US DOE-Yucca Mountain would meet radiation limits

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@EARTHLINK.NET>]

INDEX:



US DOE-Yucca Mountain would meet radiation limits

Nordic states ask Britain to cut nuclear pollution

Troubled Czech nuke plant suffers another glitch

Russians Warn of Nuclear Waste

Consumer groups ask FTC probe irradiation claims

Australian Cancer Problems Detailed

Pay rise issued to ease pressure on radiation profession

========================================



US DOE-Yucca Mountain would meet radiation limits



WASHINGTON, Aug 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Energy gave a 

favorable safety assessment on Tuesday to a plan to build an 

underground dump in Nevada's Yucca Mountain to hold radioactive spent 

fuel from nuclear power plants for an estimated 10,000 years. 



The DOE report, released late on Tuesday, could be a key step toward 

getting administration approval of the controversial project. The 

proposal would face an uphill battle on Capitol Hill, with stiff 

opposition from the new Senate assistant majority leader. 



The preliminary site evaluation finds that radiation levels from 

storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain would fall well below limits 

set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the report said. 



The site in the Nevada desert would store thousands of tons of 

radioactive materials from nuclear power plants for an estimated 

10,000 years. 



The report is "the most significant milestone accomplished to date in 

the federal government's effort to develop a geological disposal 

facility," said Joe Colvin, president of the Nuclear Energy 

Institute. 



REID A POWERFUL ENEMY 



But the proposal has powerful enemies. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, 

a Democrat who now wields more clout as the new Senate assistant 

majority leader, said he was disappointed but not surprised by the 

DOE study. 



"The Department of Energy has long since made up its mind that it is 

willing to manipulate the science and cast aside any veil of 

objectivity in their zealous pursuit of shipping deadly radioactive 

waste through America's heartland to Nevada," Reid said in a 

statement. 



"What the DOE has also failed to admit or address are the dangers 

inherent in shipping more than 70,000 tons of nuclear waste through 

our nation's cities , towns, and communities," Reid said. 



In a bow to Reid, the Democratic-led Senate Appropriations Committee 

in July slashed $125 million from Yucca Mountain's development budget 

within the $25 billion energy bill for projects starting Oct. 1. 



RADIATION LEVELS BELOW EPA LIMITS 



"The dose to the public and repository workers...would fall below the 

limits specified in the EPA radiation protection standards and 

proposed (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) requirements," the report 

said. 



In a statement earlier on Tuesday, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham 

pledged to make a decision on the facility "based on sound science." 

A DOE recommendation on Yucca Mountain is due to the White House by 

the end of the year. Any proposal must still be reviewed by the NRC. 



EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman in June announced new 

standards for residents that live near the Nevada desert site. She 

said EPA will limit overall radiation exposure for citizens living 

near Yucca Mountain to 15 millirem per year. That level is roughly 

double the exposure from naturally occurring radioactive materials in 

brick houses, she said. 



Assuming a 10,000-year life of the storage facility, the DOE study 

pegs radiation exposure at less than 1 millirem of radiation per 

year. 



Some $8 billion has been spent over the last 20 years to determine if 

Yucca Mountain will offer safe storage, with critics contending the 

studies have shown it is unsuitable. 



"This project is already 12 years behind schedule," Colvin said. "And 

after nearly 20 years of in-depth scientific investigation of every 

environmental facet of Yucca Mountain, there is no reason for further 

delay." 

------------------



Nordic states ask Britain to cut nuclear pollution



OSLO, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Environment ministers from five Nordic 

countries sent a letter to Britain on Tuesday urging the government 

to curb nuclear pollution from a reprocessing plant, Norway's 

Environment Minister said on Tuesday. 



It was just the latest move in a long-running international dispute 

over emissions from Britain's Sellafield complex, which boasts one of 

the world's largest nuclear fuel recycling plants, after Norway 

detected rising levels of radioactivity in marine life on its coast. 



"We have from the Nordic side -- and the environment ministers 

especially -- been worried about the emissions from Sellafield for a 

long time," Environment Minister Siri Bjerke told Reuters. 



"I hope this (letter) will be taken into account and lead to a 

reduction in the emissions from Sellafield," she added. 



Norway would prefer to see the complex shut down for good, but a more 

realistic aim was an emissions cut, she said. 



In addition to Bjerke, the letter bore the signature of environment 

ministers from Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland, and was sent to 

British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday. 



LONG TERM RISK? 



Rising levels of radioactivity from Sellafield, owned by state-run 

British Nuclear Fuels, was last year detected in marine life on 

Norway's southern coast, and latest research shows pollution has 

followed North Sea currents as far as the Barents Sea and Svalbard, 

east of Norway. 



