factor, it would be more relevant today when the proliferation concerns are more real,” he said.

August 23, 2010 - Yorkshire Post - Navy prepares for commissioning of latest nuclear attack submarine - They have worked long and hard for the moment – the moment when Astute becomes HMS Astute, the world's most sophisticated attack submarine. The crew will be resplendent in their "number one" uniforms and the Band of the Royal Marines will play while as many as 500 family members enjoy the day's formalities. One crew member is 27-year-old Lieutenant Barry McNally, originally from Scarborough and who now lives in Glasgow. He has been with Astute for three months and joined the Royal Navy in 2006. The logistics officer has also served on the surface ships HMS Edinburgh and HMS Cornwall. The commissioning ceremony is to be performed by the submarine's "sponsor", the Duchess of Rothesay, in Astute's home port of HM Naval Base Clyde at Faslane, west of Glasgow, on Friday.

August 23, 2010 - Radio Australia - Cambodia joins queue for nuclear power - The Cambodian ministry of industry, mines and energy has confirmed that scientists are studying nuclear technology as a means of addressing the country's chronic power shortages. Cambodia joins a queue of Southeast Asian nations that want to go nuclear. It's a month after Vietnam called on fellow ASEAN members to consider using nuclear power as a way of meeting rising energy needs, fuelling economic growth and combating climate change. But some worry that the region's developing nations lack the capacity to manage the safety risks.

August 23, 2010 - OH&S (08/22/10) - NIST RoboCrane to Help Clean Up Chernobyl Disaster Site - A modified version of the RoboCrane®, a unique floating platform developed by manufacturing research engineers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will be helping cleanup operations fly into action over the destroyed reactor number four at the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine. PaR Systems, a company based in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn., owns a license to use the computer-controlled roving tool platform in the area immediately surrounding the exploded reactor core. On April 26, 1986, a confluence of a variety of factors and errors caused a massive power surge resulting in a core explosion at reactor number four of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine in the former Soviet Union. The core explosion released a plume of highly radioactive material into the atmosphere and necessitated the evacuation of nearly 340,000 people from the surrounding areas. The International Atomic Energy Association and the World Health Organization state that 31 people died of injuries sustained during the explosion and estimate that 4,000 additional cancer deaths may be attributable to the release of radioactivity. The G-7 countries, the European Commission, and the Ukraine government decided to replace the hastily constructed "sarcophagus" that presently covers the crater with a more robust shelter in 1997. Construction on the shelter, which will house and support the tool platform and other instruments related to the cleanup effort, began in 2006.

August 23, 2010 - Sunday Sun - Fears garden compost could be contaminated - Gardens are at risk of contamination from low-level radioactive waste through compost taken from a landfill site, according to an environment group. Part of the site where the waste is dumped is also used for the extraction of compost which is sold to vegetable and flower growers. Anti-nuclear group Radioactive-Free Lakeland claims that the site at Lillyhall in Cumbria is not suitable for the dumping of nuclear waste. It warns that plans by site owners, the Waste Recycling Group Ltd and EnergySolutions, its USA partner, to take higher-level nuclear waste could have health implications for residents in the area. Marianne Birkby, of Radioactive Free-Lakeland, said: “Part of the site is dedicated to compost extraction and the other part is for waste. Leachate liquid from the landfill site can leak into the soil and get sucked up by trees. The low-level waste from Chapel Cross is asbestos which contains tritium, a radioactive isotope that studies have shown trees can transpire, that is breathe out through their foliage into the wider environment. We are talking about tonnes and tonnes of asbestos-tritium laced rubble being dumped at the site. “This means that compost could potentially be contaminated with radioactive material. The Waste Recycling Group sell compost under the name Nature’s Gold. They were told by the Soil Association not to label it as organic. This compost is being sold across the region.”

August 23, 2010 - Seacoast Online - Nuclear power is here to stay - Twenty years ago, Seabrook Station received its operating license. It marked the end of more than a decade of efforts on many fronts to prevent that from happening. Protesters clogged the streets of Seabrook for years in attempts to halt construction and raise public awareness about the potential for disaster in case of a serious accident at the plant. Remember, this was the time of a partial core meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania and the release of the movie "The China Syndrome" about safety cover-ups at a California nuclear plant. There was considerable fear and suspicion about the plant in Seabrook. It too was accused of cover-ups over some of the construction practices — accusations that remain today. In April 1977, one of the largest demonstrations and occupations of the site led to the arrest of 1,414 protesters. Throughout all of the resistance, construction slowly continued at the plant, and the tactics of its opponents shifted from trying to stop construction to attempting to block the licensing process. Key to that effort was a Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing requirement that a workable evacuation plan be in place for communities within a 10-mile radius of the plant. "No evacuation possible" pretty much summed it up. The statement was and is understandable given the plant's location, a summer population that swells by the many thousands, and the few and small roads leading away from the plant. The state of Massachusetts during the administration of Gov. Michael Dukakis tried to block the licensing by refusing to approve the evacuation plan for the communities in that state within the 10-mile radius.

August 23, 2010 - Kyodo News Service - Fukushima reactor receives MOX - Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Saturday loaded a nuclear reactor in Fukushima Prefecture with MOX, a controversial fuel made with reprocessed plutonium and uranium oxides, as it prepares to become the leading power utility's first facility to go pluthermal. The No. 3 reactor at Tepco's Fukushima No. 1 plant will be the nation's third pluthermal facility, but only the first to be refurbished since the plant was built 34 years ago. Tokyo Electric plans to activate the reactor on Sept. 18 and let it start generating electricity on Sept. 23.

August 23, 2010 - UPI - Isotope shortage evokes medical concerns - U.S. doctors say they are concerned about a shortage of imported radioactive material used to diagnose heart conditions and other problems. The Baltimore Sun reported the U.S. supply of technetium has been low for the past 15 months, ever since its main supplier, a Canadian nuclear reactor, shut down temporarily. That's left medical staff looking for alternatives to the workhorse isotope, which sometimes are more costly and are of lower quality. The Sun said many medical operators in the field are calling for domestic production as well as development of other technology. Although back in operation, the Ontario reactor is aging and scheduled to go offline for good in 2016, the report said. Technetium-99m is made from molybdenum-99, the Sun reported. A third of the world supply comes from the Chalk River reactor owned by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. The United States imports smaller quantities from the Netherlands and other sources. The isotope is used in most of the nation's 20 million annual nuclear medicine procedures, the Sun said. Half of those tests involve cardiac imaging such as "stress tests."

August 23, 2010 - Morning Sentinel - Nuclear waste should be moved out of Wiscasset - One of the worst decisions in U.S. energy policy was letting the two major political parties move the Nevada caucuses into the early weeks of the presidential selection process. So, in addition to having to promise New Hampshire voters that they will be independent and pledging Iowa voters permanent fealty to farm subsidies, anyone who wants to be president has had to express deep opposition to the Yucca Mountain federal nuclear waste dump. That has provided a roadblock in the development of a nuclear power industry in this country, which even with its shortcomings would produce power that produces less air pollution than fossil fuels, offers more reliability than wind or solar and makes us less dependent on imported oil. It has also meant that nuclear waste is spread all around the country in containers like the concrete and steel casks at the former Maine Yankee nuclear power plant in Wiscassett. Maine Sen. Susan Collins went before the federal Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future meeting in Wiscasset recently, arguing that those sites should close. Maine Yankee operated between 1972 and 1996, when it was closed down in the face of necessary and expensive repairs.

August 23, 2010 - Broomfield Enterprise - Broomfield fighting plan to remove Rocky Flats dams - The nuclear weapons factory might be long gone, but the fate of Rocky Flats continues to be radioactive, at least as a matter of public opinion. A new dispute has developed between the federal agency that oversees the site and nearby cities, which are worried proposed changes could affect their water supplies and potentially harm the health of residents. Nuclear bomb components were built at Rocky Flats until the plant was shut down in 1994. The 6,200-acre site is southwest of the intersection of Indiana Street and Colo. 128, just across the Broomfield-Jefferson County border. Fears about radioactive material harming nearby residents have been an ongoing source of concern since the 1970s, when radioactive contaminants were found in Great Western Reservoir, which then supplied Broomfield`s drinking water. Since the early 1990s, Broomfield has obtained water from Denver Water and from sources on the Western Slope that are stored in reservoirs in Larimer County. The weapons factory was demolished and cleaned up in 2005, and most of the land was transferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to become Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge. The 1,300 acres where the weapons plant sat, which were at the greatest risk for contamination, remain under control of the U.S. Department of Energy. The main source of new contention is demolition of a series of dams that keep surface water in retention ponds. The Department of Energy over the next decade wants to breach the dams of five water retention ponds at the site. The water in the ponds meets water quality standards and is not considered contaminated, according to the DOE.

August 23, 2010 - Reno Gazette-Journal - Nevada Test Site hits first-responder milestone - Nevada Test Site officials have marked a milestone with the graduation of the 100,000th student from a counter terrorism operations support school open since 2008 northwest of Las Vegas. A statement released last week said a firefighter and paramedic from Jacksonville, Fla., was honored by program manager Dennis Dugan during a ceremony Aug. 9. The course is conducted at the Nevada Test Site and overseen by the National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Site Office and National Security Technologies LLC. It trains emergency first responders from across the nation how identify and handle threats ranging from a so-called "dirty bomb" radiological dispersal device to an improvised nuclear weapon.

August 21-22, 2010 - Webmuenster took the weekend off.

August 20, 2010 - Denver Post - Cotter intends to keep uranium-mill license, may reopen site, says VP - The Cotter uranium mill, a Superfund cleanup site south of Cañon City, is next to a popular golf course. (Denver Post file photo )Cotter Corp. will dismantle its toxic-waste ponds and buildings at a uranium mill south of Cañon City, but it intends to keep its license from state regulators to operate at the site and may reopen, the company's vice president for operations said Thursday. Accelerated efforts to close down contaminated facilities at the Superfund cleanup site are aimed at clearing a path for possible uranium processing in the future and do not indicate Cotter plans to leave the 2,600-acre site, vice president John Hamrick said. "We can decommission parts of the facility without moving towards license termination," Hamrick said. "Our intention is to clear the path for new construction in the future." No date has been set or plans submitted for that construction. A new state law requires uranium-mill operators to clean up existing messes before launching new projects. Cotter opposed that law and, before it was passed, warned it could kill a proposed project to haul uranium from a mine in New Mexico by train and process it at the mill.

August 20, 2010 - BuzzTab - Madame Curie, 1943’s science flick - Madame Curie was the movie made in 1943 that instantly grabbed the attention of the viewers in particular of the ones who loved science related matters. Now Madame Curie caught the cine buffs attention once again since it appeared on TCM channel yesterday at 7:00 p.m. It is not a science fiction flick rather it just revolves around science subject. Madame Curie reveals the life and the work of the great scientist with her husband Dr. Pierre Curie. For science lovers, who have no knowledge of the origins of the discovery of radioactivity, the movie appears to be a source to know deeply about it all. This is mainly because of the emotional and passion value attached with the discovery of radioactive elements and some of the very early work done in this field. Madame Curie is not to miss a venture, so just go and grab a copy to watch it. It gives utter knowledge of science along with the pleasures.

August 20, 2010 - BBC News - Chernobyl species decline linked to DNA - Scientists working in Chernobyl have found a way to predict which species there are likely to be most severely damaged by radioactive contamination.  This discovery could reveal which species are most likely to decline or even become extinct in response to other types of environmental stress. The researchers published their findings in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology. Professor Tim Mousseau from the University of South Carolina, US, and Dr Anders Moller from the National Centre for Scientific Research in Paris, France, led the study. The two scientists have been working in Chernobyl for more than a decade, gathering data about the populations of insects, birds and mammals in "zone of alienation" surrounding the desolate nuclear power station. One explanation may be that these species have, for whatever reason, less capable DNA repair mechanisms” For this study, they used existing databases to examine in detail the DNA patterns of each of the species they had studied in Chernobyl.

August 20, 2010 - Fair Warning - Russia to Bolster Fire Safety at Nuclear Sites, Following Threatening Blazes - Following wildfires earlier this month that threatened a top nuclear center and raised fears of a radiation leak, Russia plans to strengthen fire security at its nuclear facilities, Reuters reports. For two months, the most severe heat wave in 130 years has triggered thousands of wildfires in Russia, costing it a third of its wheat crop and more than 50 lives and 2,000 homes. Firefighters gained the upper hand this week, however, benefiting from a cold front that helped them halve the acreage being burned, The Associated Press reports. In early August flames also ringed Sarov — the birthplace of the former Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons — and charred 2,500 acres. As a precaution, the state nuclear corporation Rosatom moved all its explosive and radioactive materials to another location. The head of Rosatom on Thursday said the company would install robotic equipment and other sensors to detect sources of fire within a 9-mile radius. Ecologists had also warned that large quantities of radioactive dust could be released if forests contaminated by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster catch fire. On Tuesday, however, the Russian government invited Greenpeace activists to conduct tests in one of the Chernobyl-polluted regions. The activists noted normal radiation levels, according to the state-run RIA Novosti news agency.

