[ RadSafe ] [Nuclear News] Equipment problem halts China breast exams

[Sandy Perle]

Index:

Equipment problem halts China breast exams
REACTS key in nuclear threat 
UTPB nuclear reactor project moving ahead 
Top nuclear engineer favors closing of Oyster Creek plant
Nuclear station's challenges laid out 
Morris eyed for nuclear recycling
No radioactive waste wanted Fox Township
DNA test detects low-level uranium
Southern Ohio Neighbors Group opposes nuke partnership site
------------------------------------

Equipment problem halts China breast exams

BEIJING, China, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- A nationwide program of discounted 
breast screening exams for Chinese women has been suspended due to 
fears of possible radiation from faulty X-ray equipment.

China Radio International reported Saturday that the program was 
discontinued after high radiation levels were found in the equipment 
used for the tests.

The Beijing Times said the sponsor of the screening effort, Xu 
Guangwei, a leading domestic tumor expert, installed the equipment in 
40 hospitals and was set to equip another 210 hospitals with the 
computed radiography device used in the exams.

The ambitious project, started in 2004, had covered 30,526 women by 
the end of 2006. The pending offer to the other hospitals, however, 
would most likely be refused because radiologists have said they had 
concerns over the radiation exposure levels of the CR technology.
-------------

REACTS key in nuclear threat 

Oak Ridge facility a global leader in guarding against effects of 
radiation release 

OAK RIDGE (KnoxNews) Feb 25 - In a back room at Oak Ridge's radiation 
emergency center is a shiny metal suitcase that's packed and ready 
for travel. Should terrorists strike, that little suitcase could be a 
lifesaver. It's loaded with capsules of Prussian blue, the drug of 
choice for people who've inhaled or ingested radioactive cesium - a 
likely source material for a dirty bomb.  

Prussian blue is a chelating agent that can help the body shed its 
radioactive burden, minimize the radiation dose and reduce the long-
term risk of developing cancer. 

"If you gave Prussian blue promptly and properly, you might cut the 
risk in half," said Dr. Albert Wiley, director of the Radiation 
Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site. 

Up until a couple of years ago, the Oak Ridge facility was the only 
place in the United States that stockpiled Prussian blue and DTPA - 
an injectable drug that is effective against plutonium, americium and 
other so-called transuranic elements. 

Because of the emerging threat of terrorism, the government has added 
the drugs to the Strategic National Stockpile and now maintains 
supplies at a series of undisclosed regional locations. 

REACTS, a key responder for radiation emergencies, keeps a sizable 
amount of those drugs on hand. It also has potassium iodide tablets - 
to block the effects of radioactive iodine - and other things that 
could prove useful in a crisis or a catastrophe. 

In the event of domestic emergency, an Oak Ridge team is obligated to 
be "wheels up" within four hours. If it's an international radiation 
incident, they must be airborne within six hours. 

Nuclear terrorism is a global threat, and experts say it's only a 
matter of time before it disrupts life in the United States. 

A radiation dispersal device - also known as a dirty bomb - could be 
put together fairly easily, using conventional explosives to 
distribute radioactive materials and scare large populations. 

The worst case would be the detonation of a nuclear bomb. Despite 
increased security efforts and intelligence that tracks terrorist 
groups, that's not inconceivable. 

"We know a third-rate university physics lab could make a nuclear 
device in a year if you gave them some fissile material," Gen. Barry 
McCaffrey, a retired four-star general and terrorism expert, said 
during an Oak Ridge visit last year. 

Wiley said: "You hope and pray it will never happen in this country. 
But we can't put our heads in the sand. We have to develop some 
response. I think we're obligated to, and it's our mission to do 
that." 

REACTS was created in 1976 as part of the federal programs managed by 
Oak Ridge Associated Universities, but its roots go back even 
further. The emergency response capabilities evolved in stages after 
a 1958 criticality accident at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, where 
eight workers were exposed to high doses of radiation. 

