State Officials Offer Travel Tips for Nuclear Medicine Patients

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

Index:



State Officials Offer Travel Tips for Nuclear Medicine Patients

Bulgaria fears nuclear scientists may go freelance

U.S. Vows to Remove Waste at Weapons Sites

Decision on nuclear fusion reactor site put off again

Japan plans bigger expense for international nuclear fusion

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State Officials Offer Travel Tips for Nuclear Medicine Patients



Radiation From Treatments Could Trip Alarms at Airports, Border 

Crossings



HARRISBURG, Pa., June 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Environmental Protection 

Secretary Kathleen A. McGinty and Homeland Security Director Keith 

Martin today advised residents receiving nuclear medicine treatments 

that residual radiation from these treatments may cause travel delays 

due to increased security at places such as airports, rail stations, 

ports, international border crossings, bridges, tunnels and large 

public gatherings.



"Although the radioactive material used in nuclear medicine 

treatments are short-lived, it still may require several days after a 

treatment for a patient to stop emitting detectable levels of 

radiation," Secretary McGinty said. "Many transportation checkpoints, 

such as airport boarding areas and international border crossings on 

highways, now include scans for radiation. A patient still emitting 

radiation from medical treatment could be delayed at one of these 

checkpoints."



McGinty said that detection equipment can pick up the radiation a 

patient is emitting, but the monitoring equipment may not be 

sophisticated enough to detect the type of radioactive material, and 

security officials may err on the side of caution, delaying the 

patient's travel until the situation can be evaluated.



"In these days of heightened security, radiation scans are being 

conducted at more and more places," Martin said. "Security officials 

need to take these kinds of steps to protect the public. While these 

officials need to err on the side of safety, I am advising security 

personnel to be aware that nuclear medicine treatments may be the 

reason for some radiation detection. I also am asking nuclear 

medicine patients for their patience and understanding in support of 

the people and programs that are aimed at protecting all of our 

residents."



The officials advise patients undergoing nuclear medicine treatments 

to consult with their health-care providers as to how long they may 

emit detectable radiation following the treatment. With vacation 

planning in full swing, patients may want to try and schedule travel 

after this detectable time period has passed, if possible, to avoid 

any difficulties. Another option is to request a letter of 

explanation from a physician, with a contact name and phone number 

for security officials to contact to verify the information.



Some common medical procedures that could result in patients emitting 

radiation for a period of days include stress tests, hyperthyroid 

treatments and bone scans.



Secretary McGinty and Martin urge patients to plan their travel with 

their nuclear medicine treatments in mind, and are asking for 

cooperation from health-care providers and facilities in giving 

patients supporting documentation concerning their treatments.



"Pre-planning can help avoid travel delays, and concern among 

security officials, during the busy summer travel season," Martin 

said.

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



Bulgaria fears nuclear scientists may go freelance



VIENNA (Reuters) - Bulgaria is worried its nuclear scientists may 

work for terrorists or rogue states when the country shuts down two 

nuclear power plants over the next few years, its foreign minister 

said Wednesday.



Bulgaria has agreed to scrap the plants when it joins the European 

Union, which Sofia hopes will happen in 2007, leaving thousands of 

nuclear scientists without a job, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon 

Passy said.



The international community must make sure these scientists do not 

turn freelance and help develop weapons in secret, Passy told 

reporters at a security conference of the Organization for Security 

and Cooperation in Europe in Vienna.



"We shall have to release several thousand excellent nuclear 

specialists ... from active duty," Passy said.



"They are private citizens and they might easily be attracted by 

countries or governments or forces which are not under the control of 

the international community. This is a serious threat that all of us 

will have to address," he added.



Nuclear scientists have sold their expertise secretly before.



The father of Pakistan's atom bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, admitted in 

February that he and scientists from his Khan Research Laboratory 

leaked nuclear secrets to other countries.



Khan, whose official salary was around $2,000 a month, made tens of 

millions of dollars by operating a global atomic black market, which 

is known to have supplied North Korea, Iran and Libya with sensitive 

nuclear technology.



South Africa, a former nuclear power, is investigating allegations 

that some of its nuclear scientists aided Khan's illicit network.



Unlike Pakistan and South Africa, however, Bulgaria has never 

developed nuclear weapons.

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



U.S. Vows to Remove Waste at Weapons Sites



WASHINGTON (AP) - The Energy Department is committed to removing 99 

percent of the nuclear waste in underground tanks at weapons sites 

and anything less is "off the table," the head of the cleanup program 

told lawmakers Thursday.



Assistant Energy Secretary Jessie Roberson told a Senate hearing that 

she saw no chance that as much as 10 percent of the waste might be 

kept in the tanks even if the department is allowed to keep residual 

sludge at the bottom of the buried containers.



The assurance came as Roberson was pressed by senators about the 

cleanup of highly radioactive waste left over from decades of 

plutonium production for nuclear weapons at the Energy Department's 

Hanford complex in Washington state as well as at sites in Idaho and 

South Carolina.



The department would like to reclassify the residual sludge that will 

be left at 177 buried tanks at Hanford and in dozens of similar waste 

tanks at the Savannah River site in South Carolina and the INEEL 

facility in Idaho as having a "low level" of radioactivity.



