Planned Cleanup for 'Dirty Bombs' Called Lax

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

Index:



Planned Cleanup for 'Dirty Bombs' Called Lax

Judge Blocks Hanford Waste Initiative

Hollis-Eden pursues first radiation sickness drug

Nuclear containment plant planned for New Ellenton

DOE gets another chance on site waste, federal appellate court

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



Planned Cleanup for 'Dirty Bombs' Called Lax



WASHINGTON (Dec. 2) - Standards for cleanup after a "dirty bomb" 

terrorist attack would permit long-term radiation levels that pose 

cancer risks many times greater than those acceptable at Superfund 

sites, nuclear waste dumps and commercial reactors, according to a 

draft of a government proposal.



The Homeland Security Department is expected to issue the proposed 

guidelines, which have been developed over the last two years, within 

a few weeks, probably before the end of the year. They would become 

final after a 60-day comment period.



The draft acknowledges that the consequences from a dirty bomb, a 

device that spreads radioactive material using conventional 

explosives, "may range from a very small, localized area ... to 

conceivably many square miles."



And it says that if there is widespread contamination from a dirty 

bomb or an "improvised nuclear device" - where there actually would 

be a crude nuclear detonation - areas may have to be put off limits 

permanently.



In such cases "existing land uses may not be practicable," the 

document says.



As a result, the interagency task force developing the guidelines 

decided against issuing specific numerical radiation levels to guide 

long-term cleanup goals, although an earlier draft written last year 

contained specific allowable radiation levels proposed by different 

agencies.



The latest version says cleanup efforts should be guided by radiation 

benchmarks established by various advisory groups, such as the 

International Commission on Radiation Protection (ICRP) and the 

Health Physics Society, as well as federal agencies.



"They basically punted," said Daniel Hirsch, head of an anti-nuclear 

advocacy group, Committee to Bridge the Gap.



Hirsch said the ICRP benchmark would allow long-term levels of 

radiation from 100 millirems to as much as 10,000 millirems, a level 

equivalent to as many as 50,000 chest X-rays over a 30-year period.



The benchmark levels from the Health Physics Society would allow an 

area to continue to emit 100 millirems to 500 millirems per year, the 

equivalent of as many as 2,500 chest X-rays over 30 years.



A 500 millirems-per-year radiation exposure is estimated to produce 

about 1 additional cancer for every 80 people exposed, according to 

government cancer-risk calculations, said Diane D'Arrigo of the 

Nuclear Information and Resource Service, a nuclear industry watchdog 

group.



By comparison, the Environmental Protection Agency requires cleanup 

standards at Superfund toxic waste to assure an additional cancer 

risk no greater than 1 in 10,000 people exposed, said D'Arrigo. The 

government plans to limit the maximum radiation exposure to the 

public at the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site to no more 

than 15 millirems per year.



A typical chest X-ray exposes a person to 6 millirems. Normal 

background radiation is about 300 millirems per year.



The draft says the guidelines are "not intended to define `safe' or 

`unsafe' levels of exposure or contamination" but represent "the 

approximate levels at which the associated protective actions are 

justified."



The contents of the so-called "interim final" draft document were 

first reported by an independent newsletter, Inside EPA. Copies of 

the draft, as well as an earlier version dated July 18, 2003, were 

obtained and provided Thursday by the Nuclear Information and 

Resource Service.



Don Jacks, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, 

said he could not comment on the contents of the draft. He said the 

document could still change as it goes through the final approval 

process at FEMA, the White House Office of Management and Budget and 

the Homeland Security Department and after the planned public comment 

period.



"Trying to interpret (the guidelines) now is way ahead of the curve," 

said Jacks.

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



Judge Blocks Hanford Waste Initiative



YAKIMA, Wash. (Dec. 2) - A judge Thursday temporarily blocked a voter-

approved initiative that bars out-of-state shipments of radioactive 

waste to the most contaminated nuclear site in the nation.



