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Stock Watch Man Acquires Patented Process for Nuclear Remediation
Index:
Stock Watch Man Acquires Patented Process for Nuclear Remediation
Russian Nuclear Recycling Test Held
Rights groups want inquiry on Los Alamos scientist
Sweden probes power competition after price hikes
==========================================
Stock Watch Man Acquires Patented Process for Nuclear Remediation
LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 14, 2001--Stock Watch Man Inc. (OTC
BB: SWCH) Tuesday announced the appointment of a new board of
directors and officers in conjunction with the announced agreement to
acquire exclusive worldwide license for a patented process that
remediates nuclear waste.
Dr. Paul M. Brown, an internationally known nuclear physicist and
researcher, has been appointed as the company's president and
chairman of the board. The other officers are Patrick Herda as vice
president, Jackie Brown as secretary/treasurer.
The majority of company shareholders have authorized a name change to
Nuclear Solutions Inc.
The company has entered into an asset purchase agreement for the
exclusive worldwide license of a patented process that remediates
nuclear waste. An important feature of the process is the possibility
of remediating waste on-site without the need to transport it through
our cities, while eliminating a multibillion-dollar storage burden.
This process potentially produces significantly more electrical
energy than it uses, thus becoming an inexpensive source of green
power.
----------------
Russian Nuclear Recycling Test Held
MOSCOW (AP) - A Russian facility selected to process spent nuclear
fuel that Russia plans to import has carried out the first test of a
furnace for recycling the waste, an official said Tuesday.
President Vladimir Putin signed a law last month allowing Russia to
import spent nuclear fuel, despite protests by liberals and
environmentalists who insist it will turn Russia into the world's
nuclear dump. Proponents say it will create jobs and bring in money.
For a fee, spent fuel will be sent by armored train to the Mayak
facility near Chelyabinsk in the Ural Mountains. The recycling
process extracts useable nuclear material from the spent nuclear
rods, while improving safety by reducing the material's potential to
be used in weapons, the Russian nuclear ministry has said.
Mayak has staged the first tests of a furnace for turning radioactive
waste that remains after fuel processing into glass, the facility's
deputy chief Yevgeny Kyzhkov told the Interfax news agency.
Engineers used ordinary glass in place of spent fuel during the trial
run, but later this month will stage tests using solutions that
imitate radioactive waste, Kyzhkov said. He did not specify when the
test took place.
Mayak has done no vitrification - or processing into glass - of
nuclear waste since 1997, the report said.
Mayak has been the site of several accidents, including a 1957 waste
facility explosion that contaminated 9,200 square miles. The region
has been called the most radioactive place on the planet due to
accidents and Soviet-era nuclear waste dumping into lakes and rivers.
----------------
Rights groups want inquiry on Los Alamos scientist
WASHINGTON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Asian-American civil rights groups on
Tuesday raised concerns about parts of a Justice Department probe
that said race did not play a role in the spy probe of Taiwan-born
scientist Wen Ho Lee and called again for an independent inquiry.
"Considering the countless questionable details of the investigation,
it is not surprising to hear an internal investigation found in favor
of the federal government (on this issue)," George Ong, national
president of the Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA), said in a
statement.
"OCA has always believed that in order for a full and thorough
investigation to occur, an independent, bipartisan body must be
formed to check every detail of the case."
The classified internal inquiry -- only two heavily redacted chapters
of which were released on Monday -- was written last year by federal
prosecutor Randy Bellows.
Henry Tang, chairman of the Committee of 100, a Chinese-American
advocacy group, said the 150-odd pages released with big sections
blacked-out were too incomplete to be of much use and repeated his
group's call for all documents to be disclosed.
"The whole thing is inconclusive. We need to get full disclosure on
the full report," Tang said.
ENERGY DEPARTMENT UNDER FIRE
The Department of Energy has been under fire for potential racial
bias in the case of Lee, who was first portrayed as a spy for China
and, when the allegations collapsed, charged in December 1999 on 59
counts of mishandling classified nuclear data.
In April, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham issued a memo to the
workforce instituting a policy to eliminate any incidence of racial
profiling.
But in May, the DOE was embarrassed again when Oregon Rep. David Wu,
the first Chinese-American in the House of Representatives, was
stopped by security guards and asked repeatedly if he was an American
citizen despite showing his Congressional identification card.
