BNFL chief says UK must encourage new nuke plants

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

Index:



BNFL chief says UK must encourage new nuke plants

Energy Dept. Hosts Hearings on Yucca

Radiation for Graves eye disease ineffective-study

Radiation, chemotherapy help stomach cancer survival

Prison term sought in tax evasion over nuclear plant project

Ehime Maru kin's lawyers demand fair compensation for families

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



BNFL chief says UK must encourage new nuke plants



LONDON, Sept 6 (Reuters) - The head of state-run British Nuclear 

Fuels on Thursday urged the government to promote the building of new 

nuclear power stations to safeguard future electricity supplies and 

help cut greenhouse gas emissions. 



"Nuclear energy must continue to play a significant role in the UK's 

baseload generation," said Norman Askew in a speech to industry 

executives in London. 



"Without nuclear's contribution this country cannot have a continued 

secure, diverse and environmentally-friendly energy supply," said 

Askew. 



His comments came as BNFL, one of the world's largest nuclear groups 

with a turnover of 2.06 billion pounds ($2.98 billion) in 1999/2000, 

made a submission on Thursday to the government's energy review. 



BNFL says it does not intend to build new nuclear power stations 

itself, although it believes its reactor designs could be used by 

others. 



In June the government declared a root-and-branch review of Britain's 

energy policy to 2050, looking at tackling global warming while 

securing mixed and reliable energy supplies at competitive prices. 



The government has already expressed concern about the possibility of 

Britain becoming overly dependent on any one energy source. 



On Wednesday, Energy Minister Brian Wilson reiterated those worries 

when he told an Aberdeen industry conference that Britain faces being 

70 percent dependent on gas for electricity generation by 2020 with 

90 percent of it being imported. 



BNFL'S CALL 



In BNFL's submission to the Performance and Innovation Unit (PIU), 

which is running the energy review, the company said retaining 

nuclear's contribution to power generation  -- about 23 percent 

against a third each for gas and coal -- is the only way to make sure 

Britain doesn't run short of electricity. 



If fresh nuclear capacity is not built, nuclear's generating capacity 

will fall to five percent in 2020 from 23 percent now, the company 

said. 



BNFL has already started shutting down its ageing Magnox power 

stations and plans to switch the last one off by 2021, leaving only 

the more modern reactors of privatised British Energy running. 



BNFL said such a decline would make it impossible to meet targets of 

cutting greenhouse gas emissions, blamed by many scientists for 

global warming, by 23 percent below 1990 levels by 2010. 



It said said the government needs to modify its climate change 

mechanism so that nuclear generation benefits from emitting virtually 

no greenhouse gases. It said planning and regulatory approval should 

be improved and a review of long-term electricity contracts was also 

needed. 



If the energy review, expected to be completed by the end of the 

year, advocates the building of new nuclear generation it will go 

against the approach taken across much of Europe. 



Germany and Sweden have opted to phase out nuclear energy and most 

other EU states are not actively developing the power source. Even 

France, where nuclear power accounts for nearly 70 percent of its 

electricity, is cutting back programmes and considering other energy 

sources. 



Some analysts doubt the economics of nuclear could be made to work in 

a liberalised energy market characterised by tumbling energy prices 

given the high cost of building nuclear power stations compared with 

other plants. 

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



Energy Dept. Hosts Hearings on Yucca



NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. (AP) - The governor began a crucial hearing on 

a proposal to bury the nation's nuclear waste about 90 miles from the 

Las Vegas Strip with harsh criticism and a vow to take his complaints 

to President Bush. 



Gov. Kenny Guinn called the Department of Energy hearings Wednesday 

premature and irresponsible because they were based on ``scientific 

evidence that is not complete and has not been made public to me nor 

to the people in this room.'' 



Guinn dismissed a letter from Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham 

extending for 15 days the public comment period on the proposal to 

bury 77,000 tons of radioactive waste deep beneath a volcanic ridge 

at Yucca Mountain. 



``I assure you my outrage ... will be detailed in letters directly to 

Secretary Abraham and the president,'' the Republican governor said. 



