French Group to Press Cancer Claim

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

NOTE: I will be out of the country from August 23 - September 1. 

Depending on internet connections available, there may not be any 

news distributions during this time



Index:



French Group to Press Cancer Claim

Scientists creating radiation sensors - fit inside blood cells

Moon Seen As Nuclear Waste Repository

BNF condemns Greenpeace protest at dock for plutonium ships 

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



French Group to Press Cancer Claim



PARIS Aug 21 (AP) - A group of more than 1,000 former workers in 

French Polynesia is urging France to recognize its claim that decades 

of nuclear testing on the Pacific archipelago has caused high rates 

of cancer.



The advocacy group, Mururoa and Us, plans to press the matter with 

Overseas Minister Brigitte Girardin during her five-day visit to 

French Polynesia starting Friday.



France detonated at least 123 nuclear bombs in the volcanic rock 

underneath Mururoa Atoll between 1975 and 1996 and eight under nearby 

Fangataufa Atoll. It has since stopped nuclear testing.



Last month in Tahiti, at the advocacy group's first general assembly, 

500 former workers drew up a list of demands for Paris, saying the 

side effects of the tests are being felt today.



The group says it wants the government to fund studies about the 

effects of radiation exposure, pay for doctor's visits for workers 

and their families and recognize the link between their exposure to 

radiation and cancer.



``The government has always told us that the nuclear tests were 

clean, and that the consequences of them were nearly nonexistent or 

minimal,'' said Bruno Barrillot of the Association for the Veterans 

of Nuclear Tests, a partner of Mururoa and Us in mainland France.



French law does not allow the government to treat cancer contracted 

by workers at nuclear testing sites as a job-related illness, but 

Green party lawmakers have proposed a bill that would change that.



Barrillot, a researcher on the effect of radiation, said his 

association estimates that the former workers at the sites had a 34 

percent risk of developing cancer over their lifetime - twice the 

rate seen in France's overall population.



Rear Admiral Claude Marcus, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry, 

questioned the cancer figures provided by the group, saying they 

didn't match up with government figures.



``Rates of cancer in the military personnel who served there haven't 

been any higher than in the general population,'' he said. ``Nuclear 

tests are mysterious and secretive, but it's not possible to hide 

their effects.''



In 1998, a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency said 

France's tests in the South Pacific had left ``extremely modest 

radiation levels'' and posed no threats to people. It also predicted 

that there would be no change in cancer incidence.



France began nuclear testing in French Polynesia in 1966 and kept up 

the practice until 1996.



The last series of tests at Mururoa and Fangataufa, about 750 miles 

southeast of Tahiti, broke a three-year international moratorium on 

nuclear testing. The tests sparked criticism of French President 

Jacques Chirac in many Pacific nations.



Between 30,000 and 40,000 military personnel worked at least 

temporarily at the nuclear sites during the 30-year span of tests, 

Marcus said.

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



Scientists creating radiation sensors so small, they fit inside blood 

cells



DETROIT (AP) - Researchers are creating ``Star Trek''-like radiation 

sensors that are so small, they could be absorbed into the white 

blood cells of astronauts and could someday be used to treat and 

diagnose illnesses.



Astronauts constantly are exposed to radiation, and radiation-induced 

illness is a serious concern in space travel.



The sensors would continuously monitor for early signs of damage, 

said Dr. James Baker Jr., a University of Michigan scientist who is 

directing the project.



With the nanomolecular devices in their white blood cells, astronauts 

would feel no more intrusion than when they fly with regular staples, 

such as freeze-dried food.



One million nanometers are about the diameter of a pinhead. The 

sensors, in theory similar to the Borg nanoprobes implanted in ``Star 

Trek: Voyager'' character Seven of Nine, resemble spheres with a 

diameter of less than five nanometers.



University researchers say the devices could revolutionize the 

practice of medicine on earth and in space, a contention supported by 

the nonprofit National Space Biomedical Research Institute in 

Houston.



``In principle, this could be possible. It's very exciting. It's an 

emerging technology that is really revolutionary,'' said Dr. Jeffrey 

Sutton, director of the institute, which is not associated with the 

research.



For the sensor, the scientists are creating synthetic polymers called 

dendrimers, layer by layer. Added to it is a substance such as a 

vitamin that white blood cells called lymphocytes would want to draw 

inside themselves. Also added is a fluorescent molecule - two dyes 

hooked together by a small protein.



If radiation is present in a cell, the protein hook breaks, the dyes 

become unhooked and then the cell glows, Baker said.



The glow is measured by a retinal-scanning device using a ``laser 

capable of detecting fluorescence from lymphocytes as they pass one-

by-one through narrow capillaries in the back of the eye,'' he said.



The retinal scans are similar to ones used in the Tom Cruise science 

fiction film ``Minority Report.'' In the movie, eye scans are used to 

determine someone's identity.



The sensor could be injected or perhaps administered transdermally or 

through the skin.



``We've actually made the device and put it into tissue culture cells 

and showed that it worked,'' Baker said. ``We hope to have data from 

animals within three years.''



He hopes to test the sensors in mice in space within six years. Human 

trials would come later.



The research is part of a dlrs 2 million, three-year grant from NASA 

and the National Cancer Institute to develop biomolecular sensors.



Nanosensors would avoid the problems associated with implantable 

sensors, which can cause inflammation, and eliminate the need to draw 

and test blood samples.



On the Net:



NASA: http://www.ipt.arc.nasa.gov/

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



Moon Seen As Nuclear Waste Repository

 

Aug 22 (Science - space.com) - As the debate rages over using the 

Yucca Mountain as a burial ground for thousands of tons of 

radioactive material, a better site for unwanted nuclear waste holds 

its mute vigil in the skies above the Nevada desert: the Moon.



