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Miyama assembly OKs nuclear plant plebiscite ordinance



NOTE: I will be leaving for FL tomorrow. Depending on the network 

connections I have, there may be no further news distributions until 

I return, Oct. 1



Index:



Miyama assembly OKs nuclear plant plebiscite ordinance

NRC finds safety violation at Md. Calvert Cliffs nuke

Federal Opposition makes no nuclear waste promise to SA

U.S. to lift nuclear sanctions on Pakistan, India

Japan to suspend U.S. nuclear sub visit notices

Study Shows Tumor Oxygenation and Radiation Enhancement Using RSR13 

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



Miyama assembly OKs nuclear plant plebiscite ordinance



MIYAMA, Japan, Sept. 21 (Kyodo) - The Miyama town assembly in Mie 

Prefecture on Friday approved a draft ordinance to hold a plebiscite 

in the first such move in Japan on whether to invite a power company 

to build a nuclear plant, assembly members said. 



The envisaged plebiscite will likely be held as early as late 

November in the town with 9,000 eligible voters, they said. 



The ordinance stipulates that a majority opinion in the plebiscite 

would be respected. 



Assembly members favoring holding a plebiscite argued various 

residents have called for it. Those opposing the referendum said it 

would be quite unusual as the central government has no concrete 

plans to build a nuclear plant in the town. 



Miyama Mayor Tatsuo Shiota told reporters after the passage of the 

draft ordinance that the date of the plebiscite will be fixed around 

early October. 



''I hope residents will make a good judgment before casting votes,'' 

Shiota said. 



Miyama, a western Japan town with a population of about 10,000, is 

close to the Mie towns of Nanto and Kisei, where strong opposition 

forced Chubu Electric Power Co. to abandon in February last year a 

plan to build a nuclear power plant there. 



Chubu Electric Power had considered Miyama as a candidate site in 

1963 before deciding on Nanto and Kisei. 



Since the 1980s, some members of the local business community have 

been pressing for the town to invite the company to build a nuclear 

power plant in Miyama to revive the area. 



In February this year, about 5,600 Miyama residents, or 64% of 

eligible voters, filed a petition supporting the plant. Antinuclear 

power residents filed a petition against it. 



In late August, a special committee of the town assembly advocated 

holding a plebiscite on the grounds that it is a major issue and the 

opinions of local residents should be reflected. 

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



NRC finds safety violation at Md. Calvert Cliffs nuke

  

NEW YORK, Sept 21 (Reuters) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) 

said late Thursday it found a violation of NRC safety rules at the 

Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Maryland. 



The NRC, in a statement, characterized the findings as "yellow," 

meaning it is an issue of substantial importance to safety that will 

result in additional NRC inspection. 



The plant, located in Lusby, Md., is operated by Constellation 

Nuclear, a unit of diversified energy giant Constellation Energy 

Group Inc. <CEG.N> of Baltimore. 



The violation is based on an NRC inspection conducted in June and 

July of this year that looked into the failure of an auxiliary 

feedwater pump during a test on May 16. 



The auxiliary feedwater system is a backup system that provides water 

to the plant's steam generators in the event the main feedwater 

system is lost. 



The NRC said its inspectors found Constellation workers failed to 

adhere to maintenance instructions during maintenance on the pump and 

applied too much sealant to the bearing housing, contaminating the 

bearing oil which resulted in the bearing failure. 



NRC officials classify certain conditions at nuclear power plants as 

being one of four colors which delineate increasing levels of 

severity. The findings begin with "green" and progress in severity to 

"white," "yellow" or "red." 



The NRC said the company has taken corrective action to correct the 

problem and the pump was tested satisfactorily. 

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



Federal Opposition makes no nuclear waste promise to SA



Sept 21 Australian Broadcasting Corporation - The Federal Opposition 

has promised a Labor Government will not build a  nuclear waste dump 

in South Australia. 



Sites in South Australia are being considered to store low level 

nuclear  waste. 



The Labor leader, Kim Beazley, says Labor accepts the need for long-

term  management of nuclear waste that is produced in Australia. 



However, he has ruled out South Australia, saying it has had more 

than  its share of unsafe and ill-considered nuclear experimentation 

in the past. 