August 20, 2010 - Medical News Today - ASIR Technique Significantly Reduces Radiation Dose Associated With Abdominal CT Scans - A new low-dose abdominal computed tomography (CT) technique called adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR) can reduce the radiation dose associated with abdominal CT scans by 23-66 percent, according to a study in the September issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology. Abdominal CT scans are typically used to help diagnose the cause of abdominal or pelvic pain and diseases of the internal organs, bowel, and colon. ASIR is a technique that allows radiologists to reduce the noise in an image and improve image quality (like adjusting a TV antenna to make a "fuzzy" image sharper) while reducing the radiation dose. The study, performed at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, AZ, included 53 patients who underwent contrast-enhanced abdominal low-dose CT with 40 percent ASIR. All 53 patients had previously undergone contrast-enhanced routine-dose CT with filtered back projection (FBP). The average dose reduction using the ASIR technique (compared to routine-dose CT with FBP) was 66 percent for patients with a body mass index (BMI) of less than 20 and 23 percent for patients with a BMI of 25 or greater. "A significant difference," said Amy K. Hara, MD, lead author of the study.

August 20, 2010 - Las Vegas Review-Journal - Nuclear Regulatory Commission urged to speed up Yucca decision - It has been a month since the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was briefed on arguments for and against terminating the Yucca Mountain Project license process, and Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., is calling on the commissioners to issue their decision "without delay." The longer it takes the NRC to decide, the more time the Department of Energy has to dismantle the Nevada program, Hastings, a Yucca proponent, wrote Tuesday to agency Chairman Gregory Jaczko. "I believe every day of delay creates serious harm to the project," wrote Hastings, who expressed concern DOE is moving ahead with dismantlement even after a legal board within the NRC ruled it has no authority to do so. Annette Vietti-Cook, the secretary of the commission, sent Hastings a response Wednesday. She said the commission "is moving with all due haste," but gave no indication when a decision might be forthcoming. The commissioners have a meeting set for Aug. 27, but the Yucca issue was not on the tentative agenda, and agency officials say it is uncertain whether a decision might be ready by then.

August 20, 2010 - Tri-City Herald - Worker program failing - The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA) was enacted by Congress in 2000 to compensate sickened nuclear weapons workers throughout the nation. These workers were unwittingly exposed to radiation and other toxins while working in contaminated government facilities. Regrettably, workers have encountered a Kafkaesque program that has failed to provide basic fairness. Claimants from around the country, including sickened workers from Hanford, have waited years to have their claims processed only to have those claims inexplicably denied. These workers need Congress to investigate why this program has failed so miserably. The Alliance of Nuclear Worker Advocacy Groups (ANWAG) has posted an online petition urging Congress to hold oversight hearings on the implementation of EEOICPA by the Department of Labor and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Use your browser to search for anwag petition. These agencies contend that they are implementing EEOICPA fairly. However, when workers are not provided with comprehensible information regarding why their claim was denied, that argument becomes increasingly dubious. It is impossible to appeal a denied claim effectively if you cannot understand why the claim was denied in the first place. This basic tenet of due process has been abandoned within EEOICPA.

August 20, 2010 - Seattle Times - Sea-Tac to use full-body X-ray scans next month - Full-body scanners will be installed at Sea-Tac International Airport in mid- to late September as part of a nationwide rollout of the controversial equipment. The first advanced-imaging technology (AIT) units should be installed at security checkpoints in mid- to late September, said Dwayne Baird of the Transportation Security Administration, as part of a nationwide rollout of the technology already used in 48 U.S. airports, including Spokane and Boise, Idaho. The scans, which effectively allow agents to see through clothes by scattering low-dose X-rays at a passenger’s front and back, produce a blurry nude image that can be screened for nonmetallic items such as weapons and explosives hidden under clothes. To quell privacy concerns, TSA is making the screening optional, has agreed not to store the images, and has set up a system so the pictures are viewed by a screener in another location where passengers can’t be seen in person. “Every passenger has the option to refuse to go through these,” and walk through a metal detector instead, Baird said. Those who do will be subject to a pat-down, a procedure that takes extra time, but one that privacy experts recommend for those who feel uncomfortable.

August 20, 2010 - AzoMaterials - Princeton Instruments Quad-RO X-Ray Camera - The advanced high-performance, fully integrated, 4-port readout, thermoelectrically cooled Quad-RO: 4096 camera with electronically balanced quadrants, dual speed readout, on board memory to guarantee images w/o losses, capability to read images at 4-port or single port and industry standard firewire (IEEE 1394a) interface is designed for indirect imaging of X-rays or other Lambertian sources. The ability to exchange phosphors in the field using a unique design, with fiberoptic extending outside the vacuum, delivers flexibility to optimize system performance at the desired x-ray energy. When used with the software-selectable dual speed operation and gains, the system can be optimized for any demanding applications. The GdOS:Tb phosphor screens are available for 8, 12 and 17 keV at an emission wavelength of 550 nm. Contact your area sales specialist or the factory for CsI:Tl phosphor screens.

August 20, 2010 - Colorado Springs Gazette - Cotter mill dead, but it's still dangerous - Canon City’s determined underdogs have slain the dragon, but there will be an extended controversy over what to do with the beast’s remains. Here lies the Cotter Corporation’s former uranium mill and nuclear waste disposal site. And here continues the struggle of many in the vicinity of Canon City — a boom-and-bust casualty of the nuclear age. This week Cotter announced it would shut down all operations at its mill site, which opened for business in 1958 and ultimately became an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site in the 1980s. Cotter wasn’t responding to media requests for interviews, but it is apparent that its Canon City operation had been scarcely limping along since 2006, when a skeleton crew was assigned to cleanup tasks and the site neither refined ore nor accepted any new nuclear waste. This year the Colorado General Assembly approved a law that precluded Cotter from accepting any new waste (a job that paid the company well) until it cleaned up problems that have existed for decades. It looks like the new law forced Cotter’s hand, so it is closing down completely. It will mean the loss of about 30 jobs, and that hurts. But the toll Cotter’s activities took on the surrounding community over the years (see my blog) exceeds any benefit derived from 30 paychecks.

August 20, 2010 - Bay City Tribune - NRC asks for more details - South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company received a notice of violation from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Friday, Aug. 13, due to missing details in the Units 3 and 4 application when an Aircraft Impact Assessment (AIA) was performed. "It is the lowest level of violation," said Scott Burnell, NRC spokesman. A few years ago the NRC issued the Aircraft Impact Assessment rule stipulating that all applicants planning to build or expand new nuclear power plants in the United States must assess the ability of their reactor designs to avoid or mitigate the effects of a large commercial aircraft impact. When NRC inspectors conducted a preliminary assessment for compliance with the AIA rule, they found that the foundation of the assessment missed some details.  "The notice of violation cites that STP did not use realistic analyses for certain aspects of its AIA and did not fully identify and incorporate into the design those design features and functional capabilities credited," according to the AIA inspection report letter to STP.

August 19, 2010 - Morning Sun News - Still no final report on mystery barrels at Velsicol dump site - If phosphoric acid is the liquid found in the mystery barrels at the Velsicol radioactive dump site near Breckenridge, no one told the representative from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is overseeing the cleanup. But Task force Chair Jane Keon said after the Pine River Task Force meeting Wednesday that the trustee for the site had told her preliminary reports indicated it was radioactive phosphoric acid. Snell told the task force members that he and Energy Solutions - the company hired to complete the cleanup - must wait for the final report. Once that is done, decisions will have to be made regarding the continuation of the cleanup that came to a halt after the two barrels were discovered Aug. 5. "It may be mixed waste and that may be dangerous," he said. "It may have to go to a special landfill." If Energy Solutions will be the one to continue the clean up isn't known.

August 19, 2010 - Cyprus Mail - Airport staff threaten strike over exposure to metal detectors - Larnaca airport staff from several departments yesterday threatened to strike because their constant exposure to security detectors was a health hazard, they said. They said the last straw came when they were told a couple of months ago that their food would also have to go through the same procedure. Air traffic controllers, meteorological service personnel, telecommunications technicians and others claim their daily exposure to the magnetic waves emitted by the portals are dangerous. The workers said they would rather be frisked than go through the metal detectors. “The last thing we want to do is inconvenience people during the summer,” said Giorgos Georgiou, chairman of the air traffic controllers union. “We have been patient for two and a half years now.” Security at the airports’ staff entrances was stepped up around three years ago, which “is a good thing,” Georgiou said. But he added that workers had to go through metal detectors on a daily basis – maybe three times a day. “To make things even worse, in the past one or two months a new instruction has been issued for people to put their food through the x-ray machines,” Georgiou said. “This was the last straw and now we have to take measures to protect our health.”

August 19, 2010 - Huntington News Network - Nuclear waste: Maxey Flats: First Won’t Stay Buried - The former Maxey Flats Disposal Site represents only one of many nuclear waste sites whose runoffs eventually flowed into the Ohio River. However, the concrete caps placed on the toxic nuclear waste has contained the leakage of radioactive contaminants. At the site about ten miles from Morehead, Ky., disposal of contaminated nuclear materials in trenches proved problematic when surveys of offsite groundwater showed radioactive chemicals in the stream. Maxey Flats represents one of six low-level radioactive waste sites licensed in the 1960’s and 70’s. Of those site, three were shut down. “Maxey Flats Nuclear Disposal Site Contamination Reasons Impacts & Hazards” by Dr. Ahmad Zargari stated that radioactive tritium began “migrating outside of the restricted area… through fractures and bedding planes within bedrock underlying the site.” The paper concluded the Kentucky site was poorly planned, poorly managed and , finally, was poorly regulated by the government. The flowing of radioactive materials off site came from a so-called “bathtub” effect. Due to poor planning, water flowed into disposal trenches faster than it could be leached into surrounding soil and then the trench filled with water contaminated with radionuclides from the waste materials. “Once the trench is full the water overflows and the radionuclides are carried into the surrounding soil and local water sources.”

August 19, 2010 - Cecil Whig - Stolen device contains radioactive material; Device not a hazard as long as radioactive material remains locked - The Maryland Department of the Environment has issued a public alert that a gauge containing a small amount of radioactive material has been reported to have been stolen from a vehicle parked outside of a private residence in the Laurel area of Howard County. A Troxler Model 3440 surface moisture density gauge, serial number 21688, was reported stolen to MDE Wednesday. The device was last seen in a vehicle outside of a private residence in the 9000 block of N. Laurel Road. A theft from the vehicle was reported to Howard County police. The theft is reported to have occurred sometime Tuesday evening.

August 19, 2010 - Tri-City Herald - Slow ride for Hanford hot cells - Heavy-haul trailers carrying hot cells grouted inside boxes is making the slow trip down the Hanford highway to central Hanford on Saturdays this summer. Washington Closure Hanford has finished removing nine contaminated hot cells from the 327 Building north of Richland as part of work to clean up the nuclear reservation along the Columbia River. One at a time they're being hauled from the 300 Area just north of Richland to the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility -- the central Hanford landfill for low-level radioactive waste. The trip takes about four hours one way and the oversize Goldhofer hydraulic platform trailer that carries one hot cell at a time is surrounded with a rolling blockade for the trip. Traffic is not allowed to pass in either direction. Shipping started two Saturdays ago with the smallest of the hot cells that needed to be transported. Its shipping weight was 124,000 pounds, and the shipping package was about 9 feet tall. The largest hot cell that will be sent to the landfill is the upper half of the two-story Special Environmental Radiometallurgy Facility. Its shipping weight will be about 456,000 pounds and its shipping container will stand nearly 11 feet tall and be 9 feet wide and 16.5 feet long. During the Cold War, the hot cells were used for testing on highly radioactive materials, particularly fuel elements and cladding irradiated at Hanford reactors as part of plutonium production for the nation's nuclear weapons program.

August 19, 2010 - Industrial Fuels & Power - Uranium prices remain stable in slowing market - The uranium spot price for the week ended August 16, 2010 remained unchanged at USS$46.50/lb, according to The Ux Consulting Company, a figure echoed by TradeTech in its weekly release of uranium prices. New uranium demand was reported as down as the recent jump in prices and cleared transactions led to buyers temporary postponing purchases. While at the end of July, nearly 4mlb uranium oxide was under consideration. During the week ending August 13, this figure had fallen to 2.3mlb, putting a downward pressure on prices.

August 19, 2010 - Kyodo News Service - Aomori governor accepts storage of radioactive wastes at Rokkasho - Aomori Gov. Shingo Mimura said Thursday the northernmost prefecture on Japan's largest main island of Honshu will accept shipments from Britain and France of radioactive waste produced in the course of reprocessing spent nuclear fuel. ''In summing up opinions from all quarters of society, we are in the course of accepting (the waste),'' Mimura told a news conference. Mimura conveyed the decision over the phone earlier in the day to Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Masayuki Naoshima who has jurisdiction on the country's electric power industry, he said. In Tokyo, Naoshima offered thanks for Mimura's decision, saying it is extremely significant for Japan to establish a nuclear fuel cycle. Mimura's remarks would pave the way for those wastes to be stored at a facility to be built in the village of Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, by Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd., a nuclear energy firm whose mission is to establish a nuclear fuel cycle. The Rokkasho facility would be an interim storage site. A final disposal site has yet to be picked. The governor told reporters that the central government and Japan Nuclear Fuel have firmly promised not to turn the Rokkasho facility into a final disposal site where such waste is buried deep under the ground.

