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Bill Addresses Radiation Victims
Index:
Bill Addresses Radiation Victims
British atom bombs could have caused 25 Hiroshimas
NRC, AmerGen to meet on Three Mile Isl. nuke safety
Arizona's Salt River Project to Buy Power From New Reliant Plant
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Bill Addresses Radiation Victims
WASHINGTON (AP) - Ill uranium miners and residents sickened by
radioactive fallout from nuclear tests are a step closer to long-
awaited compensation from the government.
Money to pay government IOUs worth $84 million will be included in
the version of a $6.5 billion spending bill going Thursday to the
Senate Appropriations Committee.
``Our people don't have to wait very long,'' said Sen. Pete Domenici,
R-N.M. It was unclear, however, how soon checks could arrive if the
spending were to be approved.
Lori Goodman, a spokeswoman for the group Dine CARE, which represents
sick Navajo Indians who worked in the uranium mines, remained wary:
The allocation still must be approved by the Senate, agreed by the
House and signed by the President Bush.
``It's hard to get all excited about it anymore,'' she said. ``We've
been waiting, and we'll be cheering when it does happen.''
The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act was passed in 1990 to provide
cash payments of $100,000 to uranium miners and $75,000 to ``down-
winders'' - residents exposed to radioactive fallout caused by
nuclear weapons tests in Nevada.
Many of the uranium mines were in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and
Arizona and many of the miners were Navajos. The down-winders lived
in southern Nevada and Utah and northern Arizona, where fallout
settled from nuclear weapons tests near Las Vegas.
Last year, the act was expanded to cover more people, but no new
money was added. Starting in May 2000, qualifying claimants received
letters informing them the program was out of money.
Several have died from their illnesses awaiting payments.
``In a situation that has added insult to injury, the federal
government has been issuing worthless IOUs for months,'' said Sen.
Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., in a statement. ``It is high time we
appropriate the funds necessary for compensating the uranium workers
who dedicated their lives to helping us win the Cold War.''
The Bush administration has proposed spending $97 million next year
and $710 million over the next decade to pay RECA claims, but that
money would not be available until the next fiscal year, which begins
in October.
Despite lobbying from southwestern members of Congress, Bush did not
include the $84 million in his request for supplemental
appropriations, which would be available much sooner.
Domenici and Bingaman persuaded Sen. Robert Byrd, chairman of the
Senate Appropriations Committee, to add the money to the Senate bill.
It was one of the few departures from the president's request, said
Domenici, who was grateful for Byrd's consideration.
The money will come out of a surplus in a loan program designed to
help oil and gas companies hurt by foreign imports.
The Senate vote could come as early as next week. Domenici said he
expects Senate negotiators to persuade House conferees to include the
money in the version of the bill to go to the president.
On the Net: Justice Department's Radiation Exposure Compensation
Program: http://www.usdoj.gov/civil/torts/const/reca/index.htm
-------------------
British atom bombs could have caused 25 Hiroshimas
LONDON, June 20 (Reuters) - While researching its own nuclear bomb in
the late 1950s, Britain held enough nuclear explosives to cause
hundreds of Hiroshima blasts, declassified Royal Air Force papers
showed on Wednesday.
Up to a dozen fission weapons were supplied to RAF bases between 1958
and 1960 -- each with the explosive capacity of 25 Hiroshima bombs,
the New Scientist magazine said.
The bombs held around 70 kilogrammes of uranium-235 each -- enough to
create a 500-kilotonne explosion -- but were packed with 450
kilogrammes of steel balls in order to separate the sections of
uranium and avoid a blast.
Yet the papers showed the RAF still had safety concerns.
"A high-yield nuclear explosion could be possible if the weapons were
jettisoned, or in the event of a crash on return, or an accident in
de-bombing," one memo, dated January 1959, said.
The Ministry of Defence, however, said there was no risk of an
accidental explosion.
------------------
NRC, AmerGen to meet on Three Mile Isl. nuke safety
NEW YORK, June 20 (Reuters) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
said late Tuesday its staff will meet with management of the Three
Mile Island 1 nuclear power plant on Monday, June 25, to discuss
safety concerns.
The NRC said in a statement it gave Three Mile Island 1 a preliminary
"white" finding regarding an apparent failure by plant operators to
promptly identify and resolve problems affecting a safety-related
pump.
The plant located in Middletown, Pa. is owned and operated by AmerGen
Energy Co. AmerGen is a joint venture between Exelon Corp. <EXC.N> of
Chicago, the parent of Exelon Nuclear, and British Energy Plc <BGY.L>
of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Under the NRC Reactor Oversight Program launched in April 2000, the
agency uses several tools to assess plant performance. Among those
tools are performance indicators, which utilize different colors to
depict increasing safety significance. The colors range from "green,"
which means performance within an expected range, rising to "white,"
which is considered performance outside the expected range, to
"yellow" and finally "red."
