BBC NEWS | England | Bristol | New rules after radioactive scare

BBC NEWS | England | Bristol | New rules after radioactive scare: "New rules after radioactive scare
The Environment Agency has brought in a series of new checks after concerns were raised about radioactive waste from a nuclear power station.

A resident living near Hinkley Point in Somerset reported abnormal radiation readings at Kilve Beach when his dog died after walking there.

When Environment Agency officers checked the beach, they found only background levels of radiation.

But as a precaution the agency has introduced a new series of surveys.

Environment Agency staff carried out extra checks at Kilve Beach between October 2005 and March 2006.

At the same time, regular tests by the power station's operators revealed slightly elevated levels of Strontium-90 in two sediment samples.

The agency said these were within safe limits and posed no threat either to the environment or human health.

But spokesman Anil Koshti said: 'As a precaution we have advised Hinkley A site operators to cease certain pond operations until we are satisfied that sufficient measures are in place to ensure levels of radioactivity are kept to a minimum.' "

ArmeniaNow.com - Metsamor employees face risks, but need jobs

ArmeniaNow.com - Independent Journalism From Today`s Armenia: " Healthy Concerns: Metsamor employees face risks, but need jobs
By Gayane Mkrtchyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Sergey Grigoryan climbs the stairs of his Metsamor home with difficulty. The sound of his steps muffles his asthmatic breathing. Although the weather is cold, Sergey drinks water without satisfying his thirst.

Life with reactors is a daily feature of Metsamor
“My husband chokes, he has so much difficulty with breathing, the air is not enough for him, he gasps for breath after climbing the fourth floor,” says his wife, Magda Grigoryan. “All this affected his thyroid glands. His throat burns.”

Grigoryan, 48, was one of three workers at the Metsamor nuclear power plant who inhaled dust of a radioactive metal in a 1986 accident at the Metsamor nuclear power plant near Yerevan. Two other workers, Aramayis Gasparyan and Surik Shirvanyan, were with him at the time.

“We were polishing the pipes through which the water to cool down uranium was flowing. The pipes should have been deactivated, but weren’t. During the work we in fact breathed in cobalt, which is a heavy metal,” Grigoryan explains.

Six years after the accident the sixth specialized clinical hospital of Moscow gave them a diagnosis of their disease: “Carriers of cobalt 60, under the influence of radioactive elements…” Of the friends, one, Surik Shirvanyan, died nine years after the accident, at age 34.

Since1992 Grigoryan and Gasparyan have been considered partially disabled. But they continue to work at the plant. It is not a choice, but necessity.

Today like many they continue to live in Metsamor and work at the NPP situated seven kilometers from the town. Metsamor residents hear with horror that the NPP may be closed. No matter how much they complain of health problems, the radioactivity, all the same the NPP remains their only workplace.

“We know by heart that we must not eat mulberry and strawberry growing here, they are most subjected to radiation. But what shall we do, where should we go?” Magda says.

For years, the men were sent twice a year to Moscow for treatment that is not available in Armenia. But not anymore.

The men say there were told there is no money to pay for their treatment anymore. They are now sent to the Yerevan Scientific Center of Radiology and Burns, but the men say the results of their respiratory treatment are not as effective as they were in Moscow.

Sergey Grigoryan
“We choke for air, we can’t get enough air,” Gasparyan says.

Representatives of the state-run Metsamor did not respond for requests for comment on the treatment of the two workers.

But 20 years after the accident, Armenia’s nuclear regulatory agency, the Inspectorate for Nuclear and Radiation Safety Regulation, maintains that Metsamor is a safe place to work and meets the standards and requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Ashot Mnatsakanyan, deputy chief of the inspectorate, and Aida Avetisyan, the agency’s chief specialist in radiation safety, provided reports on radioactive exposure at Metsamor. The highest admissible dose of radiation, or rads, is five per year.

Grigoryan, Gasparyan and Shirvanyan were exposed to 1,000 rads (an amount of energy absorbed by one gram of tissue) in the 1986 accident.

Mnatsakanyan says all workers get regular checkups.

“There is no one who has exceeded even two rads,” Avetisyan says of workers at Metsamor. “We examine when (nuclear) fuel is transported or received. We look at how many people received it, in doing that work they get permission, in which it is written how many rads they can receive.”

State Nuclear Control specialists also give assurances that the nuclear power station poses no danger to people living in the nearby town of Metsamor, or anywhere else in Armenia.

Government statistics also show no unusual levels of radiation in other parts of Armenia.

But Magda Grigoryan, whose husband has suffered for years from his workplace accident, isn’t so sure that life outside the plant is safe.

“We have witnessed an increase in diseases, especially breast cancer among women, lung and prostate cancer among men,” she says. “We don’t know whether it is because of the nuclear station or not.”

Doctor-radiologist, toxicologist Lev Artishchev says that high doses of radiation cause the human organism to change its biochemical processes.

“Headaches, tearfulness, cough, ache in the throat, and then changes in tissues begin. A complex chemical process begins, and specialists call this process the radiation disease,” he says.

State Nuclear Control specialists give assurances that the emissions and exhaustions of the nuclear station do not pose danger to the population.

Aramayis Gasparyan
“This is liquid emissions through the pipes and correspondingly the radionuclide composition. We conclude from these figures that the nuclear station cannot impact people. The population lives much farther than immediate radiation can affect them, 5-6 kilometers on the direct line. There is no direct impact of radiation,” Avetisyan says.

Environmentalists, though, worry about potential Metsamor problems other than fallout. Of specific concern is the matter of nuclear waste disposal.

Radioactive wastes of the ANPP are reprocessed and kept in special storerooms. The project of the ANPP does not envisage burial of wastes. The depot of radioactive wastes with high activity is in the reactor hall. Radioactive wastes with medium activity are kept in special tanks of the reactor workshop. After being concentrated they are stored “in a special subsidiary building”. Solid wastes with low activity are gathered, transported and placed in a near-surface storage located on the ANPP’s platform.

During Soviet times solid waste was shipped for storage in Russia. But last year the Russians said Armenia would have to pay for any future storage. ArmAtom director Vahram Petrosyan says that work is under way for a new storeroom that should be ready by the end of next year that should safely hold the waste for 50 years.

“We’ll live and see what happens in 50 years. Either we will have new technologies that will allow us to use that all again or on the contrary to receive new fuel from the burned one. In short, we will decide in 50 years, let’s not speak about it today,” he says.

Meanwhile, while potential closure is a major concern, talk of a possible new nuclear plant to replace the current one in Metsamor (see “In the Shadow of Chernobyl”) is good news according the town’s 10,000 residents.

They are not happy, however, that their electric bills are not reduced as a compensation for having the plant in their town – as it was during Soviet times.

“I work at the nuclear station, get 1,000 rads and I am supposed to pay 100 percent for electricity. I am ruining my health and am I supposed to pay for that, for what?,” says the disabled employee Aramayis Gasparyan. “That’s the pain, I am supposed to suffer without defending my rights, my health has been ruined, nothing is left of my lungs. They don’t provide us with transport to get to the station, do you understand that?”.

"

Eyewitness News Memphis - Arkansas Officials Looking For Missing Radioactive Gauge

Eyewitness News Memphis - Arkansas Officials Looking For Missing Radioactive Gauge: "Arkansas Officials Looking For Missing Radioactive Gauge
Posted: 4/27/2006 12:28:57 PM

A radioactive gauge used to measure soil density disappeared from a job site in Jonesboro. State officials say anyone finding the gauge should call authorities immediately.
The gauge may pose a health risk if handled or carried for an extended period.
The Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services says the gauge is a Troxler Electronic Laboratory Model 3440. The gauge has a serial number of 36212. The agency says the gauge contains Cesium-137 and Americium-2411. The gauge is in a yellow plastic transport case and weighs about 90 pounds, officials said.
Anyone finding the gauge is asked to call 800-633-1735."

