September 27, 2016 – Roanoke Times – Fight flares again over uranium mining at 5th District debate – The fuse trailing from an attack ad by Democratic candidate Jane Dittmar against state Sen. Tom Garrett’s energy and environment record sparked Monday at the Appomattox debate. The audience question regarding each 5th Congressional District candidate’s stance on uranium mining lit the confrontation toward the end of the debate that until then had been marked by general agreement private businesses are overregulated. “This is like some crazy convoluted cartwheels that we’re getting here, but the bottom line is that 127 people voted to form the Virginia Nuclear Energy Consortium,” Garrett said. “You need to learn to read bills. This one says nothing about uranium mining.”

September 27, 2016 – ZDNet – iPhones ’emit double the radiation’ of Galaxy handsets: Korean agency – Apple’s iPhones and iPads had the highest electromagnetic radiation specific absorption rate (SAR) out of electronic devices sold in South Korea, a national assemblyman claimed, citing data from a state-backed research agency. At a hearing on Tuesday, assemblyman Choi Myung-gil of the country’s telecom committee said data from the National Radio Research Agency shows the average radiation SAR for iPhones was 1.166 watts per kilogram (W/kg). Samsung’s, in comparison, showed an average of 0.517W/kg, for products launched this year.

September 27, 2016 – Sputnik International – Russia, Finland Sign Protocol on Nuclear Security Cooperation – 0Russian state nuclear agency Rosatom and the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) have signed a protocol on cooperation in the field of nuclear security on Tuesday in Vienna. The protocol on realization of practical measures on fulfillment of obligations of the 1995 agreement between the two countries was signed by Rosatom CEO Sergei Kirienko and STUK Director General Petteri Tiippana on the sidelines of the IAEA 60th General Conference in Vienna. In January 1995, Russia and Finland have signed an agreement on early notification about nuclear accidents and the exchange of information concerning nuclear facilities.

September 27, 2016 – The Post Star – New Type of Radiation Treatment May Up Survival for Older Lung Cancer Patients – Cutting-edge radiation therapy seems to provide a significant survival advantage for older people with early stage lung cancer who aren’t strong enough for surgery, a pair of new studies suggests. The therapy is called stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) and it’s been available for about a decade. The first study reviewed national cancer data and found that survival rates for older lung cancer patients treated with radiation therapy increased dramatically between 2004 and 2012. Those are the years during which SBRT use became widespread in the United States, said lead researcher Dr. Andrew Farach, a radiation oncologist at Houston Methodist Hospital. A second study based on Veterans Affairs cancer treatment data appears to corroborate the national findings, directly linking increased use of SBRT with improved survival rates in elderly patients.

September 27, 2016 – The Cable – 7 ways your WiFi could be causing you harm – Many are on edge because they can’t imagine a world without the internet. But every good thing has it’s bad side and it’s better to educated yourself to be safe. When exposed to electromagnetic radiation, you will have more difficulty falling asleep. So when you can’t sleep maybe you should just turn off your phone. Wireless radiation reduces sperm movement and fragments your DNA. Sleeping with your phone next to your head can affect your ability to concentrate. Experiment: One set of plants was grown in a room free of wireless radiation; the other group grew next to two routers that released the same amount of radiation as a cell phone. Result: The plants closest to the radiation didn’t grow. This radiation has the ability to alter and stunt to growth of body tissue. Young children are more likely to be affected during their developmental stages.

September 27, 20-16 – MedGadget – Lesser Exposure Of Individuals To Radiation Drives Demand For Digital X-Ray Systems Market – MarketResearchReports.biz has announced the addition of a new research report to its online repository. The research report, titled “Global Digital X-Ray Systems Market 2016-2020,” discusses the market drivers and restraints influencing the trajectory of the global digital x-ray systems market. The report has been put together using primary and secondary research methodologies that assure an accurate assessment of the given data. The document includes opinions of market experts and provides a holistic outlook of the market with projections for the forecast period of 2016 and 2020. According to the research report, the global digital X-ray systems market is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 13.19% between the years of 2016 and 2020. These systems include amplifiers, displays, X-ray sensors, and image processing computers.

September 27, 2016 – Science World Report – Favorite American Foods Emit Radiation: Pizzas, Hot Dogs And More – Food photography reached a new height recently when New York-based artist Brea Souders collaborated with VSCO, an art, and tech company, to create a series of thermographs that capture the radiation emitted from popular American foods. On the list are all time favorites, which are not just restricted to the US, such as pizzas, hot dogs, and fries among junk/fast foods.

September 27, 2016 – The Royal Gazette – Medical imaging and increased radiation risk – There has been a lot of coverage in the media lately about radiation exposure from medical imaging and it’s important to sort out fact from fiction. People are rightly concerned whether radiation from mammograms, bone density tests, computed tomography scans and the likes, would increase their risk of developing cancer. For most people, there is very little risk from routine X-ray imaging but many experts are concerned about an explosion in the use of higher radiation dose tests, such as CT and nuclear imaging. As an example, it is estimated that in 2015, about 90 million CT scans and nuclear tests were performed in the United States, compared with just three million in 1980.