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



U.S. to lift nuclear sanctions on Pakistan, India



ISLAMABAD, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Washington, showing the economic 

benefits for Pakistan's support in its confrontation with 

Afghanistan, will soon lift sanctions against India and Pakistan 

imposed after their 1998 nuclear tests, a senior Western diplomat 

said on Friday. 



In addition, it will reschedule $600 million in Pakistani debt on 

September 24, a diplomat said. 



The lifting of the sanctions imposed after India and then Pakistan 

carried out tit-for-tat nuclear tests, and thus joined the elite 

community of nuclear powers, would allow the United States to vote in 

favour of aid in multilateral bodies and resume direct assistance in 

a number of areas. 



It will not affect additional U.S. sanctions imposed on Pakistan 

because of military ruler General Pervez Musharraf's seizure of power 

in 1999. 



"You will see discernible progress soon," said the diplomat, who 

asked not to be identified. Preparation for the lifting of the 

sanctions was under way in Washington, the official said. 



Washington had also accelerated negotiations to reschedule the $600 

million in Pakistani debt owed to the United States, the diplomat 

said. 



The signing of the agreement under the Paris Club, which handles 

negotiations on bilateral debt, would take place on September 24, and 

is part of $1.6 billion in Pakistan's Paris Club debt being 

rescheduled this year. 



Another diplomat said the moves were part of a number of financial 

benefits, many already in the pipeline, that have been accelerated to 

help Pakistan as it lines up behind Washington in what may be an 

attack on neighbouring Afghanistan. 



REWARD FOR PAKISTAN 



Musharraf, despite criticism at home, has promised to back the United 

States as it pursues those responsible for the September 11 attacks 

on Washington and New York that are feared to have killed more than 

6,000 people. 



Washington says the chief suspect is Osama bin Laden, who is 

sheltered by Afghanistan's Taliban. 



A series of meetings have taken place between senior members of the 

U.S. embassy and Musharraf and ministers with economic portfolios as 

part of an effort to provide quick benefits to Pakistan. 



"Everything they asked the United States to do on the economic front 

fits into the context of their economic reform programme," said the 

second diplomat. 



The diplomats said Pakistan has made clear that any additional aid 

will be directed toward the badly underfunded social sectors such as 

health and education, not toward the military. 



Even before the current crisis, which has forced the closure of 

Pakistan's stock exchanges all this week, the economy was in 

precarious condition. 



It is struggling under about $40 billion in foreign debt and has 

meagre reserves to defend its currency, which has been declining for 

more than a year. 



Pakistan is just completing a $596 million standby agreement with the 

International Monetary Fund, with the IMF expected to authorise the 

final tranche next week. It is then to begin talks on a three-year 

agreement. 



Once the sanctions imposed for the nuclear tests are lifted, the 

United States would be able to vote in favour of fresh aid to 

Pakistan. At present it must abstain on aid packages that it 

supports. 



In addition to the assistance for Pakistan, the United States is also 

stepping up humanitarian assistance available for Afghanistan, 

although delivering it in the current crisis would be almost 

impossible. 

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



Japan to suspend U.S. nuclear sub visit notices



TOKYO, Sept. 21 (Kyodo) - Japan has decided to suspend its practice 

of giving the public prior notice about scheduled visits by U.S. 

nuclear submarines to Japanese ports as a measure to reinforce 

security against possible terrorist attacks, a Foreign Ministry 

official said Friday. 



''This is a temporary measure and is in line with Prime Minister 

(Junichiro) Koizumi's announcement on Sept. 19 of a plan to reinforce 

security at U.S. military facilities in Japan in the wake of 

terrorist attacks in the United States,'' the official said. 



The official explained that the ministry decided to take the measure 

in response to a request from the U.S. Navy via the U.S. Embassy in 

Tokyo to do something to ensure safety of its nuclear subs stopping 

in one of three Japanese ports that regularly receive them. 



The local governments of Sasebo in Nagasaki Prefecture, Yokosuka in 

Kanagawa Prefecture and Okinawa Prefecture have consented to the 

measure. 