Radiation Leaking Through Crumbling Chernobyl Shelter - NEWS - MOSNEWS.COM

Radiation Leaking Through Crumbling Chernobyl Shelter - NEWS - MOSNEWS.COM: "Radiation Leaking Through Crumbling Chernobyl Shelter

Created: 21.04.2006 14:32 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:32 MSK, 17 hours 3 minutes ago

MosNews

A shelter over a reactor in Ukraine’s Chernobyl is crumbling, birds and rainwater are getting inside. Officials worry about what is getting out too.

The “sarcophagus” over reactor No. 4, which blew up 20 years ago, is reaching the end of its lifespan. A multinational $1.1 billion project to build a new shelter — a giant steel arch designed to last 100 years — is still on the drawing board.

Yulia Marusych, a spokesperson for the power station quoted by AP, said “the risks and the hazards posed by the reactor are still there.”

The sarcophagus, composed of nearly 700,000 tons of steel and 400,000 tons of concrete was hastily built to seal in an estimated 200-ton mix of radioactive fuel and materials such as concrete and sand, which fused when the explosion spiked temperatures to 1,800 F (1,000 C) inside the reactor.

No one knows exactly how much radioactive fuel remains, since only 25 percent of the reactor is accessible. Some estimate it was all discharged during the 10 days following the accident, when the reactor spewed out its insides. Others counter that as much as 90 percent could still be there. Sensors are constantly checking for signs of new reactions taking place, the agency reported.

Marusych said the conditions required for a chain reaction “are not present. The chance that a chain reaction could be triggered is not zero. The danger remains.”

However, Didier Louvat, a radiation waste expert with the International Atomic Energy Agency who studies Chernobyl closely, sees no reason for alarm — “The situation is stable ... at the moment the conditions are not a matter for concern.”

Authorities said the priority now is stabilizing the sarcophagus. The roof is not sealed properly. The water inside is weakening the concrete and metal. The shelter’s original west wall is leaning dangerously. While a collapse would be unlikely to spark another explosion, it could release a huge burst of poisonous radioactive dust.

This week, the director of the Russian Institute of Nuclear Problems downplayed the medical impact of the Chernobyl disaster. He said that “most of those who took part in rescue operations at the plant after the accident believe that the impact of radiation on people’s health is open to debate.”"

Radioactive water leaks at Japanese nuclear plant

Radio New Zealand - Radioactive water leaks at Japanese nuclear plant: "Radioactive water leaks at Japanese nuclear plant

Posted at 2:42pm on 13 Apr 2006

News agencies in Japan report there has been a leak of radioactive water at a Japanese nuclear plant.

Japan's Kyodo news agency says on Tuesday up to 40 litres of water containing plutonium leaked at the site in Rokkasho, northern Japan. The site had just opened for a test run.

The plant is one the first in the country to be able to extract uranium and plutonium from spent nuclear fuel.

The plant's operator, Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd, said on Wednesday that there was no safety risk as the water was collected in a vessel designed for such an incident.

A spokesman says radioactivity monitors showed there had been no effect outside the cell.

The plant began its current series of trial operations on March 31, and the accident was the first at the facility since then. There have been previous incidents during trials at the facility since 2001, and the plant is yet to go into operation.

Nuclear installations supply much of the power in Japan. Last month the government ordered the closure of a plant north-west of Tokyo amid fears it would not survive an earthquake.

Copyright © 2006 Radio New Zealand
"

first nuclear fusion power plant

RIA Novosti - Science & Technologies - Russian academic sees first nuclear fusion power plant by 2030: " Russian academic sees first nuclear fusion power plant by 2030

19:15 | 19/ 04/ 2006


NIZHNY NOVGOROD, April 18 (RIA Novosti) - The world's first thermonuclear power plant could be built by 2030, the head of Russia's Kurchatov Nuclear Research Center said Wednesday.

Yevgeny Velikhov told a press conference after receiving the 2006 Global Energy prize along with Japanese researcher Masaji Yoshikawa and French scientist Robert Aymar that the experience of building an international thermonuclear reactor in France would be used to design a thermonuclear power plant.

Velikhov and his colleagues were given the award for developing the fundamentals underpinning the international thermonuclear power reactor known as the ITER project in the southern French town of Cadarache. It was devised to prove that a thermonuclear power plant was possible.

The concept emerged when the Soviet Union suggested that the four most advanced parties in the study of thermonuclear reactions - the U.S.S.R., the U.S., Europe and Japan - create a so-called "tokamak" reactor, a doughnut-shaped chamber to confine incandescent plasma that no material can withstand in a magnetic field. The thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen isotopes, deuterium and tritium, proceeds in the plasma.

The world's first tokamak was produced in Moscow in 1955, and research was carried out in the Soviet Union alone for the next 15 years.

The more than $12 billion ITER project, which involves Russia, the United States, Japan, China, South Korea and the European Union, was ready for implementation long ago, but the parties could not reach a compromise on the site for the construction. The EU had the support of Russia and China to build the reactor. Japan had the backing of the U.S. and South Korea to construct it in Rokkasho in the north of the country.

France finally beat out Japan in its bid to host an experimental nuclear fusion reactor expected to produce clean and safe energy."

stolen radioactive device

PennLive.com's Printer-Friendly Page: "NRC to question Pa. company over stolen radioactive device
4/19/2006, 3:28 p.m. ET
The Associated Press

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will conduct interviews into two possible violations of federal regulations stemming from the theft of a nuclear gauge from the parking lot of a motel in September.

The agency said next Wednesday's interviews with representatives of GeoMechanics Inc., of Elizabeth, Pa., will focus on an employee's apparent failure to properly secure the device, and the company's failure to file a written report within 30 days of the theft.

The device and its case were chained to the bed of a truck that was parked at a South Charleston motel on Sept. 18. The gauge was found five days later along a highway near Danville, about 28 miles away.

The gauge, which contains radioactive materials americium-241 and cesium-137, is used to measure soil density.

Since last July, the NRC has required that portable nuclear devices be secured by two separate locking devices. The gauge was only secured to the truck by a single chain and lock, the agency said in a news release issued Wednesday.

Although the company notified the NRC of the theft the day after it was stolen, it did not submit a written report until Feb. 6."

blast could disrupt radioactive particles from previous tests

The Spectrum, St. George - www.thespectrum.com -: "


Nevada seeking more info on blast
# DOE has not yet provided necessary information for state air-quality permit

By BRIAN PASSEY
bpassey@thespectrum.com

ST. GEORGE - Nevada state officials said the large non-nuclear blast planned for June 2 at the Nevada Test Site could be delayed if federal officials do not provide information the state requested last year.

"They are prohibited from moving forward until they have the authorization from us," said Dante Pistone, public information officer for the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection. "We're just mainly concerned with ensuring the test is done according to our rules and regulations and that all of those specifications are met."

Pistone said the state asked the U.S. Department of Energy last year for additional information required for an air quality permit. It still has not received that information. On April 7 it sent another letter to the DOE indicating it could not proceed with the test until the information is received.
He said Nevada does have the power to block the test, code-named "Divine Strake," until the requirements are satisfied. The length of time will depend on how long it takes for the Department of Environmental Protection to receive the information, review it for compatibility with the state's criteria and give approval.