September 27,k 2016 – Press Release Rocket – Newer Radiation Technique Has Fewer Side Effects Than Traditional Techniques for Recurrent Head and Neck Cancer – When a patient’s cancer comes back, he or she is often left with limited treatment options and higher odds of debilitating side effects. But a University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) study presented today at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) 2016 Annual Meeting in Boston offers positive news for people with recurrent head and neck cancer. Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), a technique for delivering pinpoint radiation to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors, resulted in only half as many patients with recurrent head and neck cancer suffering severe, long-term side effects as compared to previously reported studies using more traditional treatment techniques. This discovery by UPCI scientists was made in the largest and longest follow-up analysis to date of patients with recurrent head and neck cancer treated with SBRT. The findings make SBRT a more attractive possibility for patients with few options left.

September 27, 2016 – Lynchburg News Advance – Areva lays off 12 employees in Lynchburg, part of 50 in U.S. – Areva North America has laid off 12 people in Lynchburg, part of a nationwide reduction of 50 employees. According to the company, the changes are a result of a shrinking demand for Areva’s support for existing nuclear reactors. All of the employees affected worked in the “Installed Base” department, which works on existing nuclear reactors, either in operations or administrative capacities.

September 27, 2016 – Open Democracy – Whose work was the inspiration for the first nuke-free country? – New Zealand was the first country in the world to pass national nuclear-free legislation. Marilyn Waring reflects on how Dr. Helen Caldicott’s influence culminated in the passage of the cornerstone of New Zealand’s foreign policy. If you were growing up in New Zealand and Australia post World War II, there’s a chance you knew about the United States using the Marshall Islands as a nuclear testing site from 1947 until 1962. In an agreement signed with the United Nations, the U.S. government held the Marshall Islands as a “trust territory” and detonated nuclear devices in this pristine area of the Pacific Ocean—leading, in some instances, to huge levels of radiation fall-out, health effects, and the permanent displacement of many island people. In all, the U.S. government conducted 105 underwater and atmospheric tests. You would have also known that the British conducted seven atmospheric tests between 1956 and 1963 on traditional Aboriginal land, in Maralinga, Australia. It may be that you read Neville Shute’s 1957 novel On the Beach, in which people in Melbourne, Australia wait for deadly radiation to spread from a Northern Hemisphere nuclear war. This book made a memorable impact on Helen when she read it as a teenager. When I was a teenager, some years later, I read Bertrand Russell’s 1959 classic, Common Sense and Nuclear Warfare.

September 27, 2016 – Military.com – Pentagon Chief Pledges $108 Billion to Fix Nuclear Force – Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Monday the Pentagon is committed to correcting decades of short-changing its nuclear force, including forging ahead with building a new generation of weapons that will cost hundreds of billions of dollars in the coming decades. In his first nuclear-focused speech since taking over the Pentagon in February 2015, Carter implicitly rejected arguments for eliminating any element of the nuclear force or scaling back a modernization plan that some consider too costly.

September 27, 2016 – Belaruse News – Radiation information in Belarusian nuclear power plant area to be available online – Information about the radiation situation near the Belarusian nuclear power plant will be available in the Internet. The relevant statement was made by Belarusian First Deputy Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Minister Iya Malkina during the online conference hosted by the BelTA website on 27 September. According to the source, an automated multilayer multifunctional system will be created under the aegis of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Ministry to monitor the radiation situation within a 12.9km radius of the nuclear power plant and within a 30km radius and beyond. Information about the radiation situation will be available online.

September 27, 2016 – Times Live – Nuclear corporation’s spending comes under scrutiny of Auditor-General – The Nuclear Energy Corporation of SA (Necsa) incurred R128 million in irregular expenditure in its 2015 financial year because it failed to comply with the government’s preferential procurement regulations‚ the Auditor-General has found. The annual report of Necsa‚ which processes nuclear material and undertakes research and development in the nuclear field‚ was tabled one year late in Parliament on Tuesday. Necsa management and its board are currently being investigated by a task team appointed by Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson. The investigation related to “serious mismanagement”‚ the auditor-general said in his report‚ included in the annual report.

September 27, 2016 – Fortune – The U.S. Sanctions a Chinese Firm Tied to North Korea’s Nuclear Program – The United States said on Monday it had sanctioned a Chinese industrial machinery and equipment wholesaler, a new step in tightening the financial noose around North Korea’s nuclear program after its fifth nuclear test this month. The U.S. Treasury said it was sanctioning Dandong Hongxiang Industrial Development Co (DHID) and four of its executives, including the firm’s founder, Ma Xiaohong, under U.S. regulations targeting proliferators of weapons of mass destruction. It accused the firm of acting on behalf of North Korea’s Korea Kwangson Banking Corp (KKBC), which has been under U.S. and U.N. sanctions for supporting proliferation of such weapons.

September 27, 2016 – Fox News Latino – Cuba, Russia sign nuclear energy cooperation deal – Cuba and Russia relaunched their relations on Tuesday with a pacific nuclear energy deal signed in Vienna alongside the International Atomic Energy Agency’s General Conference. Cuban vice Minister of Science, Environment and Technology José Fidel Santana signed the deal with Sergey Kirienjo, director of the Russian state nuclear energy company Rosatom. Santana said that, after two years of negotiations, the deal would give both countries a framework to immediately begin developing bilateral projects, especially related to the medical and agricultural uses of nuclear energy.