He earned repeated applause from a partisan standing room only crowd 

of 250 packed into the hearing room at the DOE offices in North Las 

Vegas. More than 170 others were seated in an adjacent cafeteria and 

others followed the proceedings by teleconference in Reno, Elko and 

Carson City. 



Speakers in favor of the Yucca Mountain site were interrupted with 

jeers and catcalls. At one point, the moderator threatened to cut off 

testimony if the boisterous crowd did not allow a pro-nuclear Utah 

resident to continue his remarks. 



Guinn recalled Energy Department promises a half century ago that 

nuclear testing was safe. 



``Since that time,'' the governor said, ``the DOE admitted that 

testing the hydrogen bomb at Yucca Flats caused innocent Americans to 

die - and that cancer benefit should be paid.'' 



The hearing, almost 20 years in coming, provided a focal point for a 

long-running debate in Nevada about the safety of the proposed 

nuclear repository. 



The Energy Department has since 1982 spent almost $7 billion studying 

and drilling at Yucca Mountain, as well as testing methods to store 

spent fuel pellets in specially designed casks some 1,000 feet 

underground. 



The mountain was formed from volcanic ash deposits about 13 million 

years ago. There are volcanic cones in the area and some opponents of 

the repository worry the area could become seismically active again. 



The hearing is the first of three the Energy Department is holding. 

Others are scheduled Sept. 12 in Amargosa Valley, the community 

nearest the mountain and Sept. 13 in Pahrump, a community in Nye 

County west of the site. 



Abraham will consider the testimony before recommending to President 

Bush by the end of this year whether the site is suitable to begin 

accepting nuclear waste in 2010. The project has been projected to 

cost $58 billion over 100 years. 



If Abraham recommends the dump be built and Bush gives the project 

the go-ahead but Nevada opposes it, as expected, the decision will be 

sent to Congress for debate and a vote. 

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



Radiation for Graves eye disease ineffective-study



ROCHESTER, Minn., Sept 5 (Reuters) - Radiation therapy, used for 

decades to treat Graves' eye disease, is ineffective in mild and 

moderately severe cases of the condition that causes bulging eyes and 

poor vision, researchers said on Wednesday. 



Mayo Clinic researchers found no difference in the treated and 

untreated eyes of patients who underwent the orbital radiotherapy in 

which radiation is directed to the area containing the eyeball. 



"Because this treatment is still in wide use, is expensive and is not 

without risk, it is our belief that it should not be used for 

patients with mild or moderately severe ophthalmopathy," Mayo Clinic 

endocrinologist and study author Colum Gorman said. 



The condition has been treated with radiation for decades. 



Between 3 percent and 5 percent of Graves' disease victims develop an 

eye pathology, with symptoms such as bulging, red and inflamed eyes, 

excessive tearing, widening of the space between the upper and lower 

eyelids, light sensitivity, and blurry or double vision. 



Graves' disease is an autoimmune disease in which the body stimulates 

the thyroid to secrete excessive amounts of hormones, which in turn 

can cause symptoms such as fatigue, anxiety, sweating, weight loss 

and intolerance of heat. 



Gorman said the illness can be treated with corticosteroids or 

surgery, and often goes away naturally. 



"It is our belief that this tendency to natural remission, together 

with the imprecision of measurements used in most previous studies, 

has allowed the perception to persist that the (radiation) treatment 

is effective," Gorman said. 



The study published in this month's issue of the journal 

Ophthalmology did not examine patients with very severe cases of 

Graves' disease in which it has damaged the optic nerve. 

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



Radiation, chemotherapy help stomach cancer survival

  

BOSTON, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Patients who receive chemotherapy and 

radiation after surgery for stomach cancer survive longer than those 

who receive surgery alone, according to a study in Thursday's New 

England Journal of Medicine. 



Stomach cancer kills about 13,000 Americans each year, in part 

because surgery to remove the tumor frequently fails to produce a 

cure, according to the American Cancer Society. 



Under the best circumstance, the 10 year survival rate is 65 percent. 

But when the disease is more advanced, that rate drops to 42 percent.



