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Japanese Governor approves nuclear fuel transfer despite water leak



Index:



Japanese Governor approves nuclear fuel transfer despite water leak

Iran says will not seek nuclear weapons - paper

Iran warns Israel against attacking nuclear plant

Breast Cancer Treatment Uses 'Seeds'

Inventor of MRI to Work With Pacemaker Inventor On the MRI-pacemaker 

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



Japanese Governor approves nuclear fuel transfer despite water leak

  

AOMORI, Japan, Feb. 5 (Kyodo) - Aomori Gov. Morio Kimura said Tuesday he has 

approved the transfer of spent nuclear fuel to a nuclear-waste reprocessing facility in 

Rokkasho village in the northeastern Japan prefecture despite a continuing water 

leak there. 



''I concluded there will be no problem in proceeding with the plan,'' Kimura told a 

press conference, giving the green light to the planned transfer of such fuel later this 

week. 



By the end of March, a total of 50 tons of spent nuclear fuel is expected to be moved 

from reactors in Fukushima and Shizuoka prefectures to the Rokkasho facility 

operated by Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. 



Japan Nuclear Fuel said last week it has confirmed that some 5,200 liters of water 

containing radioactive materials has leaked from a storage pool at the facility since 

last July and that the water is still leaking. 



However, the leakage poses no threat to the environment because the water is being 

reprocessed by a disposal facility for radioactive liquid waste, the company claims. 



Kimura visited the storage pool Sunday and said he will make a decision on the 

transfer of the fuel after hearing the opinions of neighboring municipalities. 



Japan Nuclear Fuel President Masashi Sasaki met with Kimura earlier in the day and 

gave him a report on the water leakage. Sasaki said the company will improve 

operations of a detector at the pool. 



The pool stores spent nuclear fuel from nuclear power plants nationwide until the fuel 

can be reprocessed. It contains some 165 tons of nuclear waste, the company said. 



Newly transferred spent nuclear fuel can be stored at the other two pools at the plant, 

it said. 



The reprocessing plant, which started accepting spent nuclear fuel in December 

2000, is scheduled to start operations in July 2005. 

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



Iran says will not seek nuclear weapons - paper

  

DUBAI, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Iran's defence minister Admiral Ali Shamkhani was quoted 

on Tuesday saying that in order not to harm ties with its neighbours, Iran would not 

seek nuclear weapons "for any reason." 



"The existence of nuclear weapons will turn us into a threat to others that could be 

exploited in a dangerous way to harm our relations with the countries of the region," 

he told the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper in an interview. 



"In Iran we are totally convinced that we must not seek 



nuclear weapons and must not attempt to seek them for any reason despite the 

threats that we face." 



But Shamkhani told the pan-Arab newspaper that Iran would concentrate on 

developing its missile programme for defence purposes. 



He said Tehran was trying to develop its Shahab-3 surface-to-surface missile, which 

Asharq al-Awsat said has a range of 1,300 km (800 miles). 



"We will aim to increase its accuracy and double its explosive load," he said. 



Shamkhani warned Israel on Monday not to consider attacking Iran's nuclear power 

plant, saying the Islamic republic would retaliate in ways "unimaginable" to the 

Jewish state. 



Iran insists its atomic programme is for non-military use. 



The defence minister's comments came amid growing U.S. pressure on Iran to halt 

its alleged efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction. 



U.S. President George W. Bush has in the past week issued a series of warnings to 

Iran, along with Iraq and North Korea, accusing them of belonging to an "axis of evil." 



Both Israel and the United States have tried unsuccessfully to convince Russia to 

stop its military and nuclear energy cooperation with Iran. 

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



Iran warns Israel against attacking nuclear plant

  

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran warned Israel Monday not to consider attacking its nuclear 

power plant, saying the Islamic republic would retaliate in ways "unimaginable" to the 

Jewish state. 



"If Israel carries out any military action against Iran, it will face a response that will be 

unimaginable to any Israeli politician," Defense Minister Admiral Ali Shamkhani told 

Arabic-language al-Jazeera television. He said he was not referring to a nuclear 

response. 



The admiral was responding to a question about what Iran's reaction would be to a 

possible Israeli attack on an Iranian nuclear power plant under construction by 

Russian experts near the Gulf port of Bushehr. 



Iranian media often warn of a possible Israeli strike against the Bushehr plant similar 

to Israel's air attack on an Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981. 



"Iran is not a small country like Iraq. Iran has a powerful artillery, a disciplined army 

and skilled air defenses," Jazeera quoted Shamkhani as saying. 



The warning came amid growing U.S. pressure on Iran to halt its alleged efforts to 

develop weapons of mass destruction. 



President Bush has in the past week issued a series of warnings to Iran, along with 

Iraq and North Korea, accusing them of being an "axis of evil." 



Iran strongly denies seeking nuclear weapons and says its atomic program is for 

non-military use. 



Both Israel and the United States have tried but failed to convince Russia to stop its 

military and nuclear energy cooperation with the Islamic republic. 

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



Breast Cancer Treatment Uses 'Seeds'

  

CHICAGO (AP) Feb 5 - Learning she had breast cancer was bad enough for 40-

year-old Miriam Norton. Almost as troubling was the burden of six weeks of radiation 

treatment. 