The Norwegian authorities said the levels found did not pose a threat 

to human health, but some experts fear that it could cause harm to 

marine life in the long term. 



Britain maintains that its discharges from Sellafield, which prepares 

spent nuclear fuel from power stations for recycling into fresh fuel, 

are within international limits. 



Sellafield was a hot topic at a recent meeting between Nordic 

environment ministers and the Russian government in Kirkenes, Norway 

to discuss the Barents Sea region, Bjerke said. 



"We want to focus on the Barents Sea as a clean ocean area which 

should be allowed to remain clean in the future," she said, adding 

that the Arctic region was extremely vulnerable to pollution of any 

kind. 



It is not the first time Norway has pressed Britain over Sellafield 

emissions, but Bjerke said the letter comes at a time when the 

British government is faced with a decision about the complex's 

future. 



"We want to encourage the British government to choose an alternative 

that would prevent any further emissions into the North Sea which 

could then spread further across large areas," the minister said. 



Seafood is Norway's top export after oil and gas. 

------------------



Troubled Czech nuke plant suffers another glitch

  

PRAGUE, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Technicians briefly shut down the reactor 

at the controversial Czech nuclear power plant at Temelin on Sunday, 

the latest in a long line of setbacks at the station. 



Plant spokesman Milan Nebesar said the hiccup, caused by a technical 

glitch, did not pose any safety threat at the Soviet-designed 

station. Temelin is some 60 km (40 miles) from the borders of Austria 

and Germany which are both opposed to its operation arguing the plant 

is not up to western standards. 



"This is not related to nuclear safety," Nebesar said. 



He told Reuters the problem had been traced to the plant's automatic 

regulators, which would be tested and readjusted. Temelin's 

technicians restarted nuclear reaction on Sunday evening, the Czech 

Radio reported. 



The station, which combines a Soviet-designed reactor with a U.S. 

control system, has gone through repeated shutdowns since its first 

launch last autumn. 



It was restarted on August 15 after a three-month stoppage caused by 

turbine vibrations. On Friday, operators had raised the output of the 

1,000 megawatt reactor to 54 percent of capacity, the highest level 

so far. 



The $2.5 billion plant will become the cheapest source of electricity 

for the power company CEZ unless the firm and the government bend to 

mounting pressure to shut it down for good. Czech regulators have 

been fully backing the station, saying it is completely safe. 



CEZ hopes to bring the station's first block fully online by the end 

of this year, and is currently launching tests on the second block 

before loading it with fuel. 

------------------



Russians Warn of Nuclear Waste



MOSCOW (AP) - Liquid radioactive waste accumulated during the half-

century of the Russian nuclear weapons program could drain into the 

Ural Mountains region's rivers with disastrous environmental 

consequences, a regional governor warned. 



Artificial lakes containing more than 14 billion cubic feet of waste 

from the Mayak nuclear processing plant are filled to capacity and 

within a few years may leak into the region's rivers, Gov. Pyotr 

Sumin of the Chelyabinsk region in the Ural Mountains wrote in a 

letter to Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov. 



``The Techa cascade of lakes is a major potential source of radiation 

disasters and catastrophes,'' Sumin said in the letter, a copy of 

which was sent by environmentalists to The Associated Press on 

Friday. ``There is a danger that the dam will burst, causing 

catastrophic consequences for the rivers Iset, Tobol and Ob.'' 



Mayak, a major nuclear weapons plant during Soviet times, 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. 



The vice governor of the Chelyabinsk region, Gennady Podtyosov, said 

in a telephone interview Friday that the water level in the lakes is 

just 12 inches below the limit. If action is not taken, contaminated 

water could burst the dam within three to four years, he said. 



``It would be a major catastrophe,'' Podtyosov said. ``Waste would 

pollute rivers and flow into the Arctic Ocean.'' 



Besides nuclear weapons programs, Mayak is also expected to house and 

process nuclear waste imported from abroad under a recently passed 

law. 



President Vladimir Putin signed the law last month despite protests 

by liberals and environmentalists, who insist it will turn the 

country into the world's nuclear dump. Proponents say it will create 

jobs and bring in money to state coffers. 



Podtyosov said processing waste would require dumping more 

radioactive water into the overfilled lakes. 



In his letter, Sumin urged the government to earmark funds to avert 

the threat of massive radioactive leaks. 



Podtyosov said the problem could be solved by expanding the lakes, 

installing filters that would clean the contaminated water before 

letting it flow into rivers or by completing a partially built 

nuclear power plant that could use some of the water and lower the 

lakes' level. 



Local officials believe the construction of the nuclear power plant, 

which was suspended in 1992, would be the most feasible way to deal 

with the problem. Besides dealing with the waste, the plant would 

also help solve the region's energy shortage, Podtyosov said. 



