Worker exposed to 1,000 times higher-than-normal radiation

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

Index:



Japanese worker exposed to 1,000 times higher-than-normal radiation

Georgia says arrests uranium smuggler

Nuclear Waste Vessel, Sub Collide

NRC must ensure nuke plant decommissioning funds-GAO

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Japanese worker exposed to 1,000 times higher-than-normal radiation

  

TOKYO, Dec. 21 (Kyodo) - A 34-year-old company employee was exposed to 1,000 

times the maximum annual permissible level of radiation at a Tokyo hospital Friday while 

setting up medical equipment, the science and technology ministry said. 



The man, a worker of an affiliate of the medical instrument sales company Toshiba 

Medical Systems Co., was hospitalized after being exposed to an estimated 1 sievert of 

radiation around 9:30 a.m. at the National Okura Hospital in Setagaya Ward, the 

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology said. 



The ministry said the employee, who is receiving treatment at a hospital in Tokyo's 

Shinagawa Ward, has not developed any acute symptoms from radiation exposure such 

as nausea. 



It also said although the man's white blood cell count will likely decrease over three 

weeks, the exposure will not be life-threatening. 



Makoto Akashi, head of the emergency radiation exposure medical center at the 

National Institute of Radiological Sciences, however, said it is necessary to take 

measures to prevent his developing infection from the decrease in white blood cells. 



The man, who does not normally handle radiation, was in the roof trying to hang the 

controller for the equipment from the ceiling when two Toshiba Medical employees 

activated the instrument for cancer treatment, which was in the room next door, in a test 

without realizing he was there, the ministry said. 



He received x-rays 20,000 times as intense as the level for a medical checkup from 

three meters away for five minutes, according to the ministry. 



Toshiba Medical officials said they have heard the man is in good shape, but he is 

scheduled to undergo a thorough examination at the national institute. 



They also wondered why the two Toshiba Medical employees did not check to see if 

anyone was present before activating the instrument. 



In Japan, the highest-level radiation exposure occurred in September 1999, when 

Hisashi Ouchi, a uranium-processing plant worker, was exposed to an estimated 17 

sieverts of radiation in the country's worst nuclear accident in Tokaimura, Ibaraki 

Prefecture. 



The radiation level was 17,000 times the maximum annual permissible exposure for 

people not working in nuclear or related facilities in Japan. 



Ouchi's colleague Masato Shinohara was also exposed to an estimated 10 sieverts of 

radiation in the accident. Both Ouchi and Shinohara died of multiple organ failure in 

December 1999 and April 2000. 



The Research Organization for Information Science and Technology also said workers 

were exposed to a maximum of 1.2 sieverts of radiation in 1971 while handling iridium, a 

radiation source, at a plant in Chiba Prefecture. 

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



Georgia says arrests uranium smuggler

  

TBILISI, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Georgian police have arrested an Armenian smuggler with 

300 grams (10.5 ounces) of radioactive uranium that he planned to sell in Turkey, a 

senior security official said on Saturday. 



The official, who asked not to be identified, said Georgian police and security services 

had arrested Armenian national Eduard Kazaryan on Wednesday in the Samtskhe-

Javakheti region in southern Georgia where many ethnic Armenians live. 



"We have serious suspicions that the uranium had been stolen from the Armenian 

nuclear power station," he said. 



Kazaryan had with him one plate of low-grade uranium-235 which he had smuggled from 

Armenia and intended to sell in Turkey for $7,000, the official said. 



Safety worries had forced Armenia to shut down its only nuclear power plant in the 

aftermath of a disastrous earthquake in 1988, but it relaunched the station in 1995 

because of acute power shortages. 



Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, there have been a number of cases of 

nuclear materials being stolen from poorly guarded facilities, sparking grave concern in 

the West. 

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



Nuclear Waste Vessel, Sub Collide

  

MOSCOW (AP) - A Russian vessel that collects spent nuclear fuel collided with a 

decommissioned nuclear submarine from which it was supposed to be unloading, but 

there was no radiation leak, a marine spokesman said Friday. 



The Imandra waste carrier bumped into a mothballed Northern Fleet submarine in the 

Arctic Kola Bay, said Vladimir Blinov, spokesman for the Merchant Marine service in the 

port of Murmansk. 



Blinov would not say what type of submarine it was or when the accident happened. 

Russia's state-controlled ORT television said the collision occurred on Dec. 13. 



Radiation experts were rushed to the scene, but an inspection showed that neither 

vessel had leaked radiation or suffered any damage, Blinov said in a telephone 

interview. 



Russia has more than 180 decommissioned nuclear submarines, according to official 

data, and most of them have stayed afloat with nuclear fuel onboard, raising the risk of a 

nuclear accident. Some have languished dockside for 10-15 years, their hulls rusting 

through. Officials said they lacked funds to build dismantling and storage facilities. 



Some European Union nations have offered to provide funds for dismantling the 

submarines, but the talks have stalled over Russia's refusal to accept full legal 

responsibility for all nuclear risks, offer tax breaks or give Western inspectors unlimited 

access to all dismantling sites. 

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



NRC must ensure nuke plant decommissioning funds-GAO

  

WASHINGTON, Dec 20 (Reuters) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission falls short in 

its oversight of funds for U.S. nuclear power plant decommissioning, according to a 

report released on Thursday by Congress' main investigative arm. 



Decommissioning a retired nuclear plant typically costs between $300 million and $400 

million, and involves dismantling it and removing its radioactive components for safe 

storage. 



The General Accounting Office report said that in some instances, the NRC's reviews 

were "not always rigorous enough" to ensure adequate decommissioning funds, 

according to the report. 



The shortfall could leave U.S. taxpayers on the hook for "potential liability in the billions 

of dollars" if private companies are not able to obtain the funds needed to decommission 

mothballed nuclear plants, said a spokesman for Rep. Edward Markey, a California 

Democrat and long-time nuclear industry critic who requested the GAO report. 



"The commission will review the report carefully and take whatever action they feel is 

appropriate," an NRC spokesman said. The agency oversees all 103 U.S. nuclear 

plants. 



The NRC failed to obtain needed information from Exelon Corp <EXC.N>, the biggest 

owner of U.S. nuclear plants, the report said. 



Exelon was formed by the merger of Unicom and PECO Energy Co. Through three 

subsidiaries, the newly created company controls 16 operating and four 

decommissioned nuclear plants in Illinois, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. 



"The new companies involved in the merger did not provide, nor did NRC request, 

copies of contractual agreements" documenting access to decommissioning funds for 

the plants, GAO said. 



Markey linked the findings to a failure of federally mandated deregulation of wholesale 

electricity markets in 1996. The new regulations allowed utilities to sell assets they 

viewed as economically unpromising, and many nuclear plants were sold to other 

companies. Reorganizations and mergers have led to 30 license transfers, GAO said. 



When those transfers occurred, "NRC did not always adequately verify the new owners' 

financial qualifications to safely own and operate the plants," GAO said in the report. 



In most instances, GAO found that post-deregulation license transfers have seen 

enhanced assurance of decommissioning funds, which have traditionally been raised by 

charges embedded in utilities' billing structure, GAO said. 



The upshot of deregulation is that new nuclear operators no longer have access to a 

secure pool of funding for decommissioning costs, Markey said. 



"Deregulation of electricity markets has led to many mergers and ownership transfers ... 

with the potential for the plants' decommissioning funds to be lost in the shuffle," Markey 

said. The NRC must ensure such funds are available, he said. 

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

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://sandy-travels.com

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com



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