The mother of two young children didn't like the idea of exposing her entire breast to 

radiation and feared the disruption and mental anguish involved with more than a 

month of therapy. 



``It was the time involved, and trying to be a mom and trying to have a normal life,'' 

said Norton of Glen Ellyn, Ill. 



Then she learned about brachytherapy, a radiation alternative more commonly 

associated with prostate cancer treatment. A few breast cancer doctors have been 

using it as a follow-up to lumpectomy - removal of only the tumor - and recent studies 

show it's effective. 



Unlike standard external radiation, brachytherapy works from the inside, with 

radioactive ``seeds'' injected into the breast at the site of the excised tumor, where 

cancer is most likely to recur. 



Best of all, breast brachytherapy requires about four or five days of treatment instead 

of six weeks or more. And Norton, like about 70 percent of U.S. women diagnosed 

with breast cancer, was eligible because her tumor was small and caught early. 



She had the procedure last May. 



``I was in, I was out, it was one week - and then I got on with my life,'' said Norton, 

now 42. ``It was wonderful.'' 



Brachytherapy - brachy means ``short'' in Greek - refers to the short distance 

between the radiation source and the targeted tissue. 



Dr. Robert Kuske, who treated Norton at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, 

says that in 1991 he was the first doctor to perform breast brachytherapy in this 

country. He does the procedure on about 100 patients a year, but it is not widely 

available. Many patients have never heard of it and some doctors consider it 

experimental. 



Proponents think that's about to change. Two recent studies involving at least five 

years of data on more than 200 women suggest breast brachytherapy is as effective 

as standard radiation at preventing cancer recurrence. In addition, the U.S. Food and 

Drug Administration has been asked to approve a new device called MammoSite. 

That would make brachytherapy easier, said Dr. Krystyna Kiel, a Northwestern 

University radiation oncologist with a waiting list of patients who want the procedure. 



Kiel has only used brachytherapy a few times in the past five years but says she'd 

likely do a treatment each week if the new device is approved. 



The American Cancer Society estimates that 203,500 U.S. women will be diagnosed 

with breast cancer this year. About 70 percent will be potential candidates for 

lumpectomies, and thus brachytherapy, because their tumors are early stage and 

small, said Dr. LaMar McGinnis, the society's senior medical consultant. 



Many, however, will choose disfiguring mastectomies - which generally don't require 

radiation - simply because they can't afford or fear the time required for standard 

radiation, McGinnis said. 



He said brachytherapy holds great promise ``because of the convenience for 

patients and the hopes of getting more patients to choose breast conservation 

therapy.'' 



McGinnis noted that some doctors worry that patients who undergo the procedure 

might also have undetected tumors elsewhere in their breast that would be treated 

with standard radiation but not with brachytherapy. 



Dr. Beryl McCormick, a breast cancer specialist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer 

Center, said brachytherapy probably will prove to be best for patients 55 and older 

whose cancer is less likely to recur. 



McGinnis said more long-term data is needed to show brachytherapy's effectiveness. 

Occasional side effects, including tissue hardening or reddening, probably will be 

avoided as more doctors become skilled at the technique, he said. 



More than 100 doctors attended the first annual breast brachytherapy ``school'' for 

three days a few weeks ago in New Orleans. Kuske was on hand to teach the 

procedure. 



The high-dose method Kuske uses involves temporarily inserting an average of 19 

spaghetti-thin plastic catheters into the cavity where the tumor was removed. 



During twice-daily treatments, radioactive metal seeds about the size of rice grains 

are injected, then retracted through the catheters, which are attached by a cable to a 

radiation machine. Women can return home between treatments and the catheters 

are removed at week's end. 



Medicine numbs the breast during the procedure, which takes about an hour 

including preparation time, Kuske said. 



The MammoSite device awaiting FDA approval involves inserting a single catheter 

into the breast, attached to a tiny balloon that is inflated and filled with radiation. 

Manufacturer Proxima Therapeutics Inc. says eight months of data show the device 

is safe, though whether patients remain cancer-free long-term is unknown. 



On the Net: 



American Brachytherapy Society: http://www.americanbrachytherapy.org 



American Cancer Society: http://www.cancer.org 

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



Inventor of MRI to Work With Pacemaker Inventor On the MRI-compatible 

Pacemaker

  

ROCHESTER, N.Y.--(BW HealthWire)--Feb. 5, 2002-- 



Inventor of the MRI Scanner and FONAR Corporation CEO,  Dr. Raymond 

Damadian Endorses Biophan Technologies's MRI-Compatible 



Pacemaker as a Critical Medical Innovation and Offers Assistance 



Biophan Technologies (OTC BB: BIPH) announced today that Raymond Damadian, 

M.D., inventor of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) diagnostics, will work with 

Wilson Greatbatch, inventor of the pacemaker, on the development of an MRI-

compatible pacemaker.  



Both men are recipients of the National Medal of Technology, the nation's highest 

honor in technology, awarded by the President of the United States. Dr. Damadian, 

CEO of FONAR Corporation, a manufacturer of MRI diagnostic equipment, will offer 

its equipment, labs and staff to assist Greatbatch and the Biophan team. 