The current REACTS facility is adjacent to the Methodist Medical 
Center of Oak Ridge. Its funding comes mostly from the National 
Nuclear Security Administration - the nuclear defense arm of the U.S. 
Department of Energy. 

Wiley, a radiation oncologist by training, joined REACTS in 2002 and 
became director two years later. He holds two degrees in nuclear 
engineering, as well as his medical degree from the University of 
Rochester and a Ph.D. in radiological sciences from the University of 
Wisconsin. 

He and his 12-member staff, including two other physicians, 
paramedics and health physicists, are available to provide assistance 
for all types of radiation accidents. 

Sometimes that requires on-the-scene advice, such as a notable trip 
to Brazil in 1987 to help with the medical treatment of people 
exposed to a glowing source of cesium-137. Hundreds of people at 
Goiania were contaminated, and four people eventually died of 
radiation poisoning. 

In addition to its other duties, REACTS maintains a registry of 
radiation accidents around the world, especially those with doses of 
25 rem or more - the equivalent of 2,500 chest X-rays. 

According to the unofficial registry, there have been 126 deaths from 
accidents involving acute radiation exposures since 1946. The 
fatalities are underreported, however, because of secrecy during the 
Cold War, particularly from the Soviet bloc. 

The Oak Ridge facility provides support to the World Health 
Organization and the International Atomic Energy Agency. More often 
than not, staff members provide assistance by phone or computer, 
offering technical support and advice. 

The most important mission of REACTS may be its training, teaching 
classes for medical personnel and other emergency responders on how 
to deal with radiation accidents. 

Last year, they conducted classes and drills for 1,000 people at 20 
different locations worldwide and had 14 hands-on courses in Oak 
Ridge. Interest has grown dramatically in the post-9/11 era. 

In addition to its national and international responsibilities, 
REACTS stands ready to help with local emergencies. The Oak Ridge 
unit includes specialized equipment, including various types of 
radiation detectors, and even a rarely used autopsy table with 
shielding to protect physicians while examining contaminated bodies. 

Fortunately, most days at REACTS are pretty quiet, and terrorism is 
just part of the training manual. 

If the Big One comes, though, the Oak Ridge operations would become 
part of the overall emergency response of the National Nuclear 
Security Administration - probably deploying two teams to the scene 
of the incident and maintaining a support group here. 

The initial role of a REACTS team would be to treat the emergency 
responders, Wiley said. 

"In the field, that's anything from a headache to plutonium 
exposures," he said. 

If a dirty bomb is exploded, the short-term challenge may be dealing 
with people's fears, because the actual radiation doses would likely 
be non-life threatening, Wiley said. 

"We don't expect people to experience symptoms," he said. "The 
hazards there are generally the psychological disturbances." 
--------------

UTPB nuclear reactor project moving ahead 

(Midland Reporter-Telegram) Feb 25 - The high-temperature teaching 
and test reactor project, a joint venture of the University of Texas 
of the Permian Basin, General Atomics and the city and county of 
Andrews, among others, is moving ahead on funding options.  

A project director is in place as is a nuclear physicist. 

Project cost for the state-of-the-art, helium-cooled nuclear research 
facility is some $500 million. $3 million has been raised for the 
preconceptual design and $1 million more was offered by the U.S. 
Congress. 

"We've made great progress on the preconceptual design, we have a 
draft report and we need to complete the business plan," UTPB 
President David Watts said. "We need to continue to develop the 
preconceptual design." 

Engineering on the reactor is expected to start in 2006 and 
construction completed by late 2012. "It will be a unique teaching 
and test facility that will help train a new generation of scientists 
and engineers on how to safely operate new nuclear technologies that 
will generate electricity at efficiencies above 50 percent with no 
greenhouse gases," the project Web site said. 

"Additionally, excess process heat from these reactors is sufficient 
to economically create hydrogen from water and synfuels from coal and 
long-chain hydrocarbons," the site said. 

The reactor would sit on land in Andrews County, which is also home 
to Waste Control Specialists and near the National Enrichment 
Facility, built by Louisiana Energy Services in partnership with 
Urenco Limited in England. 