August 19, 2010 - Pueblo Chieftain - Cotter moves to cap waste sites; future unclear; Canon City uranium mill has been inactive since 2005 - Although the idle Cotter Uranium Mill is moving toward closing waste impoundments, the action does not mean the mill will never reopen, a state official said. "They are working toward closing the impoundments and have been dewatering (drying out) the impoundments for years," said Jeannine Natterman, public information officer for the Colorado Department of Health. "They have not officially notified us they are closing the (entire) facility." The plant has been inactive since 2005 when about 80 workers were laid off following a renovation of the plant. Company executives said at the time they wanted to review the feasibility and costs of the re-engineered mill. In the early part of the last decade, the mill employed 120. The mill and the neighboring Lincoln Park neighborhood have been part of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund clean up site since 1984.

August 19, 2010 - Aberdeen Press & Journal - Planners back proposal for radioactive waste plant - Planning officials have given their backing to controversial plans to treat radioactive waste at a landfill site on the edge of a Buchan town. Waste management company Sita and radiation specialists Nuvia want to convert a building at Stoneyhill, near Peterhead, into a plant for washing radioactive residue from contaminated oil and gas industry equipment. Naturally occurring radioactive material – norm – would be buried inside concrete blocks after washing. The proposal was met with opposition from a handful of residents when it was revealed, with some saying there was a risk toxic particles could become airborne and inhaled. Other objectors claimed Peterhead was becoming a dumping ground, and said the region’s roads would not be able to cope with the lorries transporting material for treatment. In a report to go before Buchan councillors next week, planning chief David MacLennan attempts to allay these fears, saying the project would have “no adverse impact” on the area. He says: “Applications involving the processing of waste materials, particularly when they involve radioactive material, can cause anxiety within the neighbouring community. “This is a low-level radioactive material that occurs naturally within the environment, as opposed to the more dangerous and notorious nuclear wastes generated by nuclear facilities or irradiated nuclear fuels. The treatment of this material on site, and its subsequent disposal to landfill, if properly managed, should not have an adverse impact on the area.”

August 19, 2010 - Helsinki Times - Level of radioactivity normal despite Russia’s fires - "Finland said on 12 August its radioactivity levels were normal in areas affected by smoke from fire-ravaged Russia, where burnt regions include land contaminated by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Finland’s Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority said in a statement that it had ‘measured the samples of particle collection in Helsinki, Kotka and Imatra,’ and the radioactivity levels had not risen above normal. The amounts of radioactive cesium ‘are not different from those normally measured which shows that the forest fires in Russia have not increased the amount’ of the substance, the authority said regarding Finland’s south and east regions. Meanwhile in Russia millions of people continued to battle to douse the wildfires raging in the country, notably near the top nuclear research centre in Sarov, east of Moscow.”

August 19, 2010 - Times of Malta - Minister reacts to complaints on hospital overcrowding - The shortage of hospital beds was the result of three factors - health centres which were not well-equipped to provide all services available at Mater Dei, a shortage of nurses and a lack of homes equipped to deal with long term care, Health Minister Joseph Cassar said this morning. Speaking during the launch of a new system digital X Ray system at the Mosta Health Centre, Dr Cassar said this was another step in the government’s project to boost the primary health care system. Through this system, any X Ray taken would be immediately sent to Mater Dei where it would be seen by a bone specialist and a diagnosis is given, reducing a patient’s need to travel as well as waiting times. It would also reduce pressure on the hospital. Eventually, this system would also be available at Floriana and Paola. Dr Cassar said that the backlog problem in the system was also due to a shortage of nurses, which was a worldwide problem.

August 19, 2010 - Mil-Tech - Green Laser Pointer Used in the Military - It is really a great event that high power handheld green laser pointer has been standing at the forefront of modern times military battles. We would really have to thanks to those brilliant professionals both for the great efforts on higher and higher power green laser pointers and multiple kinds of colored laser crystals. Professionals have never stopped their efforts on exploring more and more laser devices with multiple colors and output powers, while on the other hand they have begun to pay more attention to make these lasers applied to more and more fields. With the first invention of 5mW green laser pointer in the year of 2000, various kinds of kinds of laser devices have been flooded into marketplace and green laser pointer has been sooner take the original place of red laser pointers. As a result, green color laser crystal is taking a large proportion of the market share and has immediately become the most popular gadget among all series of laser diodes all over the world.

August 19, 2010 - Fosters Daily Democrat - Groups oppose 'premature' license renewal for Seabrook Station in Seabrook - An Exeter-based anti-pollution group has joined a coalition seeking to suspend early authorization of an operating license extension for Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant. Plant operators are looking to obtain early authorization to have their operating license extended through 2050. The current license is set to expire in March of 2030. As power plant operators from NextEra Energy prepare to sit down with federal officials today to begin reviewing their licensing application, opponents have filed a petition with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) challenging a rule allowing extensions to be requested 20 years before existing 40-year licenses expire. Paul Gunter of the Maryland-based anti-nuclear group "Beyond Nuclear" didn't hold back Wednesday when he called such extension requests "premature" and beneficial to a power production process he described as "expensive, dangerous and dirty."

August 19, 2010 - The Engineer - NIST detector measures laser power - .Researchers at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a lithium tantalate pyroelectric thermal detector coated with carbon nanotubes that reflects almost no light across the visible, and part of the infrared, spectrum. They now plan to use the detector to make precision power measurements on lasers that are used in optical communications, laser-based manufacturing, solar energy conversion and industrial and satellite-borne sensors. When heated, the carbon-nanotube coating on the detector absorbs laser light and the lithium tantalate pyroelectric material rises in temperature, generating a current that can then be measured to determine the power of the laser. The new NIST detector uniformly reflects less than 0.1 per cent of light at wavelengths from deep violet at 400 nanometres to near infrared at four micrometres and less than one per cent of light in the infrared spectrum from 4-14µm.

August 19, 2010 - Newswise - NIST Technology Called Upon to Clean Up Chernobyl Disaster Site - A modified version of the RoboCrane®, a unique floating platform developed by manufacturing research engineers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will be helping cleanup operations fly into action over the destroyed reactor number four at the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine. PaR Systems, a company based in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn., owns a license to use the computer-controlled roving tool platform in the area immediately surrounding the exploded reactor core. On April 26, 1986, a confluence of a variety of factors and errors caused a massive power surge resulting in a core explosion at reactor number four of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine in the former Soviet Union. The core explosion released a plume of highly radioactive material into the atmosphere and necessitated the evacuation of nearly 340,000 people from the surrounding areas. The International Atomic Energy Association and the World Health Organization state that 31 people died of injuries sustained during the explosion and estimate that 4,000 additional cancer deaths may be attributable to the release of radioactivity.

August 19, 2010 - Telegraf - Public Opinion of Baltic States Opposes Belarusian NPP Construction - Representatives of public opinion of eight Baltic countries started to collect signatures under an open appeal to the government of Belarus and personally to the President Alexander Lukashenko, in which they demand to stop NPP construction in Ostrovets district. The appeal was drafted by Baltic Information round's representatives, who believe that further contamination of the Baltic Sea is unacceptable. A launch of Ostrovets NPP would only worsen the situation, as Vilya river, flowing into the Baltic Sea, is planned to be involved in the operation of the plant. The authors of the appeal also remind that further radiation exposure is inadmissible for the people of Belarus, who suffered from the Chernobyl accident and absorbed doses of radiation, BelaPAN informs. Among other things, the appeal recalls that experts and scientists from Belarus, Russia, Lithuania and Austria, who conducted an environmental assessment of NPP draft, made unfavourable conclusions and demanded its improvement. Open letter was drafted and signed in Stockholm on August 10- 12 by experts and representatives of international environmental organizations Baltic Sea Radioactivity Watch , Low Level Radioactivity Campaign, FMKK (Swedish People's Campaign against nuclear energy and nuclear weapon), "Scientists for nuclear-free Belarus", etc. It is planned that during August this letter will be signed by representatives of several other partner organizations, experts and residents of the Baltic region. And after that the appeal will be sent to recipients.

August 19, 2010 - WRVO - Ginna Plant Builds New Nuclear Waste Storage Containers - The Ginna Nuclear Power Plant near Rochester finished construction on new dry-cask storage units for containing nuclear waste. The federal government is supposed to be responsible for spent fuel, but since public officials haven't figured out a place to put it, it remains on-site at plants around the country. The government's plan for years was to bury spent fuel beneath Yucca Mountain in Nevada, but the Obama administration wants to scrap that idea. Because there is no final place to put the nuclear waste, dry cask containers like these are just about the only answer. Maria Hudson is with Constellation Energy, the company that owns the Ginna plant. She says the Nuclear Regulatory Commission says the new canisters are good to go. "We have not begun to officially move the fuel. We will be doing that third quarter of this year, so we're getting close. We haven't started it just yet," said Hudson. The Nine Mile Point nuclear power station near Oswego, which is also owned by Constellation, is working on constructing similar storage units for use there. Those canisters are expected to be finished by summer of 2012.

August 19, 2010 - Associated Press - Alabama Nuke Plant at 45 Percent After Violation - A Tennessee Valley Authority spokesman says the TVA's Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant is operating at 45 percent capacity after violating an Alabama Department of Environmental Management permit. The permit prohibits the Tennessee River's temperature downstream of Browns Ferry from being higher than upstream when the water temperature is at or above 90 degrees. On Monday afternoon, the upstream temperature averaged over 24 hours was 90.4 degrees. The downstream temperature was 90.6. Spokesman Ray Golden says the TVA spent $40 million during the past five weeks to replace electricity it would have generated at Browns Ferry without the temperature regulations. TVA already had reduced Browns Ferry output to 50 percent because of temperatures exceeding 90. After violating the ADEM permit Monday, the authority dropped all three reactors to 45 percent.

August 19, 2010 - The Tennessean - TVA sees fuel in old warheads; Plan to reuse plutonium has unresolved issues - When it comes to nuclear power, there is no such thing as an easy answer. The latest example of this is the proposal by the U.S. Department of Energy to use surplus material from nuclear warheads to help power Tennessee Valley Authority nuclear power plants. For DOE, it represents a chance to get rid of weapons that the government no longer wants, as the nation's nuclear arsenal undergoes modernization and reduction. That reduction is an admirable goal. But in suggesting that the weapons-grade plutonium be reprocessed for power plants, the federal government may only be shifting the environmental and security threats from one place to another. Here's what DOE proposes: It wants to convert 13 metric tons of plutonium produced in making nuclear warheads into a mixed-oxide fuel, or MOX, at a fuel-fabrication plant under construction at the federal Savannah River, S.C., nuclear complex. This would begin after the plant is finished in 2016. The plutonium-enriched MOX would then be shipped over roads from South Carolina to TVA's Sequoyah nuclear plant in Soddy-Daisy, Tenn., or to its Browns Ferry plant near Athens, Ala., by 2018. DOE and TVA both know this is a tricky sell, and have held public meetings in Chattanooga and Tanner, Ala., not far from Browns Ferry. But there are good reasons for the public to be skeptical. According to a number of scientists and environmental groups, the transportation of the fuel is highly vulnerable to theft for terrorist uses. The Union of Concerned Scientists has called the MOX fuel "dirty, dangerous and expensive,'' and the organization has warned that reprocessing plutonium to a less-volatile state makes it easier to be stolen, either by people who work for the operation or by those who would hijack the shipment. The material can be processed again for use in nuclear weapons.

August 19, 2010 - Knoxville News-Sentinel - Campaign to save the U-233 stockpile - John Snyder, a retired commercialization manager at Idaho National Laboratory, is trying to organize efforts to relocate the stockpile of U-233 at ORNL and preserve it for future extraction of medical isotopes of need -- notably actinium-225 (daughter of thorium-229) for treatment for acute myeloid leukemia and perhaps other diseases. The stocks of fissile material, currently housed in ORNL's Building 3019, are slated for downblending and disposal by Isotek, a Dept. of Energy contracting partnership headed by EnergySolutions. "It's a national treasure, and it shouldn't be wasted," Snyder said this morning in a telephone interview. Snyder, who holds a Ph.D. in genetics, has tried to come up with an arrangement that would satisfy most parties with an interest in the radioactive material and is now seeking the support of Congress (and encouraging interested organizations to apply the pressure). Snyder argues that it doesn't make sense to spend half a billion dollars or possibly more on a project that's going to take at least another decade to complete. He said during his time at Idaho lab (2003-2009) he was involved in an evaluation of the U-233 and its potential uses.

August 19, 2010 - KVVU 9 - After 60 Years, Feds To Rename Nevada Test Site - The 60-year-old Nevada Test Site will be given a new name at a ceremony Aug. 23, the National Nuclear Security Administration announced Wednesday. Officials have not announced the new name, saying only that it would reflect the diversity of activities taking place at the facility. The test site, which covers 1360 square miles in Nye County, was established in 1950 during the Truman administration. It soon became the testing ground for America’s nuclear arsenal, with a total of 928 announced tests taking place from 1951 to 1992.

