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Trauma affecting health of Nagasaki bomb survivors
Index:
Trauma affecting health of Nagasaki bomb survivors
Nuclear conference opens at Tokyo's Waseda University
Germany begins nuclear waste shipments to UK
Gephardt Statement on Energy
Technology Visions Group Announces Expansion of Contract with Bechtel
=====================================
Trauma affecting health of Nagasaki bomb survivors
TOKYO, Aug. 1 (Kyodo) - The health ministry released Wednesday a
report indicating that survivors of the 1945 atomic bombing in
Nagasaki who are currently ineligible for the government's subsidized
medical care suffer from deteriorating health conditions caused by
mental trauma.
Based on the report, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry is
expected to consider whether to expand the subsidized medical
coverage area to include A-bomb survivors living in and around
Nagasaki who are ill as a result of mental trauma.
Under the Atomic Bomb Victims Relief Law, which took effect in 1995,
the ministry has only recognized people with radiation-related health
problems as those who can receive government-subsidized medical
treatment.
According to the report submitted July 11 by a ministry study group,
the survivors surveyed had become ill due to factors including
anxiety over possible aftereffects of radiation exposure and social
discrimination against A-bomb survivors.
However, the study group ruled out exposure to radiation from the
bombing as a cause of the survivors' symptoms.
Currently, victims living in an area measuring about 24 kilometers
from north to south and 12 km from east to west of the bomb's ground
zero in Nagasaki are now recognized as official A-bomb victims and
eligible to receive free medical care.
There have been growing calls to expand the coverage area, with
Nagasaki city demanding the area be expanded to 24 km east to west of
the bomb site.
The city government compiled its own report, which pointed out
deteriorating health conditions of survivors not covered by the law,
and submitted it to the ministry in April last year.
The ministry's study group conducted the follow-up survey in March
and found survivors suffering from dizziness, physical pain and
suspected mental trauma.
Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito welcomed the ministry's conclusion
Wednesday, saying the recognition of mental trauma gives a ''very
significant scientific basis'' to the deteriorating health conditions
of survivors ineligible for free medical treatment.
''I want the state to take this seriously and expand the zone in
which survivors are officially recognized as A-bomb victims. This
summer marks the 56th anniversary of the atomic bombing. In a way, it
is too late,'' Ito said.
----------------
Nuclear conference opens at Tokyo's Waseda University
TOKYO, Aug. 1 (Kyodo) - A two-day conference on nuclear disarmament
and the role of lawyers in the process began Wednesday at Waseda
University in Tokyo with a lecture from a former member of a U.N.
International Court of Justice (ICJ), organizers said.
In his address, Christopher Weeramantry, a member of the World Court
from 1991 to 1997, said it is a mistake to think the end of the Cold
War has removed the threat of nuclear conflict because an increasing
number of countries now have nuclear capability.
Weeramantry said international law has various legal principles for
dealing with the use of nuclear power and called on his fellow
lawyers to fulfill their duties in conveying these to the world.
The event, entitled ''Waseda International Conference in
Commemoration of the Hague International Peace Conferences'' is
sponsored by the Japan Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms.
The International Court of Justice, based in The Hague, was created
in 1946 to settle legal disputes in line with international law and
give advisory opinions on legal concerns.
----------------
Germany begins nuclear waste shipments to UK
WALHEIM/HAMBURG, Germany, July 31 (Reuters) - Germany started the
shipment of nuclear waste to Britain on Tuesday, the country's border
police said.
The shipment of 21 spent fuel rods on Tuesday morning from the
Neckarwestheim nuclear reactor in Baden Wuerttemberg to the
reprocessing plant in the British town of Sellafield is the biggest
shipment of its type from Germany abroad.
It will be coupled to nine other nuclear waste containers from four
other plants on Wednesday at the border town of Woerth, a statement
by the German border police (BGS) said.
Those extra nine containers are headed for the French waste
processing plant in La Hague.
Transportation of the waste from the reactors Stade, Brunsbuettel,
Philippsburg and Muelheim-Kaerlich is expected to start in the early
hours of Wednesday.
Police and federal border guards have been preparing for many weeks
for the shipment of more than 100 spent fuel rods, which had
originally been planned for July 11.
It was cancelled without any official reason given. But the
environmental group Greenpeace said the postponement was due to
stringent safety precautions accompanying the funeral of Hannelore
Kohl, wife of former German chancellor Helmut Kohl.
The three Excellox-6 containers with the fuel elements were
transported by road on Tuesday a few kilometres away from the town of
Walheim, a police spokesman said. Around 40 anti-nuclear protestors
demonstrated at the start of the shipment.
