good news! First rods have been removed from pool at Fukishima.

Its the beginning of a long, dangerous, and important job. Heroic workers have successfully removed the first set of rods from a pool in an unstable building. Only 1,331 to go. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-18/fukushima-plant-fuel-rod-removals-to-begin-today-tepco-says.html

Fukushima Nuclear Meltdown

The core melted through the containment vessel. Radioactive lava flowing out. Radiation levels high.

Chesapeake Bay contaminated by 11 Nuke plants

Its a shame for the 17 million residents who are affected. Read about the cover-up here.

Radioactive groundwater found at nuke plant

Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Thursday, October 11, 2007

A groundwater monitoring well has tested positive for radioactive contamination at First Energy Corp.'s Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station in Shippingport, but the levels do not threaten public health or safety, according to the company and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Radioactive leak at nuclear plant worse than first feared

[Published: Monday 8, October 2007 - 13:23]

Radioactive fallout from a major accident at Sellafield 50 years ago was underestimated, with scores more falling ill with cancer as a direct result than previously thought.

In 1957, a fire at the Windscale nuclear reactor in Cumbria -- which has since been renamed Sellafield -- led to a release of radioactive material that spread across the UK and Europe.

New research claims the incident generated twice as much radioactive material and caused dozens more cancers than was previously thought.

Residents of border town Dundalk, in Co Louth, point out that people in the immediate area had higher instances of cancer than other regions. It has been claimed that a cluster of Down Syndrome births and cancer cases in the area were caused by radiation.

The cancer rate in the area was estimated to be more than 12pc above the national average.

Fergus O'Dowd, of the Republic's Fine Gael party, said the new research shows that the nuclear industry cannot be trusted.

"Up until now we were repeatedly told we were overplaying our concerns (about cancer) but now it's clear we weren't," he said.

"I'd be very concerned about the lack of truthfulness, and we clearly haven't been told the full truth until now."

He also pointed to a leakage of highly radioactive nuclear fuel two years ago, warning that problems still exist at Sellafield. About 20 tonnes of uranium and plutonium -- enough to make 20 nuclear weapons -- dissolved in concentrated nitric acid, escaped through a cracked pipe into a huge stainless steel chamber which is too dangerous for humans to enter.

Deputy O'Dowd has called for the setting up of an independent body to oversee the plant to ensure another disaster doesn't happen.

The new research, which was published in the journal Atmospheric Environment, claims the radioactive cloud spread further than just Cumbria.

On October 10, 1957, a failure to properly control the temperature of graphite control rods within the reactor sparked a devastating fire, which caused radioactive contamination to spew into the atmosphere. The fire was eventually put out with water -- an act which could have caused an explosion -- but a radioactive cloud had already spread.

At the time of the accident the levels and spread of the radioactive materials was estimated, and measures were put in place to limit contamination.

The study by John Garland, formerly of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, and Richard Wakeford, a visiting professor at the University of Manchester, suggests the contamination of the environment may have been much higher.

John Garland said: "The reassessments showed that there was roughly twice the amount than was initially assessed."

The team carried out a re-analysis of data taken from environmental monitoring of air, grass and vegetation and combined this with computer models that revealed how the radioactive cloud would have spread from the reactor with the meteorological conditions at that time.

They confirmed radioactive iodine and caesium were released, as well as polonium and a very small amount of plutonium, but found that the levels would have been higher than previously thought.

This would have also impacted the numbers of cancers that the accident would have caused, said the authors. Previously, it was thought that the radiation would have eventually led to about 200 cases of cancer, but the new contamination figures suggest it could have caused about 240.

Prof Peter Mitchell, the author of another study, has also said the radioactive plume did not pass across Ireland.

Irish Met Office measurements in Dublin from the time of the Windscale fire gave no indication of any trace of the plume.

In the past the State's nuclear watchdog, the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland (RPII), warned the plant will pose a major threat to Ireland for another 150 years

---

© Belfast Telegraph

Nuclear warheads mistakenly flown across the United States

4 September 2007 09:29

'Chain of errors' led to 36-hour US nuclear blunder

By Stephen Foley in New York

Published: 24 September 2007

Nuclear warheads capable of unleashing the equivalent of 10 Hiroshima bombs were mistakenly flown across the United States by a bomber crew who thought they were dummies, and the terrifying security lapse was not discovered for almost 36 hours, it has been revealed.

The Pentagon is examining how so many vital checks and balances, painstakingly set out during the Cold War era, broke down to cause an incident that military personnel are calling one of the biggest mistakes in US Air Force history.

The flight last month was the first time in 40 years that nuclear bombs have been flown over US territory without specific authorisation from the top of the air force. Critics have argued that safety procedures have been disregarded as funds and expertise are diverted to new wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The B-52 took off from the remote Minot air force base in North Dakota with 12 cruise missiles that were being taken out of commission and scheduled for burial in Louisiana. The warheads on the decommissioned missiles should have been replaced with dummies of the same weight, but personnel failed to notice that six of the 12 were fully operational nuclear warheads.

The flight, on 30 August, was kept secret by the US Air Force, until news leaked on to military websites a week later. The Washington Post yesterday catalogued the full chain of errors and oversights and revealed that some of America's most powerful nuclear weapons were in effect out of supervision for almost 36 hours.

The bomber had sat on the tarmac at Minot overnight, with nothing but routine security patrols guarding its payload, and then for a further nine hours at the Barksdale base in Louisiana before the missiles were unloaded and a shocked transport crew recognised the error. The incident was deemed so serious that it was immediately reported to the Pentagon's nuclear planning headquarters and to the Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, as a so-called "Bent Spear" event. Only "Broken Arrow" events are more serious – they involve the loss, destruction or mistaken detonation of a nuclear weapon.

"Clearly this incident was unacceptable on many levels," said an Air Force spokesman, Lt-Col Edward Thomas. "Our response has been swift and focused, and it has really just begun. We will spend many months at the air staff and at our commands and bases ensuring that the root causes are addressed."

The chain of errors began in the camouflaged storage bunker in North Dakota, where nuclear warheads are supposed to be visually checked through a small window in the missile casing, or marked with a ribbon, or otherwise catalogued using serial numbers, barcodes and other markings. The B-52 crew is also required to examine the missiles, but only the side carrying the six dummy warheads was checked in this case, it is believed.

The air force insists that the public was never in danger and that even if the bomber had crashed, fail-safe mechanisms would have ensured that the bombs could not detonate. Anti-nuclear campaigners said that the dangerous fissile material inside the warheads could have been released into the atmosphere if the missiles had been damaged.

Two separate investigations are under way, including one set up in the past few days under retired general Larry Welch, who once commanded the strategic bomber fleet, charged with examining if there are widespread lapses in the way munitions are stored and transported around the US.

Scores of correspondents on military discussion boards have expressed their surprise and alarm, and warned that standards have slipped since the height of the Cold War.

One former B-52 commander wrote: "I'm not sure where to begin. I'm outraged and embarrassed! Back in 1979 we had to sign for nuclear weapons verifying serial numbers, the security folks posted two-man guards at the aircraft, the cops enforced two-man maintenance crews access to aircraft, etc. What the hell happened here?"