Steve Robinson, deputy chief of staff for Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn, said the DOE has contacted the governor's office and the department plans to comply with the request. Robinson said the state is requiring the permit because state agencies have a responsibility to protect the public.

"We've got a state permitting process that everybody has to abide by," he said.

Once the state receives the required information, regulators will make sure there are no adverse effects from the blast. As long as no problems are identified, the state will allow the blast to go forward.

A spokeswoman for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the military division in charge of the test, confirmed that plans still are moving forward for the June 2 blast.

"It's not halted, it's not been postponed, it's not stopped," said Irene Smith, public affairs spokeswoman for DTRA.

Smith said the National Nuclear Security Administration's Nevada Site Office told the state it expects any emissions from the blast to meet standards from an air quality permit granted in 2004. Those calculations were originally for an explosion of 940 tons of ammonium nitrate-fuel oil. Since then the size was reduced to 700 tons.

She said the Nevada Test Site is preparing additional documentation for the state. Those results should be sent within two weeks.

Federal officials already planned to track any particles from the explosion with air monitors. The blast will take place about 150 miles west of St. George above a limestone tunnel on the site.

The federal government used the site for above-ground nuclear testing until 1961 and below-ground testing through the early 1990s. The blast site is about 1 1/2 miles from the nearest tunnel used for underground nuclear testing and possibly as close as three miles from an above-ground testing location.

Members of Congress from Nevada and Utah and groups like the Downwinders and the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah have expressed concerns about the blast, which will reportedly send up a dust cloud nearly two miles high. Among the concerns is the possibility that the blast could disrupt radioactive particles from previous tests, sending them downwind of the test site.

Smith said an environmental assessment of the blast made predictions about how far the dust cloud would rise and how far it could travel before falling. She said the paths and dimensions of the dust cloud are the product of meteorological conditions. With the height of the cloud likely to only reach 8,500 feet, Smith said it is "very unlikely" for the cloud to stray off range.

Utah connection

Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, has been among the most vocal in questioning the parameters of the blast. He said Wednesday that he hopes the federal government will comply with the state of Nevada's request.

"We want everybody to be held accountable by the rules," he said. "One would hope that if the state of Nevada was requesting information, that would be available before a permit was issued."

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said he has concerns for the welfare of Utahns but this is not a nuclear blast like those of the 1950s. His legislation, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, has been instrumental in compensating downwinder victims of those above-ground atomic tests at the site.

"I always have concerns for the health and well-being of all Utahns," he said Tuesday. "Hopefully we can watch this very, very carefully. I have made a commitment to the people of the state of Utah and the other Western states that I will never support the resumption of nuclear tests that could harm a human being."

Vanessa Pierce, program director for the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, said her organization supports the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection in requiring more information from the federal government. She said the downwinders of the past are part of why the government should be placed under high scrutiny for any major blasts at the Nevada Test Site.

"We absolutely support the highest level of scrutiny possible, given that Utahns and Nevadans and literally thousands of Americans were put in harm's way in past nuclear testing," she said.

Pierce said HEAL Utah also would like to see a complete environmental impact statement for the planned blast. The DOE only completed a less-comprehensive environmental assessment of the site, which determined there would be no "adverse impact" on the environment from the blast.

In the assessment, the DOE determined there is no radioactively contaminated soil near the detonation site. The tunnel itself has never been used for nuclear testing.

Matheson did not say if he believes a complete EIS is necessary but only that a determination was made at the beginning of the project that an environmental assessment would be completed.

Pistone, of Nevada's Department of Environmental Protection, said a complete EIS would depend on what is in the information requested from the DOE. If the parameters of the blast go beyond a certain threshold as far as air pollution, Pistone said the government may have to go back for more information.

"It really depends on what they come back to us with," he said."

Radioactive Water Leak at Japan Nuke Plant

Radioactive Water Leak at Japan Nuke Plant: "Radioactive Water Leak at Japan Nuke Plant
Staff and agencies
12 April, 2006


By MARI YAMAGUCHI, Wed Apr 12, 6:26 AM ET

TOKYO - Water containing radioactive material has leaked at an experimental nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in northern Japan, but no radioactivity was released into the atmosphere and no one was exposed to radiation, the operator announced Wednesday.

'It happened inside an enclosed space and there‘s no danger outside the building,' Takahashi said. 'Today, it‘s back to business as usual.'

The Rokkasho plant, 360 miles northeast of Tokyo, will eventually produce MOX fuel, a uranium-plutonium mixture. The fuel is central to Japan‘s plans to reduce its dependence on energy imports by building so-called fast-breeder reactors, which produce plutonium that can then be reused as fuel.

The country‘s nuclear power industry, however, has been plagued by safety problems and shutdowns in recent years, including a 1999 reprocessing plant accident outside Tokyo that killed two workers and exposed hundreds to radioactivity.

"

Radioactive machine stolen

iafrica.com | news | sa news Radioactive machine stolen: "CAPE TOWN
Radioactive machine stolen

Thu, 13 Apr 2006

A radio active machine, which measures the density of soil, was stolen from a construction site in Mfuleni on Wednesday night, Western Cape police said.

Superintendent Billy Jones said in a media statement that people who handle the machine could be exposed to high levels of radiation if they do not know how to work with it.

Gary Hirft from the Asla Power Joint Venture said the machine has a probe that is pushed into the ground to measure the soil density. He said if someone tampered with the machine and accidentally activated the probe, it could cause radiation contamination. It was especially dangerous if someone grabbed the probe.

He said the machine was quite small and it was unlikely that the thieves would know what it was used for.

The machine is worth about R100 000.

"

U.S. turns the globe into toxic wasteland

KAVKAZ CENTER: " U.S. turns the globe into toxic wasteland

When media reports first uncovered the use of banned weapons in Iraq by the U.S. occupying forces, the American Army and the Pentagon were quick to reject those reports as unfounded.



Later on, the Pentagon admitted using chemical weapons in Iraq.



Officials from the U.S. Department of Defense admitted that white phosphorous was used as a weapon during November 2004 U.S. offense on the Iraqi city of Fallujah.



Not only does the U.S. use grotesque chemical weapons in its wars supposedly aimed at “Liberation", its leaders try to lie their way out of their own atrocious behavior.



Former Head of Pentagon's Depleted Uranium Project Maj. Doug Rokke, who previously stated that thousands of troops are sick and dying from illegal DU use, has been a government target since he stated in a May 1997 article in The Nation Magazine that the military fails to clean-up depleted uranium used in Iraq during the first Gulf War.



DU, a byproduct of uranium enrichment which remains radioactive for 4.5 billion years, is cheap, but it’s pyrophoric; burning everything it hits into a charred crisp.



Of the more than 670,000 American troops the U.S. government sent to fight in the Gulf War in 1991, about one-third of them are receiving disability compensation.



When the U.S. military attacked Iraq and its people during the 1991 Gulf War, it used over 350 tons of depleted uranium (DU). Today in Iraq war, the occupation Army is reported to have fired 2,200-plus tons on people and cities all over the war-devastated country, stated an editorial on The Capital Times.



When DU, an alpha emitter that wreaks havoc on DNA, RNA, proteins and enzymes, strikes targets, a fine aerosol of uranium oxide is formed, which can be inhaled. Those inhaled particles can cause serious damage, especially the insoluble particles that can remain in the body for a long time.



Initial Symptoms of DU contamination include severe headaches, fatigue, shortness of breath, night sweats, fever, poor appetite, joint pain, gastrointestinal problems, rashes and oozing lesions. But later on more serious symptoms are caused, including cognitive difficulties, memory loss, mood swings, neuropathies, blood disorders, menstrual problems, burning semen, increased pain and greater immobility.



