DU Scandal Explodes - Horrendous US Casualties

DU Scandal Explodes - Horrendous US Casualties: "
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DU Scandal Explodes -
Horrendous US Casualties

FreeMarketNews.com
2-22-6


The Preventive Psychiatry Newsletter has written to its subscribers telling them that the real reason the former Veterans Affairs Secretary, Anthony Principi, recently resigned was because he has been involved in a massive scandal covering up the fact that Gulf War Syndrome was caused by the use of depleted uranium, according to the SF Bay View.

In the article Arthur Bernklau, executive director of Veterans for Constitutional Law, reportedly wrote that 'thousands of our military have suffered and died from, [and depleted uranium] has finally been identified as the cause of this sickness, eliminating the guessing. The terrible truth is now being revealed.' Bernklau went on to detail several alarming statistics. The historical disability rate amongst soldiers last century was about 5 percent, although it approached 10 percent during Vietnam. But due to the use of depleted uranium in the battlefield, 56 percent of the 580,400 solders that served in the first Gulf War were on Permanent Medical Disability by 2000. 11,000 Gulf War veterans are already dead. Now 518,739 Gulf War Veterans, almost all of them, are currently on medical disability.

Principi, under the order of the Bush Administration, had been allegedly covering up the disastrous results of using depleted uranium since 2000. However, with so many soldiers having serious health problems it has become impossible to keep secret.

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Chicago Tribune | Low-level emergency at nuclear plant

Chicago Tribune | Low-level emergency at nuclear plant: "Low-level emergency at nuclear plant

Published February 25, 2006

ROCKFORD -- A low-level emergency was declared Friday at Byron Nuclear Generating Station near Rockford after smoke caused by an electrical problem filled a tunnel in a protected area of the plant, Exelon officials said.

An "unusual event," the lowest of four Nuclear Regulatory Commission emergency classifications, was declared at 8:54 a.m., officials said. It ended at 11:09 a.m.

It started when smoke filled a tunnel that carries a pipe running from a backup cooling-water supply tank to the reactor, Exelon Nuclear spokesman Craig Nesbit said. Workers turned off electricity to the room, and the smoke ceased, he said.

Electrical equipment--a small pump, heater or breaker--in the room was "sparking and smoking," Nesbit said. There were no radiation releases, injuries or damage to safety-related equipment, and plant operations continued normally, he added.


"

Park radiation hotspot 'due to fallout from Iraq bombing'

icBerkshire - Park radiation hotspot 'due to fallout from Iraq bombing': "Park radiation hotspot 'due to fallout from Iraq bombing'

Feb 23 2006

RADIATION monitors in Prospect Park picked up a 400% increase in uranium levels during the 'Shock and Awe' bombing campaign against Iraq.

Scientists who used the Freedom of Information Act to uncover the data say it proves the toxic battlefield fallout was blown towards Reading on the wind.

But the Environment Agency says the huge increase in atmospheric uranium is a coincidence. It suggests local building work might be responsible.

Chris Busby, a government adviser on radiation, said: 'This research shows that rather than remaining near the target, as claimed by the military, depleted uranium weapons contaminate both locals and whole populations hundreds to thousands of miles away.'

Dr Busby, from Liverpool University's department of human anatomy and cell biology, said weapons grade uranium consists of extremely small ceramic particles, and there is mounting medical evidence linking it to birth defects and cancer.




Park radiation hotspot 'due to fallout from Iraq bombing'

Feb 23 2006



RADIATION monitors in Prospect Park picked up a 400% increase in uranium levels during the "Shock and Awe" bombing campaign against Iraq.

Scientists who used the Freedom of Information Act to uncover the data say it proves the toxic battlefield fallout was blown towards Reading on the wind.

But the Environment Agency says the huge increase in atmospheric uranium is a coincidence. It suggests local building work might be responsible.