The modular helium reactor is designed so it cannot melt, even at 
temperatures up to 1,500 degrees centigrade. 

University officials still need approval from the University of Texas 
System regents to move forward on some of aspects of the project. 

The reactor would be used to help develop the next generation of 
nuclear reactor to help reduce dependence on foreign oil. China and 
Japan each have one of the same type, Wright said. It could be used 
for electric generation and be available for coal and hydrogen 
gasification. 

Major project partners include the cities of Midland, Odessa and 
Andrews and Andrews County, University of Texas of the Permian Basin, 
General Atomics of San Diego and the UT System.
--------------

Top nuclear engineer favors closing of Oyster Creek plant

(Asbury Park Press) Feb 25 - The state's top nuclear engineer, who 
has inspected the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant numerous times and 
has reviewed classified documents about its operation, says the Lacey 
plant should close after its operating license expires in two years. 

The plant's obsolete design, its vulnerability to a 9/11-style 
attack, and the chaos that would ensue if the public near the plant 
had to evacuate from a radioactive release top Dennis Zannoni's list 
of reasons - even if they've been heard before.

Citizen activists and environmental groups have championed those 
concerns for years, but Zannoni is not your everyday renewal 
opponent.

In addition to his special clearances, Zannoni has 20 years of 
experience with the state Department of Environmental Protection and 
four-year degrees in nuclear engineering and mathematics from the 
University of Maryland.

Zannoni said he has also tracked the plant through a federal review 
it must pass to have its license renewed for an additional 20 years, 
though he was ordered to stop that work on Jan. 31 after being 
reassigned pending an investigation of a complaint against him.

The performance of the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission during 
that review bolstered Zannoni's negative stance on the future of 
Oyster Creek.

But regulators say they've taken a serious look at the plant, and 
have placed dozens of conditions on the renewal - in the form of 
additional inspections and tests - if the renewal is approved.

Zannoni said his once-productive relationship with the NRC began to 
sour after the agency launched the renewal assessment two years ago.

Three months into the nearly three-year review, Zannoni called the 
NRC to complain about how some of its officials had " "berated" 
members of the public during a contentious renewal meeting at the 
Lacey Municipal Building.

NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said he would not comment on that 
accusation, but said that the agency expects its staff to treat 
members of the public with respect. If that does not happen, he said, 
citizens are encouraged to notify NRC management, or the agency's 
inspector general.

Zannoni said he complained again in May 2006 after the NRC barred two 
state nuclear engineers from participating in important meetings 
related to the plant's drywell liner, a steel radiation barrier that 
rusted and became thinner some 25 years ago.

State engineers, he said, were "specifically being excluded from all 
activity and documentation related to the drywell, which completely 
blew us away."

After receiving a telephone call from one of the state engineers who 
was barred from the meetings at Oyster Creek, Zannoni drove there 
from his office in Ewing to ask that his engineers be included.

Zannoni said NRC officials acknowledged they had made a mistake, and 
allowed the state engineers to participate, though several days of 
meetings had already passed.

They were included just in time for the inspection of the drywell, in 
which water was found where it wasn't supposed to be.

AmerGen had not checked several jugs meant to catch water leaking 
from an upper portion of the plant, as it had promised.

The NRC told AmerGen that the oversight raised doubts about AmerGen's 
ability to meet commitments, but said the water did not pose a safety 
threat.

Sheehan said the NRC would not comment on what Zannoni said about the 
drywell meetings.
-------------

Nuclear station's challenges laid out 

(The Arizona Republic) Feb 25 - Count Silverio Garcia, a former 
supervisor and long-time worker at Palo Verde Nuclear Generating 
Station, as the least surprised person last week when the Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission downgraded the plant to being the most 
monitored in the country.

Garcia has been on a mission for more than a decade, pointing out to 
federal regulators all the wrongs he says he has seen.

Among them: Both supervisors and line workers being lax in overseeing 
and performing preventive maintenance. And Palo Verde staff not 
following nor updating their procedures and work instructions.