Death by DU contamination is slow but agonizing.



America has turned the cradle of civilization into a toxic wasteland.



It's happening all over again in the current war on Iraq.



The war is literary sickening the Iraqi people, and there is a noticeable rise in the number of children born with birth defects, all because continuously being exposed to DU and other hazards.



Maj. Rokke bluntly stated that if the military intended to keep using DU, it must address the problems resulting from using it as regulations mandated, or cease and desist from using it.



It was probably the words “cease and desist” or Maj. Rokke’s simple ultimatum of “clean-up or don’t use” that initially ticked-off military brass, since behind the scenes the ‘big boys” never sought to open up a can of worms caused by Maj. Rokke’s report.

Maj Rokke went public about the extent of the DU problems in 1997, revealing the military’s outright refusal to comply with regulations.



“They have been after me ever since I went public,” Maj. Rokke was quoted as saying. “I’ve been shot at, run off the road several times, harassed, threatened and whatever else they could think of doing to discredit me for what I was doing.



“They even shot bullets through my son’s bedroom window. These guys don’t play around and the first thing I was told when I went public was to keep my 45 loaded at all times.”



Even though Maj. Rokke is right and the military wrong, the government tried to crucify him for simply telling the truth.



Even though the military admits using the deadly weapon, it continuously refuses to admit the legal causal connection between its use and its adverse effects on human and environmental health.



“It’s really very simple,” added Maj. Rokke. “I was asked to report on what they needed to do about the DU problem. Our team of experts then reported and provided our recommendations, plain and simple.



“But when I realized in 1997 we were being ignored and thousands of people, including myself, were sick and possibly slowly dying from DU exposure, I had to go public and blow the whistle.”



Many organisations worldwide have stepped up their efforts recently to ban the use of this deadly weapon.


Source: AlJazeera

2006-04-12 16:55:47 "

U.S. Military is in DU Denial

Pulse of the Twin Cities - Locally Grown Alternative Newspaper: "The U.S. Military is in DU Denial
Wednesday 12 April @ 12:35:51
Cover - News by Susu Jeffrey

"My name is John Marshall. I was exposed to DU (depleted uranium). I am 100 percent disabled and I am pissed-off. In fact, I was advised by a couple of my counselors not to do this [interview] because I'm so angry with the government at the VA system, at the way I'm treated and other veterans are treated. It's very impersonal. They don't give you any time. They ask us to go fight their wars, do the dirty work and then they can�t take care of you."

Most people don't believe the U.S. has been poisoning its own troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, or they've heard about uranium tipped bombs like fingernail polish painted on the outside of a shell casing. On the contrary, these are solid uranium core projectiles.

"I got a thank you (letter) from some lieutenant colonel. Thank you for serving our country. We express our deepest gratitude but we believe you were one of these men who were exposed to depleted uranium either through shrapnel or inhalation of dust."

"I'm 35, I take 17 medications, I've had cancer, lymphatic cancer, Hodgkin's disease, Lennert's lymphoma was the initial diagnosis immune system."

At age 35 John Marshall should be beginning to peak in his career. As a handsome man, married with three children, Marshall exudes energy. He looks strong, earthy, limps a bit on the left, has a thick build with a lean neck and chin. The military was his career. Being exposed to DU has been called a death sentence.

"Of course they [the VA] downplay everything. There's latency periods. The bottom line is, they don't know the long-term effects. Everybody's going to react different. Some are going to get sick. Some might be able to last a little bit longer. I've been sick since I've been back."

Friendly Fire
On Jan. 6, 1991, Corporal John Marshall flew to the Persian Gulf and waited for the equipment for his mechanized infantry group to arrive. "A Bradley is a tin casket" with a 25 mm cannon and "every piece of armament you can think of" but no outside shielding armor. Marshall didn't feel safe inside a Bradley. He preferred being a ground soldier, trusting his legs more than an aluminum transport on tracks.

"I was a team leader on the ground. I had my own fire team. I didn't want to be a [Bradley] gunner because I didn't want to be responsible for the men's lives because if a gunner screws up, you got nine men dead. And I didn't want to take that burden. And that's where a lot of my guilt, my survivor guilt, comes from.

"I was with the 2nd Armored Division, forward, it was brigade sized, and we were attached to the 7th Corps, 1st Infantry Division. The initial reports were that in the first 24 hours of the ground war 3,000 out of 4,000 just in my brigade were supposed to die. That was scary going into Iraq. That's what they projected. Thank God things didn't work out that way.

"When the ground campaign kicked off [February 24, 1991] we cleared numerous bunkers. We did lots of things that I don't really want to talk about too much. We went north into Iraq, then we did a fish-hook to cut off the supply lines and communication of the Republican Guard. They were retreating. It was a Kill and Destroy Mission, kill and destroy everything that was enemy. That's what we did.

"We had some resistance. Most of them were not Republican Guard. Most of them were civilian Iraqis. But on the night of the 26th we hit a dug-in position and everybody in the vehicle was pretty much banged up except for two of us."

Marshall was asked to go up in the Bradley gun turret. "I could have done it. I should have done it. I had the capability. Partially it was a small percent of fear but I'd rather fight on the ground. We dismounted; we were throwing hand grenades down the hatch" a lot of times Iraqi tanks would play possum with us.

"When we hit that [resistance] the rest of the task force continued on. We got separated from them for the entire night. We were maneuvering for the entire night alone. We were getting out [of the Bradleys], we were engaging. So anyway we managed to get through the night and on the morning of the 27th we came across a large enemy bunker complex. We figured it's a company size, there's 120-or-so Iraqis. There's 18 men in two Bradleys and these guys are surrendering to us.

"So we're taking them prisoner. The LT [lieutenant] finally gets radio contact with the commander and says we have prisoners." They were ordered to take the prisoners to a support unit to the south and then rendezvous with the rest of the task force.

"I just checked on one of my soldiers who had a gash on his head and then the commander comes over the radio and says get the fuck out of there" there's supposed to be a counter attack by a large element.

"I started walking and all of a sudden we started taking heavy fire. Two sabot rounds hit our Bradley within 6 feet of me. It's a dart of depleted uranium. I'm breathing radioactive dust and the toxins from the Bradley. I got sparks flying all over me.

"That's what I'm talking about. If I'd gotten in that turret that night maybe I could have changed the situation. Maybe we wouldn't have been and maybe people wouldn't have been but, then I got behind this bunker. There's about 15 Iraqis inside there. And I tried to shoot them but my weapon jammed. So I cleared my weapon. M-16. It was a terrible weapon. It jammed all the time.

"And those Iraqis, they were crying, they were defecating themselves, urinating themselves. They were so shell shocked, absolutely so traumatized by the situation. So I felt a bit of empathy. Anyways, that didn't work out. One of my soldiers is shooting at a truck, I'm pumping 203-rounds, it's a grenade launcher, I managed to get my rifle operational. I didn't worry about these [Iraqi] guys. They were out of the fight. They just wanted to surrender.

"Things happened. There was an Iraqi running towards me and I capped him. I used to see if I kept my eyes open I could see him all the time."

Three days into the war John Marshall had shrapnel in his shoulder that might have been DU-contaminated, and dust in his lungs. Embedded reporters on American TV showed soldiers firing into the distance rounds and rounds of blasts chasing the horizon. In February 1991 the dust storms were so fierce soldiers two feet away looked like shadows.