"I was surprised to learn the solution to MRI compatible pacemakers was a fiber optic 

lead driven by a tiny, low power, semiconductor laser, yet I was convinced it would 

work," stated Dr. Damadian. "I was very pleased to learn of the successful tests in an 

MRI field. Wilson Greatbatch and I first discussed the pressing need for a solution 

three years ago at the National Inventors Hall of Fame, where we are both inductees. 

Biophan's MRI compatible pacemaker offers a redesign of the pacemaker that 

eliminates the safety concerns completely. I am thrilled to know that with this 

invention, pacemaker patients will be able to benefit from an MRI." 



Raymond Damadian, M.D. revolutionized the field of diagnostic medicine with his 

invention of the MRI scanner, used to detect diseases such as cancer. Pacemaker 

patients cannot undergo MRI scans, because the MRI scanner and the implantable 

pacemaker are not compatible. Should a pacemaker patient undergo an MRI scan, 

the metal wire of their current pacemaker can heat up and scar the heart, and cause 

other problems and potential failure. 



"Our solution at Biophan was to replace the pacemaker's wire cable with a fiber optic 

lead. An implantable low-power semiconductor laser is used to sense and regulate a 

patient's heartbeat," explains Mr. Greatbatch. "This will be the first time a laser has 

been implanted in the body. In time, an implantable device that works off an electric 

wire will be obsolete and replaced with photonic leads." 



Raymond Damadian, M.D., and Wilson Greatbatch are both recipients of the 

Lemelson-MIT Award. The Lemelson-MIT Awards annually recognize the nation's 

most talented inventors and innovators and promotes living role models in the fields 

of science, engineering, medicine and entrepreneurship in the hope of encouraging 

future generations to follow their example. 



"I am very excited to have my old friend, Dr. Damadian, involved in our efforts. I am 

looking forward to working with him as we move forward with our development," said 

Mr. Greatbatch. 



Biophan will serve as a supplier to the multi-billion dollar implantable medical device 

industry. Biophan has more than a dozen patents pending for the technology, 

including the first implantable laser, which has a myriad of potential uses in 

diagnostics and stimulation. 



About Raymond Damadian 



Raymond V. Damadian, M.D., revolutionized diagnostic medicine through his 

application of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), a technique for determining the 

content and purity of molecules. In 1971, Dr. Damadian made the original discovery 

of the large NMR relaxation differences between normal and cancer signals, 

prompting him to propose the construction of the NMR scanner for medicine. In 

1977, Dr. Damadian built the first magnetic resonance (MR) scanner and produced 

the first scan of the human body, launching the MRI industry. Today, MRI scanners 

are used in hospitals, clinics, and other medical settings around the world to help in 

the non-invasive diagnosis of cancer, traumatic injuries, and other diseases and 

infections. 



About FONAR Corporation 



Dr. Damadian is President, Chief Executive Officer, and Treasurer of FONAR 

Corporation, officially formed in 1978. FONAR Corporation introduced the first 

commercial MRI in 1980 and became a public company in 1981. Since then FONAR 

has mounted an impressive record of MRI innovations and has installed hundreds of 

scanners worldwide. 



FONAR Corporation is the originator and a leading manufacturer and developer of 

MRI scanners. Its patented Iron-Frame magnet technology has provided a great deal 

of structural design flexibility. FONAR introduced the first Open MRI in 1982 and has 

since brought several generations of Open MRIs to market. In 1997, industry sales of 

Open MRIs exceeded the sales of conventional "tunnel" MRIs for the first time. 



FONAR's latest entry is The Stand-Up MRI(TM), the only whole-body MRI in the 

world that allows patients to be scanned standing, sitting, bending over, or lying 

down. For the first time, patients can be scanned, from head to toe, in weight-bearing 

positions, including those in which they experience pain or symptoms. 



This revolutionary scanner is extraordinarily open and patient friendly. There is 

nothing directly over patients' heads or in front of their faces. Patients don't feel 

trapped as many of them do in "tunnel" scanners, even in some so-called "open" 

MRIs. Patients in the Stand-Up MRI are commonly scanned in the seated position, 

which allows them to watch their favorite programs on a TV mounted on the scanner 

wall. 



Operating at 0.6 Tesla, this high-field Open MRI boasts short scan times and high 

resolution images. 



About Biophan Technologies 



Biophan, based in Rochester and Buffalo, New York, is engaged in designing, 

developing and marketing new technology and related products to enable cardiac 

pacemakers and the other life sustaining medical devices to be safe and compatible 

with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and other equipment using magnetic fields 

and radio waves. This MRI-compatible technology can be utilized in implantable 

pacemakers, implantable cardioverter defibrillators, left ventricular assist devices, 

insulin pumps, drug pumps, pain reduction devices, and other medical equipment. 

The underlying technology is based upon pending patents and proprietary knowledge 

developed by Wilson Greatbatch (inventor of the original implantable cardiac 

pacemaker) and others. For more information, please visit www.biophan.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://sandy-travels.com

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





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