Chris Busby, a government adviser on radiation, said: "This research shows that rather than remaining near the target, as claimed by the military, depleted uranium weapons contaminate both locals and whole populations hundreds to thousands of miles away."

Dr Busby, from Liverpool University's department of human anatomy and cell biology, said weapons grade uranium consists of extremely small ceramic particles, and there is mounting medical evidence linking it to birth defects and cancer.


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He said: "You may say it's a very small risk, perhaps one in 100,000, but there's a lot of people in Europe, so you could be dealing with a lot of dead babies."

The data used in his report has been routinely collected by AWE Aldermaston since the early 1990s, originally to reassure the public that its own operations were safe. Figures were published regularly until 1999.

But after a 2004 request for information was ignored by AWE, scientists resorted to the FOI Act to get what they wanted.

And despite asking for figures covering 2000-2004, when it arrived, data from the Gulf War period was missing. Eventually, the scientists allege, the information curiously arrived from the Defence Procurement Agency and not the Ministry of Defence itself.

The Environment Agency was asked to investigate the abnormal readings in March and April 2003, but spokesman Emma Cassidy this week denied there is anything to worry about.

She said: "It was shown the uranium wasn't anything to do with AWE and it was completely natural. It was not linked to AWE and could not have come from MOD shells.

"It was a natural source and wasn't at levels that cause health concerns."

Miss Cassidy pointed out that cement contains radiation, adding: "It was noted that construction was ongoing at the time the readings were taken." "

Radioactive Russian roulette

Radioactive Russian roulette: " Radioactive Russian roulette

By Kevin Kamps

posted February 24, 2006

The nuclear power industry and its friends in Washington want to build the first new reactors in 30 years. But to do so, the illusion of a “solution” to the radioactive waste dilemma must be maintained. A growing mountain of lethal atomic waste — currently 55,000 tons — has piled up at scores of atomic power plants in dozens of states, with nowhere to go. It is stored in stopgap facilities such as indoor pools and outdoor silos. Last summer, the National Academies of Science (NAS) reported that the wastes are vulnerable to terrorists and are essentially radioactive bull’s eyes risking catastrophic downwind releases if attacked. Expanding such targets undermines national security.

Tragically, the NAS “solution” to these sitting-duck reactor waste sites is to multiply these targets by tens of thousands. Instead of recommending that waste be safeguarded and secured against accident and attack where it is, NAS now advises that the waste be rushed onto our roads, rails, and waterways. In a report on waste transport published Feb. 9, NAS whitewashed the dangers of the weakest link of the nuclear fuel chain: moving waste by truck, train, and barge through 45 states, within a half mile of the homes, places of work and worship, schools, and hospitals of 50 million residents.

The timing of this report is suspicious. The 20-year old “Plan A” — to bury waste at Yucca Mountain — is in disarray. That site was singled out for political reasons, but the faulty science has caught up. Over time, the earthquake-fractured geology would leak deadly amounts of waste into the underlying drinking water supply, poisoning one of Nevada’s most vibrant farming communities downstream. Legal, budgetary, and political impediments have pushed Yucca’s opening off for another decade at least. The Department of Energy (DOE) has gone back to the drawing board and is overhauling the dump’s design, promising years’ more delay.

Even the decade-old “Plan B” — a nuclear utility initiative called Private Fuel Storage (PFS) to park waste on Indian land in Utah — has fallen apart. A recent federal wilderness declaration has blocked the preferred railway extension for delivering the waste, and most PFS member utilities have announced that they will invest no more funds in the proposal.

The nuclear establishment is now clutching at straws for a waste solution. Indefinite “interim” storage at DOE sites — in Idaho, Nevada, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington — are being floated. Incredibly, there are calls to revive long-abandoned reprocessing, the extraction of plutonium from waste, supposedly to reuse as reactor fuel. Presidents Ford and Carter banned reprocessing as an atomic weapons nonproliferation measure. They recognized long before the era of al Qaeda that separated plutonium in the wrong hands leads to loose nukes. Any of these proposals would start a shell game of waste shipments crisscrossing the country and set up a smorgasbord of opportunities for terrorists.