In February 2006, a spike in DU over Britain was made public in the Oct. 12, 1999, Aldermaston Report. And CNN reported the U.S. lung cancer rate jumped six-fold for the first two months of the year. DU dust doesn't stay put just as radiation hits from Chernobyl bounced around the world on air currents. It is estimated that lung cancer incubates 2 to 5 years after DU inhalation. Four and a-half years ago the Afghan bombing campaign began. Three years ago Iraq War 2 exploded. And if it's in the air, it's in the water.

As of March 2006, there is not a single veteran with confirmed DU health problems, according to VA testimony in the Minnesota Senate Agriculture, Veterans and Gaming Committee. Sen. Steve Murphy's (D-Red Wing) Veterans Health Screening Bill died when Rep. Kathy Tingelstad (R-Andover) refused to hear the bill in the House Governmental Operations and Veterans Affairs Committee. Veterans are given the Ames test which is actually not specific enough to ascertain DU contamination. All of us have uranium in our urine because uranium is ubiquitous in the environment. The real DU test costs $1,000. The wars cost more than $1 billion a week.

Power & Weapons
Depleted uranium comes from enriching uranium for nuclear weapons or for nuclear reactor-grade fuel. Uranium for nuclear power or weapons is so refined that more than 99 percent of it is a "by-product" depleted uranium. To some, exporting DU waste as weapons in the Third World represents a Machiavellian policy solution to the toxic waste management problem. If more nuclear power facilities are built, more, much more uranium will be refined with mountains of DU waste. Already there are tons and tons of depleted uranium, shipped around the United States and processed into solid bars.

Depleted uranium (DU) is a heavy metal, more dense than lead. Processed DU bars come in various sizes and are cut to length. These solid bars become the bones, the core, the "penetrator," the innards, of 15 kinds of munitions, sized 20 to 120 millimeters, manufactured by Alliant TechSystems.

Alliant TechSystems, ATK on the stock exchange, is headquartered in Edina, just off Highway 169. ATK made more than $3 billion last year. "We are the largest provider of small-caliber ammunition to the Department of Defense, supplying more than 95 percent of all the rounds used for combat and training," ATK's website boasts.

The corporate headquarters is a posh suburban executive building with smoked windows. The pond between the freeway and Lincoln Drive is a settlement trap for contaminants from stormwater runoff, and a dewatering drain for development on low lands. Normally wetland vegetation can filter stormwater enough to attract waterbirds.

Unfortunately the property managers at the ATK building mow, fertilize and water their lawn into turf perfection. They have ringed the pond with rocks to discourage geese'a lifeless yard but crows frequently perch on their roof. ATK management treats their lawn the same way they treat people it's their world view. (In ancient northern Europe crow was the corpse eater, crow carried away dead warriors. But in southern Europe the Romans heard crow as a symbol of the future, crying "Tomorrow, tomorrow," "Cras, cras.")

War always starts out with hope and delivers death. If war worked it would have worked by now. To turn the crow warning into a future hope consider the crow's foot as a peace sign without the circle. The peace sign was created by Lord Bertrand Russell during Easter of 1958 for a nuclear disarmament march in England. The design relates to the international semaphore alphabet: N for nuclear, D for disarmament, in a circle indicating complete, worldwide total. Nuclear disarmament requires alternatives to nuclear power; nuclear power was sold to the American people as the "peaceful atom." We've always known "the peaceful atom is a bomb."

If DU particles are inhaled, alpha radiation causes cell damage, lymph cancers and lung cancer. Beta radiation attacks the eyes and skin. Chemically, DU acting as a heavy metal affects bone and kidneys. DU has a half life of 4 billion years. America has a national debt of $8.4 trillion. No matter how you count it, cancer and debt is on the rise in our country.

When a DU munition is fired it burns through a target (or a missed target) and self-sharpens as it moves, leaving a trail of contaminated dust, like smoke, in its wake. It is a superbly efficient weapon. As a health risk it is guaranteed: disaster, heartbreak, physical agony, financial ruin, and emotional yo-yo on a time scale without end, except in retrospect.

About 340 tons of DU munitions were fired during Iraq War 1. In the Balkans, notably Kosovo, approximately 11 tons of DU were delivered. The Christian Science Monitor reports estimates of 75 tons (official U.S. military figure) to 1,000 tons of DU munitions used in Iraq War 2 so far. Most of the bullets and shells lodge in the soil.

The Department of Defense recommends the removal of heavily-contaminated soil and long-term monitoring because the soil leaches DU poisons into the water. Crops grown in the soil and water from local supplies spread DU toxins into the food chain. And humans, at the top of the food chain, ingest the poisons and pass along strengths and weaknesses to the next generation if they reproduce.

There is an "observed higher prevalence of birth defects among infants conceived postwar to Gulf War veterans of both sexes," reported Araneta, Schlangen, Edmonds, et al, in their study "Prevalence of birth defects among infants of Gulf War veterans in Arkansas, Arizona, California, Georgia, Hawaii, and Iowa," 1989-1993. More study was needed, they concluded.

"The total number of all types of birth defects was not greater than expected, but whether the number of specific birth defects was greater than expected could not be determined," Penman, Tarver and Currier reported in "No evidence of increase in birth defects and health problems among children born to Persian Gulf War Veterans in Mississippi." The Center for Disease Control (CDC) states that "because of the small number of cases found by the study, the statistical power of the study was low." According to the CDC, the "normal" birth defect statistic is one out of every 33 births in the U.S.

While the experts duel with statistics, DU munitions continue to be fired. The old Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant (TCAAP), where DU bullets were made, contaminated the New Brighton water supply. They say it's cleaned up now and won't be our Love Canal. For years, peace activists have called for a study tracking the health of Honeywell/Alliant workers who made the DU munitions.

Of the 580,000 Iraq War 1 veterans, 56 percent have applied for disability treatment and benefits. Depleted uranium is the sin of the father visited upon the next generation, whether it's parental illness, death, or birth defects and genetic damage inherited by untold generations. Brothers, if you're going over, bank your sperm. Sisters, if you're going over have your babies first.

Iraq is a nuclear war. DU munitions are weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). Yes, there are WMDs in Iraq.

How do you ask for forgiveness?
Marshall went through EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) for the tape loop of the Iraqi running toward him. "I could just look at you and see him. Now I have to think about it to see him.

"Anyway, I continued firing and I got hit. I got hit in the back. I didn't feel it. All I felt was the hot blood running down my back. There was an Iraqi priest right next to me. He's crying, he's got the book of Koran and he offers me some water and I wasn't going to drink the water because I didn't know if it was contaminated. And I smoked at the time, and he offered me a cigarette, and I sure as hell smoked that. I'm surprised they didn't try to kill me 'cause I tried to kill them.

"So anyhow, things started to settle down and our own friendlies got to the other friendlies and told them you're shooting up friendlies."

They eventually got evacuated. Marshall was sent to five different field hospitals and began his traverse through the VA system. Cpl. John Marshall got cancer, a 15-year cough, and a Purple Heart. "I lost my career and I lost my health.

"I was very successful in my career," Marshall states. "I'm really having a tough time."

Time
"I'm just tired. I just feel tired of fighting these bastards in the hospital. They don't believe in prevention. My tumor wasn't sent to pathology. The government waits. They wait for the veterans to die.

"I try to stay active." He likes to garden. "Each day is just a matter of survival." His goal is to live another two years so his family can collect benefits. "The way I feel, two years seems like forever to me." His hope is that the two little ones, the boys aged 12 and 8, don't get cancer."

Xinhua - US unveils blueprint to rebuild nuclear complex

Xinhua - English: "US unveils blueprint to rebuild nuclear complex
www.chinaview.cn 2006-04-07 23:14:41

WASHINGTON, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The Bush administration has unveiled a blueprint to rebuild the country's aging nuclear weapons complex, including the restoration of its large-scale bombmanufacturing capacity, The Los Angeles Times website reported Friday.