After 20 years of study, last July President Bush ( news - web sites) 

signed a bill making Yucca Mountain the planned site to house 77,000 

tons of nuclear refuse. The site is to be open for business by 2010, 

located in Nevada desert, 90 miles (150 kilometers) from that 

gambling Mecca, Las Vegas.



Since its approval, politicians, scientists, lawyers, environmental 

activists, and protesting citizens have been locked in heated dispute 

over the $58 billion project.



Advocates of the plan say the repository site is safe. Radioactive 

materials can be responsibly and securely tucked away in the mountain 

for some 10,000 years. 



However, others fear, among a list of worries, that transporting 

nuclear waste over city streets and state highways is asking for 

trouble, as well as being a tempting target for terrorists.



"No site for a long term, nuclear waste repository within Earth's 

biome or accessible to low-tech terrorist threat is acceptable," 

argues Sherwin Gormly, an environmental engineer for Tetra Tech EM 

Incorporated in Reno, Nevada. 



Gormly contends that the waste issue is the single most important 

problem limiting nuclear power development. A revolutionary change, 

he said, is required to break the impasse.



"We need to seriously reconsider more advanced concepts, including 

repository options on the Moon," Gormly said.



In the past, thoughts about a lunar nuclear waste repository have 

come and gone.



A new twist in the Gormly plan is using off-the-shelf 

intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), warhead targeting 

technology, and a reusable suborbital launch vehicle. It's an idea 

whose time may have returned, he said, broaching the notion last 

month at a Return to the Moon workshop held in Houston, Texas, held 

by the Space Frontier Foundation.



The concept employs a low-cost, highly reliable suborbital space 

plane. Flying to high altitude, the piloted plane then dispatches an 

ICBM upper stage assembly. Multiple Independent Reentry Vehicle 

(MIRV) hardware, guidance equipment, and modified reentry vehicles 

carrying a casks of plutonium or waste material top this stage, which 

ignites and speeds into space.



An internal targeting system within the reentry vehicles precisely 

places the casks of waste headlong onto an outbound lunar trajectory.



The target would be a small lunar crater with steep sides. In later 

years, the flight path of the casks could be aided by final guidance 

equipment installed on the crater rim. That will assure an even more 

accurate bulls-eye impact of the incoming waste-carrying 

containers.



One by one, the casks smack into the Moon. The soft deep lunar 

regolith in the impact area should ensure proper waste burial. 

Plowing into the lunar surface at high speed, the waste would be 

buried under several feet of glassified regolith, Gormly said.



The impact area would be highly contaminated, the environmental 

engineer said, so a clearly delineated repository area would be 

needed. "However, the problem of waste migration would be eliminated 

because the lunar surface has no hydrosphere."



The situation in Nevada is a classic case of the "Not In My Back Yard 

(NIMBY) syndrome," Gormly said. Furthermore, the reality of 

the situation is that waste streams from medical sources and weapons 

grade plutonium production are also of concern.



"A solution outside of the biome and out of casual reach must be 

found," Gormly said. 



"The lunar surface is a sterile, hard radiation environment with 

great geological stability and no potential to pollute the Earth 

biome…a potential that is inevitable to all Earth sites due to 

groundwater," Gormly said. "NIMBY politics don't apply to the lunar 

surface at this time and can be avoided in the future by good 

planning and negotiation of beneficial use agreements," he added.



Once deposited on the Moon, nuclear materials would be of potential 

value. Access to the lunar repository site by future Moon 

dwellers could be regulated. Retrieval, reuse, even reprocessing of 

the nuclear material can enhance both lunar operations and 

further deep space commerce, Gormly speculated.



"The reality of the situation is that this material is a political 

liability today and a resource tomorrow," Gormly told SPACE.com.



The development of a lunar waste repository is an off-world 

opportunity to develop positive political and social momentum. This 

proposal is simple, safe, and uses current off-the-shelf technology, 

Gormly concluded.

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



British Nuclear Fuels condemns Greenpeace protest at dock for 

plutonium ships 



LONDON Aug 22 (AP) - British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. on Tuesday condemned 

as a "cheap publicity stunt" a protest by 

environmentalists designed to show how terrorists could attack 

shipments of nuclear fuel. 



On Monday Greenpeace scuba divers attached a large inflatable banner 

to the harbor wall outside the military port of Barrow-in-

Furness in northwestern England, where a ship carrying plutonium fuel 

from Japan is scheduled to dock next month. 



The company said the demonstration had taken place a quarter of a 

mile from the docking area, and that protesters had not 

breached security. 



But Greenpeace said the protest revealed the lax security at the 

site. 



The uninflated banner was attached to a wall below the waterline. 

Inflated by remote control Tuesday, it resembled a cartoon-style 

bomb the size of a double-decker bus. 



Greenpeace northwestern England would be devastated if terrorists 

detonated a real bomb in the harbor when the ship arrived. 



More than 500 lbs (225 kgs) of rejected reactor fuel, a mixture of 

plutonium and uranium known as MOX, is being shipped from 

Japan to its British manufacturer. It has attracted protests from 

anti-nuclear activists who say the shipment is vulnerable to accident 

and terrorist attack or could be used for making nuclear weapons. 



"With basic equipment and little expertise we were able to simply 

float a boat up to the port, dive down and submerge a one tonne (ton) 

device — although harmless — against the harbor wall," said Stephen 

Tindale, Greenpeace's executive director. 



"It was left there for hours until we inflated it. 



"This demonstrates how pathetic security around the harbor is and 

shows the insanity of transporting extremely dangerous plutonium from 

port to port." 



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

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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