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Group accused of covering-up missing radioactive device at Lucas Heights
Index:
Group accused of covering-up missing radioactive device at Lucas Heights
Complaints With Irradiated Mail
Police arrest 83 in Trident nuclear sub protest
Tohoku Electric urged to revise notice system at nuclear plant
Fire at N-power plant, 2 workers exposed to radiation
US agencies mull physical upgrades to nuclear plants
=================================================
Group accused of covering-up missing radioactive device at Lucas Heights
Australian Broadcasting Company - 10 February - New South Wales Greens MP Lee
Rhiannon has accused the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology
Organisation of covering up the loss of a radioactive device from the Lucas Heights
nuclear facility in Sydney's south.
It was revealed yesterday a search is underway for a hand-held probe that went
missing from one of the buildings at the in early January.
Ms Rhiannon says the delay in advising the public is appalling.
"The public have only just heard about this," she said.
"There's been many incidences before where the authorities down there just haven't
come clean.
"The public has a right to know.
"If this material is out in the community, it can be dangerous.
"If it's handled correctly, it's not so dangerous. The public needs to know what is
happening."
But the director of Australian Radiopharmaceuticals and Industrials, Dr Stuart Carr,
says there has been no cover up.
"We notified the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Authority
immediately we discovered that it was missing and then we followed that up with a
communication after we'd actually done some searching," he said.
"So we let them know as soon as we knew it was missing."
-------------------
Complaints With Irradiated Mail
WASHINGTON (AP) - At least 87 suburban postal workers who handled irradiated
mail have reported health problems including nausea, headaches and breathing
problems, union leaders say.
Postal officials are using irradiation to protect against anthrax contamination.
At least 87 of about 750 workers at the Gaithersburg, Md., postal facility have
reported problems, said Tammy Thompson, president of the Montgomery County
local of the postal workers union.
``The employees are experiencing nosebleeds, runny noses, runny eyes, extreme
headaches, nausea,'' Thompson told The Washington Post for a story published
Saturday.
A few have missed several days of work or have filed workers' compensation claims.
The postal union complaints come about two days after physicians on Capitol Hill
said 73 Senate staffers had similar symptoms.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Postal Service
are investigating the safety of the treated mail.
Government investigators say the symptoms are minor and that new precautions
have eliminated observable levels of harmful gases likely caused by the irradiation.
An anthrax-tainted letter was found in Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office
in the Hart Senate office building last October. As a precaution, mail destined for
federal offices in Washington is now sanitized with radiation at postal facilities in Ohio
and New Jersey.
The mail is then sorted at a postal station in Washington and sent to area postal
facilities, including the one in Gaithersburg.
-------------------
Police arrest 83 in Trident nuclear sub protest
LONDON, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Scottish police said on Monday they had arrested 83
people from among hundreds of demonstrators staging a peaceful anti-nuclear
protest outside Britain's Trident nuclear submarine base.
Organisers of the three-day protest aimed at shutting down the Faslane naval base
near Glasgow said Scottish Socialist leader Tommy Sheridan was among those
detained.
Police said the arrests had been for minor offences such as breach of the peace,
adding that between 350 and 400 demonstrators had gathered outside the naval
base on Scotland's west coast.
"Our continued presence here is a clear message to the British government that
ordinary citizens will not tolerate them possessing and threatening to use a weapon
which can only be used to kill innocent people," said Joy Mitchell, 68, from Berwick.
"Trident doesn't and can't discriminate between mothers and marines, toddlers and
commandos, the elderly and the military elites," the retired head teacher was quoted
as saying in a statement from campaign group Trident Ploughshare.
The group said it expected some 5,000 people to blockade the base on the River
Clyde, home to Britain's four Trident submarines and the scene of regular anti-
nuclear demonstrations.
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament said another protest, held a year ago,
attracted almost 1,000 demonstrators and resulted in 385 arrests.
------------------
Tohoku Electric urged to revise notice system at nuclear plant
SENDAI, Feb. 10 (Kyodo) - The Miyagi prefectural government on Sunday asked the
operator of a nuclear power station where two workers were injured in a fire Saturday
to create a procedure for promptly informing the local government of such
emergencies, prefectural official said.
Tohoku Electric Power Co. was slow in informing the authorities of the incident, first
reporting about an hour after the fire broke out and taking a further 90 minutes to
give an update, although the fire was quickly extinguished and no radioactive
material leaked, the officials said.