August 18, 2010 - Las Vegas Review-Journal - Yucca not buried yet, official says - Nevada still has much work to do to bury the federal government's plan for storing nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain, the state's Agency for Nuclear Projects chief said Tuesday. The matter may wind up in a federal appeals court, depending on whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission overturns a licensing board's rejection of the Energy Department's request to end the Yucca project. A decision is expected in the coming weeks. Most of the work that lies ahead will be legal work, "and we may have to go back into licensing, which would be a long process and very expensive process," said Bruce Breslow, executive director of Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects. His comments were made at a meeting of the Legislature's Committee on High-Level Radioactive Waste. He also spoke on the possibility of reprocessing and recycling used nuclear fuel at the site, which also has legal issues. "Some people have suggested during the primaries that Nevada would be a gold mine for reprocessing," Breslow told the committee, which is led by Assemblyman Harry Mortenson, D-Las Vegas.

August 18, 2010 - OutlookIndia.com - BARC Develops Radionuclides for Inoperable Cancers - In a breakthrough which may pave way for an effective treatment of inoperable cancers, scientists at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre have developed radio pharmaceuticals, which they claim can be used for curing skin and liver tumours besides alleviating rheumatic arthritis. "A research carried out in BARC in collaboration with few hospitals in the country has shown Lutetium-177 (Lu-177), Yittrium-90 (Y-90) and Phosphorus-32 (P-32) as very effective therapeutic radionuclides (radio pharmaceuticals) that can be used in the treatment of cancers of liver, skin and in non-cancerous maladies such as rheumatic arthritis and haemophilia," Meera Venkatesh, Head, Radio pharmaceuticals Division told PTI. Lu-177, with great potential in treatment of neuro- endocrine tumours, has advantages like shorter range of tissue penetration making it an ideal candidate for radiotherapy of smaller, soft tumours. It also has both gamma and beta emitting properties, enabling it to be used in imaging studies, as well as for treatment, Venkatesh said. India is leading in conducting research using Lu-177 based radio pharmaceuticals in the world. Y-90 and P-32 have also proved to be effective in the treatment of liver cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and skin cancer respectively, she said. V Venugopal, Director, Radiochemistry and Isotope said, BARC has been engaged over the last 50 years in distributing radioisotopes Molybdenum-99, Iodine-131, Samarium-153 for a variety of medical applications.

August 8, 2010 - Denver Post - Cotter plans to close toxic mill site - The Cotter Corp. had previously planned to refurbish the contaminated uranium mill site south of Cañon City. (RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post)The operator of a uranium mill that contaminated groundwater and soil at Cañon City has indicated that it will be shut down rather than refurbished. Cotter Corp. has informed regulators it will close two toxic-waste impoundment ponds at the mill "as soon as reasonably achievable," according to a letter Cotter sent to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Cotter, which had previously said the mill would be reopened, now has told state regulators it will stop testing for radon emissions at the site because it is "no longer an active facility" subject to regulation. The apparent reversal, and Cotter's decision to stop testing for radon emissions, caught local leaders by surprise. The site has been designated a polluted Superfund site and Cotter has been responsible for monitoring to make sure cancer- causing radon was not escaping the facility. Fremont County Commissioner Mike Stiehl questioned whether Cotter can stop tests. "That doesn't sound right to me." Cotter's vice president for mill operations, John Hamrick, did not return repeated calls for comment.

August 18, 2010 - Power Online - Secretary Chu Dedicates World's Most Powerful X-ray Laser - U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu recently dedicated the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), the world's first and most powerful X-ray laser, at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The LCLS will play an essential role in addressing the scientific needs of the 21st century by exploring new ways to create better energy sources and enabling advances in a range of scientific fields. The LCLS produces pulses of X-rays more than a billion times brighter than the most powerful existing sources. The ultrafast X-ray pulses are used much like flashes from a high-speed strobe light, enabling scientists to take stop-motion pictures of atoms and molecules in motion, shedding light on the fundamental processes of chemistry, technology, and life itself. "The LCLS shows what the scientific workforce of our nation, in cooperation with our international partners, is capable of achieving," said Secretary Chu. "Pioneering research will remain critical if the U.S. is to remain a global leader when it comes to innovation and competitiveness."

August 18, 2010 - Greeley Tribune - Free radon tests available while supplies last - The Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment is offering free radon test kits to households while supplies lasts. According to a Colorado Department of Health news release, nearly 46 percent of all homes in Colorado have elevated radon levels. Radon is an odorless, colorless and radioactive gas that can eventually cause lung cancer if enough is inhaled. The gas leaks into houses through cracks and other holes in the foundation, and houses serve as a cell in which radon can build up to toxic levels. Kits take only a few minutes to set up to test your home. The Department of Public Health and Environment is open 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday at 1555 N. 17th Ave. in Greeley.

August 18, 2010 - AHN - Ontario Teachers Reject Proposed Ban Of Cell Phones, Laptops In Schools - Ontario teachers refuse to be "hypocrites" by banning mobile phones and laptops among their students when they are carrying and using these same gadgets. Some teachers groups, like those from Niagara, raised health concerns over the radiation emitted by cellphone linked to tumors and cancer. However, more teachers attending the ongoing Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario yearly meeting are in favor of allowing students to use the modern devices. One teacher even cited World Health Organization findings that emissions from wireless devices in Canada are safe. Niagara teachers, though, clarified that they are not against computers in school, but would prefer plug-in devices over wireless because of the fear of health problems caused by radio waves from the gadgets. The teachers voted and favored allowing the devices among their pupils. Had the Niagara teachers have their way, it would be the first ban in Canada. However, some North American cities such as Vancouver, Los Angeles and Palm Beach – have prohibited the construction of cell phone towers near schools.

August 18, 2010 - National Post - Isotopes flow once more at Chalk River - Cancer and cardiovascular patients could begin to see the supply of medical isotopes restored as early as this weekend following the restart of the Chalk River nuclear reactor. National Research Universal (NRU), the world's oldest operating reactor, climbed to full power and resumed isotope production yesterday. The restart ends a 15-month, $70-million breakdown that forced hospitals and doctors worldwide to scramble for scarce alternate supplies. Attention now turns to MDS Nordion's plant in Ottawa, where raw NRU isotopes are purified and refined. "There are a lot moving pieces right now.... We hope to receive our first shipment by the end of the week and we'll be turning around that shipment, hopefully, by the end of the week as well," said Thomas Burnett, vice-president of global sales for Nordion, NRU's biggest customer and one of the world's leading isotope processors. The latest crisis -- which follows an emergency 2007 safety shutdown that ended when Parliament legislated the reactor to resume operation -- renews concerns about the dependability of the 53-year-old NRU to support life-saving nuclear medicine. "If nothing else, it's underscored the fragility of the supply network globally," said Mr. Burnett.

August 18, 2010 - The Pioneer - Panel on N-bill seeks operator's liability - Relenting to a key demand of the opposition, a parliamentary panel on Wednesday recommended inclusion of a clause in the proposed civil nuclear liability bill envisaging "clear cut liability" on the supplier of nuclear equipment or material in case of an accident. The report of the Standing Committee on Science and Technology was tabled in both houses of parliament amid noisy protests and accusations of a deal between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The report recommended a trebling in compensation cap to be given by the operator from Rs.500 crore to Rs.1,500 crore, "specially keeping in view the present level of inflation and the purchase value of the Indian currency". The panel also recommended that while the government may increase the compensation cap, it should not decrease it under any circumstances. The report also recommended shutting out private players from the sector in India, leaving the operation of nuclear plants in the hands of the government or the government-owned companies. Giving in to another demand of the opposition BJP, the panel recommended that the time limit for filing compensation claim be raised from 10 years to 20 years since the after-effects of radiation take years to manifest. However, the inclusion of a clause specifying suppliers' liability is among the key concessions that helped the government win the support of the BJP. Agreeing that the expression "willful act or gross negligence" in the draft of the bill tabled in parliament May 7 was "quite vague", the parliamentary panel suggested there should be clear cut liability on the supplier of nuclear equipment or material in case they are found to be defective.

August 18, 2010 - DataWeek - RF diagnostic chamber - Rohde & Schwarz’s compact DST200 RF diagnostic chamber makes it possible for developers of wireless devices to perform reproducible radiated RF measurements on the workbench. The benchtop chamber simulates conditions that approximate free space and features a 700 MHz to 6 GHz broadband test antenna especially designed for the chamber. Users can measure self-interference (desense) or radiated emissions, perform coexistence tests and verify the antenna radiation pattern during development. Due to the chamber’s compact size of 770 x 760 x 695 mm (W x H x D), it can be placed on the workbench in the lab. It has a circularly polarised, 700 MHz to 6 GHz test antenna at the top of the actual test chamber. The high field uniformity that the chamber produces throughout the equipment under test’s (EUT) entire volume ensures reproducibility of results. Results remain stable even if the EUT is slightly shifted, as opposed to conventional shielded chambers that depend on antenna couplers, where results can change significantly. The shielding effectiveness of the chamber exceeds 110?dB, allowing sensitivity tests on GPS receivers with input levels of below –160?dBm. To achieve these shielding properties, Rohde & Schwarz developed a new locking mechanism for the door. This mechanism, for which a patent is pending, achieves high shielding effectiveness with low locking forces and also protects the RF gaskets.

August 18, 2010 - Prague Daily Monitor - Upper Austria to subsidise Czech anti-atom organisations - Czech anti-atom organisations will receive a five-million crown subsidy from Upper Austria for the fight against nuclear power plants this year, Pavel Vlcek, from the Civic Initiative for Environment Protection, has told CTK. Upper Austria that borders on the Czech Republic plans to invest 200,000 euros, an equivalent of five million crowns, in the following months in campaigns and steps against the completion of the nuclear power plants in Temelin, south Bohemia, and Mochovce, west Slovakia, and against the Isar nuke plant in Bavaria, Germany, the Upper Austrian government writes on its website. Upper Austria has protested against Czech Temelin, situated 60 kilometres from the borders of Austria and Bavaria, for years, challenging its safety. Last year, Czech opponents of Temelin were given a subsidy of 208,570 euros from Upper Austria and in 2008 some 203,000 euros. Vlcek said this year's subsidy would be divided among five Czech associations - the South Bohemian Mothers, Calla, the Friends of the Earth, the In Emergency Zone of Temelin civic association and his Civic Initiative for Environment Protection.

August 18, 2010 - CBC News - Aboriginal groups looking at nuclear waste storage - Some aboriginal communities in northern Saskatchewan are interested in the possibility of storing nuclear waste — something the province hasn't made its mind up about yet. Last week, representatives from the Métis village of Pinehouse took a trip to Toronto to visit the Nuclear Waste Management Organization. Canada's used nuclear fuel is stored at reactor sites, but the organization is looking for a community to host a national storage facility. The plan calls for used nuclear fuel to be put deep underground in stable rock formations. Jamie Robinson, a spokesman for the Nuclear Waste Management Organization, says "a few" Metis towns and First Nations in Saskatchewan have heard presentations. To be selected, a village or First Nation's council would have to pass a resolution, saying it was interested. It would also need a parcel of land for the site to be built on. Saskatchewan's aboriginal communities are in the very first stages of being placed on the eligibility list, so it wouldn't be fair to say which ones have been talked to, he said.

August 18, 2010 - Chillicothe Gazette - Jobs expected with $2B contract for Piketon cleanup - Local officials are hailing a $2 billion contract for cleanup at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant as a good move for the economy. Exact figures on jobs created and saved were not immediately released, but Marvin Jones, president of the Chillicothe Ross Chamber of Commerce, said the announcement will mean new jobs. "It's going to mean a lot of jobs for a lot of local people," Jones said. "We're in a region where jobs are hard to come by, so this is great news." The Department of Energy contract, which will span 10 years, is for the next phase of cleaning up the former Cold War-era bomb-making site. Fluor-B&W Portsmouth LLC is the main contractor for the site, and the $2,079,800,451 contract will provide for an initial period of five years with a potential five-year extension. Fluor touted its work at other energy department sites -- including Savannah River, Hanford and Fernald -- as part of its expertise.

August 18, 2010 - ANL Press Release - Argonne makes great strides in reducing legacy nuclear waste - The Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory took a significant step in reducing its legacy waste earlier this week by ridding itself of a 22,000-pound device once associated with a historic reactor. The device—called a shield plug—was used to seal and shield the Chicago Pile-5 reactor. CP-5 allowed for great strides in nuclear physics and materials research; it attracted scientists from across the world and served as a model for research reactors here and abroad. It was largely dismantled more than a decade ago after 25 years of use. The shield plug has been in storage for more than 12 years; the laboratory was unable to remove it until its radiation levels fell below a certain threshold. "This is an important step in removing legacy waste from our campus," said Argonne Director Eric Isaacs. "It helps free up resources for science and engineering aimed at solving big national problems like developing green energy technologies."

August 18, 2010 - Business Week - Backfill work to resume at Ga. nuclear work site - Construction will soon begin again on a planned nuclear power plant in eastern Georgia after it was stopped over a paperwork snafu. The Shaw Group said Tuesday it is working to complete testing to ensure work on backfilling two excavation sites for two new reactors planned for Plant Vogtle can resume in a safe and controlled manner. The construction to build the foundation of the two future reactors near Waynesboro was halted July 2 after an internal audit revealed that workers were not given a written questionnaire asking about drug and alcohol abuse. The contractor said in July it had completed the missing paperwork for its workers.