NAS has declared waste transport safe — unless something goes wrong — such as a long-duration, high-temperature fiery accident. The prospect of “Mobile Chernobyls” speeding at 60 mph or more down roads and rails through hundreds of cities introduces new accident risks not faced by stationary on-site storage at reactors. A study of a 2001 train tunnel fire beneath downtown Baltimore concluded that, had atomic waste been aboard, the shipping container would have been breached; so much radioactivity would have escaped that a $14 billion clean-up would have been required, or else 30,000 people would later have died from cancer as a result of living amidst the contamination.

Such waste traveling through the hearts of our major population centers would also present tempting terrorist targets — veritable dirty bombs on wheels. Each highway cask would hold 40 times the long-lasting radioactivity released by the Hiroshima atomic bomb; each rail or barge cask, 240 times Hiroshima. Casks are vulnerable to explosive and incendiary attack. Anti-tank missiles and shaped charges are designed to penetrate even thicker armor. Release of just a fraction of the deadly cargo would spell radiological disaster, for which our emergency responders are inadequately trained and equipped.

NAS has attempted to grease the skids for launching unprecedented numbers of atomic waste shipments through our communities. The study, funded by such waste transport and dump advocates as DOE, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the industry’s own Electric Power Research Institute, does a dangerous disservice to the nation. The radioactive Russian roulette on our roads and rails must be stopped in its tracks.

Kevin Kamps is a nuclear waste specialist with the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Washington, DC."

Low level radioactive transport leaks in Utah: NRC

: "Low level radioactive transport leaks in Utah: NRC
Fri Feb 24, 2006 2:11 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Low level radioactive water from a Southern California nuclear power plant leaked from a transport truck this week on its way to a waste site in Utah, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Agency reported.

The leak provides no threat to the public, said NRC spokesman Scott Burnell.

The amount of liquid with trace amounts of radioactive material was not known, but it is believed to be small. Waste water leaked on dirt and asphalt at a truck stop parking lot on Wednesday near Parowan, Utah, about four hours from the waste site in Clive owned by Envirocare Utah, the NRC said.

The radioactive water came from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station near San Clemente in northern San Diego County operated by Southern California Edison.

SCE and Utah officials were at the truck stop on Friday supervising the removal of asphalt and dirt where the water spilled.

The NRC will investigate to see if procedures to transport nuclear waste were followed and if any changes to those procedures need to be made, Burnell said.

"Anytime you transport low level radioactive waste, you're supposed to make sure it remains in the container it is being transported in," Burnell said.

Ray Golden, spokesman for SCE, said the company is looking into the transportation of the water. He added that what leaked this week was not extremely dangerous.

"If you were standing next to the water for an hour, you would get less than one-tenth (the radiation) of what you would get from one chest X-Ray," Golden said.

The truck was carrying 4,500 gallons of water from unit 1 at the plant.

"Minor leakage from a (vent) valve on top" of the truck was noticed after the truck stopped near Parowan, the NRC reported.

"Unconfirmed measurements indicate radiation levels are near background," the NRC said.

The waste water is from unit 1 at San Onofre, which has not been operational since 1992 and is being decommissioned. The decommissioning of the unit began in 1999 and is expected to be completed in 2008, Golden said. So this water had been at the plant since at least 1992, he said.

SCE needs to transport two more tanker trucks of the same type of water, Golden said. Two trucks left the plant on Wednesday, and one got to the waste site without leaking, the NRC said.

Golden said the trucker stopped twice and inspected the tanker and found no leaks, before stopping at the truck stop near Parowan.

SCE is a subsidiary of Edison International."