Linton Brooks, the man who oversaw billions of dollars in US aid to help Russia secure its nuclear stockpile, told The Washington Post that nuclear weapons handling had moved down the agenda.

"Where nuclear weapons have receded into the background is at the senior policy level, where there are other things people have to worry about," he said.

Mr Linton resigned in January as director of the National Nuclear Security Administration.

Nuclear plant hit by earthquake closed indefinitely in Japan - Print Version - International Herald Tribune

Nuclear plant hit by earthquake closed indefinitely in Japan - Print Version - International Herald Tribune: "Nuclear plant hit by earthquake closed indefinitely in Japan

The Associated Press
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
KASHIWAZAKI, Japan: An earthquake-ravaged nuclear plant was shuttered indefinitely Wednesday, amid revelations that a radiation leak was worse than initially announced and mounting international concern about Japanese nuclear stewardship.
The mayor of Kashiwazaki ordered the damaged Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility closed until its safety could be confirmed, escalating a showdown over a long list of problems at what is, in terms of output capacity, the largest nuclear power plant in the world.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, pressed Japan to undertake a thorough investigation of the accidents to see whether there were lessons that could be applied to nuclear plants elsewhere.
Adding to the urgency was new data from aftershocks of the deadly 6.8-magnitude quake suggesting that a fault line may run under the power plant."

Ventura County Wetlands Area Could Become Superfund Site

California boating guide-news & classifieds: "Ventura County Wetlands Area Could Become Superfund Site

Friday, March 23, 2007

By Catherine French

OXNARD - For 39 years, millions of gallons of wastewater contaminated with heavy metals and several radioactive isotopes was discharged by Halaco Engineering Co., which operated a scrap metal salvage facility located adjacent to the Ormond Beach Wetlands in Oxnard until 2004.

The solids that settled out of the wastewater were piled onto a slagheap that grew 40 ft. high and encompasses about 28 acres. According to the Regional Water Quality Control Board, the slagheap emitted ammonia and radioactive elements such as thorium and uranium-238. Unlined ponds leaked contaminated wastewater into the wetlands, the ocean and groundwater.

Thorium is naturally occurring, but has been shown to cause an increase in cancers of the lung, pancreas and blood in workers exposed to high levels of it in the air.

On March 7, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed adding the Halaco site to the national list of Superfund sites. Once on the list, federal funds can be issued to help with cleanup."

What is depleted uranium?

Depleted Uranium: "

Uranium Munitions = Depleted Uranium

half life of 4.5 billion years *

What is depleted uranium? Natural uranium ore from the mine goes through an enrichment process designed to separate uranium 235 (U-235), the isotope used for nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors, from uranium 238 (U-238), a low-level radioactive by-product. The highly radioactive isotope U-235 accounts for less than 1% of mined uranium; nearly all the rest is U-238.

The vast quantity of highly toxic metal (U-238) generated by this process is called "depleted uranium" or "DU." DU emits primarily alpha radiation, and its half-life is thought to be about the age of the Earth, or 4.5 billion years. DU is approximately 2.5 times denser than iron and 1.7 times denser than lead. This high specific gravity means that, as a projectile fired from a tank or aircraft, it carries enough kinetic energy to blast through the tough armor of a tank. Furthermore, the impact of this penetration generates extreme heat. DU is pyrophoric, meaning that it burns on impact and can set the target on fire. DU is easy to process and endless quantities can be obtained free from the Department of Energy (DOE), which controls DU and considers its use in munitions to be "utilization of waste material." Retrieved 08/11/04 http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/abom/uran/special/index2.html

As U-238 breaks down, an ongoing process, it creates protactinium-234, which radiates potent beta particles that may cause cancer as well as mutations in body cells that could lead to birth defects.

When a depleted uranium round hits a hard target, as much as 70 percent of the projectile can burn on impact, creating a firestorm of depleted uranium particles. The toxic residue of this firestorm is an extremely fine insoluble uranium dust that can be spread by the wind, inhaled and absorbed into the human body and absorbed by plants and animals, becoming part of the food chain. Once in the soil, it can pollute the environment and create up to a hundredfold increase in uranium levels in ground water, according to the U.N. Environmental Program. Retrieved 08/12/04 http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/iraq2002/133581_du04.html

The United States military has never confronted an opponent that used depleted uranium. Most exposure to American military personnel has been a result of fire from their own forces. MATTHEW L. WALD The New York Times Oct 19, 2004

"