August 18, 2010 - Decatur Daily - Transport, storage main concerns for plutonium - The word is MOX — short for mixed oxide — and refers to a mixture of plutonium and uranium that the U.S. Department of Energy wants to use as fuel at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant. The purpose of the plan is to dispose of at least 34 tons of plutonium made surplus by nuclear disarmament treaties with Russia. Sixty people attended a public hearing on the topic at Calhoun Community College recently, and with few exceptions those who spoke opposed the idea. Many also complained they knew little more about MOX after the hearing. The plutonium in MOX raises many fears, most involving security from terrorists during shipping from South Carolina to Browns Ferry, and storage at Browns Ferry. Plutonium is not new to reactors. The goal of early reactors was to convert uranium to plutonium to use in nuclear warheads. Browns Ferry fuel starts with uranium, but much of the uranium turns into various forms of plutonium as a result of neutron bombardment. Look behind Browns Ferry and you’ll see numerous, huge casks. They contain used fuel rods. The fuel rods contain both uranium and plutonium, but most of the plutonium is in a form less useful for making nuclear bombs than the plutonium contained in MOX. Many countries in Europe use MOX, but the plutonium comes from spent nuclear fuel rather than from nuclear weapons.

August 18, 2010 - Associated Press - KC police arrest 14 protesters at site of plant that will make nuclear weapon parts - Fourteen protesters have been arrested at the construction site of a Kansas City plant that will make parts for nuclear arms. The Kansas City Star reports Monday's arrests came as about 75 people locked arms and marched onto the excavation site. The $685 million Honeywell plant is being built in southern Kansas City. Large earth-moving equipment was forced to stop operating during the march. Police used a loudspeaker to warn the protesters to disperse or face arrest. Most walked back to the road, but the 14 who refused were charged with trespassing and taken to jail. Participants say they were there to protest America's continued proliferation of nuclear weapons.

August 18, 2010 - WSU Today - Nuclear waste panel fails to address underlying mistrust - A renewed federal effort to fix the nation’s stalled nuclear waste program is focusing so much on technological issues that it fails to address the public mistrust hampering storage and disposal efforts. Writing in the latest issue of the journal Science, 16 researchers from around the country say a special White House panel on high-level radioactive waste needs to focus more on the social and political acceptability of its solutions to succeed. “While scientific and technical analyses are essential, they will not, and arguably should not, carry the day unless they address, substantively and procedurally, the issues that concern the public,” they write. The lead author of the “policy forum” paper is Eugene Rosa, a WSU professor of sociology and a widely published expert on technological risk and environmental change. Other contributors include fellow WSU sociologist James F. Short and Tom Leschine, director of the University of Washington School of Marine Affairs. Their paper comes while a “nuclear renaissance” has more than 50 reactors under construction and another 100-plus planned over the next decade. Meanwhile, some 60,000 tons of high-level waste have accumulated in the United States alone as 10 presidential administrations have failed to develop a successful waste-disposal program. President Obama is bolstering the nation’s commitment to nuclear energy with $8.6 billion in loan guarantees to two new plants in Georgia and a 2011 budget request for tens of billions more. Meanwhile, he has appointed a 15-member Blue Ribbon Panel to review the storage, processing and disposal of nuclear materials.

August 18, 2010 - Orange County Register - Giant generators bound for nuclear plant - Two, 65-foot, 641-ton steam generators are being hoisted from a ship onto a barge at the Port of Los Angeles this week -- one that will carry them to the San Onofre nuclear plant to complete a decade-long replacement process. And there are more gargantuan feats to come: unloading the giant generators at a dock on the Camp Pendleton Marine base, then carrying them on heavy-duty vehicles at a slow crawl to the nuclear plant. "It's pretty exciting for me," said Mike Wharton, Southern California Edison's senior project leader for the steam generator replacement, as he watched two cranes slowly swing the first of the generators onto the barge Tuesday. "By the time this is all done, I will have been working on this with a few other people for about a decade." The nuclear plant's unit 2 reactor had its steam generators replaced last year. The new generators will be installed in unit 3. One was being moved from the ship to the barge Tuesday, the second will move Wednesday, Wharton said. The ship carried the generators from their manufacturer in Japan. The generators will remain at the Port of Los Angeles for a week to 10 days before making their journey south, Wharton said.

August 18, 2010 - Las Vegas Sun - Nevada Test Site hits first-responder milestone - Nevada Test Site officials have marked a milestone with the graduation of the 100,000th student from a counter terrorism operations support school open since 2008 northwest of Las Vegas. A statement released Monday said a firefighter and paramedic from Jacksonville, Fla., was honored by program manager Dennis Dugan during a brief ceremony Aug. 9. The course is conducted at the Nevada Test Site and overseen by the National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Site Office and National Security Technologies LLC. It trains emergency first responders from across the nation how identify and handle threats ranging from a so-called "dirty bomb" radiological dispersal device to an improvised nuclear weapon.

August 17, 2010 - Charleston Post-Courier - The cost of closing Yucca - South Carolina has a major interest in the opening of a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, and should pursue every avenue to reverse the administration's ill-considered decision to terminate the project. The state's lawsuit against the Energy Department recognizes that the federal government must live up to its responsibility to safely dispose of the vast quantities of highly radioactive waste from its Savannah River Site. Attorney General Henry McMaster also is acting on behalf of the state's ratepayers, who collectively have contributed $1.6 billion in surcharges on their electrical bills to develop the disposal site, which also will provide for storage of commercial radioactive waste. The Obama administration's sudden decision to terminate the Yucca Mountain project is closely related to the re-election effort of Sen. Harry, D-Nevada. The Senate majority leader faces a strong GOP challenge, and DOE's termination of the Yucca project is expected to bolster his chances. It could be the most expensive Senate campaign ever -- at least in its related costs to the nation. In addition to the $9 billion spent on the planning and construction of the Nevada project, there's another $13 billion in liability costs to commercial nuclear operators who were promised a disposal site by Congress no later than 1998. And there is a greater cost to the nation's energy policy as nuclear power expansion is put on hold. That message was delivered to a congressional committee last month by a coalition of nuclear power industry spokesmen. The estimate of DOE liability, incidentally, was provided by the Congressional Budget Office. The administration persists, however, in its efforts to shut down the Yucca Mountain project. A spokesman for the Energy Department expressed confidence that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would uphold the action, even though a legal panel of the NRC said the administration couldn't kill a project approved by Congress.

August 17, 2010 - The Star - Does Wi-Fi make you sick? - Living wirelessly could come with a price. But it depends on who you ask. With parents in Barrie arguing that Wi-Fi in elementary schools is making their children sick, it appears the jury is still out among scientists on whether electromagnetic radiation from wireless routers can harm your health. The messy debate in the scientific community is reason enough for some parents, educators and even politicians to challenge the availability of Wi-Fi to young children in schools. Ontario’s Education Minister Leona Dombrowsky said she’s writing federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq demanding answers for the Barrie parents, whose bid to ban Wi-Fi in their schools this fall was rejected Monday by the Simcoe County school board. And on Tuesday, Canada’s largest teachers’ union, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, is set to vote on a proposal by Niagara Region members to lobby school boards to limit the use of wireless technologies in schools, citing possible health concerns for children.

August 17, 2010 - Times - No safe dose of rubbish - The problem with nuclear waste is “there is no safe dose” for radiation, said Mary Olson, director of the southeast office of the Nuclear Information and Resource Center, an environmental group. This is obvious nonsense. First of all, cosmic radiation hits us pretty much all the time. Then of course you have naturally occurring radon, thorium and uranium in soil, meaning you are getting more low dose radiation. Ever hear of radio-carbon dating? It works because carbon-14 is radioactive. Humans are carbon based life forms, and we are a bit radioactive too. If there was no safe dose of radiation, then we as a species would be pretty stuffed. It is a bit like if “chemicals” were always bad. The fact is with radiation, there are safe levels of it that we deal with every day of our lives. Denying that doesn’t make a case against nuclear stronger, it just undermines it.

August 17, 2010 - Foster's Daily Democrat - Groups against renewal for Seabrook plant to meet Wednesday - In an effort to postpone Seabrook's nuclear power plant's license renewal, citizen groups are holding a press conference this week. Less than 24 hours before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is set to begin its review of NextEra Energy Seabrook's 20 year extension of its operating license, a press conference will be held in opposition on Wednesday, Aug. 18. Owners of the plant are hoping to extend its facility operation through 2050, but members of the Seacoast Anti-Pollution League, C-10 Research & Education Foundation and others are hoping to challenge the relicensing process. "The general issue is the timing," said Doug Bogen, Executive Director of Seacoast Anti-Pollution League. "We are 20 years ahead of the license expiration." NextEra Energy Seabrook's current license will expire on March 15, 2030 and on May 25 of this year, they contacted the NRC for an extension. This Thursday, the NRC will hold two "scoping" meetings for the public to comment on the renewal. The submitted application has sufficient information to formally begin technical review, which includes this week's meetings.

August 17, 2010 - Arizona Daily Star - Calif. fire chief on quest to replace smoke alarms - Marc McGinn, the fire chief in Albany, Calif., says most smoke alarms in American homes are nearly useless and put residents in danger - so he's on a crusade to get them all swapped out for a cheap, better alternative. Last month McGinn persuaded the City Council in the small city east of San Francisco to become the first in the nation to require every new building to use the kind of smoke alarm he recommends. "I don't care how hard I have to stir the pot; this is the most important fire- safety issue of our time," McGinn said. The issue boils down to the two main types of fire alarms sold in America: ionization alarms and photoelectric alarms. The first type is bad, McGinn says. The two alarms look nearly identical. An ionization alarm contains a tiny amount of radioactive material to set up an ionization chamber that creates an electric current. When the current is disturbed by smoke, the alarm sounds. It costs about $10. A photoelectric alarm, in contrast, contains a small beam of light. When smoke disturbs the beam, the alarm sounds. It costs about $15. McGinn - armed with a cluster of independent research - said the ionization alarms are so inferior to the photoelectric alarms that they are "deadly." Unlike photoelectrics, ionizations were built primarily as flame detectors, he said - and people need warning long before a fire gets to the flame stage.

August 17, 2010 - Guam News Watch - Apra Harbor Dredging Could Have Radioactive Impact - Just leave it alone. If you tinker too much, it could trigger a radioactive disaster. Senator BJ Cruz says scraping the coral off the bottom of Apra Harbor for carrier visits could stir up unfathomable trouble from way down below. Saying the military's Final Environmental Impact statement on the buildup fails to answer the economic and ecological red flags he raised during the draft impact comment period last year. "There has been known leakage of radioactive material in the harbor and doing all of this dredging is just going to unearth it and start spreading it around and it's going to affect everything. And there was no real, genuine response to that. They've admittedly said that the birthing isn't going to go forward just now, but they're saying that that is their preferred site. When they say 'preferred site', it means it's going to happen sooner or later, maybe not right now, but it will happen." Cruz says Apra berthing will also hurt Guam's visitor industry by destroying 70 acres of coral reef habitat. A viable natural resource and tourist attraction. No response from the Navy nor the Joint Guam Program Office on the letter Vice Speaker Cruz wrote to JGPO about Apra harbor dredging dangers. Governor's Deputy Chief of Staff Shawn Gumataotao says the Camacho administration is preparing research-backed formal responses to the FEIS and prefers not to respond to Cruz's concerns till after the governor's FEIS comments are completed.

August 17, 2010 - Reuters - Japan nuclear power plan given boost by study - The Japanese government's plan to work with the private sector to develop next generation light water nuclear reactors has been given a boost after a two-year study found the scheme was viable. The joint project to develop an advanced version of the world's most popular reactor, under which the government would contribute half the total 55 billion yen ($644 million) cost, is a bid to boost energy diversification at home and to help drive Japan's growth by selling the facilities abroad. Toshiba Corp (6502.T: Quote), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd (7011.T: Quote) and Hitachi GE Nuclear Energy Ltd, Hitachi Ltd's (6501.T: Quote) nuclear unit, have worked together to develop two varieties of the 1,700 to 1,800 mega watt light water type reactors -- boiling-water reactors (BWR) and pressurised-water reactors (PWR). Takanori Tanaka, executive director of the Institute of Applied Energy (IAE), who oversaw a two-year feasibility study on the scheme, said on Tuesday it was viable to develop advanced BWR or PWR with the world's highest utilisation rate, of 97 percent over an 80-year life, by using uranium more enriched than currently, which would also reduce the amount of fuel used.

August 17, 2010 - The Messenger - Some issues of Armenian nuclear power station - The construction of a new nuclear power station in Metsamor, Armenia will start in 2012 and finish in 2018. The recommended date for the existing nuclear power station to cease operating is January 5, 2016. Head of the state committee of nuclear security regulation, Ashot Martirosian stated that a special programme should be worked out to prolong the functioning of the existing nuclear power station for a further 2-3 years, so that it is operational until the new power station is launched. Experts consider that the existing power station has enough reserves and potential to function safely for several more years. Although Yerevan undertook a commitment to shut down the present nuclear power station before 2016, it seems new approaches are now being considered. Analysts in Georgia controversially assess the situation; some believe it to be safe, while others highlight the possible dangers. It is expected that during the visit of Russian President Medvedev to Yerevan on August 19, a special agreement will be signed with Russian state corporation Rosatom for the construction of a new nuclear power station in Armenia.