Washington voters last month overwhelmingly approved Initiative 297, 

which forbids the Department of Energy from sending more radioactive 

waste to the Hanford nuclear site until all existing waste there is 

cleaned up. The initiative was to have taken effect Thursday.



But the federal government went to court in hopes of blocking the 

law, calling it a "draconian" measure that also violates federal laws 

governing interstate commerce and nuclear waste. Hanford, a federal 

site, is immune from state regulation, the government argued.



The government also warned that some cleanup would stop and workers 

would be idled if the initiative were to take effect.



Lawyers for the state, however, had given assurances that officials 

were still reviewing the initiative and would not begin to implement 

it in the next 60 days.



Judge Alan McDonald sided with the federal government Thursday in 

granting a temporary restraining order, citing the importance of 

continuing clean-up activities at Hanford.



A hearing on a preliminary injunction was set for Dec. 13.



Sheryl Hutchison, spokeswoman for the state Ecology Department, said 

the ruling was not unexpected.



"We're satisfied that shipments will not be coming in, and over the 

next 10 days we will prepare a vigorous defense," she said.



More than 10,000 people work at the 586-square-mile reservation, 

which was created in World War II as part of the top-secret Manhattan 

Project to build the atomic bomb. It remains the most contaminated 

site in the nation, with cleanup costs expected to total $50 billion 

to $60 billion.

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



Hollis-Eden pursues first radiation sickness drug



LOS ANGELES, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals Inc. has 

set aside its quest for an AIDS antidote in order to develop the 

first drug for acute radiation sickness as nuclear terrorism fears 

spur market demand for such medicines.



"If a major city were hit with a nuclear device, it has been 

estimated that close to a million people would be exposed to the 

radiation," said Richard Hollis, chief executive of the San Diego-

based company.



Radiation damages the bone marrow, which produces infection-fighting 

white blood cells, platelets that help blood to clot and oxygen-

carrying red blood cells. The result is lethal infections and 

hemorrhaging.



Current treatments, such as infusions of platelets and antibody-based 

drugs, cost thousands of dollars and require hospitalization. "That 

just isn't practical in an emergency setting," Hollis said.



Other drugs, such as potassium iodide, are designed only to protect 

against the risk of thyroid cancer years after a nuclear detonation 

or accident.



The company's experimental drug, called Neumune, offers an 

alternative that seems to be effective in healing the disruption to 

blood cell formation caused by radiation injury with no notable 

toxicity, said Dr. Terry Pellmar, scientific director at the Armed 

Forces Radiobiology Research Institute.



Hollis-Eden is meeting with U.S. regulators this month to iron out 

the details of a final study in animals of Neumune. The injected 

drug's safety must then be tested in humans, although trial patients 

will obviously not be subjected to radiation poisoning. The company 

said it expects to finish the trials next year.



Neumune is a naturally occurring hormone that protects components of 

bone marrow, enabling the body to recuperate over several weeks after 

radiation exposure, said Dr. Dwight Stickney, the company's vice 

president, medical affairs.



Hollis-Eden was founded in 1994 to commercialize patented hormones 

for treating immune disorders such as HIV. But those efforts were put 

on the back burner following actions by the World Health Organization 

and others to buy and distribute cheap, generic AIDS drugs in poor 

countries.



"We decided to change course because there's a better market 

opportunity," Hollis said.



The company last month responded to a request from the U.S. 

Department of Health and Human Services for information about drugs 

to treat acute radiation syndrome. Under the "BioShield" law enacted 

in July, $5.6 billion over 10 years was earmarked for private sector 

research and government stockpiling of drugs and vaccines that 

otherwise might not find a commercial niche.



Hollis said the company plans to pursue regulatory approval of 

Neumune regardless of whether it is awarded a government contract. 

"We believe there is a market ... for first responders like police 

forces and possibly civilians. There are also foreign markets," the 

CEO said.



In a small study being made public in San Diego this weekend at a 

meeting of the American Society of Hematology, 90 percent of monkeys 

subjected to radiation and treated with Neumune survived compared to 

55 percent of the animals that received no treatment or placebo.