U.S.A.: Radioactive water near Hopi springs - Infoshop News

U.S.A.: Radioactive water near Hopi springs

Thursday, March 22 2007 @ 01:59 PM PDT Contributed by: arf Views: 35 Two Hopi villages and their wells lie in the path of a radioactive plume of water A plume of radioactive water is moving toward two Hopi villages, threatening to contaminate wells and spring-fed drinking water for about 1,000 residents. Radioactive water near Hopi springs By CYNDY COLE Daily Sun Staff Two Hopi villages and their wells lie in the path of a radioactive plume of water A plume of radioactive water is moving toward two Hopi villages, threatening to contaminate wells and spring-fed drinking water for about 1,000 residents. Nothing has been done to contain or remove the waste. Hydrologists, geochemists and consultants have said the radioactive waste appears to have been taken from a Cold War-era uranium milling site near Tuba City and buried at a public dump 1 mile east of the communities. The villages of Upper Moenkopi and Lower Moencopi have seen levels of radioactive uranium in their ground water that appear to be above normal for the area, though these levels are still well within drinking water standards established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Hopi water managers fear these readings are a sign the leading edge of the radioactive plume might already be hitting the villages' groundwater supply. "It's a matter of jeopardizing people's lives" if nothing is done, said Harris Polelonema, community service administrator for Lower Moencopi. Everyone's trash heap Tuba City's dump was opened by the Bureau of Indian Affairs a mile east of town. It was used for more than 40 years until it was covered with sand in 1997. Situated on the boundary marking Hopi and Navajo lands, the dump was a disposal site for medical waste, animal carcasses, paint, batteries and tires, nearby residents said in interviews. "We have no paper record of what's actually in the site," said Lynelle Hartway, an attorney working for the Hopi Tribe. This makes it difficult to assign responsibility for the estimated $23 million cost of removing contaminants thoroughly, which is what both tribal governments want. Test wells at the dump show uranium levels up to 10 times higher than the level the EPA considers safe for drinking water. This uranium plume appears to be moving south and west toward Upper Moenkopi and local washes. If the villages' water and the Navajo Aquifer were to become contaminated, the uranium could bioaccumulate in produce that the Hopi people depend on and in natural vegetation consumed by the livestock, researchers fear. "While the problem isn't too dramatic based on concentration, the cumulative effect over time could be," said geochemist Bill Walker, who analyzed the site. No one's responsibility People working for both tribes have been seeking to have the dump cleaned up and the radioactive water pumped out, but they have made little headway over the years. The Department of Energy won't clean up the dump because the Navajo Nation didn't raise the issue soon enough and because it contains much more than just radioactive waste. The tribe should have raised the issue before the department's congressional authority to conduct cleanups under the Uranium Mill Tailings Remediation Act expired in 1998, the department told Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. in letters. And the EPA has been hesitant to designate the dump a federal cleanup site, because it isn't an immediate danger. "The emergency response office decided there was not an emergency and immediate risk to the public," said Andrew Bain, EPA's remedial project manager for Superfund in the West. That leaves open the possibility of trying to bill cleanup costs to the company that merged with Rare Metals Corporation: El Paso Natural Gas Company. Building a case Some EPA and other government officials have suggested the radioactive waste in the dump could not be the result of uranium milling operations just a few miles down the road. Or perhaps, they said, it occurred naturally. But during a geochemical analysis at the dump, Ray Johnson and Laurie Wirt, of the U.S. Geological Survey, found similarities between the uranium found in the dump and the types of ore milled at the nearby Rare Metals Corporation uranium mill. Wirt died in a boating accident in 2006. Walker, the geochemist and consultant, has found that the geology around Tuba City is "highly unlikely" to host uranium deposits, meaning it doesn't form there naturally. Instead, he's also found evidence linking the radioactive plume in the dump to the chemicals used in the milling process at the Rare Metals mill. "We've got fingerprints and good, solid data," Walker said. But the person the EPA has assigned to work on this site, Carl Warren, isn't convinced the radioactive plume poses a threat to human health. Nor is Warren certain there's any connection between what's in the radioactive dump and the uranium that was processed at Rare Metals. Neither is the Department of Energy -- the agency usually responsible for cleaning up radioactive waste left over from wartime weapons production. "The DOE did not find any evidence that would support the allegations that Rare Metals Corporation disposed of contaminated equipment or uranium mill tailings at the Tuba City landfill," it said in a letter to Shirley. " ... DOE believes that the ground water contamination discussed in your letter is not from the former mill site but is from the Tuba City landfill or some other nearby source." Giving up the springs The villages of upper Moenkopi and lower Moencopi live differently, but share the same water sources that naturally flow out of the ground. Upper Moenkopi has electricity and running water inside the homes. Lower Moencopi has electricity in a few homes. The stone and mortar houses lack plumbing because the traditional property owners elect not to install most utilities. Lower village residents get water by going outside to a handful of faucets hooked up to gravity-loaded pipes fed by springs. On a sandy road in the upper village, a metal pipe sticks out of a hillside spring, "Susungva," under a large tree. It pours clear, cold water into a basin of stone, next to a valley where Hopi farmers plant their fields every year. It's common to stop here and take a mouthful straight from the pipe. "Even those that have running water in their homes, they still like to drink that spring water," said Chiropractor Alan Numkena, the lieutenant governor of Upper Moenkopi. Upper Moenkopi has drilled wells to tap the deeper Coconino Aquifer as an alternative water source, but the villages need a $1.4 million reverse osmosis treatment system to make the water potable due to salinity. There's no funding to pay for the treatment system, said Wilbert Honahni Sr., an economic development specialist with the Moenkopi Developers Corporation, a non-profit. And in a village where two to three families sometimes share a house, there are many other competing financial priorities. There are going to be house-to-house surveys, interviews about the dump and public meetings for these residents in the months to come. Every fact must be documented in the political attempt to gain funds, excavate the contaminants of the dump and pump out the radioactive plume. More test wells are pending near the dump, to see how far the uranium contamination has traveled. The village drinking water will be tested routinely. "We tell them," said Hartway, the attorney for the Hopi Tribe, "that we will do whatever we can to know exactly what is in their water." http://www.azdailysun.com/articles/2007/03/18/news/20070318_news_37.prt

Spero News | Nuclear hypocrisy and Iran

Commentary: Energy and Environment

Nuclear hypocrisy and Iran

Dick Cheney is right -- a nuclear-armed Iran is not a pleasant prospect, and we have to do something. But the most effective option is the hardest to swallow.

Friday, March 02, 2007

By Frida Berrigan

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The Bush administration is very focused these days on Iran’s nuclear program. This focus has only sharpened in the aftermath of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s recent report that Iran continues to enrich uranium in defiance of a UN Security Council demand.

“A nuclear-armed Iran is not a very pleasant prospect for anybody to think about,” Vice President Dick Cheney told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl in Australia. “It clearly could do significant damage. And so I think we need to continue to do everything we can to make certain they don't achieve that objective.” Asked if the administration would continue to pursue diplomacy, the vice president responded that while “we've been working with the EU and going through the United Nations with sanctions… the President has also made it clear that we haven't taken any options off the table.”

In the White House, “options on the table” is code for military action. There have been many media reports of U.S. preparations to attack Iran. But the primary rationale for such an attack – to prevent Iran from going nuclear – is deeply problematic. Not only is the United States beefing up its military in general, it is even planning a modernization of its nuclear arsenal. The nuclear hypocrisy of the Bush administration makes any resolution of the conflict with Iran all the more difficult.

U.S. Military Spending

The new round of hand-wringing and saber-rattling about Iran’s nascent but worrisome nuclear program comes just a few weeks after the Bush administration announced its new budget, which included billions for nuclear weapons development. The Department of Energy’s “weapons activities” budget request totals $6.4 billion, a drop in the bucket compared to the Pentagon’s $481.4 billion proposed budget. But the budget for new nukes is large and growing -- even in comparison to Cold War figures.

During the Cold War, spending on nuclear weapons averaged $4.2 billion a year (in current dollars). Almost two decades after the nuclear animosity between the two great superpowers ended, the United States is spending one-and-a-half times the Cold War average on nuclear weapons.

In 2001, the weapons-activities budget of the Department of Energy (DOE), which oversees the nuclear weapons complex through the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), totaled $5.19 billion. Since President Bush’s January 2002 “Nuclear Posture Review” asserted the urgent need for a “revitalized nuclear weapons complex” -- “to design, develop, manufacture, and certify new warheads in response to new national requirements; and maintain readiness to resume underground testing” -- there has been more than a billion-dollar jump in nuclear spending. Included in the $6.4 billion 2008 request is money for “design concept testing” of two new nuclear warhead designs that officials hope will be deployed on submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles-- even as U.S. warships set their helms towards the Strait of Hormuz to menace Iran back from the nuclear brink.

Costly, Illegal, and Dangerous

Key to revitalizing nuclear weapons is Complex 2030, the NNSA’a “infrastructure planning scenario for a nuclear weapons complex able to meet the threats of the 21st century.” It is a costly, illegal, and dangerous program aimed at rebuilding the 50-year-old nuclear facilities where the weapons are both assembled and disassembled.

How Costly? The DOE estimates that Complex 2030 would require a capital investment of $150 billion. But the Government Accountability Office says that is way too low to fund even the basic maintenance of the eight nuclear facilities currently operational throughout the country.

Why Illegal? Complex 2030 promises a return to the Cold War cycle of design, development, and production of nuclear weapons, runs the risk of a return to underground nuclear testing, and could require the annual manufacture of hundreds of new plutonium pits -- the fissile “heart” of a nuclear weapon. These plans directly contradict U.S. treaty promises in 1968 “to negotiate toward general and complete disarmament.”