Lee, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was fired from his job at the Los
Alamos National Laboratory in March 1999 amid the espionage
allegations.
He eventually pleaded guilty to one count of downloading nuclear
weapons design secrets to a nonsecure computer and the government
dropped the remaining charges.
Lee had spent nine months in solitary confinement and was released
with an apology from a federal judge who blasted the U.S. government
for "embarrassing our entire nation."
The chapters released on Monday denounced the DOE's initial
investigation and faulted the FBI for its "unhesitating and
unquestioning acceptance" of the department's identification of Lee
as the most logical suspect.
But it said it could find no evidence that Chinese-Americans, and Lee
in particular, were targeted to the exclusion of other potential
suspects.
The National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium (NAPALC) joined
the OCA in calling for an independent inquiry.
"...It's clear that some type of independent commission needs to be
launched into Dr. Lee's case. There's just too many discrepancies,
too many open-ended questions for us to accept this report," said
NAPALC legal director Vincent Eng.
The chapters were released in connection with a defamation lawsuit by
ex-DOE intelligence chief Notra Trulock against Lee and two former
DOE officials. Trulock says he was wrongly accused of racism.
The Department of Energy is currently reviewing Lee's first-hand
account of his federal prosecution, using its right to review
manuscripts by former employees to prevent classified information
from leaking out.
--------------
Sweden probes power competition after price hikes
STOCKHOLM, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Sweden will investigate its deregulated
electricity market because the government is worried that inadequate
competition has allowed power firms to raise prices excessively, the
industry ministry said on Wednesday.
The probe, which could lead to greater regulation of the market, is
the culmination of a long-running debate about whether efforts to
boost competition have failed to cut power prices after a market
consolidation in the 1990s allowed big firms to gain greater control
over the market.
It comes amid heightened concern in Sweden about anti-trust issues,
following a high-profile price-fixing scandal involving Nordic
airlines.
"I have ordered a speedy investigation into what has happened with
prices," Industry Minister Bjorn Rosengren said on Swedish
television. "This could lead to a change in existing conditions and
some sort of regulation."
Rising power prices have also fuelled Swedish inflation, which is
running above the central bank's two percent target, prompting a rise
in interest rates last month.
Although prices fell overall in July, electricity was still pushing
up the consumer price index.
One of the government's advisers on energy policy, Per Kageson, told
Reuters two weeks ago that the liberalisation of the market had
failed as the biggest power producers had gained more control over
prices and consumers had remained passive.
PASSIVE CONSUMERS
The opening of the market in the mid-1990s allowed end-users to shop
around and haggle for the best deal but surveys show that 70 percent
have not used this right.
In the last five months five Swedish power firms have increased
prices by about 40 percent, and critics have called for an anti-trust
investigation as the companies raised prices by roughly the same
amount at the same time.
The companies say they had to raise prices as underlying prices on
the Nordic power bourse Nord Pool have nearly doubled in the past
half-year on fears that water supplies would be lower than normal and
nuclear power producers would cut output to boost prices further.
Nord Pool figures show the electricity price has more than doubled to
0.216 Swedish crowns ($0.021) per kilowatt hour in the first half of
this year from 0.103 crowns a year earlier.
Sweden's state-owned utility Vattenfall AB 1/8VATN.UL 3/8 -- the
biggest Nordic player -- has raised prices for domestic consumers by
about 40 percent in the last four months to 0.338 crowns.
Prices initially dipped after Sweden deregulated in 1996 when
unusually heavy rain and snowfall during a three-year period kept
down prices and toughened competition in the Nordic region.
Hydro-electricity accounts for half of Sweden's power needs and
nuclear energy accounts for most of the rest.
Criticism is growing as most of the companies reported rising profits
in the first quarter, boosting profit margins.
Swedish-Finnish power firm Birka Energi, partly owned by Finnish
energy group Oyj <FUM1V.HE>, reported a 59 percent rise in profits
two weeks ago which it attributed to the higher prices.
Last week Rosengren told Reuters that the government may become more
restrictive with future liberalisation because of a price-fixing
scandal involving Scandinavian airline SAS AB.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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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