The drug is less effective at very high radiation levels.



Hollis said a treatment course of Neumune -- five daily injections -- 

would likely be priced at around $100, assuming the United States 

decides to stockpile millions of doses.



If sales are lower, the price would be higher, he said.

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



Nuclear containment plant planned for New Ellenton



NEW ELLENTON, S.C. (AP) - A nuclear containment systems company is 

building a plant near the Savannah River Site nuclear complex that is 

expected to bring "a significant number" of jobs to the area, a 

company official said.



Global Containment Systems, a subsidiary of the St. Petersburg, Fla.-

based Flanders Corp., is expected to announce details about the 

400,000-square-foot facility Wednesday.



Gov. Mark Sanford is slated to attend an announcement that day at the 

New Ellenton Civic Center, but his spokesman would not provide more 

information about the visit.



GCS produces filters and custom equipment for use in the containment 

of airborne nuclear contamination.



"We have been working with Savannah River since the beginning, way 

back in the '40s and '50s when we first started designing filters for 

them," Glen Moore, a Flanders executive, told the Aiken Standard.



SRS will be a major customer, but the filters produced here will be 

used in facilities around the world, Moore said. He declined to 

provide any details about the number of jobs at the site, except to 

say, "I can tell you that it will be a significant number."



In Friday editions, the Augusta Chronicle cited unnamed local 

officials as saying 600 to 800 jobs might be created once the plant 

is fully operational. Officials at Flanders and the state Commerce 

Department did not return calls seeking details Friday.



In August, Flanders announced that Global Containment would expand 

its operations in Aiken but did not say how many people might be 

employed at the site.



In the announcement, company chairman Robert Amerson said GCS would 

provide "additional manufacturing capacity" for scheduled projects at 

SRS as well as "other national laboratories and nuclear facilities 

worldwide."



"We are excited about the progress being made at the Savannah River 

National Laboratory, other National Laboratories and other sites to 

eliminate weapons of mass destruction and to develop a safe and 

efficient nuclear energy," Amerson said.



He estimated that the market for nuclear containment is growing and 

will be worth about $2 billion during the next 10 years, the 

statement said.

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



DOE gets another chance on site waste, federal appellate court 

decides



IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (AP) - The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is 

giving the Department of Energy another chance to argue against 

removing all transuranic nuclear waste from Idaho.



The three-judge panel ruled Friday that U.S. District Judge Edward 

Lodge should have heard evidence from both the state and the energy 

department before deciding in favor of the state. If the ruling 

stands, it requires Lodge to redecide the case after hearing the 

evidence.



The energy department claims that its 1995 settlement agreement with 

the state requires it to remove only transuranic waste stored above 

ground in barrels. Transuranic waste is highly radioactive and can 

take thousands of years to decay to safe levels.



But state leaders - backed up by Lodge's previous ruling - claim that 

the energy department must remove all of the transuranic nuclear 

waste from the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental 

Laboratory site by 2018. All means all, said Bob Cooper, spokesman 

for Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden.



The Idaho Attorney General's Office is disappointed in the ruling, 

Cooper said, and staff members are evaluating the state's options. 

The state could request that a full-judge panel of the federal 

appellate court reconsider the three judges' decision, or decide to 

simply go ahead with a hearing of evidence and new decision from 

Lodge.



"We're confident that a review of the evidence ultimately will 

confirm that the agreement covers all the transuranic waste, 

including the waste buried in the INEEL landfill," Cooper said.



The Department of Energy would not discuss the decision or how it 

interprets it.



"We're pleased with the ruling, and we look forward to the 

reconsideration," Department of Energy-Idaho spokesman Brad Bugger 

said.

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

Sandy Perle

Senior Vice President, Technical Operations

Global Dosimetry Solutions, Inc.

2652 McGaw Avenue

Irvine, CA 92614 



Tel: (949) 296-2306 / (888) 437-1714  Extension 2306

Fax:(949) 296-1902 



E-Mail: sperle@dosimetry.com

E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 



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

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



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