The plan calls for the most sweeping realignment and modernization of the nation's massive system of laboratories and factories for nuclear bombs since the end of the Cold War, according to the report.

Until now, the United States has depended on carefully maintaining aging bombs produced during the Cold War arms race, some several decades old.

The Bush administration, however, wants the capability to turn out 125 new nuclear bombs per year by 2022, as the Pentagon retires older bombs that it claims will no longer be reliable or safe.

Under the plan, all of the nation's plutonium will be consolidated into a single facility which will be more effectivelyand cheaply defended against possible terrorist attacks.

The plan will also remove the plutonium now kept at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California by 2014, though transfers of the material could start sooner.

However, the administration's blueprint is facing sharp criticism, both from those who say it does not move fast enough toconsolidate plutonium stores, and from those who say restarting bomb production will encourage aspiring nuclear powers across the globe to develop weapons.

The plan was outlined to the U.S. Congress on Wednesday by Thomas D'Agostino, head of the nuclear weapons programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration, an agency of the Energy Department. Enditem
Editor: Wang Nan"

Tank Cleanup at Defense Sites Will Leave Radioactive Waste

Tank Cleanup at Defense Sites Will Leave Radioactive Waste: "Tank Cleanup at Defense Sites Will Leave Radioactive Waste

WASHINGTON, DC, April 6, 2006 (ENS) - High-level radioactive material will remain in nuclear waste the Department of Energy plans to dispose of at its Savannah River Site in South Carolina, warns a new report from the National Research Council on cleanup of waste in underground tanks at three defense sites. It is not practical to remove all of the waste from the tanks, the committee of authors acknowleged.

Saying that the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) overall plan for cleaning up the radioactive waste in 246 underground tanks at the three sites is 'workable,' the committee expressed concern about the 'large volume of radioactive material' that DOE plans to place in saltstone vaults at Savannah River, and other issues of safety and reliability at all three sites.

Fifty-one of the tanks are located at the Department of Energy (DOE) Savannah River Site in South Carolina. There are 177 tanks situated at the Hanford Site in Washington state, and 11 tanks and seven calcine vaults at the Idaho National Laboratory.


In total, they contain more than 93 million of gallons of high-level radioactive waste from over 40 years of making plutonium for America's nuclear weapons.

The DOE plans to remove the waste from the tanks and separate out high-level radioactive waste, which will eventually be shipped to an off-site geological repository, such as the site at Yucca Mountain, Mountain, which is still in the pre-permitting stage.

The remaining radioactive waste will be disposed of on-site, and residual waste in the tanks will be covered by grout.

So far, only two of the 246 tanks have been cleaned out and backfilled with grout, and none has had a permanent cover installed."

Border Security Fails 'Dirty Bomb' Test

: "Border Security Fails 'Dirty Bomb' Test
By Kim Asborno
Apr 11, 2006
The federal Government Accountability Office late last year sent undercover investigators with radioactive material -- sufficient to produce two so-called 'dirty bombs' -- through Northern and Southern U.S. border checkpoints to test security. The investigators had phony documents, posed as employees of a fictitious company, and got through the U.S. ports of entry with little trouble.

Vehicles were properly inspected and radiation portal monitors spotted the radioactive material. However, phony documents presented by the investigators were not questioned and the radioactive material was allowed to cross into the United States.

Corrective measures have since been taken, especially regarding document authentication. A detailed description of both border crossings is available online.
"

Belfast Telegraph - Sellafield plan opens old wounds

Belfast Telegraph: "Viewpoint: Sellafield plan opens old wounds

11 April 2006

Although the proposal for a new, more powerful nuclear plant at Sellafield is only included in a consultation report for Cumbria County Council, it has raised all the usual fears. The government is a long way from making a decision on a new generation of power stations, but the anti-nuclear protesters are already flexing their muscles on both sides of the Irish Sea.

Who is right and who is wrong in the long-running argument over the benefits or dangers of nuclear power? Even the experts do not agree, let alone those with axes to grind, so the public is left looking at the past record of the industry and wondering if it is capable of safely meeting the energy needs of the future.

Safety is the key word, especially for those living along the Irish Sea coast, who have long worried that routine and accidental discharges from Sellafield are damaging to human and marine health. Although nothing has been proved conclusively, the Irish Sea has been described as one of the most radioactive in the world, and there are hot spots of cancer which many attribute to nuclear pollution."

tainted water near weapons dump

Untitled: "Article published Apr 11, 2006
'Just dig it all up'
Livermore's plan for tainted water near weapons dump has critics

TRACY - Environmentalists want Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to dig deeper for the solution to a plume of tainted water draining from an old weapons dump nine miles southwest of Tracy.

The lab has unveiled a plan to divert rainwater around the landfill. But some critics would like to see the contaminated earth removed entirely. The soil contains radioactive residue that leaches into the groundwater, forming an underground plume of contaminated water up to 2 miles long.

"They ought to just dig it all up," said community activist Bob Sarvey, who attended a public meeting on the topic last week. "We need to get it out of there and eliminate the threat."
It's the latest debate over cleanup at Site 300, the laboratory's 11-square-mile testing range in the Altamont Hills. The lab has tested explosives there for half a century.

Experts are zeroing in on the northwest corner of Site 300, where weapons components were dumped into a series of landfills over a period of more than three decades.

Those unlined landfills, called the Pit 7 complex, are on the federal Superfund list of the nation's most-toxic cleanup sites. Chemicals such as depleted uranium and tritium - a radioactive form of hydrogen - have seeped into the water and degraded water quality, Lawrence Livermore officials say.

The lab proposes digging hillside trenches to steer rainwater away from the lower landfills. That would prevent a scenario seen in very wet years, when the rain soaks into the ground and causes the aquifer to rise into the landfill about 25 feet below ground level.

Digging up the contaminated soil would add tens of millions of dollars to the $11million-to-$15million price tag and could expose workers to unhealthy conditions, the lab says in its report. What's more, even with removal, contaminants could remain in very deep layers of rock that could not be unearthed.

The lab also plans to pump out groundwater and treat many of the chemicals. But there is no way to purify water tainted with tritium, a substance often used in the triggering mechanisms of thermonuclear weapons.

A tritium-tainted plume of water is drifting downstream at about 33 feet per year, lab hydrologist Michael Taffet said.
At the rate tritium decays, the water should be within drinking standards within 45 years, he said.

The plume is moving slowly and will not endanger Tracy's water supply or infiltrate water tables tapped by developments planned in the southwest part of the city, he said. While the cancer-causing toxin could cause some risk to workers who spend extended periods at Site 300, there is no risk to residents, Taffet said.

That doesn't satisfy Marylia Kelley, who heads the watchdog group Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment.

Her group suggests not only removing some of the dirt but also injecting clean water in front of the plume to slow it down long enough to let the tritium decay.

"If you can hold a plume in place, you should hold it in place," Kelley said. "You don't let it migrate and contaminate clean groundwater."

While weapons testing continues at Site 300, officials say they have adapted practices to prevent future contamination.

For example, since in 1988, lab workers no longer dump exploded test assemblies and other hazardous items into the pits. Four of the landfills have been capped.

But critics say the soil should have been excavated years ago, when the work would have been cheaper.

If not then, do it now, Sarvey said.

