Report Criticizes Radioactive Policy

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Index:



Report Criticizes Radioactive Policy

Stressed UK utilities - Scotland next?

Rad Source Sign Exclusive Agreement for Advanced Radiation Technology

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Report Criticizes Radioactive Policy

  

WASHINGTON (AP) - The federal government inconsistently decides 

whether slightly radioactive materials should be recycled, put in a 

landfill or securely stored, says a report released Thursday. 



There's no evidence public health has been jeopardized, said Richard 

Magee, an environmental engineer and lead author of the National 

Research Council report. But he said it is bad public policy to have 

haphazard decision-making. 



``We ought to agree as a country how we want to manage this stuff, 

and it ought to be uniform,'' Magee said. 



At issue are the tons of materials that are thrown out at existing 

commercial nuclear facilities or sites being decommissioned. These 

slightly radioactive items can include piping, tools, cabinets and 

building structures. 



The licensees that operate the facilities say it is cost effective to 

recycle the scrap into everyday items or release it into landfills. 

But environmentalists say they want it stored in a secure, isolated 

facility as nuclear waste. 



The Nuclear Regulatory Commission makes the decisions. The study 

found the NRC doesn't always use the same criteria to judge similar 

materials. 



For example, a slightly radioactive piece of metal from a nuclear 

plant is treated differently from metal with the same level of 

radioactivity that was taken from a hospital. 



In addition, the NRC relies on standards when considering releasing 

materials that have radiation on their surface, but it has none for 

materials contaminated throughout. Instead the agency decides on a 

case-by-case basis whether to release those materials, according to 

the report. 



The NRC asked the research council to examine its policies governing 

the release of slightly radioactive materials from the commercial 

facilities it licenses. 



NRC spokeswoman Rosetta Virgilio said the council was asked to 

recommend changes to the decision-making process. She declined to 

comment on the report, saying the agency needed time to review it. 



In the past, the NRC has tried to set standards that would allow an 

increase in the amount of slightly radioactive material released, but 

has been thwarted by Congress. The steel industry, against having its 

product stigmatized as potentially radioactive, is among the groups 

that have lobbied against the commission's proposals. 



The NRC asked the council to consider the science behind the issue, 

but Magee said the panel opted not to take an opinion on what level 

of contamination is safe for release. Instead, the report recommends 

the agency involve all interested parties in its decisions. 



``Our idea is if we're going to move forward it's got to come out of 

a process where all stakeholders are involved,'' Magee said. 



Among the options the report recommended the agency consider are 

freely releasing slightly radioactive materials from NRC sites, 

releasing them for restricted use or banning their release 

altogether. 



The Energy Department has had a ban on recycling scrap metal from its 

nuclear facilities in place for about two years. The Bush 

administration is reviewing that policy. 



On the Net: 



Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov/ 



National Academy of Sciences: 



http://www4.nationalacademies.org/nas/nashome.nsf 

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



Stressed UK utilities - Scotland next?

  

LONDON, March 22 (Reuters) - Twelve years after privatisation, the 

ownership map of the UK power industry has changed radically, and as 

the latest foreign takeover bid swallows Innogy, speculators are 

already lining up a new victim. 



"There's still a bit of churn left in this sector," said a takeover 

specialist at one investment bank. Utility bankers have made fat fees 

in the UK from state sell-offs, a U.S. incursion, some British 

takeovers in North America, and now the invasion of European giants. 



Two Scottish groups are seen as particularly likely targets now, 

while management power vacuums make others look vulnerable too. 



"We believe a premium may be placed on Scottish Power and Scottish & 

Southern," said broker ABN Amro in a research note on Friday after 

Germany's RWE confirmed its long awaited 3.1 billion pounds bid for 

Innogy. 



Scottish Power was once a predator itself, becoming the first foreign 

power group to buy into the U.S. sector with its purchase of Oregon-

based PacifiCorp. 



But it ran into trouble last year within months of closing the deal 

because U.S. power price volatility ambushed its growth plans and 

wiped out most of its profits. 



This month it did the unthinkable for a "safe as houses" utility 

investment and announced a dividend cut. Shareholders are not happy. 



Meanwhile Scottish & Southern's chief executive resigned abruptly 

last week without naming a successor, prompting much speculation 

about the future of the group. 



Scotland's devolved political authority has a gold share in both but 

analysts believe it would be hard for politicians to justify blocking 

a bid that offered shareholders a significant premium. 



There is even talk they may merge with each other. 