August 17, 2010 - USNRC Press Release (08/16/10) - NRC meeting Aug. 27 in Rockville, MD to discuss draft rule on new reactor construction site security - Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will conduct a public meeting at the agency headquarters in Rockville, Md., on Friday, Aug. 27, to discuss proposed language for a rule that would set requirements for access authorization and physical security at new reactor construction sites. The NRC will hold the meeting in the auditorium of the agency’s Two White Flint North building, 11545 Rockville Pike in Rockville, from 9 – 11 a.m. NRC staff will provide an update on the proposed rule and a schedule for finalizing the rule before an extended question/answer session. A separate session from 12:30 – 4:30 p.m. will discuss how cybersecurity commitments are being incorporated into new reactor designs. Members of the public interested in participating via teleconference should contact Sheryl Burrows at 301-415-6086. The draft rule language is available by going to http://www.regulations.gov and entering Docket IDs NRC-2009-0195. The meeting agenda is available on the NRC’s public meeting schedule web page: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/public-meetings/index.cfm.

August 17, 2010 - Scientific American - Nuclear fall in: Why I'm becoming a pro-nuke nut - My belated education in nuclear energy continues. I just read Power to Save the World: The Truth about Nuclear Energy by Gwyneth Cravens, a petite, energetic novelist and journalist. Cravens contacted me after seeing my chat with Rod Adams, a nuclear-trained Naval officer, on Bloggingheads.tv last May (which I followed up with a post). I recently met Cravens during a tour of the Indian Point nuclear power plant in New York State, which she arranged. I'm feeling a lot better about living near Indian Point, less because of what I learned during my tour (although plant employees were quite informative) than because of Power to Save the World. The 2007 book describes how Cravens morphed from a nuke-fearing greenie who in the 1980s opposed the Shoreham nuclear plant on Long Island, where she lives, into a proponent who believes that we need nuclear power to save us from global warming and other adverse effects of fossil fuels. Cravens repeats the refrain that the risks of nuclear energy have been exaggerated; nuclear power, both civilian and military, hasn't killed a single person in the U.S. over the past half century. But she fleshes out these statements with surprising (to me) details. —Day in and day out we are all bombarded by radiation, including alpha and beta particles, x-rays and gamma rays. Americans receive an average of 360 millirem (a rem is a measure of radiation dosage) a year from radon gas and other background sources, cosmic rays (doses rise at higher elevations, where there is less atmospheric protection), consumer products (such as smoke detectors), and medical procedures. (I learned at Indian Point that the 360 estimate has recently been revised upward to 620). A set of dental x-rays delivers 39 millirem, a flight from New York City to Los Angeles 1.5 millirem. Radiation treatments for cancer can deliver millions of millirem to a specific organ and tens of thousands to the whole body. Federal regulations allow nuclear workers to receive up to 5,000 millirem annually, but they receive less than 240 on average. U.S. nuclear plants increase the radiation in their neighborhoods by less than one millirem a year, on average.

August 17, 2010 - Peace Earth & Justice News - Radioactive Waste Gradually Disseminated into Everyday Items - During the early decades of the nuclear age, people were told (and are still being told) that all nuclear waste will undergo "disposal" -- a word with no scientific definition, for humans have never successfully "disposed" of anything. But in recent years, the nuclear industry has significantly altered its previous doctrine. The new buzz-word is "recycling". Theindustry, it seems, wants some of the "good vibes" associated with Environmentalism's "3 Rs" -- Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. But recycling is a deceptive word to use, for the nuclear industry wants to gradually disseminate brand new highly dangerous waste materials -- radioactive species which never existed before -- into general circulation, as invisible contaminants. These wastes, previously intended for permanent storage, are now intended to be shipped across lakes, oceans, and continents so that the companies who created them can lower their storage costs. They want to reduce the volume of wasteby spreading it around, and "decontaminating" it as they go. But decontaminating is by no means perfect. Radioactivity has to go somewhere -- into the air, into the water, into the soil . . . and increasingly, into ordinary items of commerce. Thus everyone on earth will soon be receiving their own personal allotment of radioactive plutonium, cesium-137, cobalt-60, iron-55, nickel-63, and many other radioactive waste materialsin their household purchases -- a gift from the nuclear industry.

August 17, 2010 - The Guardian - The reality of nuclear energy is inconsistent with dreams of a renaissance - Repeatedly in recent years there have been calls for a revival of nuclear power. Yet that renaissance never seems to come. Of the more than 200 countries in the world, only 30 use nuclear power. In July 2010, a total of 439 nuclear power plants with a net installed capacity of 373.038 gigawatts (GW) were connected to various national electricity grids, about 1.2GW more than at the beginning of 2006. Roughly 16% of total energy needs (up to 25% in the highly industrialised countries) are now met by electric energy. Nuclear fission's contribution to total electric energy has decreased from about 18% more than 10 years ago to about 14% in 2008. On a worldwide scale, nuclear energy is thus only a small component of the global energy mix, and its share, contrary to widespread belief, is not on the rise. During 2009, for example, nuclear power plants provided 2,560 terawatt hours (TWh)– equivalent to 2,560bn kilowatt hours of electric energy, about 1.6% lower than during 2008 and almost 4% lower than during the record year of 2006. Early results for the first four months of 2010 for the OECD countries indicate that so far the 2010 results are as low or lower than last year.

August 17, 2010 - Columbus Dispatch - USEC chief optimistic on getting loan backing for Piketon plant - He navigated deep waters as a Navy submarine officer and head of a company that built those massive vessels during a post-Cold War period when the nation's nuclear-submarine program was being downsized. So John K. Welch doesn't try to downplay how big a moment is looming for USEC, the company he has headed since 2005, and for a southern Ohio region hoping for hundreds of good-paying jobs from a new uranium-enrichment plant in Piketon. Welch expects the U.S. Department of Energy to decide this fall, once and for all, whether to grant the project a $2 billion federal loan guarantee. A "yes" and it is full steam ahead for USEC and its long-running bid to construct a $4 billion advanced-technology facility producing the material that fuels nuclear power plants. But a "no" likely torpedoes the entire venture. "There is a good viable business, but we need to make this transition," Welch said about the loan guarantee. "I'm confident we can do it. We need a loan guarantee to get there so from that aspect, yeah, we've got a lot riding on the program." In an interview this month at USEC's headquarters in suburban Washington, Welch acknowledged that he was taken aback when the Energy Department last year rejected USEC's loan guarantee application. Energy Department officials questioned the commercial viability of the American Centrifuge technology USEC is trying to deploy - ironically, an updated version of Energy Department-invented technology.

August 17, 2010 - Anderson Independent-Mail - NRC issues inspection findings from October 2009 refueling outage - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a yellow violation and a white violation related to an issue with a strainer in a standby shutdown facility discovered during Oconee Nuclear Station’s October 2009 refueling outage of Unit 1. Duke Energy spokesman Robert Cook, who is at the nuclear station north of Seneca on Lake Keowee, said the NRC’s findings released Monday had nothing to do with two incidents this month when the company notified the commission. “We accept the findings of the NRC and do not plan to appeal,” Cook said. “We are going to meet the NRC’s expectations and requirements and assure the safe operation of all three Oconee units.” A yellow violation means the issue has substantial safety significance and the white violation indicates an issue of low to moderate safety significance. Findings with very low safety significance are labeled green. Red findings have high safety significance. The two findings for Oconee Nuclear Station will result in additional NRC inspections and potentially other actions, according to the commission.

August 17, 2010 - The Tennessean - TVA to consider rate changes and funds for nuclear reactor - The TVA board will consider changing part of its electricity rate structure and upping its spending to explore the controversial possibility of turning its Bellefonte site into a working nuclear plant. The board will meet Friday at the TVA West Tower Auditorium, 400 West Summit Hill Drive, Knoxville to consider this and other agenda items. A change in the Tennessee Valley Authority rate structure related to the "fuel cost adjustment" formula is up for discussion. The formula today changes the electric rates every month, depending on the price of fuel for electricity production. Under this scenario, the public pays and also is compensated more quickly when the cost goes up or down. The costs, which are passed on to ratepayers, have repeatedly gone up over the last several months. TVA's Bellefonte property is on the Tennessee River about two hours southeast of Nashville. Several environmental and anti-nuclear groups have said that the public power producer should not commit money to what they say is a costly and risky nuclear plant until energy efficiency and conservation measures are fully explored and implemented.

August 17, 2010 - Associated Press - Watchdog group sues to halt plutonium building - A watchdog group has filed suit to halt a multibillion-dollar plutonium factory proposed at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The Los Alamos Study Group claims the Chemical and Metallurgy Research Replacement building is meant only to increase the production capacity for the cores of nuclear weapons, known as pits. The lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in Albuquerque, alleges the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration have violated the National Environmental Protection Act by preparing to build the project without an environmental impact statement. The two agencies and their top administrators are named as defendants. Neither immediately returned messages seeking comment.

August 16, 2010 - Cambridge News - Scientists float idea of ship-based power plants - Scientists at Cambridge University have outlined a 20-year master plan for the “global rebirth” of nuclear energy. The two-stage plan involves giant, ship-borne power plants moored next to cities, and new ways of extending a power station’s life span by 30 years. Their research, published in the journal Science in collaboration with Imperial College London, could see more countries turning to nuclear power to reduce dependency on fossil fuels. Dr William Nuttall, a senior lecturer in technology policy at Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, said: “We would be foolish if we did not provide such an option for those that must make key energy technology decisions in the decades ahead. “Such research and development capacities need to be developed now if they are to be ready when needed. “While some good measures are already under way, the possible challenge ahead motivates even greater efforts.”

August 16, 2010 - Environmental Protection - Analysis Supports Continuing N.Y. Nuclear Waste Disposal Site - Engineering and scientific experts associated with U.S. and New York state energy agencies have developed an improved method of predicting scenarios where people might be exposed to radiation from nuclear waste disposal sites. The study, funded by the New York State Energy Research and Development Agency, focuses on a buried nuclear waste disposal facility at West Valley, N.Y. The scientific analysis supports a decision to continue management of waste at the site for another decade. Researchers say their approach represents a first-of-its-kind method of analysis that considers the full scope of possible scenarios, likelihoods, and consequences that might be a threat to the disposal site. Using this approach, the authors concluded: “A release resulting in a dose of 100 millirems in one year, or more, is extremely unlikely during the next 30 years of operation of the state managed disposal area at the Western New York Nuclear Service Center.” By comparison, the public is exposed to approximately 300 millirems a year of cosmic radiation in the atmosphere with no visible health effects. Five basic release mechanisms were considered involving hypothetical releases of radionuclides by liquid, solid, or air pathways.

August 16, 2010 - Myrtle Beach Sun-News - S.C. attorney general defends lawsuits against feds - South Carolina's attorney general could spend as much as $700,000 on three lawsuits against the federal government that some say are politically motivated, The Greenville News reported Sunday. Critics say Republican Henry McMaster is playing politics, suing the administration of Democratic President Barack Obama. McMaster and others say it is important to challenge the federal government when it oversteps its power. McMaster has joined other states in suing the federal government over killing a planned nuclear waste depository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, the Arizona immigration law and federal health care reform.

August 16, 2010 - Fromtheold - Russia's nuclear research center 1 mile away from fires - Wildfires are now only 1 mile from Russia's main nuclear facility. The massive fires that caused havoc all over Russia and caused a massive thick toxic cloud to hang over Moscow for a few days are new threatening Russia's main nuclear research center. The fires are raging 1 mile away from the center of Sarov around 260 miles from Moscow. The head of the Russian nuclear agency said that there are now threats of nuclear explosions because there is no radioactive material at the location near the fire. At the moment there are thousands of firefighters in that area trying to stop the fires from destroying Sarov.

August 16, 2010 - Your Industry News - Finnish poll shows continued support for nuclear - The majority of Finns support the continued use of nuclear energy in the country, a poll on attitudes to energy policy shows. The poll is the latest in a series that has been conducted annually since 1983. A total of 1378 Finnish adults completed a written questionnaire between 20 October 2009 and 7 January 2010. The research was conducted for utilities Fortum and Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) by Yhdyskuntatutkimus and AF-Consult. A report on the results of the survey was submitted to Fortum and TVO in June. The Finnish Energy Industries (Energiateollisuus, ET), which is responsible for reporting the results, has now published the report's findings. While public opinion of the use of wind, bioenergy and hydropower for the generation of energy has continued to be favourable throughout the years the survey has been conducted, "nuclear power and natural gas form something of an intermediate group of energy forms that are 'favoured with reservations'," the report says. "Respondents wanted to increase rather than decrease the use of these energy forms, but opinions already indicate some division. A little over two-fifths (44%) are now in favour of increasing the use of nuclear power, and a little over a quarter are in favour of decreasing it (26%)." According to the report, "In practice, the other energy options and their pros and cons, as well as the development of the entire electricity generation system, are always assessed in relation to the nuclear power alternative." It adds, "Time has been in favour of nuclear power; the main emphasis of opposition rests more in minimising the number of new units instead of rejecting nuclear power entirely."