"The name of the game has been put power on the grid, send the 
profits downtown and keep the noise (of protest) down," Garcia said.

Other workers and former workers saw what they thought was a chaotic 
situation created by an emphasis on cross-training for too many other 
jobs, beginning in the mid-1990s, and intense pushes to make sure 
that refueling of the plant's three units last no more than 30 days.

Then, NRC Chairman Dale Klein piled on in a Phoenix news conference 
on Friday.

Klein said identifying problems at Palo Verde seemed to happen in 
reverse of established procedures. "The NRC found the problems, the 
INPO confirmed them, and then a company light bulb came on and said, 
'We have to fix that,' " Klein said.

INPO, the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, is an industry group 
that conducts plant inspections. 

The NRC's decision to place the plant in the agency's Category 4 
means the nation's largest nuclear plant will face much more rigorous 
oversight and up to 2,500 additional hours of federal inspections 
annually for at least two years. It also could involve millions of 
dollars in repairs that could arise with the increased scrutiny.

Klein said the NRC surpassed its level of tolerance after the number 
of safety inspection concerns jumped from five in 2003 to 40 in 2004 
and remained nearly at that level in 2005 and 2006, with 70 concerns 
registered during those two years.

"I did not see a lot of hardware issues out there," said Klein of his 
Friday plant tour. "This is much more people issues than hardware 
issues."

New leadership 
Enter Randy Edington, one of the country's top experts at how to 
bring troubled nuclear plants back in the good graces of the NRC.

Edington was hired last month by Arizona Public Service Co. as chief 
nuclear officer after bringing back Cooper Nuclear Station in 
Nebraska from shutdown's doorstep in a remarkably fast two years.

And Edington sees many of the same problems that critics of Palo 
Verde operations have pointed out.

Edington said he can't attest to lax attitudes since he was working 
in faraway places. But he can attest to outdated procedures and work 
instructions after reviewing the power plant's documents.

"Yes, some need to be updated and we need to make the upgrade now," 
Edington said. "Bad choices were made years ago and it slowed a lot 
of work down. You can't do a job without getting the procedures 
updated. They have to be rewritten."

Edington said that not only Palo Verde, but also the nuclear power 
industry overall, had a huge emphasis on cross-training, starting in 
the 1990s. 

"I'm a fan of controlled multitasking but there have been excesses," 
Edington said. "In general, people prefer broadening their jobs and 
that helps with boredom issues. But that has to be in a controlled 
environment."

When it comes to units being down for more than 30 days, however, 
call Edington a control freak.

"Better planning, coordination and training can bring about shorter 
outages," Edington said. 

"It used to be when turbines were taken down, it would take 50 days 
for the work. But I've been involved in recent projects where that's 
down to 20 days now. Thinking through things and better contingency 
planning can really reduce the time."

APS commitment 
More resources are on the way. Edington said that he has been 
authorized to increase Palo Verde's workforce of 2,250 to 2,350 to 
help get through the rigors of federal oversight during the coming 
years. 

He also said that a detailed improvement plan, required by the NRC 
because of Palo Verde's downgrade, is expected to be completed within 
three months. 

Although NRC officials said that most of the plants placed in 
Category 4 take two to four years to improve their rating, both Klein 
and Edington said they expect Palo Verde to be on the short end of 
the scale. 

Edington said he thought Palo Verde could return to good standing 
with the feds in less than two years.

Already, Edington has brought four of his key aides from past plant 
recovery projects on board and said two more might be brought in 
soon. 

APS officials also said last year that they had fired about a dozen 
employees because of lack of past oversight at Palo Verde.
-------------

Morris eyed for nuclear recycling

MORRIS (SUN-TIMES NEWS GROUP) Feb 25  -- Sixty miles southwest of 
Chicago is Morris, host of the annual Grundy County Corn Festival.

This small city also happens to be one of the key sites the Bush 
administration is eyeing as it seeks to revive the moribund nuclear 
industry.

The Energy Department envisions building 200 or 300 new nuclear 
reactors by the end of the century. But first, the industry must 
solve one of its most vexing problems: What do you do with thousands 
of tons of highly radioactive depleted fuel?