The new study, led by John S. Macdonald of St. Vincent's 

Comprehensive Cancer Center in New York, followed 556 people treated 

since 1991. All received surgery. Half were also given chemotherapy 

and radiation. 



Sixty percent of the patients who received chemotherapy and radiation 

died during the study, compared with 72 percent who only had surgery. 



Three patients -- 1 percent -- died from the effects of the radiation 

or chemotherapy atreatment stopped because of the side effects. 



"Our results demonstrate that chemoradiotherapy ???ficantly improves 

relapse-free and overall survival" after surgery for stomach cancer, 

the researchers concluded. 

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



Prison term sought in tax evasion over nuclear plant project



YOKOHAMA, Sept. 6 (Kyodo) - Public prosecutors on Thursday demanded 

the Yokohama District Court impose an 18-month prison term and 40 

million yen fine on a medical doctor accused of evading taxes when he 

sold a piece of land in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, to developers for 

later use in a stalled nuclear plant project. 



Yoshinori Yabe, a 58-year-old cranial nerve surgeon from Ebina, 

Kanagawa Prefecture, southwest of Tokyo, has pleaded not guilty, 

saying he did not report the income from the sale to tax authorities 

in line with Kansai Electric Power Co.'s efforts to conceal its 

alleged intentions to buy the land from the developers for the 

nuclear plant. 



Yabe said Kansai Electric told him via the developers that it 

intended to buy the land in the future. He said he planned to report 

the sale to tax authorities once Kansai Electric allowed him to make 

the deal public. 



It is not known whether Kansai Electric actually intended to buy the 

land or whether it asked the doctor to hide the sale because the 

company has declined to comment on the issue. An official from the 

company testified in court behind closed doors, but the contents of 

the testimony were not made public. 



Yabe allegedly sold his 107,000-square-meter piece of inherited land 

in Suzu, on the Sea of Japan coast, for 750 million yen to four 

developers from 1993 to 1994, netting 447 million yen in income. 



Prosecutors allege that he evaded 133 million yen in income tax by 

giving the appearance that the deals involved loans from the 

developers rather than sales. 



Kansai Electric, Chubu Electric Power Co. and Hokuriku Electric Power 

Co. have said they plan to build a nuclear plant in Suzu. Kansai 

Electric launched a feasibility study in 1989, but the research was 

suspended due to residents' objections to the project. 

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



Ehime Maru kin's lawyers demand fair compensation for families



TOKYO, Sept. 6 (Kyodo) - Lawyers for relatives of two of those lost 

at sea in the Feb. 9 collision between a Japanese fisheries training 

ship and a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine demanded Thursday that the 

compensation for the families reflect the seriousness of the case, 

the lawyers said. 



In their third compensation talks in Tokyo with the U.S. Navy, the 

lawyers insisted the U.S. Navy committed gross negligence in the 

accident, they said. 



The lawyers based their allegations on computer images made by the 

U.S. Pacific Fleet as evidence. 



The images were based on the U.S. submarine's navigational chart and 

on the assumption that the sub conducted the safety confirmation 

measures through the periscope prior to the rapid ascent drill as 

stipulated in the Navy's manual. The images were presented to the 

Court of Inquiry. 



The high school fisheries training ship, the Ehime Maru, appears in 

the images and the lawyers insisted the U.S. Navy failed to recognize 

the ship, calling this a serious failure. They demanded the Navy 

reflect the seriousness of the error in deciding the amount of 

compensation. 



But the U.S. Navy bases its compensation decisions on the law 

concerning death in international waters. 



The law bases the amount of compensation for the bereaved families on 

estimated lost income, irrespective of liability. The lawyers of the 

families are demanding consolation money for the mental anguish 

suffered by the families, the lawyers said. 



The next round of talks is expected to take place in early November. 



The Ehime Maru was hit and sunk by the sub Greeneville while the sub 

was conducting an emergency-surfacing drill for civilian guests on 

board. 



Nine of the 35 Japanese aboard the Ehime Maru, including four teenage 

students from Uwajima Fisheries High School in Ehime Prefecture, 

western Japan, went missing and are presumed dead, while 26 were 

rescued.



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

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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