September 27, 2016 – ChronicleLive.co.uk – North East engineering firm close to £100m Hinkley Point nuclear power contract – North East engineering firm Darchem has been named as the preferred bidder for a £100m contract at the Hinkley Point nuclear power station. The Stockton-based company has been selected by Bouygues TP/Laing O’Rourke (BYLOR) along with Efinor for the multi-million pound EDF Energy nuclear project at Hinkley Point in Somerset, a huge programme which will involve the manufacture and installation of the reactor and fuel pool stainless steel liners. The agreement comes nine months after Darchem and Efinor joined forces to create EDEL, an unincorporated joint venture aiming to seize opportunities to develop, supply and service forthcoming nuclear power plant build projects in the UK.

September 27, 2016 – Metro – Buried ‘secret city’ under Greenland’s ice could leak nuclear waste as ice sheet melts – Often working in secret, U.S. Army engineers built a network of tunnels in the ice in Greenland in the early Sixties – a ‘secret city’ powered by its own nuclear weapons. The base ‘Camp Century’ was highly publicised – but its real purpose was secret, to build nuclear missile launch sites close to the Soviet Union. But the long-abandoned base could pose another kind of nuclear threat as Greenland’s ice melts. The nuclear reactor at the base – which also had a hospital and a church in its tunnels – has long since been removed, but radioactive waste remains. ‘Camp Century’ was built by U.S. Army engineers in 1959, but abandoned in 1967, as the researchers realised that the glacier was moving.

September 27, 2016 – Myrtle Beach Sun-News – Plan surfaces for new nuclear disposal ground in SC – A plan has surfaced to establish another nuclear waste disposal ground in South Carolina, a state with a history of taking atomic refuse from across the country. An organization called the Spent Fuel Reprocessing Group wants federal approval to open a disposal area near Barnwell and the Savannah River Site nuclear weapons complex. Spent fuel, a type of highly radioactive waste, would be moved from the state’s four nuclear power plant sites and stored indefinitely at the new facility, records show. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in July received notice of the plan. The proposal is a long way from becoming reality, but if eventually approved by the federal government, it would create a place for nuclear waste disposal that is likely to draw opposition.

September 27, 2016 – Luxemburger Wort – Cattenom evacuation was ‘non incident’, says EDF – The owners of a nuclear power plant that was evacuated on Monday morning have said the evacuation was prompted by a false alarm and posed no risk to people outside the centre. News emerged on Monday that the building of unit 3 at Cattenom’s nuclear power plant on the French side of the border with Luxembourg had been evacuated and staff underwent medical checks. For the remainder of the day, however, no further information emerged from 30-year-old centre, which is managed by EDF. The lack of information released by EDF to the Luxembourg media coupled with growing safety concerns in Luxembourg prompted two Green party politicians to submit a parliamentary question asking if the Luxembourg authorities were informed.

September 27, 2016 – Albany Times-Union – Pipeline spurs nuclear fears – Opponents of a pipeline being proposed along a nuclear energy complex in the Lower Hudson Valley protested the construction outside the governor’s mansion Sunday evening, citing environmental, health and public-safety concerns.
A “Climate Justice Vigil” was held from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Sunday at 138 Eagle St. in Albany in an effort to urge Gov. Andrew Cuomo to take action to stop the Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) pipeline. Sponsored by Stop NY Fracked Gas Pipeline, the event drew 21 people to the sidewalk outside the mansion. Many took turns speaking over the course of the hour, including a Buddhist monk, members of several anti-fracking and anti-pipeline groups and an Eagle Street resident who wandered over, curious, then lifted a sign and joined in.

September 27, 2016 – Vermont Journalism Trust – Vermont Yankee gets $143 million fuel storage project in gear – Vermont Yankee administrators waited two years for the state’s permission to build a new storage facility for nuclear waste at the defunct Vernon plant. When they finally received that permit in late June, they didn’t waste any time getting started. Entergy representatives on Thursday said the construction of a spent fuel storage facility is well under way, with a few dozen contracted workers having recently installed a massive generator to provide emergency power to the complex. Construction will continue into 2017. But officials say getting the generator in place was a major milestone as crews begin a $143 million effort to transfer all of the plant’s radioactive spent fuel into sealed casks.

September 27, 2016 – SF Bayview – Community welcomes agreement to reexamine radiation risk at Hunters Point Shipyard – In a breakthrough for environmental health and justice, on Sept. 13, 2016, Angeles Herrera of the Superfund Division of the Region IX U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in alliance with Janet Naito, branch chief of the Department of Toxic Substances Control, directed a letter to Lawrence Lansdale, Environmental Director of Naval Facilities Engineering Command stating: “(T)he Navy will not propose any further transfers of Navy property at the HPNS (Hunters Point Naval Shipyard) without results of investigations necessary to clarify the actual potential public exposure to radioactive material at and near the HPNS.”