The power company has a safety agreement with the northeastern Japan prefecture
and other local governments hosting the Onagawa Nuclear Power Station. It requires
the company to immediately contact the authorities by fax and phone if emergencies
break out
-----------------
Fire at N-power plant, 2 workers exposed to radiation
SENDAI, Feb. 9 (Kyodo) - A small fire broke out Saturday morning at Onagawa
Nuclear Power Station in Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan, injuring two workers
and exposing them to a small dose of radiation, Tohoku Electric Power Co. officials
said.
The officials said the radiation exposure will have no impact on the workers' health
and added the amount leaked was so low it was undetected by a radiation dosimeter.
No radioactive material leaked outside the facility and the fire was quickly put out,
they said.
According to the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry's Nuclear and Industry
Safety Agency, radioactive material was on the faces of the two male workers, aged
24 and 32, and was immediately removed.
The agency said the case cannot be technically categorized as one of radiation
exposure since the level of radiation was extremely low.
The two workers also suffered slight facial burns, requiring treatment of up to three
weeks.
The fire occurred around 9:35 a.m. at a radiation-controlled area in the basement of
the No. 2 reactor at the plant run by the power company.
The fire started when the two workers accidentally ignited a piece of plastic sheet
while trying to move about 30 spray cans during a regular inspection.
The spray cans were used in the inspection, the officials said, adding the sheet was
the only item burned.
Other workers at the plant immediately took measures to remove radiation in the
area. The company and police are investigating the cause of the fire.
Explaining the possible reason or reasons why radioactive material appeared on the
workers' faces, Hiroshi Sakuma, deputy head of Tohoku Electric Power's nuclear
power division, said the material got into the air due to the fire or contaminated
gloves accidentally touched the faces.
The 825,000-kilowatt boiled-water reactor, straddling the towns of Onagawa and
Oshika in the prefecture, has been under regular inspection since Dec. 21 with
operation of the reactor suspended.
It began operations in July 1995.
------------------
US agencies mull physical upgrades to nuclear plants
WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 (Reuters) - U.S. security agencies are seriously considering
"bricks and mortar adjustments" to the nation's 103 nuclear power plants to guard
against a possible airline attack, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said on
Thursday.
"Clearly the threat design of nuclear facilities has to be reconsidered and there may
ultimately be ... actually some bricks and mortar adjustments that are made to some
of these facilities," Ridge said, speaking at the National Press Club.
Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network have been blamed for the Sept. 11
hijacked plane attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Now, U.S. officials are concerned that bin Laden's network could be plotting a
second airline attack on America, this time on a nuclear power plant.
President George W. Bush said in the State of the Union address last week that al
Qaeda was gathering information on potential targets inside the United States.
"We have found diagrams of American nuclear power plants and public water
facilities, detailed instructions for making chemical weapons, surveillance maps of
American cities, and thorough descriptions of landmarks in America and throughout
the world," Bush said.
Ridge's comments come after a warning from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
(NRC) last month that nuclear plants could be a target of an airline attack. The NRC
has placed nuclear plants on heightened alert since Sept. 11.
Current NRC guidelines do not require nuclear plants to prepare for an airplane
threat. Its so-called "design basis threat," a blueprint which sets security
requirements, focuses mostly on ground-attack preparations.
The NRC is currently conducting a top-to-bottom review of its security guidelines in
the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
"We know that our nuclear facilities were designed to combat ... land-based threats
primarily -- explosions," Ridge said.
INDUSTRY SAYS PROTECTION ADEQUATE
The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the industry's main lobbying group, says that
current protections could be adequate to protect against an airplane attack.
"Clearly they weren't designed for an airplane strike, but that doesn't mean they can't
withstand it," said Douglas Walters, an NEI security expert. "It's premature at least
for us to say that we need to make physical changes to the facility."
Other nuclear industry officials concur that their plants are already adequately
buttressed against an airline attack.
"If you were to slam a plane into (a nuclear reactor), ... most likely that plane would
not penetrate the containment building," said Paul Gaukler, an attorney with Shaw
Pittman, which represents nuclear industry clients.
Gaukler pointed to a test conducted in 1988 by the Sandia National Laboratories in
California where scientists slammed an F-4 Phantom fighter jet into a stimulated
nuclear containment facility at 481 miles per hour.
The jet shattered into pieces and only penetrated the containment wall by two or
three inches, he said. Nuclear power reactors are typically enclosed in concrete walls
up to 4.5 feet (1.35 meters) thick.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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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