Antinuclear activist Helen Caldicott launches political party

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

Index:



Antinuclear activist Helen Caldicott launches political party

FOCUS: Japan's nuclear energy policy remains in limbo

Radiation Therapy Is Highly Effective Against Coronary Disease

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



Antinuclear activist Helen Caldicott launches political party



Sept 3 - Australian Broadcasting Company - Long-time antinuclear 

activist Helen Caldicott today launched her own  political party in 

Sydney. 



Dr Caldicott is calling the party "Our Common Future" and is 

waiting on  registration. 



She says regardless of registration, she will stand as an 

Independent in  the Senate in the upcoming federal election. 



Dr Caldicott, who is opposed to the building of a new nuclear 

reactor in  Sydney's Lucas Heights, says she will also emphasise 

her opposition to  the privatisation of the health system and  other 

services. 



"I  founded it because as Gore Vidal says we have one political 

party  with two right wings in Australia and I don't think any party is 

really  looking at the full spectrum," she said. 



"The Greens are good but I'm deeply concerned with the way 

society is  going and we're being privatised to the hilt and we're 

losing everything  we've ever owned, we're losing our compassion 

and we're becoming  Americanised."

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FOCUS: Japan's nuclear energy policy remains in limbo



TOKYO, Sept. 2 (Kyodo) - By: Takashi Miura Japan's nuclear 

energy policy -- with the so-called pluthermal project at its core -- 

is in limbo, with the government now paying the price for having 

neglected to consult with people living near nuclear plants when 

formulating the far-reaching plan. 



And in a sign of high-level internal discord, Kyoko Kimoto, a former 

TV broadcaster and a critic, said in mid-August that she will take a 

leave of absence from the Atomic Energy Commission, an advisory 

panel to the prime minister on atomic energy policy, blaming the 

commission for taking a negative stance in dialogue with citizens 

about pluthermal projects. 



Tokyo Electric Power Co. had planned to use plutonium-uranium 

mixed oxide (MOX) fuel in the No. 3 reactor at its Kashiwazaki-

Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture, but Kariwa residents voted 

against the plan in a May plebiscite. 



Tokyo Electric Power, about half of whose power generation comes 

from nuclear reactors, is the largest of the nation's 10 electric 

power companies. 



The government of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has thus 

established a liaison council among ministries and agencies, 

including the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, to devise 

measures to gain public consensus for the pluthermal project, 

which derives its name the combination of plutonium and thermal. 



The measures, unveiled in early August, call for energy education 

at elementary, junior and senior high schools. The education 

ministry has asked that 500 million yen be earmarked in the state 

budget for fiscal 2002 to fund such education through the 

publication of side readers. 



The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry also asked that 700 

million yen be spent to triple the number of visitors to nuclear 

plants to one million annually. 



But analysts doubt whether this kind of ''education'' and ''publicity'' 

from above will actually persuade people of the safety and 

necessity of the pluthermal project. 



The original pillar of Japan's nuclear fuel recycling policy was the 

creation of fast-breeder reactors, which use plutonium fuel, but the 

prospects for their development collapsed in 1995 when the Monju 

reactor in Fukui Prefecture leaked plutonium. 



It was then that plans for the pluthermal project surfaced. Kansai 

Electric Power Co. and Tokyo Electric Power planned to use MOX 

at the Takahama and Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plants respectively. 



But the Takahama plant was forced to suspend the plan after a 

British company was found to have falsified fuel manufacturing 

data. The Fukushima No. 1 plant was also forced to postpone the 

plan as the Fukushima prefectural government opposed a revision 

in Tokyo Electric Power's construction of a thermal power plant. 



The government's atomic energy officials said the promotion of the 

pluthermal project is a ''national policy'' because it was 

incorporated into a long-term nuclear energy research and 

development program the government fixed last year. 



However, informed sources said that in the process of working out 

the program, there was little discussion about whether or not 

plutonium should be used, and opinions from those cautions about 

nuclear power and citizens opposed to the program were not given 

much weight. 



Currently, a plan exists to construct a MOX fuel processing plant in 

the village of Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, where a nuclear fuel 

reprocessing plant is being built. 



Analysts have said that if the pluthermal project is revised, the plan 

to build the MOX plant will be favorably affected, but that public 

understanding is difficult to obtain without full explanations of the 

program. 



Tokyo Electric Power is conducting a basic survey about whether 

to locate an ''intermediate storage'' facility in the Aomori city of 

Mutsu, where used fuel that is not to be recycled immediately can 

be stored for up to 10 years. 