How Dangerous? Every step the United States takes away from the international consensus on the illegality and immorality of nuclear weapons is a new incentive and justification for other nations to pursue and brandish nuclear weapons. In a 2006 report, the independent “Weapons of Mass Destruction” Commission estimated the dark likelihood of ten new nuclear powers within a decade. At the end of January, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists advanced the hand of its Doomsday clock to five minutes to nuclear midnight, in part as a result of “renewed U.S. emphasis on the military utility of nuclear weapons.”

As the United States surges forward in its nuclear renaissance, the threat of nuclear terrorism and accidental nuclear strikes remains a grave yet under-funded priority. The administration occasionally raises the specter of nuclear-armed terrorists. In February 2004, for example, President Bush warned, “In the hands of terrorists, weapons of mass destruction would be a first resort.” Despite its rhetoric, however, the administration has done nothing to accelerate efforts to destroy and safeguard loose nuclear weapons and bomb-making materials, allocating about $1 billion a year to these crucial non-proliferation efforts (roughly the same amount that the Bush administration has been burning through each day in Iraq). At this rate, it will be 13 years before Russian nuclear material is secured.

The contradictions between what the administration is demanding of Tehran and other powers, and the capabilities it is pursuing for its own arsenal, are provocative and dangerous -- a pernicious form of nuclear hypocrisy.

Dick Cheney is right -- a nuclear-armed Iran is not a pleasant prospect, and we have to do something. But the most effective option is the hardest to swallow. Under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the United States agreed to an “unequivocal undertaking” to “eliminate” its nuclear weapons arsenal. Honoring that commitment -- and encouraging other declared and undeclared nuclear states to do the same -- would undercut Tehran’s arguments about why nuclear firepower is necessary. Oh, and by the way, it would also make the world feel a whole lot safer.

FPIF columnist Frida Berrigan is a senior research associate at the New School.

Published by Foreign Policy In Focus (FPIF), a joint project of the International Relations Center (IRC, online at www.irc-online.org) and the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS, online at www.ips-dc.org).

Radioactive water leak in Temelín plant - Prague Daily Monitor

Radioactive water leak in Temelín plant - Prague Daily Monitor: "Radioactive water leak in Temelín plant
prepared by Prague Daily Monitor editorial staff / published 2 March 2007
This is a MonitorPlus article. Access is free for now, but from Monday 12 March you will need a MonitorPlus subscription to read it. Please consider subscribing to support the Prague Daily Monitor.
Approximately 2,000 litres of radioactive water leaked from the Block 1 of the Temelín nuclear power station Tuesday, but the plant only reported the accident yesterday. Plant spokesperson Milan Nebesář said the health of employees was not under threat. The Austrian Environment Ministry expressed concern that it was only informed 50 hours after the accident.
Hospodářské noviny, page 3
Právo, page 1, 3
Mladá fronta Dnes, page A4
Lidové noviny, page 4"

Radioactive waste dumped in UK landfill

: "Radioactive waste dumped in UK landfill
(published on 7-February-2007)
URL: http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=12578

The company responsible for cleaning up after the British nuclear industry has admitted dumping radioactive waste in a Scottish landfill and failing to take adequate precautions to stop it entering the environment.


Failures in waste management processes led to radioactive fragments entering the environment at Dounreay

The UK Atomic Energy Authority was this week convicted of four charges under the Radioactive Substances Act 1960 at Wick Sheriff Court.

The charges relate to disposing of nuclear waste from Dounreay at a landfill during a 12 year period in the '60s and '70s. The second charge was tied to the failure to address erosion of the coastal landfill which led to fragments of radioactive fuel being discharged into the environment between 1963 and 1984.

The third and fourth related to the pumping of fragments from a storage pond into a surface water drain between 1963 and 1967 and washing waste from a spill down conventional drains in November 1965.

The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency began to compile the case after radioactive particles were found on a beach adjacent to the site, Sandside, and on the local seabed.

A total of 1401 radioactive fragments have been recovered by the agency.

An extensive investigation involving close scrutiny of the company's records and interviews with employees past and present has tried to uncover the origin of the fuel particles.

SEPA's chief executive Campbell Gemmell said the case clearly highlighted that while there have been problems in the past, that pollution is avoidable.

"This outcome serves as a valuable lesson to UKAEA and others that poor waste management practices will not be tolerated. Our message to everyone that we regulate is that we will help you to do the right thing.

"However, if you don't take your responsibilities seriously, we will take strong action."

Trying to put quell public safety fears, he said that the company appeared to have learnt from past mistakes.

"UKAEA has cleaned-up its act significantly and is making strenuous efforts to safely dismantle the Dounreay site, which is no easy job," he told the media.

"As part of our commitment to better regulation we will support them in doing this, as we support other operators who are serious about the environment. However, we are still the watchdog on behalf of the public. I sincerely hope that we do not need to use our powers again, but we will do so if that is necessary."

Hugh Fearn, a specialist in radioactivity for SEPA, gave a detailed explanation of how the charges came about and exactly how the environment had been threatened.

"Radioactive liquid waste was and still is disposed of from Dounreay to the sea at the Pentland Firth via a long outfall," he said.

"An authorisation was put in place in 1963 requiring that the authority use all reasonable practicable means to prevent the discharge of particulate matter effluent.

"However, on occasions this wasn't adhered to and no filtering process was in place to remove solid waste, resulting in a discharge of particles to the sea.

"The majority of the particles recovered have come from materials test reactor fuel elements which were dismantled in water filled ponds.

"Landfill 42, which contains building rubble and excavated material, was subjected to wave erosion during heavy tides between 1963 and 1975.

"Remedial work was required by SEPA at the time. Of the material pulled back from the danger of further erosion by the sea, 43 cubic metres proved to be radioactive waste and included six radioactive fuel fragments.

"The nature of the radioactive contamination has lasting consequences for the future and this is something which will need to be addressed by the polluter, UKAEA."

Sentencing is due to take place on Thursday, February 15.

Sam Bond

© Faversham House Group Ltd 2007. edie news articles may be copied or forwarded for individual use only. No other reproduction or distribution is permitted without prior written consent."

Livermore Lab to Escalate Depleted Uranium Testing

Livermore Lab to Escalate Depleted Uranium Testing: "OpEdNews

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_bob_nich_070206_livermore_lab_to_esc.htm

February 7, 2007

Livermore Lab to Escalate Depleted Uranium Testing

By Bob Nichols, Project Censored Award Winner

If it's news to you, you're not alone. Livermore National Laboratory has been testing radioactive devices – exploding depleted uranium and tritium into the open air – just 50 miles east of San Francisco since 1961. And now the lab has a permit to raise the amount of radioactive material they detonate yearly from 1,000 to 8,000 pounds.

Those who know are spreading the word and calling on the Bay Area to turn out for two meetings next week in protest: the Tracy City Council meeting Tuesday, Feb. 6, 7 p.m., at Tracy City Hall, 325 East 10th St., and the San Joaquin Air Pollution Control District Hearing Board meeting Wednesday, Feb. 7, 10 a.m., at 4800 Enterprise Way in Modesto.

