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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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