August 16, 2010 - WZZM 13 - Passengers weigh in on controversial scanner at GR Ford International Airport - The Gerald R. Ford International Airport will soon begin using a controversial tool to screen travelers. Monday morning, the TSA will unveil a pair of Advanced Imagery Technology scanners, or "AIT." The units are two of more than 450 the TSA plans to install across the country this year. One unit is already installed in concourse A, the other will be implemented in concourse B this week. The AIT units process a full-body scan of the passenger being screened, and project an image of the subject's body without clothing.The scanners emit low-level X-Ray beams all over the subject's body.The projected images are not photorealistic, they appear to be a chalk-like 3D representation of the host. Yet, the projections do not leave much to the imagination. Critics say the scanners are an invasion of privacy and worry about the possibility of the images being processed and recorded. A spokesperson from the TSA tasked with defusing fears about the machines says the scans are completely optional. If a traveler does not want to be scanned, he can participate in a physical search. For those who are scanned, the TSA says it's a quick process, utilizing a negligible amount of radiation and that the screens projecting the images will be housed at a separate location. The images will also not be able to record. Each scanner costs just under about $200,000 and are funded by the Federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

August 16, 2010 - Daily Record - NJ considers new standards for radon in drinking water; some in Morris would flunk - More than a dozen public and community water systems in the Morris County region contain radon at levels higher than what a state environmental committee has recommended is safe. But 18 months after the radon subcommittee of the Drinking Water Quality Institute suggested a standard for water systems, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection still has not put any regulations in place to limit the amount of the cancer-causing gas in water. "Right now, the only thing they tell you to do is stand back from the water when you turn it on in the morning,'' said Jeff Tittel, head of the New Jersey Chapter of the Sierra Club. "They should have put together a standard decades ago.'' Radon is an odorless, colorless gas prevalent in the Highlands region, part of the Reading Prong geological area, due to the uranium-rich rock. Radon is released when uranium decays. The greatest danger from radon in water, as in air, is inhaling it. Radon is the second largest cause of lung cancer, after cigarette smoking, and is responsible for an estimated 20,000 deaths a year, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. Drinking radon-contaminated water is also said to cause small numbers of stomach cancers.

August 16, 2010 - Discover Magazine - Using Terhertz Radiation to Blur Our See-Through Vision - Science fiction movies and TV shows are perpetually trying to see through things: Everyone from Superman to last year’s KITT reboot were all using some method or other to see through walls and clothing. Since we already live in the future, see through technology exists in myriad forms, not the least of which is airport full-body scanning. These scanners are so good at seeing past clothing that they might violate child porn laws in the United Kingdom. So now we’re in the position of trying to find ways to make see-through-stuff technology worse. Enter the non-ionizing terahertz-frequency radiation. The terahertz range sits betwixt the infrared and the microwave bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. Pretty much everything on the planet emits it, and different objects emit different frequencies. Without any need for an emitter, a receiver could be designed to take pictures in the terahertz range. It wouldn’t have sharp lines, but terahertz radiation has a short range, and the emissions vary depending on the object. It would see people as a hazy silhouette. The radiation passes through wood, ceramics, cloth, and paper, but not metal or water. In a short range situation —- like an airport security scanner —- a receiver could be installed to watch for the pattern of terahertz radiation. A person’s silhouette would show up fine, but a metal knife or handgun would appear as a black outline on the screen. There are already two companies with equipment like this ready to sell, and at least one CEO claiming the technology can be tuned to pick up radiation from drugs or other contraband a person might be carrying. Not only would the new technology be safer, and avoid privacy concerns, it might make an airport security guard’s job a little better.

August 16, 2010 - Space Fellowship - Fermi Detects 'Shocking' Surprise from Supernova's Little Cousin - Astronomers using NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have detected gamma-rays from a nova for the first time, a finding that stunned observers and theorists alike. The discovery overturns the notion that novae explosions lack the power to emit such high-energy radiation. A nova is a sudden, short-lived brightening of an otherwise inconspicuous star. The outburst occurs when a white dwarf in a binary system erupts in an enormous thermonuclear explosion. “In human terms, this was an immensely powerful eruption, equivalent to about 1,000 times the energy emitted by the sun every year,” said Elizabeth Hays, a Fermi deputy project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “But compared to other cosmic events Fermi sees, it was quite modest. We’re amazed that Fermi detected it so strongly.” Gamma rays are the most energetic form of light, and Fermi’s Large Area Telescope (LAT) detected the nova for 15 days. Scientists believe the emission arose as a million-mile-per-hour shock wave raced from the site of the explosion. A paper detailing the discovery will appear in the Aug. 13 edition of the journal Science.

August 16, 2010 - Al Jazeera - Nuclear inspection of Israel sought - Arab nations have urged Washington and several other nuclear powers to push for inspections of Israel's nuclear programme, diplomats have told the Associated Press news agency. In a letter sent ahead of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting scheduled for September, the Arab League also sought support for a resolution that calls on Israel to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The letter sent on August 8 was signed by Amr Moussa, the Arab League chief. Besides Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, the letter was also sent to foreign ministers of Russia, China, Britain and France - the four other permanent UN Security Council members. The letter comes one month after Barack Obama, the US president, warned the Arab world not to use the 150-nation IAEA forum to single out Israel. Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, agreed to work together to oppose efforts to single out Israel at the upcoming IAEA conference. At the time, Obama suggested that such a move would undermine the possibility of breakthrough talks on a Middle East nuclear-free zone, as proposed by the NPT conference three months ago. But the Arab League letter says they were not attempting to single out Israel. "Singling out a state assumes that there are a number of states in the same position and only one state was singled out," the letter says.

August 16, 2010 - Veterans Today - EVACUATE NOW!: This is Not a Drill - Forest fires hit areas remaining radioactive since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. (San Francisco) – Russia is burning down this summer. The smoke is engulfing Moscow and the European Union. Embassies are emptying. What’s the deal? Thousands of forest fires are burning all over Russia. More importantly, the nuclear weapons factories and reactors around Mayak and the former Soviet Union’s Uranium Project are going up in smoke. The smoke is toxic and radioactive in every possible sense of the words. Russian forest fires are burning down old H-Bomb factory areas and the Chernobyl poisoned woodlands. This holds the virtual certainty of at least 241,000,000 Lethal Doses of radioactivity becoming air borne during a fire. Due to peculiar nuclear forces the tiny ceramicized radioactive particles stay in the air for months or even years till they are “rained out” by some form of precipitation. Snowflake edges are particularly good scavengers of radioactive particles. Two US Air Force C130s just flew into Moscow. Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab, or one of the seven other nuclear weapons labs in the US, are more than likely involved. Ask yourself this. What on earth could have scared the Russian nuke forces enough to call in their old hated Cold War foe – the US Air Force – for help? There is a simple way to let the people of the world know what is going on with airborne Chernobyl and Mayak data. We paid for all the data, anyway, whether Russian, American or European Union Data. Free the Data. Release it to the InterNet all over the world and let people decide for themselves which country is safe enough for their families to live in. If you are planning a trip to Europe or Russia – don’t go. If you are already there – leave immediately. If you have family or friends there – get them out if you can. This is not a drill. It is the real deal.

August 16, 2010 - Portsmouth Herald-News - Nuclear recycling?: Debate over what to do with spent fuel - As it moves through the license renewal process, seeking to extend its operating license another 20 years — for a total of 60 years — NextEra Energy has the potential to store used nuclear fuel on its Seabrook site for the life of the plant and beyond. But after one use in a reactor, about 95 percent of the material used to produce nuclear fuel still contains energy value, leaving the question of whether that remaining fuel could be reused. While the recycling of nuclear fuel does take place in other countries, most notably France, the United States does not do so due to economic and national security reasons. Instead, the 104 operating nuclear energy plants around the country store their used fuel on-site. "Spent fuel can be reprocessed and reused, but it's an issue that has not been really resolved," said Stephen Fan, professor emeritus at the University of New Hampshire specializing in mechanical and nuclear engineering. "I think a lot of people feel the safest way is to really find a place to deposit the spent fuel. It can be made into something that is very disruptive, for instance weapons." While Yucca Mountain in Nevada was originally envisioned as a geological repository storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, it hasn't been approved after more than 20 years of debate. Most recently, the Obama administration announced its intent to terminate the project, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute. While other countries are able to extract the exact chemicals they need to "feed into the reactor as fuel," Fan said there is also the possibility and concern that chemicals capable of producing weapon-grade material could be extracted.

August 16, 2010 - Associated Press - Neb. nuclear power plant plans siren warning test - Sirens soon will be sounding for 10 miles around the Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant in eastern Nebraska. Omaha Public Power District says it will test the plant's siren alert system on Aug. 25. The sirens will sound for three minutes sometime between 9 and 10 a.m. All the radio-controlled sirens within 10 miles of the plant will be tested. The plant is 19 miles north of Omaha, southeast of Blair. People who notice malfunctioning sirens are being asked to report them to OPPD. Were the sirens to sound in earnest for an emergency, that would be a signal for people to tune in an emergency alert radio station. OPPD says that for the greater Omaha area, that would be KFAB, 1110 on the AM dial.

August 14-15, 2010 - Webmuenster took the weekend off.

August 13, 2010 - News-Tribune - Asphalt being laid over underground Hanford tanks - Hanford crews are laying 1.8 acres of modified asphalt this week over a tank farm where five underground tanks are suspected of leaking radioactive and hazardous chemical waste. It may look like a parking lot -- one larger than a football field and dotted by monitoring stations and risers from underground tanks. But its goal is to keep contaminated soil in the tank farm dry. "We don't want the situation to get worse," said Dan Parker, project manager of the work for Washington River Protection Solutions. "The barrier will keep rain water and snow melt from entering the soil and carrying contamination towards ground water." The barrier, being paid for with economic stimulus money, will be the second one built at the Hanford tank farms, where 53 million gallons of waste are stored in groups of underground tanks called "farms." The waste is left from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program. The barrier under construction now is going over the TY Tank Farm, where six single-shell tanks were built in 1951. Each tank has a capacity of 750,000 gallons.

August 13, 2010 - Denver Post - New Colorado mining rules aimed at protecting groundwater - Colorado mining regulators on Thursday set new rules aimed at protecting groundwater against damage from some uranium mining. The rules approved by the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Board require companies to test groundwater at mining sites before prospecting. Regulators can use test data to ensure companies don't leave groundwater degraded. The rules also require companies hunting for minerals to disclose more information about when and how mining would be done. And communities affected by mining now have greater rights to appeal state decisions. "We've established an appropriate level of oversight" and also "pulled back some of the veil that has led to concern about these activities," said Mike King, director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources. "I don't think we are hostile to mining at all," King said. "What we are expecting is that mining activity that takes place in this state is done under controls that protect our environment." State laws signed by Gov. Bill Ritter in 2008 were designed in part to prepare Colorado for renewed interest in its large uranium deposits.

August 13, 2010 - Montreal Gazette - Chalk River reactor ready for restart - The world's oldest operating nuclear reactor is poised to restart after a 15-month breakdown that threatened the global supply of life-saving medical isotopes and Canada's dominance in nuclear medicine. Refuelling of the National Research Universal (NRU) reactor at Chalk River, Ont., testing of its main heavy-water cooling system and all 35 auxiliary systems are complete. Now comes low-power testing, then returning the reactor to high-power operation. If all goes as planned, the NRU is expected to resume isotope production as early as next week, with isotopes to roll out for processing and distribution within 10 days, says Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL). The reactor, which will be 53 years old Nov. 3, was placed in an extended shutdown May 15, 2009, to repair a pinprick leak of radioactive heavy water and other corroded spots at the base of the unit's 65,000-litre heavy-water containment vessel.

August 13, 2010 - Press Information Bureau - Exploration of Thorium - India is known to be the only country in the world operating the Kamini reactor with Uranium 233 based fuel. The Indian Advanced Heavy Water Reactor is the only large scale reactor that has been designed and developed to produce a large fraction, nearly 2/3rd of its power from the fission of Uranium 233 in the equilibrium state of this reactor core. In the early stages of development of nuclear energy in the world, several fuel options were investigated by different countries. These investigations also covered the use of thorium. Notably, the Shippingport Pressurised Water Reactor in United States and Arveitgemeinschaft Versuchs Reaktor (AVR) and Thorium High Temperature Reactor (THTR)-300, the High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactors in Germany demonstrated the use of thorium bearing fuel. However, no major programme was pursued for recycling of thorium based fuel and large scale utilization of thorium in reactors where a major component of power came from fission of Uranium 233. India has been working on the development of technologies for Utilisation of Thorium for Nuclear Power Generation since the inception of the Indian Nuclear Programme. As a part of this work thorium has been irradiated in our Research Reactors and also in Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors. Technologies for reprocessing of irradiated thorium fuel for the separation of Uranium-233 have also been developed on a pilot plant scale. Uranium-233 thus separated has been used as fuel in research reactor Purnima-II and later in the 30 kw Research Reactor Kamini now in operation at Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR). Thorium based fuel has been manufactured and loaded in the Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) critical facility for Reactor Physics experiments as well. Further development of technologies for large scale commercial level manufacture and reprocessing of Uranium 233 bearing fuels is underway.