The test site, called Site 300 by the Livermore nuclear weapons lab, is located on 11 square miles in the Altamont Hills between Tracy and Livermore. Like the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, formerly the site of the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, Site 300 is a Superfund site, one of the most contaminated places in the U.S. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Site 300 "is operated by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) primarily as a high-explosives and materials testing site in support of nuclear weapons research."

Site 300 Manager Jim Lane downplays the danger, saying in the Site 300 Annual Report: "Depleted uranium is used routinely. ... It contains a trace amount of radioactivity. However, it is less than normal daily exposure to the sun."

Marion Fulk, a highly respected Manhattan Project and Livermore atomic scientist, however, says that depleted uranium "is perfect for killing lots of people." That, in fact, along with contamination of the land, is the purpose of the devices being tested.

The tests at Livermore Site 300 use exotic high explosives to detonate weaponized uranium gas in solid metal form. The uranium metal catches fire and burns at more than 3,000 degrees, producing fumes of radioactive gas – or aerosols – that are deadly to all life forms.

Even a microscopic particle of these depleted uranium (DU) – mostly Uranium-238 – aerosols lodged inside a human lung can cause severe health problems, from cancers to diabetes, asthma, birth defects, organ damage, heart failure and auto-immune system diseases. And this radioactive gas travels long distances.

Nine days after the U.S. began its "shock and awe" bombing campaign in Iraq on March 21, 2003, Dr. Chris Busby found DU aerosols in giant high volume air filters in England, 2,500 miles from Baghdad.

The 7 million residents of the San Francisco Bay Area are all endangered by the testing at Livermore Site 300, as are the people and produce of the agriculturally rich Central Valley. In reality, San Francisco and Northern California are under attack by the Livermore nuclear weapons lab.

Since the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District issued Livermore the new permit on Nov. 12, "(t)wo appeals have been filed, one by a housing developer and the other by a resident who lives about five miles from the radioactive blast location, Site 300," writes Washington, D.C., area-based investigative journalist Cathy Garger. A large turnout at the meetings Feb. 6 and 7 will show support for those appeals.

"Lawrence Livermore representatives will not reveal to Tracy residents precisely how many bombs might be 'tested' in a year," writes Garger. "Tracy Press reports that the only reason given by Lawrence Livermore for the eight-fold annual increase in explosives testing is 'national security,' according to air district spokeswoman Kelly Morphy."

Bob Nichols is a Project Censored Award winner, newspaper correspondent and a frequent contributor to various online publications. Now completing a book based on 15 years of nuclear radiation war in Central Asia, he is a former employee of the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant. He can be reached at DUweapons@gmail.com. To learn more, read Cathy Garger's story and blog at http://tinyurl.com/32pghh and http://haltdutesting.blogspot.com/. Bay View staff contributed to this report.

PHOTO: Livermore Site 300 1961 radioactive device test.jpg

CAPTION: This photo and the following comment come from the Livermore Laboratory archives: "Hydrodynamic (bomb core) test on a firing table at Site 300, 1961. The bright 'streaking' effect in the photo is likely from shards of pyrophoric metal, such as Uranium 238, hurtling through the air. U-238 is one of the contaminants of concern in the Site 300 Superfund cleanup."

Photo: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.



Authors Bio: Bob Nichols is a Project Censored Award winner. He is a newspaper correspondent and a frequent contributor to various online publications. Nichols is completing a book based on 15 years of nuclear radiation war in Central Asia. He is a former employee of the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant. Nichols can be reached by email, and readers are encouraged to write to him at: DUweapons@gmail.com
"

Radioactive gauge missing for 2 weeks

: "Radioactive gauge missing for 2 weeks
By Ann Schrader
Denver Post Staff Writer
DenverPost.com
Article Last Updated:

A common engineering gauge containing a small amount of radiation remains missing despite authorities recovering the stolen pickup truck it was in Tuesday.

The gauge, which measures soil densities, was in a bright-yellow, cooler-sized storage box that was chained into the back of a 1995 Ford Ranger pickup that was stolen from a Lakewood garage on Oct. 22.

The truck was found Tuesday a few blocks from where it was stolen in the Belmar Park area.

Steve Davis, a Lakewood police spokesman, said a resident reported the truck after seeing it parked on the street for some time.

The stolen gauge was reported Oct. 23 to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Radioactive materials in the gauge do not pose a significant health risk as long as the gauge remains intact and is not handled for long periods, said Jeannine Natterman, a state health spokeswoman.

Higher radiation exposures may occur if the radioactive materials are tampered with or the source rod is moved out of its shielded position, Natterman said.

Acura Engineering of Centennial, which owns the gauge, has offered a $1,000 reward for its return. The company can be reached at 303-799-8378.

"The gauge has a very-low level of radiation, although it is a radiation source and is controlled by the state health department and the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission)," said Rick Fulton of Acura.

"Since 9/11, the rules have gotten strict about radioactive materials, and they take it very, very seriously."

Fulton said the gauge, a Troxler 3430 Surface Moisture Density Gauge, costs about $5,500 new.

Police said nothing else appeared to have been taken from the truck, which was found with the keys on the front seat.

Anyone finding the gauge or its case should call state health at 877-518-5608.

Lakewood police said the gauge also can be dropped off at the department, 445 S. Allison Parkway.

Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com."

FOXNews.com - New AIDS Therapy Nukes HIV With Radioactive Antibodies

FOXNews.com - New AIDS Therapy Nukes HIV With Radioactive Antibodies: "New AIDS Therapy Nukes HIV With Radioactive Antibodies

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

By Daniel J. DeNoon



Like guided missiles, radioactive anti-HIV antibodies seek out and destroy HIV-infected cells.

The new approach to AIDS therapy -- called radioimmunotherapy -- works in mice, report Ekaterina Dadachova, PhD, of New York's Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and colleagues.

"Radioimmunotherapy is supposed to be curative," Dadachova tells WebMD. "Current HIV treatments kill the virus, but it will come back because it hides in latently infected cells. Our goal is to go after those cells, so radioimmunotherapy has the potential to cure somebody completely."

Dadachova's colleague, Harris Goldstein, MD, tempers his enthusiasm a bit more. Goldstein is director of the Einstein/MMC Center for AIDS Research in New York.

"If we had a nickel for every time HIV was cured we'd all be very wealthy," Goldstein tells WebMD. "But it is exciting when a new conceptual approach comes along. What makes this treatment unique is that it is designed to target HIV infected cells and kill them. This really has the potential to markedly reduce the viral infection in patients."

AIDS Cure Possible, Studies Suggest

Nuking HIV

What has Dadachova and Goldstein so excited is their finding that the new AIDS therapy concept works not just in the test tube, but in living animals.

The treatment starts with an antibody that homes in on a piece of HIV (called gp41) that sticks out of HIV-infected cells. The antibody is attached to a radioactive isotope. It latches on to cells carrying HIV and irradiates them. Since the antibody doesn't stick to healthy cells, the treatment doesn't affect them.