"I think they have a moral and legal obligation to do so," he said.
Contact reporter Alex Breitler at (209) 239-6606 or abreitler@recordnet.com
"

The Impacts of Radioactive Uranium Contamination on Human DNA

The Impacts of Radioactive Uranium Contamination on Human DNA: "April 10, 2006
scienceagogo.com

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Uranium’s Effect On DNA Established

The use of depleted uranium in munitions and weaponry is likely to come under intense scrutiny now that new research that found that uranium can bind to human DNA. The finding will likely have far-reaching implications for returned soldiers, civilians living in what were once war-zones and people who might live near uranium mines or processing facilities.

Uranium - when manifested as a radioactive metal - has profound and debilitating effects on human DNA. These radioactive effects have been well understood for decades, but there has been considerable debate and little agreement concerning the possible health risks associated with low-grade uranium ore (yellowcake) and depleted uranium.

Now however, Northern Arizona University biochemist Diane Stearns has established that when cells are exposed to uranium, the uranium binds to DNA and the cells acquire mutations, triggering a whole slew of protein replication errors, some of which can lead to various cancers. Stearns' research, published in the journals Mutagenesis and Molecular Carcinogenesis, confirms what many have suspected for some time - that uranium can damage DNA as a heavy metal, independently of its radioactive properties. "Essentially, if you get a heavy metal stuck on DNA, you can get a mutation," Stearns explained. While other heavy metals are known to bind to DNA, Stearns and her team were the first to identify this characteristic with uranium.

Depleted uranium - what is left over when the highly radioactive isotopes of uranium are removed - is widely used by the military. Anti-tank weapons, tank armor and ammunition rounds are just some of the applications. "The health effects of uranium really haven't been studied since the Manhattan Project (the development of the atomic bomb in the early 1940s). But now there is more interest in the health effects of depleted uranium. People are asking questions now," Stearns said.

Her research may shed light on the possible connection between exposure to depleted uranium and Gulf War Syndrome, or to increased cancers and birth defects in the Middle East and Balkans. And closer to home, questions continue to be asked about environmental exposure to uranium from mine tailings; heavily concentrated around Native American communities. "When the uranium mining boom crashed in the '80s, there wasn't much cleanup," Stearns said. Estimates put the number of abandoned mines on the Navajo Nation in Arizona at more than 1,100.

Source: Northern Arizona University
T
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Radioactive Steam Escapes From Ill. Plant - Los Angeles Times

Radioactive Steam Escapes From Ill. Plant - Los Angeles Times: "Radioactive Steam Escapes From Ill. Plant
By Associated Press
2:51 AM PDT, April 7, 2006

GODLEY, Ill. -- Steam containing radioactive tritium escaped from a valve at an Exelon Corp. plant even as company officials met with local residents to discuss efforts to clean up earlier leaks.

About 500 gallons of water pooled on the grounds of the Braidwood Generating Station as the steam condensed Thursday

Tests showed no detectable levels of tritium in the water in the ditch, although levels measured in the water pooled on plant grounds were more than twice federal drinking and groundwater limits, Nesbit said. He said more precise testing would be conducted.

The company created a dirt berm around the ditch and placed a bladder in the ditch to create a dam, Nesbit said.

Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen commonly found in ground water but is more concentrated in water used in nuclear reactors. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, exposure to tritium increases the risk of developing cancer.

The Braidwood plant, located about 60 miles southwest of Chicago, has sent millions of gallons of tritium-tainted water into the ground in several leaks dating back to 1996. When Thursday's release happened, Exelon officials were meeting with residents to discuss plans to clean up earlier leaks.
"

New Chernobyl Study Predicts up to 60,000 Excess Cancer Deaths

Gmail - New Chernobyl Study Predicts up to 60,000 Excess Cancer Deaths
"April 11, 2006 In Germany: see contacts below




NEW STUDY CHALLENGES IAEA REPORT ON CHERNOBYL CONSEQUENCES: FINDS DEATH TOLL LIKELY TO BE 30-60,000



A new study being released today in Kiev, Ukraine directly challenges the findings of a widely-criticized International Atomic Energy Agency/World Health Organization report from last September that predicted 4,000 likely cancer deaths as a result of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.



The study was commissioned by Rebecca Harms, a Green Party member of the European Parliament, on behalf of the Greens/EFA in the European Parliament and in conjunction with the April 23-25 Chernobyl+20: Remembrance for the Future conference in Kiev, Ukraine. The study, titled “TORCH” (The Other Report on Chernobyl) was prepared by two scientists from the United Kingdom, Dr. Ian Fairlie and Dr. David Sumner.


Some key findings of The Other Report on Chernobyl (TORCH) (i) include:



· Belarus, Ukraine and Russia were heavily contaminated, however more than half of Chernobyl’s fallout was deposited outside these countries

· fallout from Chernobyl contaminated about 40% of Europe’s surface area

· about 2/3rds of Chernobyl’s collective dose was distributed to populations outside Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, especially to western Europe

· about 30,000 to 60,000 excess cancer deaths are predicted, 7 to 15 times greater than IAEA/WHO’s published estimate of 4,000



Said Rebecca Harms, “"We commissioned TORCH to counterbalance claims made by the IAEA in the media last year (ii), which both played down the lethal consequences of the nuclear accident at Chernobyl and failed to make a meaningful analysis of its wider effects on Europe and the world. The much-publicized IAEA estimate of a mere 4000 excess cancer deaths provoked an outcry among the scientific community and environmental NGOs, and was a dishonor to those who have and will suffer as a result of Chernobyl. This is one of a number of underestimates, which TORCH set out to rebut. There must be no mistaking the catastrophic dangers that are still very much associated with nuclear power."



Added Michael Mariotte, executive director of Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS), “It is clear that the IAEA/WHO report was a political document, intended to downplay the ongoing consequences of the Chernobyl disaster; presumably for the interests of the nuclear power industry. Even some WHO officials have been quoted recently (for example in the April 6 New Scientist) as agreeing to the points and findings made in the TORCH report. The world simply cannot afford another Chernobyl, nor construction of a single new atomic reactor.”

The Kiev conference is being organized by a coalition of groups, including NIRS, World Information Service on Energy, Greens/EFA in the European Parliament, Heinrich Boell Foundation, Earth Day Network, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, the German Green Party and Ukraine’s Ecoclub. (iii) It is being held to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster and present arguments as to why the deadly nuclear option must not be considered as an answer to the world’s current energy supply problems.


Editors note:

(i) TORCH and an executive summary can be found on the homepage of the Greens/EFA website: http://www.greens-efa.org and at the NIRS website http://www.nirs.org/c20/torch.pdf. The report was financed by Rebecca Harms MEP, the Altner-Combecher Foundation and the Hatzfeldt Foundation.


(ii) The claim was made following the publication of reports last year: IAEA/WHO 'Health Effects of the Chernobyl Accident and Special Health Care Programmes'. Report of the UN Chernobyl Forum Expert Group “Health” (EGH) Working draft, July 26 2005. IAEA/WHO Environmental Consequences of the Chernobyl Accident and their Remediation. Report of the UN Chernobyl Forum Expert Group “Environment” (EGE) Working draft, August 2005.