He said Kasyanov had ordered the Nuclear Power Ministry to analyze 

the problem together with regional officials. 



Russian environmentalists assailed the idea of building a nuclear 

power plant, saying it would exacerbate the region's problems. 



``Sumin proposes to avert the disaster by building another 

potentially catastrophic facility,'' said Vladimir Slivyak of the 

Echo Protection group. ``Nothing can be more absurd.'' 

-------------------



Consumer groups ask FTC probe irradiation claims

  

WASHINGTON, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Two consumer groups said on Tuesday 

they asked the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether 

food irradiation companies falsely advertise their technology as 

pasteurization. 



The two groups, Public Citizen and The Center for Food Safety, 

complained to the FTC that five of eight U.S.-based companies that 

make irradiation equipment falsely characterize the government-

approved process as "cold pasteurization" or "electronic 

pasteurization." 



The groups called that description "deceitful" because pasteurization 

uses heat to kill harmful bacteria, while irradiation uses ionizing 

radiation. 



The largest of the companies, SureBeam Corp. <SURE.O>, is an 

affiliate of San Diego-based technology company Titan Corp.  <TTN.N>. 





Officials at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration deem irradiation 

safe and have approved it for use on meat and poultry. The process 

also has been endorsed by the United Nation's World Health 

Organization and the American Medical Association. 



Wil Williams, a spokesman for SureBeam, said the irradiation process 

is consistent with the government's definition of pasteurization. 



The complaint comes at a time when the FDA is in the midst of 

devising a label that will inform consumers which foods have been 

irradiated, Williams said. 



Williams said the two consumer groups are lobbying to make the new 

label "look like a warning" even though it's not supposed to, 

Williams said. 



"They do not want the consumer to be informed with correct 

information," Williams said. "It's anticonsumerism all the way." 



Nevertheless, the two consumer groups are waging a public campaign 

against irradiation, contending that it is ineffective and unsafe. 



In Tuesday's complaint, they asked the FTC to order SureBeam and 

other companies to stop equating irradiation with pasteurization and 

penalize anyone found guilty of false advertising. 



"Consumers have been deceived long enough. Food irradiation companies 

must stop play

------------------



Australian Cancer Problems Detailed



SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - More than 10,000 Australians with cancer 

died prematurely or missed crucial treatment last year due to a 

shortage of trained staff and medical equipment, a government-backed 

report said. 



The study - released this week by radiologists, medical scientists 

and engineers - warned that unless immediate action is taken the 

number of cancer sufferers missing out on radiotherapy could double 

to 20,000 people a year. 



Only 38 percent of Australians requiring radiation therapy received 

treatment last year, the National Strategic Plan for Radiation 

Oncology review said. 



Radiation equipment was aging, but where machines were up to date 

staff shortages meant many of the machines were underused, the report 

said. 



``There's an urgent need to increase the financial resources for 

radiation oncology at all levels of government,'' Dr. Liz Kenny, the 

report's author, told The Associated Press Tuesday. ``These patients 

are fighting for their lives. They shouldn't be forced to fight the 

system as well.'' 



The opposition Labor party blamed the government for cutting spending 

on health. 



``This situation has developed because the government has starved the 

public hospital system of funds,'' Labor lawmaker Jenny Macklin said 

in a statement. 



But Health Minister Michael Wooldridge told parliament on Tuesday 

that it was ``wildly inaccurate'' to suggest 10,000 people had missed 

out on treatment. 



``There is no evidence in Australia that we are getting worse 

outcomes in cancer treatment than anywhere else in the world and in 

many cases we are getting better outcomes,'' Wooldridge said. 

-----------------



Pay rise issued to ease pressure on radiation profession



20 August, Australian Broadcasting Corporation -   It is hoped a new 

pay offer could help solve a shortage of radiation  therapists in New 

South Wales which is causing delays in cancer  treatment.  



Therapists across the state are being offered pay rises of up to 25 

per  cent to stop them taking lucrative jobs overseas. 



At Newcastle's Mater Hospital, there are at least six vacant 

positions  for radiation therapists, and treatment rates for cancer 

patients are  down 30 per cent due to a lack of staff to operate the 

linear  accelerators.  



Health and Research Employees Association organiser Natalie Bradbury, 

 says the pay rise will not only attract more people to the 

profession,  but will hopefully stop qualified staff heading 

offshore.  



"There are very lucrative packages on offer at the moment, 

particularly  in Canada and the UK [United Kingdom]," Ms Bradbury 

said. 



"We don't think the Government can match them but its been our 

intention  to make radiation therapy more attractive."  



The New South Wales Government made the pay offer earlier this month 

and  it is expected to be accepted this week, once a disagreement 

about  increasing working hours is resolved.



------------------------------------------------------------------------

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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