This may sound like the future, but such treatments already exist. The FDA-approved drugs Zevalin and Bexxar are radioimmunotherapies that target cancer cells in people with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Recently, Dadachova, Goldstein, and others showed that radioimmunotherapy could be used to treat infections as well as cancers. In their new study, they show that the technique can seek out and destroy human HIV infected cells growing in specially bred mice.

"Many things fail in animals that worked in the test tube," Goldstein says. "So the antibodies being able to hunt out and eliminate HIV infected cells brings this a lot closer to the clinic."

Indeed, the researchers hope to begin human clinical trials within two years.

It's an innovative, interesting approach, says HIV researcher Carrie Dykes, PhD, of the University of Rochester, New York. Dykes was not involved in the Dadachova/Goldstein study.

"I think it could play out," Dykes tells WebMD. "They have a lot of animal studies to do before they get into humans. But it would be interesting to see if it would really work."

AIDS Virus May Be Weakening

Curing HIV?

Current therapy for HIV -- known as highly active antiretroviral therapy or HAART -- uses a combination of powerful drugs that keep the AIDS virus from replicating. When treatment is successful, the virus seems to disappear from the blood.

But once treatment stops, the virus eventually comes back. That's because HIV hides in a few long-lived cells -- so-called latent HIV infection.

If a person gets HAART treatment very, very soon after infection, it's possible to stop the virus before it can establish hideouts. But there is a very narrow window of opportunity to begin this treatment -- as little as a day, and certainly within 72 hours of exposure.

That's because HAART has to work before it starts to replicate within cells. But if radioimmunotherapy were available, the treatment could seek out infected cells and kill them -- effectively widening the window of opportunity to eliminate HIV infection.

Moreover, new strategies are being developed to flush HIV out of hiding. Such strategies, combined with radioimmunotherapy and HAART, might conceivably eradicate HIV, even in established infection. But that hope lies far in the future.

Dykes notes that the researchers haven't yet shown that radioimmunotherapy can track down HIV anywhere in the body. She notes that in the current study, the treatment hit HIV only in liver, spleen, and thymus cells.

"It will be interesting to see whether you could get the radioimmunotherapy to target all the different areas that HIV gets to in the body," she says. "I have a feeling this treatment probably wouldn't cross the blood/brain barrier and get to HIV in the brain."

Dykes agrees with Goldstein that a major benefit of radioimmunotherapy would be to help people for whom HAART simply doesn't work very well.

"A lot of patients out there don't have a lot of treatment options left," Dykes says. "For those patients, this treatment -- which, after all, involves radiation -- might be something they would be willing to do."

"While two-thirds of people with HIV respond well to HAART, others don't," Goldstein says. "If we treat them with radioimmunotherapy to reduce the number of infected cells, we may be able to take patients who are not responsive and make them responsive to HAART."

Dadachova, Goldstein, and colleagues report their findings in the November issue of the open-access, online journal PLOS Medicine.

More Than 1 Million Americans Living With HIV

By Daniel J. DeNoon, reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

SOURCES: Dadachova, E. PLOS Medicine, November 2006; vol 3: pp e427. Ekaterina Dadachova, PhD, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York. Harris Goldstein, MD, director, Einstein/MMC Center for AIDS Research, New York. Carrie Dykes, PhD, University of Rochester, New York.
"

BELLACIAO - DIABETES AND DEPLETED URANIUM: IF ITS AN EPIDEMIC, ITS NOT GENETIC - Leuren Moret - Collective Bellaciao

BELLACIAO - DIABETES AND DEPLETED URANIUM: IF ITS AN EPIDEMIC, ITS NOT GENETIC - Leuren Moret - Collective Bellaciao: "October Wednesday 4th 2006 (03h21) :
DIABETES AND DEPLETED URANIUM: IF ITS AN EPIDEMIC, ITS NOT GENETIC
3 comment(s).
By Leuren Moret

The global pandemic of diabetes which is increasing each year, began with the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The resulting global atmospheric pollution has resulted in a diabetes pandemic caused by hundreds of thousands of pounds of vaporized depleted uranium used in atomic and hydrogen bombs as "tamping", fission products from nuclear power plants, and the illegal use of depleted uranium radioactive poison gas weapons introduced to the battlefield by the US in 1991. Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and now Lebanon are now uninhabitable. Israel soon will be.

Depleted uranium is being used to carry out an illegal nuclear war against countries with mineral resources the British Economic Empire and US Economic Empire must control. The huge global increase in diabetes between 1996-97 is indicative of a global environmental event. Now we know why Rhodes Scholar President Clinton was grid bombing and carpet bombing in Iraq in the NO-FLY-ZONES for ten years. Grid bombing and carpet bombing is carried out for the sole purpose of terrain contamination.

Unfortunately, we the citizens of the world are now sitting together in the Auschwitz radioactive poison gas chamber which our atmosphere has been converted into by the "GLOBAL 2000" National Security Council policy paper written in 1979 for (David Rockefeller’s protege) President Jimmy Carter by (David Rockefeller’s protege) Henry Kissinger, (David Rockefeller’s protege) Zbiegnew Brzezinski, General Alexander Haig, and Ed Muskie.

The Queen’s favorite American buccaneers, Cheney, Halliburton, and the Bush family, are tied to her through uranium mining and the shared use of illegal depleted uranium munitions in the Middle East, Central Asia and Kosovo/Bosnia.

Thank you Queen Elizabeth, the Rothschilds, and David Rockefeller for carrying out the depopulation plans of Sir Cecil Rhodes, the sponsor of the Rhodes Scholarship and mid-1800s explorer of Africa.

GLOBAL DEPOPULATION HAS BEGUN: http://www.berkeleycitizen.org/diab...

THE QUEEN’S DEATH STAR: http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2006/...

By : Leuren Moret
October Wednesday 4th 2006"

El Defensor Chieftain: Veteran speaks on his battles since returning from Gulf War

El Defensor Chieftain: Veteran speaks on his battles since returning from Gulf War: "Wednesday, October 4, 2006
Veteran speaks on his battles since returning from Gulf War

Evelyn Cronce El Defensor Chieftain Reporter

Veteran Jerry Wheat spoke to audiences at the Disable American Veterans Hall and at the Socorro Public Library about his experiences in the first Gulf War in 1991.

He especially spoke on the physical and bureaucratic problems he continues to battle from wounds received when his Bradley armored personnel carrier was accidentally hit twice by "friendly fire" with American shells made from depleted uranium.

Wheat was deployed in Saudi Arabia in late December 1990 with the 3rd Armored Division of the 47th Cavalry. On Feb. 27, 1991, on a reconnaissance mission in Iraq, Wheat found himself in a sandstorm facing the enemy's Republican Guard.

The Bradley he was driving pulled back to reload and was hit by an armor-piercing round. When he came to, he was on fire and removed most of his clothing, including his bulletproof vest. When he discovered that the Bradley would still run, he attempted to head back to his unit and was hit a second time. This time, without his protective gear, the shrapnel penetrated his body and became embedded.