A planned nuclear dump in Nevada wouldn't be big enough to store 
waste from all the new plants -- assuming the dump even gets built. 
It's already 22 years behind schedule, and Nevada is fighting it.

The Bush administration solution: Don't bury spent nuclear fuel in 
the desert. Instead, recycle it into fresh fuel that would power a 
new generation of reactors.

A General Electric site near Morris is one of 11 locations the 
administration is considering for its subsidized fuel-recycling 
plant. Morris also is in the running for a new type of reactor that 
would burn recycled fuel. The projects together would cost $1.5 
billion to $2 billion if built at Morris.

Argonne National Laboratory near Lemont has played a leading role in 
developing the technology and is one of six sites being considered 
for a nuclear fuel research center. The Energy Department on Thursday 
night held a public hearing in Joliet on the proposed facilities.

President George W. Bush said nuclear fuel recycling "will allow us 
to produce more energy, while dramatically reducing the amount of 
nuclear waste."

But some say that if the past is any guide, nuclear fuel recycling 
could be an environmental disaster.

Major cleanup needed

Consider what happened in West Valley, N.Y., where a private 
contractor recycled spent fuel between 1966 and 1972. The contractor 
left behind toxic landfills, hazardous-waste lagoons, a plume of 
radioactive groundwater and 600,000 gallons of liquid waste that will 
remain radioactive for thousands of years.
The state and federal governments have spent nearly $3 billion 
cleaning up the mess, and they still have a long way to go.

France, Britain and other countries also recycle nuclear fuel. Every 
site "is an environmental catastrophe, with massive releases of 
radioactivity to air, land and water (and) high worker radiation 
exposures," according to the Nuclear Information and Resource 
Service, an anti-nuclear group.

In 1971, GE received a license to recycle nuclear fuel near Morris, 
but it halted the project after then-President Jimmy Carter banned 
nuclear fuel recycling. GE still has more than 600 tons of spent fuel 
it never got around to recycling.

Now, GE is proposing a recycling plant and reactor that would create 
as many as 1,500 construction jobs and 600 permanent high-paying 
jobs. GE said it has received letters of support from local officials 
in Grundy County.

But the environmental group Union of Concerned Scientists warns that 
a fuel-recycling plant would become a "de facto nuclear waste dump." 
Communities "would be wise to reject the Department of Energy's dirty 
millions and avoid this toxic legacy."

The 103 reactors now operating in the United States burn pellets of 
uranium fuel stacked inside metal tubes. After a few years in the 
reactor, the fuel rods become highly radioactive -- if you stood 3 
feet away, you would receive a fatal dose in 10 seconds. The fuel 
retains 95 percent of its energy potential, but it no longer burns 
efficiently.

The Morris recycling plant would not be an environmental mess like 
West Valley because it would use a new process that produces little 
liquid waste, said GE spokesman Tom Rumsey. "It will be a much 
cleaner process."

By drastically reducing the nuclear waste, fuel recycling could 
increase the effective capacity of the Nevada nuclear dump at least 
50-fold, the Energy Department said.

Terrorism concerns

But here's another worry: What if terrorists somehow stole plutonium 
from the recycling plant? Perhaps the hardest part of making a 
nuclear bomb is obtaining plutonium.
"You would be doing the terrorists' work for them," said David Kraft 
of Chicago-based Nuclear Energy Information Service.