Feds order review of Ill. nuclear plants

Printer Friendly: "Feds order review of Ill. nuclear plants

February 21, 2006

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

Federal regulators have ordered inspections of all Illinois nuclear power plants following a brief emergency at one facility and a series of leaks of radioactive tritium at plants owned by Chicago-based Exelon Corp.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission ordered the inspections Monday, a few hours after officials at Exelon Nuclear declared an emergency at its LaSalle Generating Station in rural Brookfield Township in LaSalle County.

Company officials said the plant's turbine control system malfunctioned as workers were shutting down a reactor for refueling. At 12:28 a.m., operators declared a 'site area emergency,' the second-highest of the four emergency categories in the NRC's emergency response system.

The emergency was over about four hours later, Exelon Nuclear officials said. State and federal safety regulators said there were no radiological releases.

Exelon recently has come under fire in Will County, where the state's attorney's office earlier this month began an investigation into why the company did not disclose until recently a series of tritium-containing wastewater leaks between 1996 to 2003 at its Braidwood Generating Station, about 60 miles southwest of Chicago."

Bombing of Baghdad 'linked to UK radiation rise'

icLiverpool - Bombing of Baghdad 'linked to UK radiation rise': "Bombing of Baghdad 'linked to UK radiation rise'

Feb 20 2006

By Drew Morris Daily Post Correspondent


Liverpool University academic Chris Busby

THE 'shock and awe' bombing campaign in Iraq caused radiation levels in Britain to rocket, according to a controversial report by a Liverpool University academic.

Chris Busby claims 'uranium aerosols' from the Middle East were blown across Europe, contaminating populations thousands of miles away.

Mr Busby, a fellow of the department of human anatomy and cell biology, compiled the report after uncovering the radiation figures through freedom of information laws.

The results were detected from testing stations at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) in Aldermaston, Berkshire, and four other stations in the area.


Regional news
In association with The Royal Bank of Scotland


Bombing of Baghdad 'linked to UK radiation rise'

Feb 20 2006

By Drew Morris Daily Post Correspondent


Liverpool University academic Chris Busby

THE "shock and awe" bombing campaign in Iraq caused radiation levels in Britain to rocket, according to a controversial report by a Liverpool University academic.

Chris Busby claims "uranium aerosols" from the Middle East were blown across Europe, contaminating populations thousands of miles away.

Mr Busby, a fellow of the department of human anatomy and cell biology, compiled the report after uncovering the radiation figures through freedom of information laws.

The results were detected from testing stations at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) in Aldermaston, Berkshire, and four other stations in the area.


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Mr Busby's report found higher levels were recorded at the five sites nine days after the start of the Iraq conflict on March 19, 2003.

It says that weather conditions at the time recorded a northbound airflow from Iraq which also resulted in substantial deposits of sand from the Sahara Desert being dumped on British soil.

Mr Busby, who is a founding member of the Green Audit environmental group, says the findings are proof that uranium from munitions was carried to Britain by wind currents.

He believes official claims that the uranium is not harmful are misleading.

Mr Busby said: "The point is that it is radioactive.

"If you contaminate enough people, even at a low risk then clearly it is going to have an effect on them.

"It is contrary to human rights to contaminate whole populations with a substance that could potentially harm their health."

Government experts have dismissed the report, saying the findings are a coincidence which probably came from a local source such as a power station.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Defence said: "It is not sensible to suggest that depleted uranium from munitions in Iraq can be detected around Aldermaston or anywhere else in the UK.

"There is simply no feasible transport mechanism, weather or otherwise, for this to happen."

However, Mr Busby says his findings refute this claim.

He said: "This report puts uranium weapons into the category of indiscriminate effect, the military maintains the weapons are only effective within 10 miles of their target. Clearly this is nonsense.

"The whole point is that this is not a local phenomenon, it's a global phenomenon and the radiation will affect the whole of the British Isles."


The "shock and awe" onslaught brought Baghdad to its knees in one of the most fearsome assaults witnessed by mankind.