Wheat was evacuated to the field hospital where the shrapnel was removed. He said the pieces were small, the largest being only about three-quarters of an inch. His commanding officer told Wheat that he was lucky to be alive after having been hit by two T-72 Russian tank rounds.

"He didn't tell me I had been hit by 'friendly fire,'" Wheat said.

For the next couple of weeks, until the ceasefire, Wheat continued to drive the Bradley until the engine finally quit and had no access to shower facilities.

"I was just happy to be alive. The Bradley, my clothes and my sleeping bag were all covered in a fine dust, not sand," he said. "There were still pieces of shrapnel in my sleeping bag and my gear. The fine dust got over everything, including the MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat) I ate. There was no place to wash up."

Then the ceasefire was declared and Wheat returned to his family at the base in Germany, but he started having health problems. He had still not had an opportunity to shower or clean up when he arrived home still dusty. His 3-year -old son, who had never had respiratory problems, was rushed to the hospital that night and spent the next week in the hospital with breathing problems.

Wheat feared some kind of heavy metal poisoning. Wheat discovered that he had been hit by depleted uranium when his father, working at Los Alamos, took samples of the shrapnel from Wheat's sleeping bag and had them tested.

Wheat brought the shrapnel from his gear and the shrapnel that had worked its way out of his body since the incident to the lecture. Damacio Lopez tested it with a Geiger counter and demonstrated that it registered 1,200 counts per minute.

Wheat has had numerous health problems since the incident, but the Veterans Administration has not said that any of his problems, including the cancerous tumor in the bone of his shoulder, were caused by depleted uranium. He said the V.A. blames his problems on post-traumatic stress.

Wheat's lecture was followed by a showing of the video documentary "Invisible War: The Politics of Radiation."

Much audience discussion followed both the presentation and the video. There was a great deal of concern expressed about effects of depleted uranium as used by the military. Concern was expressed as well about historic testing of depleted uranium weapons, and whether or not it is still being tested, for the military at New Mexico Tech and at White Sands Missile Range.

Tom Delahante, Disabled American Veterans president, suggested everyone who has been exposed to shrapnel from any of the Middle East conflicts or from Bosnia, either during the fighting or from souvenirs brought back by soldiers, or from the testing of depleted uranium done locally should contact the DAV.

"You don't want to deal with the VA alone," said Delahante. "Jerry's story is typical."

ecronce@dchieftain.com"

North Korea to test nuclear warhead | The Register

North Korea to test nuclear warhead | The Register: "North Korea to test nuclear warhead
Radioactive sabre-rattling

Published Tuesday 3rd October 2006 10:54 GMT

North Korea has announced it will test one of its nuclear warheads, the BBC reports. North Korea's foreign ministry declared: '[North Korea] will in the future conduct a nuclear test under the condition where safety is firmly guaranteed.'

It added provocatively: 'The US daily increasing threat of a nuclear war and its vicious sanctions and pressure have caused a grave situation on the Korean Peninsula.'

The ministry said North Korea 'can no longer remain an on-looker to the developments' - a reference to 'vicious' US sanctions which have caused a situation where 'the US moves to isolate and stifle' the country.

The Pyongyang regime is under considerable US-led pressure to cease and desist its nuclear weapons programme. In 1994, it signed an agreement to 'freeze all nuclear-related activities', but in December 2002 restarted its Yongbyon reactor and booted two UN nuclear monitors out of the country.

A fully-operational Yongbyon reactor could, the BBC notes, 'produce enough plutonium to build approximately one weapon per year'.
"

KNDO/KNDU Tri-Cities, Yakima, WA | EPA chooses plan for cleaning up uranium mine

KNDO/KNDU Tri-Cities, Yakima, WA | EPA chooses plan for cleaning up uranium mine: "EPA chooses plan for cleaning up uranium mine

SPOKANE, Wash. The U-S Environmental Protection Agency has approved a final plan for cleaning up radioactive wastes at a defunct Cold War uranium mine on the Spokane Indian Reservation.
In its 'Record of Decision,' the E-P-A says contaminated water from the Midnite Mine near Wellpinit will be treated and two open pits will be filled and capped.

The Midnite Mine, about 45 miles northwest of Spokane, is a Superfund cleanup site which operated from 1955-to-1981. The 350-acre area now is a series of open pits filled with mildly radioactive heavy metals and water that can enter nearby streams.

Spokane tribal officials reacted favorably to the cleanup plan. Shannon Work, the tribe's special environmental counsel, says the selection of a preferred cleanup alternative is 'a big step forward.

The E-P-A estimates the cleanup will cost about 152 (m) million dollars.

Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed."

KOBTV.com - LANL workers may get compensated for radiation exposure

KOBTV.com - LANL workers may get compensated for radiation exposure: "LANL workers may get compensated for radiation exposure
Last Update: 10/03/2006 10:14:28 AM
By: Associated Press

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) - Los Alamos National Laboratory workers who developed cancer after being exposed to a radioactive substance during two decades of nuclear weapons experiments may soon qualify for automatic payments from the government.

A staffer for Representative Tom Dual says it�s not clear how many workers will be eligible. The New Mexico Democrat has been working to make sure the group is a broad as possible.

Between September 1st, 1944, and July 18th, 1963, lab employees set off about 250 tests of atomic bomb components using a substance called radioactive lanthanum.

Officials now say that substance endangered the health of workers who were exposed to it.

The Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health, which helps determine whether to compensate sick Cold War-era workers, last month recommended the radioactive lanthanum workers be included in a group eligible for automatic compensation.

Their recommendation ultimately will be sent to Congress.



(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

"

Japan finds radioactive matter around U.S. ship

: "Japan finds radioactive matter around U.S. ship
Wed Sep 27, 2006 7:55 AM ET

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan said on Wednesday it found radioactive matter from water samples taken around a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine off its eastern coast, but the amount was small and posed no harm to humans or the environment.

The government is conducting further tests to see if the particles were emitted from the submarine, said an official from the Education Ministry, which also oversees science and technology issues.

Two types of radioactive particles were found from the ocean water samples around the USS Honolulu shortly after it left Yokosuka, a U.S. navy base 45 km (30 miles) south of Tokyo, earlier this month, the official said.

He said he had no information on where the submarine was now. U.S. Navy officials were unavailable for comment. The findings come after a Japanese mayor agreed to hosting a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in June, a proposed deployment that had sparked public worry about safety.

The move was agreed by the Japanese and U.S. governments last October, but the mayor of Yokosuka initially opposed it because of local fears over the first nuclear carrier to be deployed in Japan.

The United States wants the nuclear-powered vessel to replace the USS Kitty Hawk, a diesel-powered aircraft carrier scheduled to be decommissioned in 2008.

Japan is host to about 50,000 U.S. troops, and military bases are often unpopular with local residents, who complain of noise, pollution and crime."

nuclear powered space lab

Central Florida News 13,: "NASA Faces Questions Over Powering of Mars Science Lab

NASA is planning to send a science laboratory to Mars. It will draw its electrical power either from a nuclear generator or solar arrays, and local residents have a chance to weigh in today.
The worry is the potential danger of launching the Mars Science Laboratory with a plutonium-powered generator, which is NASA's preferred method of powering the craft.