But Rumsey said it's highly unlikely terrorists could evade "very 
restrictive and very robust security measures." 
-------------

No radioactive waste wanted Fox Township

KERSEY (Courier Express) Feb 24 - The Fox Township Supervisors are 
objecting to having demolition waste from the Quehanna facility in 
Karthaus, which was the site of radioactive materials, brought to 
Greentree Landfill in the township. The site has been undergoing 
decommissioning. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental 
Protection is saying that the waste is low level and is suitable for 
a municipal landfill, according to Fox Township Secretary Kathy 
Mosier. The supervisors made an official statement at its Feb. 7 
township supervisors meeting and sent the letter to the landfill 
saying it doesn't want the waste to come to the landfill, Mosier 
said. The letter was sent to state Rep. Dan Surra, D-Kersey, the 
Department of Environmental Protection and state Sen. Joe Scarnati, R-
Brockway, to let them all know the supervisors are not in favor of 
the action. "The facility contains residual radioactivity left over 
from work conducted decades ago for the federal government," 
according to the DEP Web site. The DEP began cleaning up the site in 
1998. The DEP filed for an amendment to the byproduct materials 
license it holds on the site for the decommissioning plan with the 
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to the EPA Web site. 
In addition to the license amendment request, the DEP also wants the 
EPA to grant an exemption to the Greentree Landfill so that it can 
receive the low-contaminated, above-grade demolition material 
generated during the facility and site remediation activities, which 
it can do as long as life and property are not endangered, according 
to the EPA Web site. "Under the exemption granted to the Onyx (now 
Veolia) Greentree Landfill any low-contaminated demolition material 
from the facility and site would, upon its receipt at the Onyx 
Greentree Landfill, no longer be subject to NRC regulation and would 
no longer be NRC licensed material," the EPA site said. The 
completion of the decommissioning activities would reduce residual 
radioactivity at the Quehanna site and facility, the EPA site said. 
The DEP plans to eventually restore and return the land to 
unrestricted use since it sits in the Quehanna Wild Area of the 
Moshannon State Forest. Mosier said the DEP contacted the landfill 
about taking the waste, but the supervisors were not notified. Fox 
Township Supervisor Mike Keller learned about the possibility of the 
waste being placed in the Greentree Landfill from Surra. The township 
has set a "no radioactive waste precedent," Keller said. Last year, 
the landfill had been a possible site for low-level nuclear ash that 
was now considered safe for a municipal landfill by the DEP. Once the 
township objected, the landfill did not accept the waste. The waste 
ended up in Texas in a facility for low-level nuclear waste, Keller 
said. Keller said he has several concerns about the waste. One 
concern is why the waste has been re-categorized from radioactive to 
now being a low-level radioactive waste safe for municipal landfills. 
Another concern is if the landfill begins accepting a little today 
and a little tomorrow that it could turn into a big problem in the 
future. He said there is also the concern of a radiation leak since 
the landfill does not have the monitors in place to monitor the type 
of waves that would leak out if it did happen. The fact that the 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission has said it will no longer take 
responsibility for it is another cause for concern, Keller said. 
Mosier said the landfill did e-mail the township and say if the local 
government doesn't want it won't take it. A call to Veolia 
Environmental Services was not returned by press time. The majority 
of sites across the country undergoing decommissioning are in 
Pennsylvania, Keller said. The site in question has housed several 
businesses over the years that have used radiation in their 
manufacturing processes, according to the DEP Web site. According to 
the United States Environmental Protection Agency, in 1957, the 
facility was built after Pennsylvania enacted legislation for the 
location of a research facility at the site. The plan for the site 
was for the Curtiss-Wright Corporation to develop nuclear jet 
engines, do research in nucleonics, metallurgy and more, the EPA 
said. In 1958, it was licensed to operate a pool reactor at the 
facility including the use of hot cells and laboratories. The 
facility was donated to the Pennsylvania State University in 1960 by 
the Curtiss-Wright Corporation. The school planned to use the reactor 
for training and research and leased the hot cells to the Martin-
Marietta Corporation, which used the hot cells to make thermoelectric 
generators, the EPA said. This was done from 1962 until 1967 when the 
company terminated its lease for use of the hot cells after doing a 
partial decontamination, the site said. Penn State returned the site 
to Pennsylvania in 1967, which leased it to NUMEC, a subsidiary of 
the Atlantic-Richfield Corporation. It used the reactor pool after 
removing and shipping the reactor components and nuclear fuel, as a 
storage pool for Co-60. In 1978, the Atlantic-Richfield Corporation 
employees purchased the wood irradiation process including the Co-60 
pool irradiator and was named Permagrain Products Corporation. It 
assumed responsibility for the radioactive material that remained on 
the site from past operations. When it filed for bankruptcy in 2002, 
the byproduct material license it had was transferred to the DEP.
------------

DNA test detects low-level uranium

(News-Gazette) Feb 25 - Yi Lu and his colleagues, who already showed 
how synthetic DNA molecules could be used to detect toxic lead at 
very low levels, have now turned the technique to detecting 
radioactive uranium in tiny amounts.