Normally, the U.S. informs the Foreign Ministry at least 24 hours in 

advance of a pending stop by a nuclear sub to facilitate preparations 

for checks by local governments to make sure there are no 

radioactivity leaks. 



The ministry then notifies the local governments, and has been 

relaying information about sub visits to the media. 

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



Study Shows Tumor Oxygenation and Radiation Enhancement Using RSR13 

And Potential Role as Imaging Agent

  

DENVER, Sept. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Allos Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: 

ALTH) today announced the publication of study results that 

demonstrate the application of blood oxygen level-dependent magnetic 

resonance imaging (BOLD-MRI) to noninvasively quantitate the temporal 

and dose-dependent ability of RSR13 to increase tumor oxygenation of 

human non-small cell lung cancer tumors grown in mice.  The study 

also showed that combining the dose of RSR13 that optimized the 

change in the tumor BOLD-MRI signal ratio with a single dose of 

radiation increased radiation-induced tumor growth delay by 280 

percent. 



The study entitled "Enhancement of Tumor Oxygenation and Radiation 

Response by the Allosteric Effector of Hemoglobin, RSR13," was led by 

Hak Choy, M.D., Clinical Director, Center for Radiation Oncology, and 

investigators at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN. 

 The paper is published in the September issue of Radiation Research 

and available online at www.radres.org. 



Robert Steffen, Ph.D., Director of Pharmacology and Toxicology at 

Allos Therapeutics said, "The results of this study confirm previous 

work demonstrating the ability of RSR13 to enhance the effectiveness 

of radiation therapy is due to increased tumor oxygenation.  In this 

study, BOLD-MRI was used as an alternative modality to monitor RSR13-

induced changes in tumor oxygenation."  The study findings are 

concordant with results of a Phase II study in patients with non-

small cell lung cancer in which patients receiving induction 

chemotherapy followed by radiation plus RSR13 experienced an overall 

tumor response rate of 89 percent. 



ABOUT BOLD-MRI   



BOLD-MRI is a well-established, non-invasive method for assessing 

tissue oxygenation.  This combined RSR13 BOLD-MRI imaging technique 

may also have potential clinical application beyond assessment of 

tumor oxygenation. BOLD-MRI capitalizes on the magnetic differences 

(signal ratio) between oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin in the blood 

to create an image.  Because RSR13 reversibly binds and stabilizes 

deoxyhemoglobin, the changes in signal ratio result in an enhanced 

BOLD-MRI image.  RSR13 has the potential to increase the clinical 

information obtained with BOLD-MRI.  Based on the rodent study, a 

Phase II clinical study of RSR13 combined with BOLD MRI is ongoing to 

assess tumor and normal brain tissue oxygenation in patients with 

recurrent high-grade brain cancer. 



The Company has also demonstrated in two separate Phase II clinical 

trials that radiation plus RSR13 results in a statistically 

significant increase in median survival in patients with brain 

metastases and primary brain cancer over radiation alone.  A 

multinational Phase III study is underway comparing the survival 

outcomes of radiation alone versus radiation plus RSR13 in patients 

with brain metastases. 



About Allos Therapeutics, Inc. 



Allos Therapeutics, Inc. is a pharmaceutical company focused on 

developing and commercializing innovative small molecule drugs, 

initially for improving cancer treatments.  The Company is conducting 

a pivotal Phase III trial for the treatment of metastatic brain 

tumors with its lead clinical candidate, RSR13.  RSR13 is a synthetic 

small molecule that increases the release of oxygen from hemoglobin, 

the oxygen carrying protein contained within red blood cells.  The 

presence of oxygen in tumors is an essential element for the 

effectiveness of radiation therapy and some chemotherapy agents in 

the treatment of cancer.  By increasing tumor oxygenation, RSR13 has 

the potential to enhance the efficacy of standard radiation therapy 

and certain chemotherapeutic drugs.  Unlike chemotherapeutics or 

other radiosensitizers, RSR13 does not have to cross the blood brain 

barrier and enter the tumor for efficacy.  Enhancement of oxygen 

release from hemoglobin to oxygenate the tumor is the means of 

enhancing the effectiveness of radiation therapy and chemotherapy.  

For more information about the Company, please consult www.allos.com 



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

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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