Launch of the big Mars rover is set for sometime between September and November 2009 on an Atlas 5 rocket.

Safety studies by NASA and the Department of Energy show there is a 1 in 420 chance of an accident early in the flight resulting in a release of radioactive material over communities near Cape Canaveral Air Force Station"

News - MSN Money

News - MSN Money: "September 22, 2006 03:28 PM ET
Progress Asks to Up Nuclear Plant Output
Associated Press
All Associated Press News

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Progress Energy Inc. subsidiary Progress Energy Florida said Friday it wants state electric regulators to let the company boost power output at its Crystal River nuclear plant, which the company said will save customers money.

The company said increasing the gross output at the plant to 1,080 megawatts would allow it to serve 110,700 more homes.

Raising the amount of electricity generated with nuclear energy can reduce the use of other, more expensive fuels, which could mean more than $2 billion in savings over the next 30 years, Progress Energy said.

The move must be approved by the state Public Service Commission.

The plan is unrelated to the Progress's hopes to build a new nuclear plant in Florida. The company, the second largest electric utility in the state, continues to search for a site for that project.

Progress has about 1.6 million customers in Florida, mostly in the Tampa Bay area and the Orlando suburbs.

Shares of parent Progress Energy rose 16 cents to $43.51 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange."

New York Daily News - City News - Radioactive 'hot spots' threat to city, study sez

New York Daily News - City News - Radioactive 'hot spots' threat to city, study sez: "city, study sez

BY JAMES GORDON MEEK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON - A helicopter survey revealed 80 radioactive "hot spots" in New York City, including a Staten Island park with dangerously high levels of radium, a congressional report disclosed yesterday.

The park, built on a former industrial site, had to be closed as a result of radium detected there, according to the report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

The GAO did not identify the park, but Brian Feeney of the National Park Service said a 1-acre section of Great Kills Park on Staten Island, part of Gateway National Recreation Area, had been shut down in August 2005 after federal officials discovered old industrial equipment contaminated with radiation.

He said the area was a dense section of marsh grass that was not frequented by visitors and was blocked off merely as a precaution.

Rep. Vito Fossella (R-Staten Island) said area residents shouldn't panic, but he stressed the need for more information.

"It is essential for the government to act immediately to fully understand the extent of the contamination," Fossella said.

The GAO report said there were a total of "80 locations with radiological sources that required further investigation to determine their risk."

The locations were discovered during a 2005 helicopter sweep by the Department of Energy, paid for by the city with an $800,000 grant from the Department of Homeland Security, to map every radioactive site in the city.

City officials hope that in the event of a radioactive "dirty bomb" attack, they could quickly identify affected areas by comparing new hot spots with those previously identified on the "radiation map" of the five boroughs.

The new hot spots would be detected by choppers outfitted with radiationsniffing gear.

New York is the only U.S. city to have had an aerial radiation survey conducted. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said yesterday the Bush administration was dropping the ball by not funding similar checks for other cities.

"This is a program that could save lives ... but is instead being shrugged at by the very people who are charged with protecting us," Schumer said.

But officials from the National Nuclear Security Administration - which hunts for terror weapons within the U.S. - said in a letter to the GAO that helicopter surveys to detect "low-intensity" sites are unreliable.

That means there could be hundreds more radioactive sites in New York besides the 80 identified already.

With Greg Smith


Originally published on September 22, 2006"

Philadelphia Inquirer | 09/24/2006 | Monica Yant Kinney | Hard to ignore radioactive slag

Philadelphia Inquirer | 09/24/2006 | Monica Yant Kinney | Hard to ignore radioactive slag: "Monica Yant Kinney | Hard to ignore radioactive slag
By Monica Yant Kinney
Inquirer Columnist

First, we learn that children were exposed to mercury at a toxic day-care center in Franklin Township. Now, a nearby factory wants to skip town and leave South Jersey a pile of radioactive waste perfect for games of King of the Mountain.

Sometimes, I'd rather not believe what I read.

It's hard enough knowing that just living in New Jersey could give you cancer. Now I see a known polluter is trying to blackmail the Garden State in a radioactive version of Deal or No Deal.

Let us leave our mess, on our terms, the company says. Make us stay and clean it up, and we'll have no choice but to file for bankruptcy and stick taxpayers with the bill.

Shieldalloy Metallurgical Corp. is a middle-age company with a modern-day dilemma.

For more than 40 years, the metal-making factory in Newfield, Gloucester County, has thrown its trash out back, creating a six-acre, 35-foot-high pile of radioactive rock called slag.

Shieldalloy recently stopped production in these parts so a sister company can do it more cheaply in Brazil. Fair enough, except unlike homeowners, metal manufacturers can't just lock up the place and walk away.

Thousand-year payment plan

Shieldalloy has to answer to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (because it used ore containing radioactive uranium and thorium) and the state Department of Environmental Protection (because the factory is also a Superfund site, with chromium in the groundwater and soil).

The company has spent more than 20 years and a tidy sum trying to clean up its chemical mess under the state's watchful eye. This time, Shieldalloy would prefer to cut costs and corners, and run.

"Statistically," Shieldalloy spokesman Michael Turner tells me, "it would be more dangerous to move this material because the trucks may get into an accident in a highway."

Plus, he says, the cost of scrubbing the site so it could be redeveloped "would put us out of business."

Rather than spend $30 million to $58 million to haul 50,000 tons of slag to a special dump in Utah, the company proposes spending just $5 million to tamp down the radioactive rock, cover it with soil and grass, and build a fence. Shieldalloy estimates monitoring costs at $19,000 a year for the next 1,000 years.

Yes, it really thinks that's enough to cover any and all problems on the pile until 3010. That's because the company can't imagine any problems.

Sure, Shieldalloy's proposal leaves locals in the lurch. But think of the benefits for a firm bolting for Brazil.

"All you need to do," Turner says, "is pay someone to make sure the cap is in place and mow the grass."

Slag for sale

Sorry to be such a dunce, but if 50,000 tons of radioactive waste is "innocuous," as Shieldalloy and the NRC assert, what's the dispute?

Jill Lapoti of the state DEP poses another question in response: "If it's innocuous, why would it cost all that money to clean up?"

The DEP wants the site cleaned and the ground cleared. Period. New Jersey has precious little developable land left. Even six acres has value.

Ah, but so does radioactive slag, says Turner. If only the government didn't make it so hard to sell it.

"Frankly, we would give it away," he says, but even willing takers don't want the hassle.

In another irony, Turner tells me that if Shieldalloy is forced to spend every cent it has shipping slag out West, "we'd actually be taking space that could be used for things that are much, much more radioactive."

So really, when you think about it, the pile of slag is good for the earth?

Hardly, sniffs Diane D'Arrigo of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Washington, who reminds her industrial foes that "there's no safe level of radiation."

"The earth moves," D'Arrigo points out. "It's a living organism. To expect to be able to inject poison into it and have it stay still is unrealistic."
Contact Monica Yant Kinney at 856-779-3914 or myant@phillynews.com. Read her recent work at http://go.philly.com/yantkinney.
"

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."