The analysts said used fuel can be stored at the intermediate 

storage facility for the time being in order to allow enough time for 

discussions, but stressed the need to stop and consider 

alternatives, including the nonprocessing of the whole volume of 

used fuel. 

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



Positive Clinical Results Indicate Novoste Corporation's Radiation 

Therapy Is Highly Effective Against Coronary Disease



STOCKHOLM, Sweden--(BW HealthWire)--Sept. 2, 2001-- 



Results of 1,098 Patient European Registry Trial (RENO) Support  

Routine Use of Intracoronary Radiation For Primary Treatment of  

Blocked Stents 



Novoste Corporation (Nasdaq: NOVT) today announced the results 

of its RENO registry trial, which further demonstrated that routine 

application of intracoronary radiation therapy, also known as 

vascular brachytherapy (VBT), is highly effective in the treatment of 

restenosis following coronary angioplasty and stent procedures. 



This condition affects up to 30% of the 1.5 million patients who 

undergo coronary interventional procedures annually worldwide. 



The results, generated by the recently concluded European 

REgistry NOvoste (RENO) Trial, confirm data generated by 

previously released, placebo-controlled clinical trials. Dr. Philip 

Urban, Principal Investigator, presented the RENO trial results at 

the European Society of Cardiology Congress today in Stockholm, 

Sweden. 



The RENO registry trial, which began in April 1999, shortly after the 

European commercialization of the Novoste(TM) Beta-Cath(TM) 

System, included 1,098 patients from 46 hospitals throughout 

Europe and the Middle East. The purpose of this registry trial was 

to assess the commercial application of radiation therapy using the 

Novoste(TM) Beta-Cath(TM) System. This registry trial assessed 

major adverse cardiac events (MACE), which include death, heart 

attack and the need for revascularization procedures, at 6 months 

following the initial radiation procedure. Approximately 78% of 

patients in this registry trial presented with in-stent restenosis and 

the remaining patients presented with de novo or restenotic 

lesions. This trial included diabetic patients (n=256), patients with 

long lesions (mean lesion length 25.9 mm, n=555) and patients 

with saphenous vein graft disease (n=67). 



The results of the RENO registry trial demonstrated that patients 

receiving beta radiation delivered with the Novoste(TM) Beta-

Cath(TM) System exhibited a low MACE rate of 18.7% for all 

patients included in the study (17.7% in the in-stent restenosis 

group - Table 1). This compares favorably to MACE rates of 18% to 

28% published in prior randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials 

for those patients receiving either beta or gamma radiation to treat 

in-stent restenosis. 



Dr. Philip Urban, Director of Interventional Cardiology at La Tour 

Hospital in Geneva, Switzerland, stated, "These data reflect real 

world clinical applications and outcomes of beta radiation for the 

treatment of coronary artery disease. These findings support 

vascular brachytherapy as the standard of care for in-stent 

restenosis. It is also very interesting that the results from this 

registry trial improve upon the established clinical efficacy of beta 

radiation demonstrated in other, more restrictive, clinical trial 

conditions. In fact, a cohort of 49 patients with long lesions 

(average lesion length 30.9 mm) treated with the longer 60 mm 

Radiation Source Train resulted in a low 8.2% target vessel 

revascularization (TVR) rate, further supporting the notion that 

increased radiation length coverage may result in more favorable 

clinical outcomes." TVR rate refers to the percentage of patients 

that require a repeat revascularization procedure. 



Furthermore, a separate analysis was performed on a RENO 

patient subset (n=139) and compared to a placebo control group 

selected from the Washington Radiation for In-Stent Restenosis 

Trials (WRIST / LONG WRIST (n=94)). These data demonstrated a 

75% reduction in TVR rate (14.9% vs. 60.6%) and a 72% reduction 

in MACE rate (17.9% vs. 64.9%) for the subset of patients 

receiving Sr-90 beta radiation compared to this placebo control 

group. The average lesion length for this RENO patient subset was 

35.3 mm (site reported) compared to the average lesion length of 

28.0 mm in the WRIST / LONG WRIST placebo control group. 



"We are very pleased with the findings of the RENO registry trial as 

they clearly support the widespread use of vascular brachytherapy 

for the treatment of in-stent restenosis," said William A. Hawkins, 

President and CEO of Novoste Corporation. "These results 

continue to demonstrate the clinical benefits of vascular 

brachytherapy for patients worldwide who suffer from this 

devastating disease and support our continued clinical research in 

this exciting field." 







**************************************************************************

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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