Their DNA sensor can detect traces of uranium contamination nearly 
3,000 times lower than the level considered hazardous to human 
health, the UI chemistry professor said recently. The technology 
eventually might be contained in a fast and easily portable on-site 
testing system for uranium.

Lu said its likely uses probably don't include sniffing out 
radioactive weapons, for instance in cargo containers shipped into 
the country, a potential form of terrorist attack that's raised some 
concern in recent years. The technique doesn't discern between 
weaponized "enriched" uranium and the unenriched variety.  

But it could be quite useful for detecting contamination levels in 
soil or water, Lu said.

UI researchers tested it on contaminated soil samples from the U.S. 
Department of Energy, and it proved to be as capable as the large and 
complex equipment used in the department's testing labs now.

"The performance is comparable," Lu said. "You cannot take that whole 
thing (current testing methods) on site for real-time 
identification."
 
University of Illinois chemistry Professor Yi Lu talks about how the 
DNA sensor for uranium developed by his lab works while standing next 
to a model of a standard double-stranded DNA molecule at the Chemical 
& Life Sciences Building in Urbana. By John Dixon
To create the sensor, the UI researchers use a type of single-strand 
DNA that "cleaves," or splits, in the presence of uranyl ions, the 
most soluble form of uranium particles and the one presenting the 
greatest danger to humans.

To the ribbonlike molecule of DNA, they attach a chemical molecule 
that fluoresces, or glows, and a second chemical molecule that 
"quenches" the first one, that is prevents it from glowing.

When a uranyl-containing sample is introduced into the mix, the DNA 
strand breaks, freeing the fluorescent molecule from the array - and 
from the effect of the quencher molecule - causing it to glow again.

The UI researchers use the minute light signal to detect the uranium. 
By capturing how fast the signal begins after a contaminated sample 
is introduced and how rapidly the signal builds in intensity, they 
also can tell how much contamination is present.

The researchers identified a type of DNA good for detecting uranium 
by culling a "library" of trillions of DNA molecules for likely 
candidates.

"We're basically on a fishing expedition," Lu said. "We do multiple 
rounds ... with more stringent conditions. We pick out the one that 
works the best."

They also modify the DNA somewhat, stripping it to the components 
vital for detecting uranium ions - which also makes it less expensive 
to produce.

Lu and his team used the same procedure to pick out DNA good for 
detecting lead and also have identified molecules sensitive to copper 
and zinc, among other things. The various molecular sensors could be 
combined in an array, or "DNA chip," able to detect multiple 
substances at once.

Research on the uranium sensor, outlined in the Proceedings of the 
National Academy of Sciences, has been funded by the Department of 
Energy, the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes 
of Health.

Lu already helped co-found a company, DzymeTech Inc., working to 
bring lead test kits employing the technology to market, with the 
idea that homeowners and home inspectors could use them to check for 
lead in paint or water. The company is licensing the uranium sensing 
technology as well, he said.

The UI researchers also are looking for DNA molecules that could be 
used to sense organic toxins like dioxins in addition to toxic 
metals.

In addition, they're working to understand in more detail the 
molecular mechanics that make the system work, factors like the 
structure of the DNA molecules and the way they bind to other 
molecules - basic science that might help the researchers improve the 
system further, Lu said.
----------------

Southern Ohio Neighbors Group opposes nuke partnership site

PIKETON (Chilloicothegazette) Feb 25 - - If there's one thing 
Geoffrey Sea and the Southern Ohio Neigbors Group detest, it's the 
idea Piketon could be a home to nuclear and radioactive waste.