(iii) For more information on the conference click on the following link: http://www.ch20.org



To contact Greens/EFA in the European Parliament:



Richard More O' Ferrall,
Press Officer,
The Greens/EFA in the European Parliament
Tel: Brussels +32 2 2841667 / Strasburg +33 3 88174375
Mobile: +32-477-44-38-42
Fax: 0032 2 2844944
rmoreoferrall@europarl.eu.int



Helmut Weixler

Head of Press Office

phone: 0032-2-284.4683

fax: 0032-2-284.4944

mobile phone: 0032-475-67 13 40

e-mail: hweixler@europarl.eu.int

website: www.greens-efa.org"

Depleted Uranium a tool to depopulate the world : SF Bay Area Indymedia

Depleted Uranium a tool to depopulate the world : SF Bay Area Indymedia: "Depleted Uranium a tool to depopulate the world
by Sepp Hasslberger Sunday, Apr. 09, 2006 at 1:32 PM

War, Epidemics, Depopulation - Rough Times Ahead

Having read this article of Justin Raimondo yesterday, I caught a glimpse of a vision of destruction. Something that might await us just around the bend, like starting in less than two-weeks' time, when Iran is scheduled to open their new oil bourse where black gold will be traded in Euro, not in Dollars.

If you consider the dangers of man made pandemics, such as AIDS and the successor to last year's SARS, the Bird Flu, the scourge of depleted uranium or even just of the normal application of pharmaceutical medicine, which has become one of the major causes of death, it does not take a vivid imagination to see destruction awaiting a significant part of the planet's population...

... unless, of course, we should manage to wake up in time and take back control from those who would lead us to the brink of extinction to forward their policy objective of a marked reduction in population numbers.

Think about it.

Population Reduction

(original found here)

NEWS BRIEF: "UC Regents lose control of nuclear weapons program: Five admirals, Carlyle Group and Rand takeover", SF Bay View, Part 6, by Leuren Moret, 11/10/2004

"Research on population control, preventing future births, is now being carried out secretly by biotech companies ... During a presentation about his case, Chapela revealed that a spermicidal corn developed by a U.S. company is now being tested in Mexico. Males who unknowingly eat the corn produce non-viable sperm and are unable to reproduce. Depopulation, also known as eugenics ... was proposed under the Nazis during World War II. It is the deliberate killing off of large segments of living populations and was proposed for Third World countries under President Carter’s administration by the National Security Council’s Ad Hoc Group on Population Policy..."

While it is true that depopulation was proposed for Third World countries under Carter's administration, the original concept was proposed several years earlier, by Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State under President Gerald Ford. Let us return to this article, above:

"National Security Memo 200, dated April 24, 1974, and titled “Implications of world wide population growth for U.S. security & overseas interests,” says:

“Dr. Henry Kissinger proposed in his memorandum to the NSC that ‘depopulation should be the highest priority of U.S. foreign policy towards the Third World.’ He quoted reasons of national security, and because '(t)he U.S. economy will require large and increasing amounts of minerals from abroad, especially from less-developed countries ... Wherever a lessening of population can increase the prospects for such stability, population policy becomes relevant to resources, supplies and to the economic interests of U.S.' ..."

"Depopulation policy became the top priority under the NSC agenda, Club of Rome and U.S. policymakers like Gen. Alexander Haig, Cyrus Vance, Ed Muskie and Kissinger ... the United States shared the view of former World Bank President Robert McNamara that the 'population crisis' is a greater threat to U.S. national security interests than 'nuclear annihilation'. In 1975, Henry Kissinger established a policy-planning group in the U.S. State Department’s Office of Population Affairs. The depopulation 'GLOBAL 2000' document for President Jimmy Carter was prepared.

"It is no surprise that this policy was established under President Carter with help from Kissinger and Brzezinski – all with ties to David Rockefeller. The Bush family, the Harriman family - the Wall Street business partners of Bush in financing Hitler - and the Rockefeller family are the elite of the American eugenics movement. Even Prince Philip of Britain, a member of the Bilderberg Group, is in favor of depopulation ... "If I were reincarnated I would wish to be returned to earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels"

"Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has been proposing, funding and building Bio-Weapons Level 3 and Level 4 labs at many places around the U.S. – even on university campuses and in densely populated urban locations. In a Bio-Weapons Level 4 facility, a single bacteria or virus is lethal. Bio-Weapons Level 4 is the highest level legally allowed in the continental U.S."

Incredibly, this article reveals that an aggressive attack on the populations of Third World Countries originated through Henry Kissinger in April, 1974 (still Secretary of State under President Ford), through President Jimmy Carter, and ending at Defense Secretary Rumsfeld of the Bush Administration. Thus, you can say that depopulation of Third World Countries has been a major part of American foreign policy for the past 30 years and is continuing today; further, you can say that this policy is completely bi-partisan, as it was supported strongly by both Democrats and Republicans through numerous administrations.

We have long stated that the Illuminati plans a 66% decrease in the population of the world. New Age author, Bill Cooper, writes about the severe depopulation plans in his book, "Behold A Pale Horse", and every former Satanist with whom I have worked since 1991 has stated that the Illuminati plans this degree of death. Once we discovered the Pentagon's New Map which is currently guiding our invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan, The Solomon Islands, and Indonesia's Aceh Province, we realized that Kissinger's depopulation plan probably is aimed at all "Non-Integrating" countries of the world, and is continuing today.

This SF Bay View article finishes by speaking of one of the greatest depopulation weapons ever deployed -- Depleted Uranium munitions.

"Two excellent examples of existing U.S. depopulation policy are, first, the long-term impact on the civilian population from Agent Orange in Vietnam ... The second is the permanent contamination of the Middle East and Central Asia with depleted uranium, which ... will destroy the genetic future of the populations living in those regions ... ." (http://www.sfbayview.com/110304/ucregents110304.shtml)

As you read of our fierce battles in Iraq, remember that a very large percentage of the munitions we are exploding is Depleted Uranium. Thus, we are daily spreading more D.U. in Iraq, adding to the nearly 3,000 tons we have already expended.

This SF Bay View article does not mention another major weapon being used to achieve depopulation -- the AIDS Virus.

Let us quickly review this depopulation subject by turning to New Age author, Bill Cooper, in his monumentally important book, "Behold A Pale Horse":

"To reduce population quickly ... you have to pull all males into the fighting and kill significant numbers of fertile, child-bearing age females." [Page 171]

This revelation that the Illuminati is carrying out a deliberate campaign to reduce populations in Third World Countries brings to mind a terrifying British report last week, stating that over 100,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed so far, before we attacked Fallujah. Listen:

NEWS BRIEF: "Where is the world's shame and rage?: Civilian casualties in Iraq", By Scott Ritter, senior UN weapons inspector in Iraq between 1991 and 1998, reported in Dawn International, 02 November 2004, http://www.dawn.com/2004/11/02/int14.htm

"The full scale of the human cost already paid for the war on Iraq is only now becoming clear. Last week's estimate by (British Lancet Medical Journal) investigators, using credible methodology, that more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians - most of them women and children - have died since the US-led invasion, is a profound moral indictment of our countries ... Civilian deaths have always been a tragic reality of modern war. But the conflict in Iraq was supposed to be different - US and British forces were dispatched to liberate the Iraqi people ... Reading accounts of the US-led invasion, one is struck by the constant, almost casual, reference to civilian deaths ... The fact that most bombing missions in Iraq today are pre-planned, with targets allegedly carefully vetted, further indicts those who wage this war in the name of freedom. If these targets are so precise, then those selecting them cannot escape the fact that they are deliberately targeting innocent civilians at the same time as they seek to destroy their intended foe ... We invaded Iraq to free Iraqis from a dictator who, by some accounts, oversaw the killing of about 300,000 of his subjects - although no one has been able to verify more than a small fraction of the figure. If it is correct, it took Saddam decades to reach such a horrific statistic. The US and UK have, it seems, reached a third of that total in just 18 months."

The bottom line of this revelation is that the Illuminati is using many weapons right now to decrease the population, from AIDS to Depleted Uranium, to biotech weapons, to massive conventional warfare against civilian populations

EDGE NEWS"