The containers are to be transferred to freight trains at the site of
a coal-fired plant in Walheim.
>From there, they are to first pass through the town of Woerth in
Rhineland Pfaelz, where, according to Greenpeace, the other shipments
are expected to arrive by Wednesday and will later be coupled
together.
ACTIVISTS PLAN PROTESTS
North German nuclear protestors said they plan to stage a protest on
Tuesday evening in the centre of Hamburg along the transport route of
two containers from the Brunsbuettel nuclear power plant in Schleswig
Holstein.
The containers are to be coupled with three nuclear waste containers
from the Stade reactor at the Maschen marshalling yard, south of
Hamburg.
Two containers each from the Philippsburg plant in Baden Wuerttemberg
and the closed Muelheim Kaerlich reactor in Rhineland Pfalz will be
transported to France.
The transport of nuclear for reprocessing abroad were started again
in April after a three-year interruption.
The basis for the restart is the so-called Atom Consensus agreed
between the federal government and the power industry on the
abandonment of nuclear energy by 2020.
As part of the consensus, the reprocessing of spent fuel rods abroad
is allowed until 2005 only.
In return, Germany will take back reprocessed waste and transport it
to the temporary storage site in Gorleben.
---------------
Gephardt Statement on Energy
WASHINGTON, August 1 /U.S. Newswire/ The following is a statement of
House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt:
"Today the Republicans are putting on the floor an energy bill that
is much too tilted to the energy lobby, bad for our environment, and
bad for America. This is the most important energy debate in a
generation. Yet, in the last several months, it has been marred by
secret task forces, energy companies making record profits, and, now,
the decision by Republicans not to let us offer our Democratic
amendment to make their bill better. We had asked for just the
opportunity to debate and vote on our approach on the House floor.
Yet we learned recently that this opportunity will be denied us.
This is Republicans pulling the plug on the American people.
"The Republican bill is not a good bill. The Republican bill
provides less than 20 percent of tax breaks to renewable energy and
energy efficiency. Over 80 percent of the tax breaks go to oil, gas,
coal, nuclear and other big energy special interests who support the
House Republican leadership. As USA Today explained today, oil and
gas companies making record profits could reap billions of dollars
from the Republican energy bill.
"The bill, much like the President's energy program, takes us back to
a different, much earlier era: to a 1950s world of big oil rigs and
refineries. The bill would let oil companies drill in ANWR, one of
the most pristine wildlife areas in the world. It lets oil companies
drill on federal lands. And it rolls back hard-won environmental
protections.
"Democrats want to strike these provisions and make balanced choices
for the American people. We want to provide an equal amount in tax
cuts to traditional production and renewable energy and energy
efficiency. That's real balance. And we pay for it without raiding
Medicare. Our amendment helps consumers who actually pay the high
energy bills and companies that make us more efficient. And, while
working for all these goals, we also make the air cleaner and
maintain the environment.
"The President and House Republican leaders are promoting a program
that gives the most help to the special interests. This program
moves America backwards. It provides little short-term relief for
consumers hit by high prices, and it fails to map a balanced energy
strategy for a new century.
"We have a good program for America. And we're going to work hard to
win it for the sake of a balanced energy future that will make a
positive difference in the life of every American."
------------------
Technology Visions Group Announces Expansion of Contract with Bechtel
BWXT
CARLSBAD, Calif., Aug. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Technology Visions Group,
Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: TVGR) reported today that its previously
announced contract with Bechtel BWXT Idaho's Environmental
Restoration Department to perform a Bench Testing Grout Treatability
Study has been significantly expanded.
"Bechtel was impressed with TVGI's technical service, support and
management of this important environmental project. We are pleased
and gratified that Bechtel has asked us to expand our existing
contract to manage the testing of additional grout materials for the
disposal of radioactive waste," said James B. Lahey, President of
TVGI. "We believe this represents a considerable step forward in the
development of the Company as a leader in the hazardous waste
management industry."
TVGI's original contract with Bechtel BWXT was signed in July 2000.
The treatability study was designed to determine the suitability of
in-situ grout as a treatment option for the stabilization of
transuranic (TRU) and mixed waste forms buried at the Idaho National
Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) Subsurface Disposal
Area (SDA). Among the modifications added to the new contract, TVGI
will examine the diffusion of the organics present in organic sludge
through a matrix consisting of soil and certain grout candidates that
are being evaluated for the containment of low-level radioactive
mixed waste.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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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