The proposal, which would require Congress to change the nuclear 

waste law, has been met with concern in Washington state and Idaho, 

where officials argue the sludge should be buried in a special 

repository to be built in Nevada for high-level radioactive defense 

waste. The department wants to mix the sludge with a cement-like 

grout and not remove it.



Roberson, who is leaving her job next month for personal reasons, 

sought to allay some of the states' concerns at a hearing by the 

Energy and Natural Resources Committee.



Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., told Roberson he had been informed that the 

department was considering leaving as much as 10 percent of the waste 

and "dangerously high" levels of radiation in the Hanford tanks.



Unless the state agrees to something different, said Roberson "99 

percent is what we're living by ... I don't see any chance that we're 

gong to go to (disposing only) 90 percent."



Wyden said he was encouraged but not totally satisfied by the 

assurance and asked it in writing. And Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., 

also wanted a guarantee that the Energy Department would stick to the 

1 percent.



"That is our commitment," said Roberson.



Some environmentalists, when asked to respond to Roberson's 

assurances, questioned the significance.



"One percent of what," said Tom Cochran, a nuclear waste expert at 

the Natural Resources Defense Council. He argued that a small amount 

of waste volume left in the tanks could have a large percentage of 

the radioactive intensity in a tank.



Geoff Fettus, an NRDC lawyer who brought the successful lawsuit 

challenging DOE's attempt to reclassify tanks waste without 

congressional action, said "what they plan to leave behind in the 

tanks has been a moving target." In court papers they said they would 

remove "as much as economically and technically feasible," said 

Fettus.



On a related issue, Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., told Roberson that, 

should residual radioactive sludge be allowed to be kept in the 

tanks, he was concerned that the Energy Department - and not the 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission - would determine whether the grout-

sludge mixture met NRC criteria for low-level waste.



"I would feel much more comfortable if the NRC made the decision on 

whether its own criteria had been met," said Bingaman..



Roberson said she was confident waste left in the tanks would have a 

low enough radioactive intensity to classify it as low-level once 

mixed with the grout. "We believe we are not leaving high-level waste 

in the tanks," she insisted.



The DOE announced earlier this week that Roberson was resigning as 

head of the cleanup program, effective July 15, after three years on 

the job.



Asked about the resignation Thursday, she denied her departure 

involved policy issues, criticism by some lawmakers of the tank 

cleanup plan, or the recent resignation of two other senior DOE 

officials involved in environmental cleanup issues.



She said "a little ruffling" at a hearing would not cause her to 

quit. "I leave for personal reasons and they are unconnected to 

anyone else but my family."

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



Decision on nuclear fusion reactor site put off again



VIENNA, June 18 (Kyodo) - Japan, the European Union and four other 

parties failed Friday to forge an accord on which of the two rival 

candidate sites in Japan and France will host an international 

project to build the world's first prototype nuclear fusion reactor.



In a subcabinet-level meeting of the six parties involved in the 

International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project, both Japan 

and the European Union remained adamant about their proposals to host 

the reactor, conference sources said.



Japan has proposed that it host the project in the northeastern 

Japanese village of Rokkasho, while the European Union has selected 

the southern French town of Cadarache as its candidate venue.



China, Russia, South Korea and the United States are the other 

partners in the ITER project, estimated to require 1.3 trillion yen 

over 30 years, including reactor construction and operation costs.



The six parties agreed in previous negotiations that a successful 

bidder will shoulder 48 percent of the reactor's 10-year construction 

costs estimated at 570 billion yen.



In the Vienna meeting, Japan expressed its readiness to raise the 

share to 50 percent and also proposed shouldering half the 92 billion 

yen construction costs for an ITER-related facility to be hosted by 

the party failing to host the reactor.



But the EU made similar proposals and the meeting came to a 

standstill, the sources said.



The Vienna meeting was held after the six parties failed to reach a 

conclusion on the reactor construction site at their ministerial 

meeting late last year and a subcabinet-level meeting in February.



The ITER project is aimed at creating the world's first sustained 

nuclear fusion reaction, similar to the energy-producing process 

taking place constantly in the sun.

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



Japan plans bigger expense for international nuclear fusion



TOKYO, June 16 (Kyodo) - The Japanese government intends to shoulder 

bigger expenses for the world's first prototype nuclear fusion 

reactor, with the aim of bringing the International Thermonuclear 

Experimental Reactor project to Japan, government sources said 

Wednesday.



Tokyo plans to pay half the construction costs of an experimental 

facility to develop materials strong enough to withstand exposure to 

neutrons that are necessary to build a nuclear fusion reactor. The 

costs are estimated at 92 billion yen.



Sources familiar with the project say the European Union, which is 

proposing that France hosts the ITER prototype, may make a similar 

offer.



Japan had already decided to raise its share to 50 percent from 48 

percent to pay the overall costs of the nuclear fusion project 

itself, which is about 570 billion yen.



Japan will propose the increases at a meeting of officials from the 

six participating parties in ITER -- China, Europe, Japan, South 

Korea, Russia and the United States -- scheduled for Friday in 

Vienna.



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

Sandy Perle

Vice President, Technical Operations

Global Dosimetry Solutions, Inc.

3300 Hyland Avenue

Costa Mesa, CA 92626



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

Fax:(714) 668-3149



E-Mail: sperle@globaldosimetry.com

E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net



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

Global Dosimetry Website: http://www.globaldosimetry.com/



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