August 13, 2010 - Jackson Citizen Patriot - Colorful collectibles: Happy memories spur love for Fiesta Dinnerware - Two Albion collectors of Fiesta Dinnerware are inspired by nostalgia and fueled by obsession. Yvette Eddy and Sammy Markovich both remember older family members using Fiesta, and that sparked their interest in collecting. Eddy recalled her mom using Fiesta mixing bowls. When she was driving by a garage sale and spotted "two bowls like my mother used to have," she had to stop. Fond memories of his maternal grandmother serving Sunday dinner on Fiesta led Markovich to gravitate toward the line. Those pleasant associations lead many people to collect Fiesta, said Timothy Bos, owner of the Jackson Antique Mall who has a collection of Fiesta dating to the 1970s. Fiesta was produced by the Homer Laughlin China Co. from 1936 to 1973. The company resumed production in 1986 to mark Fiesta's 50th anniversary, according to the company's website. "It's very nostalgic. The generation that likes it remembers their grandmothers having it," Bos said. "Collectors usually don't want any of the common stuff such as plates, cups and saucers and things like that. They're looking for bowls or nesters (nested mixing bowls) divided dishes ... or pieces in chartreuse." "The most popular vintage colors are Medium Green and Fiesta Red. Medium Green was produced for a relatively short time in the 1960s and Fiesta Red's claim to fame is the depleted uranium oxide which was used to produce the red (actually orange) color. It will register on a Geiger counter," Dave Conley, director of retail sales and marketing of the Homer Laughlin China Co., said in an e-mail.

August 13, 2010 - Sify News - Fermi makes 'shocking' discovery of gamma rays coming from a nova - For the first time, astronomers using NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have detected gamma-rays from a nova- a finding that stunned observers and theorists alike. The discovery overturns the notion that nova explosions lack the power to emit such high-energy radiation. A nova is a sudden, short-lived brightening of an otherwise inconspicuous star. The outburst occurs when a white dwarf in a binary system erupts in an enormous thermonuclear explosion. "In human terms, this was an immensely powerful eruption, equivalent to about 1,000 times the energy emitted by the Sun every year. But compared to other cosmic events Fermi sees, it was quite modest. We're amazed that Fermi detected it so strongly," said Elizabeth Hays, a Fermi deputy project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Gamma rays are the most energetic form of light, and Fermi's Large Area Telescope (LAT) detected the nova for 15 days. Scientists believe the emission arose as a million-mile-per-hour shock wave raced from the site of the explosion.

August 13, 2010 - Express Healthcare - 'India Requires 100 PET CT Centres' - Since its advent 45 years ago in India, nuclear medicine has grown rapidly. Dr Vikram Lele, Head of Nuclear Medicine, Jaslok Hospital, Mumbai speaks about the advancements in his field to Rita Dutta. Excerpts: What has been technical advancements in molecular imaging since the time it first arrived in India? Nuclear medicine was the first modality for molecular imaging since it studies physiological processes at a molecular level, using radioisotopes. Nuclear medicine has undergone several technical advances with availability of more advanced SPECT (Single Photo Emission Computed Tomography) scanners, PET-CT (Positron Emission Tomography) scanners and cyclotrons which produce short lived radiopharmaceuticals to study molecular processes. MRI, optical imaging and ultrasonography are other molecular imaging modalities which are being utilised in addition to nuclear medicine. Who have been the pioneers in nuclear medicine in India? Brig Muzumdar started the INMAS (Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences) in Delhi in 1961. Radioiodine scans for thyroid were carried out along with treatment for graves disease. Other luminaries who contributed significantly to development of nuclear medicine were Dr SM Sharma, Dr Ganatra, Dr AM Samuel and Padmabhushan Prof Dr RD Lele, who is known as father of modern nuclear medicine in India. Please mention three technical advancements that gave a boost to molecular imaging? The three major advances which gave boost to molecular imaging were availability of multi detector Gamma Cameras and new radiopharmaceuticals, the advent of PET-CT and cyclotron in India, and development of high Tesla MRI scanners.

August 13, 2010 - Energy Efficiency News - Scientists lay out 20-year global plan for nuclear energy - UK scientists have laid out a 20-year ‘master plan’ for the global renaissance of nuclear power that could see the life of existing facilities extended and a new generation of mobile reactors. Writing in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Science, the scientists from Imperial College London and the University of Cambridge envisage ‘fast’ reactor that use fuel more efficiently, nuclear reactors with replaceable parts and portable mini-reactors supplying clean energy. The researchers suggest even more exotic options. “Imagine portable nuclear power plants at the end of their working lives that can be safely shipped back by to the manufacturer for recycling, eliminating the need for countries to deal with radioactive waste,” says Robin Grimes, professor of materials at Imperial College London. Closest on the horizon are so-called fast reactors that can use uranium fuel up to 15 times more efficiently than current light-water reactors, which are most widely used. Further down the line, the idea of developing reactors with replaceable parts could extend their lifetime for the current 40-50 years to over 70 years.

August 13, 2010 - Patriot-Ledger - Review of Pilgrim nuclear license is among the longest in country - The Pilgrim nuclear power plant is one of only three power plants in the country whose relicensing requests have taken longer than the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s self-imposed 30-month deadline to resolve. In recent letters to Sen. John Kerry and Rep. William Delahunt, NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko wrote that his agency issued 59 license renewals at 34 sites and had 14 license renewal applications under review. Of those, Entergy Corp.’s Pilgrim plant in Plymouth is one of only three that have not been resolved in a 30-month window. The others include Vermont Yankee in Vernon, Vt., and the Oyster Creek plant in New Jersey. The Oyster Creek license was renewed in 2009, while Entergy’s Vermont Yankee request is still being considered. Jaczko, who was responding to inquiries from Kerry and Delahunt, attributed the delays at Pilgrim to the complexity of issues being raised as a panel of judges reviews Entergy’s relicensing request. The full commission still needs to rule on citizens group Pilgrim Watch’s recusal request for one of the judges. Once the NRC resolves that issue, the panel of judges can address Pilgrim Watch’s challenge of Entergy’s modeling of a severe accidental radioactive release. The commission also needs to address Pilgrim Watch’s appeal of an earlier panel ruling dealing with buried tanks and pipes.

August 13, 2010 - Jerusalem Post - Iran reactor to be fueled Aug. 21 - Russia says it will load fuel into nuclear reactor at Bushehr station. Russia has announced that it will start loading fuel into the nuclear reactor of the Bushehr nuclear power station in Iran on August 21, a spokesman for Russia's state atomic cooperation reportedly told Reuters Friday. According to the report, the spokesperson was quoted as saying that the addition of fuel will be crucial to initiating the country's first nuclear reactor, although it will not become operational. In a telephone conversation Rosatom spokesman Sergei Novikov said, "The fuel will be loaded on Aug 21. This is the start of the physical launch (of the reactor)." Russia's official news agency, ITAR-TASS, reported earlier Friday on the initiation of the reactor on August 21, after a statement was posted on Russia's state nuclear corporation's website. However, the statement was later removed from the website without providing an explanation. On March 18, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced that his country planned on starting up the Bushehr reactor by the summer of 2010.

August 13, 2010 - PRWeb - Solixia Receives National Cancer Institute SBIR Award - Solixia today announced that it has been awarded a $161,000 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Cancer Institute. Solixia's project, entitled "Targeted Radiotherapy of Ovarian Cancer with a Novel, High Payload Radioligand," aims to create a pharmaceutical agent capable of treating a disease that seldom responds to conventional chemotherapy. "For the vast majority of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer, the standard of care, which is surgery followed by chemotherapy, does not work," explains Dr. Brian Smith, Solixia's Chief Science Officer. "Disease progression is inevitable, and mortality is very high. This is a reality that we hope to change." This ambition resonated strongly with the National Cancer Institute's review panel. According to one reviewer of Solixia's proposal, "If this approach is successful, it has the potential to significantly improve the currently dismal prognosis for patients with ovarian cancer." Solixia's approach, called radioimmunotherapy, uses special molecules to deliver radioactivity specifically to ovarian cancer cells. Despite its promise, radioimmunotherapy has generally failed to deliver enough radioactivity to solid tumors to attain a therapeutic response. Solixia's proprietary technology would circumvent this limitation to yield a first-in-class treatment. "Radiotherapy is an attractive method of treatment for cancers that can dodge conventional drugs by having multiple, redundant biochemical pathways," says Dr. Smith. "With radiation, the therapeutic effect derives from the direct disruption of DNA, which is the cell's command center."

August 13, 2010 - The Swedish Wire - Finland radioactivity normal despite Russia fire - Finland said Thursday its radioactivity levels were normal in areas affected by smoke from fire-ravaged Russia, where burnt regions include land contaminated by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Finland's Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority said in a statement that it had "measured the the samples of particle collection in Helsinki, Kotka and Imatra," and the radioactivity levels had not risen above normal. The amounts of radioactive cesium "are not different from those normally measured... which shows that the forest fires in Russia have not increased the amount" of the substance, the authority said regarding Finland's south and east regions. Meanwhile in Russia millions of people continued to battle to douse the wildfires raging in the country, notably near the top nuclear research centre in Sarov, east of Moscow.

August 13, 2010 - Press TV - Russia wildfires near main nuclear site - Wildfires in Russia are nearing the country's main nuclear research site in the central city of Sarov as under-equipped firefighters struggle to tame the fire. The wildfires in the area of Bryansk, hit by fall-out from the Chernobyl nuclear explosion in 1986, have caused concern among Russian and European citizens. The fear is that winds or fire could allow radioactive particles in the soil to become active, Press TV correspondent in Moscow reported. Although the wildfires have been brought under control for the time being in the contaminated area, Russian Greenpeace was the first to warn that the situation will change dramatically if there is a new fire -- which is expected in the coming days. Even though the risk of radioactive pollution for Moscow and Europe is minimal, Greenpeace says the danger for the local population in Bryansk is significant. Bryansk remains contaminated although radioactivity has diminished substantially since the 1986 explosions. There are fears of radiation if the fire reaches the actual site, the report says. While firefighters are digging up the earth around a burning forest to keep the flames from spreading, they say blazes are impossible to put out without planes and helicopters. “At the moment... the people fighting these fires do not have enough equipment... to operate in high radioactive pollution," says Vladimir Chuprov form Greenpeace.

August 12, 2010 - Seacoast Online - Granite cutting in York blasted; Radioactive dust a concern in plan to open shop - Neighbors of vacant land being eyed for a quarry fabrication shop are expected to turn out in force today at the York Planning Board meeting to protest the industrial business coming to their residential neighborhood. The proposal for Old York Quarry Fabrication Shop at 129 Beech Ridge Road is going before the Planning Board at 7:30 p.m. in the York Public Library. The 6,000-plus-square-foot stone fabrication shop is allowed by zoning ordinances for the area, according to Town Planner Christine Grimando, though the applicant must meet standards for noise, dust, refuse, setbacks and other concerns. "It's a residential area, but it's not strictly a residential zone," she said Wednesday. The town notified abutters last week of the proposal. Abutter Walter Moulton of Beech Ridge Road said Wednesday that since he received notice from the town Thursday, Aug. 5, he has been alerting neighbors about the meeting by phone, fliers, a sign in his yard and by Twitter. Granite cutting creates radioactive dust and is noisy, according to a notice posted by Moulton on http://twitter.com/SaveBeechRidge. "They want to extend their quarry operation in my back yard," Moulton said Wednesday. "It's a beautiful field, and trees."DelSesto denied that noise and dust will be an issue. Sawing will take place inside a building with acoustical paneling to contain noise, he said. The concern of radioactive granite dust in the air is not an issue because the dust generated from sawing will go into a water tank. The water system will separate the sediment, which will be disposed off-site, he said. According to Scripps Howard News Service story from 2009, a study titled "Implications of Granite Counter Top Construction and Uses" raises concerns that the stone dust could be exposing America's estimated 24,000 granite fabricators to elevated cancer risks. People living in homes with granite countertops face no health concerns from the dust, which is generated when the stone is cut.

August 12, 2010 - Montreal Gazette - Breakthroughs open door to early Alzheimer's diagnosis - Alzheimer's specialists might soon have a new set of tools for diagnosing the brain-wasting disease well before symptoms appear, but so far no effective treatments have been found, raising questions about how the tests should be used. Radioactive imaging agents that can light up Alzheimer's proteins on brain scans are already in late-stage clinical trials. And a Belgian team this week said it was able to accurately spot early signs of Alzheimer's disease by measuring levels of disease-related proteins in spinal fluid. Alzheimer's experts largely agree the disease can be detected as many as 10 years before people show signs of serious memory impairments. But progress in developing drugs that arrest the fatal brain disease has been frustratingly slow, in part because drug studies largely involve patients whose brains are already wrecked by the disease. Arriving at validated tests that can be used for diagnosing Alzheimer's might take eight or 10 years, perhaps long enough for new drugs to be developed.

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