British and US planes dropped more than 1,500 bombs on the Iraqi capital in the first day of the campaign, overwhelming Saddam's forces with a display of devastating might.

Hundreds of thousands of munitions coated with depleted uranium were fired.

Depleted uranium is valued for its ability to punch through armoured vehicles.

The vapour from the depleted uranium settles as a radioactive dust which some critics believe causes cancer.

However, the Government says the danger is short-lived and the substance is relatively harmless."

Nuclear waste truck leaked lethal dosage

United Press International - NewsTrack - Nuclear waste truck leaked lethal dosage: "Nuclear waste truck leaked lethal dosage

LEEDS, England, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- A container of radioactive waste emitted a beam of deadly radiation during a journey to a British disposal site, witnesses said in a court hearing.

The company involved in the incident, AEA Technology, faces sentencing on Monday.

The container traveled by truck in March 2002 from Cookridge Hospital in Leeds to the Windscale waste disposal site in Cumbria. A Windscale employee discovered a high level of background radiation and found that a plug had been left off the container.

Luckily, the container was positioned so that the beam of radiation was pointing down towards the ground, the Times of London reported. The radiation was so intense that anyone with 330 yards of the container who was in the line of fire would have received a lethal dose of cobalt 60-gamma rays, high enough to kill within two hours.

AEA Technology, a private company spun off from the public United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, has admitted six violations of regulations.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved"

Nuclear waste truck leaked lethal dosage

United Press International - NewsTrack - Nuclear waste truck leaked lethal dosage: "Nuclear waste truck leaked lethal dosage

LEEDS, England, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- A container of radioactive waste emitted a beam of deadly radiation during a journey to a British disposal site, witnesses said in a court hearing.

The company involved in the incident, AEA Technology, faces sentencing on Monday.

The container traveled by truck in March 2002 from Cookridge Hospital in Leeds to the Windscale waste disposal site in Cumbria. A Windscale employee discovered a high level of background radiation and found that a plug had been left off the container.

Luckily, the container was positioned so that the beam of radiation was pointing down towards the ground, the Times of London reported. The radiation was so intense that anyone with 330 yards of the container who was in the line of fire would have received a lethal dose of cobalt 60-gamma rays, high enough to kill within two hours.

AEA Technology, a private company spun off from the public United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, has admitted six violations of regulations.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved"

Bloomberg Printer-Friendly Page

Bloomberg Printer-Friendly Page: "Bush's Budget Seeks $250 Mln for Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Plan

Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- The Bush administration, reversing a 29-year-old government policy, is seeking to reprocess the waste produced by nuclear reactors in the U.S. and other nations.

The administration requested $250 million in the budget it unveiled today for development of a process to reduce and recycle radioactive waste. The process would foster expansion of nuclear power in the U.S. by reducing by 80 percent the amount of waste sent to the storage site in Yucca Mountain, Nevada.

The proposed Global Nuclear Energy Partnership would also take spent fuel from other nations, addressing growing concern about the proliferation of nuclear weapons by keeping the capability to enrich and recycle nuclear material in U.S. hands, according to budget documents released today.

The program would ``facilitate the expansion of civilian nuclear power in the United States and encourage civilian nuclear power in foreign countries to evolve in a more proliferation-resistant manner,'' according to the budget.

Soaring energy prices and signs that oil and natural-gas supplies are lagging behind demand has spurred new interest in nuclear power. At the same time, the dispute with Iran over its intent to enrich uranium has added urgency to proposals to control the spread of nuclear materials. Iran's case was referred two days ago to the United Nations Security Council.

Plutonium extracted from spent nuclear fuel can be used in weapons, and concern about the spread of such material caused President Jimmy Carter in 1977 to scuttle funding for nuclear reprocessing. The method envisioned by the Bush administration would create reactor fuel that could not be used in weapons.

New Process

Unlike the chemical reprocessing used today in France, the U.K. and Japan, the new technology would not produce pure plutonium, the government said. ``The plutonium would"