Other British utilities are also looking stressed. 



Lattice, the gas distributor, faces a tough price regime that is 

forcing it to cut costs savagely, and a court case over a gas 

explosion that killed a family in Scotland. 



Like Scottish and Southern, it is also without a chief executive. 



Nuclear generator British Energy's shares are under pressure as UK 

power prices hit the lowest level since privatisation. It, too, has 

no chief executive. 



REGULATOR TO BLAME? 



Some observers believe the regulatory regime in Britain is partly 

responsible for the stress the sector is experiencing. 



The intention was always to keep customer bills down and force firms 

to spend on new infrastructure, keeping a cap on investor returns. 



For customers this has been a success so far, with prices falling in 

real terms by 28 percent since privatisation. 



But the constraint on earnings has also made the British companies 

seek earnings growth elsewhere to feed their dividend hungry 

shareholders, with varying degrees of success, through telecoms, 

foreign expansion and other projects. 



Scottish Power's U.S. adventure is a case in point. 



Illustrating the dangers, shares in Northern Ireland based Viridian 

fell 10 percent on Friday as it issued a profit warning for its badly 

performing IT and business process outsourcing offshoot. 



UK authorities have also discouraged utilities from merging with each 

other in an attempt to maintain a competitive industry, a policy that 

has closed another avenue to earnings growth and left the way open to 

outside takeovers of which RWE's bid for Innogy is one example. 



Despite all the speculation about more takeover bids, some investment 

bankers think the UK takeover action is over, with the acquisitive 

European giants having achieved all they want to in the UK. 



"RWE has Innogy, E.ON has Powergen, EDF (Electricite de France) has 

London and the South West (electricity firms)," said one. 



He said ENEL of Italy, the world largest investor owned utility by 

market value, and another French utility, Suez, are the only other 

two really large enough to swallow a UK power group and neither was 

showing any sign of interest. 

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



Rad Source Signs Exclusive Agreement for Advanced Radiation 

Technology

  

BOCA RATON, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 21, 2002--Rad Source 

Technologies, Inc. (OTCBB:IRAD) today announced that it 

has entered into an exclusive agreement to commercialize certain 

electron beam technology developed and produced by The 

Russian Federal Nuclear Center - All-Russian Research Institute of 

Experimental Physics 



("VNIIEF"). This agreement provides Rad Source the exclusive right to 

the ARSA electron beam technology ("ARSA") for certain 

major markets including North and South America, the European Union, 

Japan, and Africa, among others. 



"This technology is very appealing since it has the potential of 

allowing us to produce very high dose, self-shielded irradiation 

equipment in a package about the size of a small refrigerator and 

plugged into a 220 outlet," stated Randol Kirk, President. He 

added, "In our experience, we have not seen any equipment comparable 

in size, cost and performance and believe it can be adapted 

for on-site irradiation for a variety of possible applications such 

as medical equipment sterilization, polymer cross-linking, mail 

irradiation, and flash sterilization in surgery suites." 



Under the agreement VNIIEF is to supply to Rad Source two ARSA 

electron beam units for Rad Source to use to develop and 

produce high-dose irradiation application equipment over the 

following year. After the first year, Rad Source will then be 

required to 

utilize a minimum number of ARSA components in order to maintain 

exclusivity. The first ARSA units are anticipated to be delivered 

to Rad Source in May, 2002. 



About Rad Source Technologies, Inc. 



The Company is in the business of developing and selling non-

radioactive source irradiation products for medical, scientific and 

industrial use. Its primary products, currently used by research 

facilities and health care institutions, substitute friendlier, non-

radioactive radiation for highly regulated radioactive-isotope based 

equipment. The Company developed and holds a patent on the RS 

3000 Blood Irradiator in the U.S. The Company's research and product 

development efforts include non-radioactive source radiation 

for various industrial applications and food irradiation. 



About VNIIEF 



VNIIEF was established in 1946 to implement the Russian Atomic 

Project. It is wholly accountable to the federal government of Russia 

through the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Atomic Energy and 

is the premier research laboratory of the Russian nuclear weapons 

program. VNIIEF is the largest research center in Russia, employing 

approximately 9,000 scientists and 4,000 production workers. Its U.S. 

counterpart is Los Alamos National Laboratory together with Sandia 

National Laboratories. 



Sandy Perle

Director, Technical

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Service

ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue

Costa Mesa, CA 92626



Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100  Extension 2306

Fax:(714) 668-3149



E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net

E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com



Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com

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







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