During an inspection on Feb. 12, the NRC said its inspectors
determined the bearing oiler on one of the plant's three emergency
feedwater pumps was empty.
Subsequent reviews by plant staff revealed that loose bolts on the
pump bearing housing had resulted in an oil leak and vibrations on
the pump shaft bearing that, in turn, had caused the pump to become
inoperable for 39 days.
The NRC said its assessment of the utility's performance during the
events leading up to the discovery identified a number of
deficiencies in the identification and resolution of equipment
performance issues.
As a result of the preliminary "white" finding, the NRC said AmerGen
has requested the meeting with the NRC to discuss the issue.
The meeting is scheduled to begin at 9:00 a.m. EDT in the public
meeting room at the NRC Region I office in King of Prussia, Pa. It
will be open to the public for observation. The NRC said its
officials will remain afterward to answer questions.
-------------------
Arizona's Salt River Project to Buy Power From New Reliant Plant
HOUSTON, June 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Reliant Energy Wholesale Group, a
unit of Reliant Resources, Inc. (NYSE: RRI), today announced a long-
term agreement under which Salt River Project (SRP) of Phoenix will
buy all of the power to be produced by Reliant's 560-megawatt Desert
Basin plant.
Reliant Chairman, President and CEO Steve Letbetter and SRP General
Manager Dick Silverman announced the power purchase agreement at the
official ribbon-cutting for the facility located in Casa Grande,
Ariz., about 50 miles south of Phoenix.
"Desert Basin will help ensure that sufficient power will be
available for citizens of Arizona to meet peak demand this summer,"
Letbetter said. "SRP's management has shown the foresight to seek
long-term solutions for the residential and commercial consumers it
serves. We are gratified to be a part of the solution for Arizonans,
and pleased to have reached an agreement that will utilize 100
percent of the output from our new facility."
"Desert Basin is an important new addition to SRP's energy
portfolio," said SRP General Manager Richard Silverman. "The
electricity generated at this facility will help SRP meet the needs
of its Valley customers for many years to come."
Desert Basin, Reliant's first plant in Arizona, produces enough power
for 50,000 Arizona homes. The plant, built in less than two years,
was designed to use no groundwater. Reclaimed wastewater purchased
from the City of Casa Grande provides about 40 percent of the plant's
cooling water needs. The balance is delivered to the plant by the
Central Arizona Project through a nine-mile pipeline built and paid
for by Reliant.
Desert Basin uses state-of-the-art environmental protection
technology and is fueled by natural gas, the cleanest, safest fossil
fuel available for power generation.
SRP is the largest electricity provider to the greater Phoenix
metropolitan area, serving more than 750,000 customers in Phoenix,
Tempe, Paradise Valley, Fountain Hills, Scottsdale, Apache Junction,
Peoria, Queen Creek, Avondale, Chandler, Gilbert, Glendale, Guadalupe
and Tolleson.
The mission of SRP is to deliver ever-improving contributions to the
people that SRP serves through the provision of low cost, reliable
water and power and community programs to ensure the vitality of the
Salt River Valley.
SRP consists of two companies: the Salt River Project Agricultural
Improvement and Power District, a political subdivision of the state
of Arizona; and the Salt River Valley Water Users' Association, a
private corporation. The District provides electricity to retail
customers in the Phoenix area. It operates or participates in seven
major power plants and numerous other generating stations, including
thermal, nuclear and hydroelectric sources. The Association is the
largest provider of water to the Phoenix area, delivering about 1
million-acre-feet of water to a service area in central Arizona. An
extensive water delivery system is maintained and operated by the
Association, including reservoirs, wells, canals and irrigation
laterals. More information about SRP can be found on its website at
www.srpnet.com.
Reliant Resources, based in Houston, Texas, provides electricity and
energy services to wholesale and retail customers in the U.S. and
Europe. The company has approximately 18,000 megawatts of power
generation capacity in operation, under construction or under
contract in the U.S. Its portfolio in the southwestern United States
alone consists of nearly 5,000 megawatts of power generation in
operation and nearly 2,000 megawatts in development.
Reliant Resources is one of only five companies to rank among both
the ten largest power marketers and the ten largest natural gas
marketers in North America. It also has wholesale trading and
marketing operations and more than 3,400 megawatts of power
generation in operation in Western Europe. At the retail level,
Reliant Resources provides energy and Internet/communications
services and will serve approximately 1.7 million customers in Texas
when the electricity market opens to full retail competition in
January 2002. More information about Reliant Resources can be found
on its website at www.reliantresources.com.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100
Director, Technical Extension 2306
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Service Fax:(714) 668-3149
ICN Pharmaceuticals, Inc. E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net
ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/scperle
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com
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