The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, located in Piketon, recently 
was selected to receive a study grant by the U.S. Department of 
Energy to measure its suitability for the Global Nuclear Energy 
Partnership, proposed by President George Bush.
   
The partnership aims to "recycle nuclear fuel using new proliferating-
resistant technologies to recover more energy and reduce waste," 
according to the DOE's Web site. 

One of GNEP's aspirations is to use nations that have nuclear 
capacities, such as the U.S., to furnish services to other nations 
that would consent to use the "nuclear energy for power- generation 
purposes only."
As a result of the program, the community has been promised jobs.

However, what Sea and the other members of SONG believe is a 
reprocessing facility never would make it to Piketon - it would just 
be a dump for radioactive material, resulting in no jobs.

"I'm really frightened about the prospect of a dump," said Lorry 
Swain, member of SONG, at a gathering of the members Saturday near 
Piketon. "It ups the ante so high in terms of health. It won't 
provide jobs; it was sold as it would. It's a lie."

Swain, a Greenup County, Ky. resident, said she's been concerned 
about the issue for years. She and her husband, Eric O'Neil, own 
property in Pike County.

"The reprocessing is a diversion," said Sea, noting that reprocessing 
is very dangerous.

He said the DOE has been calling the reprocessing "recycling," 
because it sounds "green" and safer.

Sea said there are two reprocessing centers in Europe that were built 
on peninsulas for two reasons: so water current could disperse the 
radioactive material and so people wouldn't be living nearby.

"There are residences right around here," he said, pointing out that 
the other sites selected are in more deserted places like Roswell, 
N.M. "We are challenging even the DOE's designation of this site for 
the study."

Sea said he believes the DOE fraudulently claimed there was community 
support to get funding for the study.

"Most realize it will never come here. They'll be doing site 
characterizations studies until 2030," he said.

Despite what Sea said were dangers of reprocessing, the members of 
SONG said they're sure Piketon will just end up storing the waste, 
even after the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative board, which 
aims to create jobs in the region, said it would only support interim 
storage. However, Sea said there isn't any long-term storage for the 
waste available right now.

"They said they wouldn't support it unless the storage was only 
interim," he said. "The Department of Interior passed a ruling 
banning the site in Utah for interim storage. So the problem is 
they're moving all the waste here and calling it interim storage 
without long-term storage available."

The members of SONG have been circulating a petition and collecting 
signatures to "stop the importation and storage of nuclear and 
radioactive waste and to ban nuclear reprocessing in Pike County."

"No one wants waste storage," said Sea. "It gives no jobs and drives 
away business."

In the petition, the group states that Piketon shouldn't be studied 
because, among other reasons, the site has many prehistoric 
earthworks and is still recovering from the "illegal dumping of toxic 
materials."

The members have gathered more than 1,000 signatures.

"One thousand signatures in a rural county like this is a lot," said 
Sea. "We are all volunteers, and it's been done completely ad hoc."

O'Neil, also a member of SONG, said he'd like to see cleanup of 
current waste take place. He worked on the clean-up of another site 
in Ross, Ohio.

"It provided good jobs for 10 to 12 years," he said. "We were doing 
something to benefit the community and society in general. They've 
lost sight of the clean-up in Piketon of waste that's been here for 
years."

Furthermore, O'Neil said he sees nothing but more waste with the 
current plan.

"All the possibilities I see lead to more waste instead of less," he 
said. "Piketon has become a sacrifice zone. It's a poor and rural 
area."

Sea expressed the need for community members to attend a hearing at 6 
p.m. Thursday, March 8, at the Endeavor Center in Piketon to voice 
their thoughts on the project.

"We need to have as many people as possible. The community needs to 
show up in full force," he said.
 
----------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle 
Senior Vice President, Technical Operations 
Global Dosimetry Solutions, Inc. 
2652 McGaw Avenue
Irvine, CA 92614

Tel: (949) 296-2306 / (888) 437-1714 Extension 2306 
Fax:(949) 296-1144

Global Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com/ 
Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com/