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Japanese compensation for Korean wartime forced laborers
Index:
Japanese compensation for Korean wartime forced laborers
Bush Appoints Two to NRC
Global Dosimetry Solutions Relocates to New Corporate Headquarters
Russian border guards halt truck carrying radioactive materials
Norwegian group calls for overhaul of Russian nuclear industry
Southern Co. seeks federal funds to study nuclear plant sites
NRC Says DOE Could Take Waste From N.M. Uranium Plant
Lawmaker aiming to exempt some companies from Hanford initiative
=====================================
Japanese high court orders government compensation for Korean wartime
forced laborers
TOKYO (AP) - A Japanese court on Wednesday reversed an earlier ruling
and ordered the government to compensate 40 South Koreans who were
exposed to radiation in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima while working
as slave laborers, a court spokesman said.
The Hiroshima High Court ordered the government to pay 1.2 million
yen (US$11,700; euro9,000) to each of the 40 South Korean men for
their suffering, court spokesman Hiromi Furukawa said.
The plaintiffs had demanded 11 million yen (US$107,000; euro82,000)
each from the government and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., which
operated the factory where the men were forced to work.
But the high court ruled that the government and Mitsubishi were not
responsible for paying the workers for their labor, Furukawa said. He
provided no other details.
Wednesday's ruling came after the plaintiffs appealed a Hiroshima
District Court decision in March 1999 which rejected their demands on
the grounds that Japan was not responsible for its actions under the
prewar constitution.
In his ruling, Hiroshima High Court justice Yukio Nishijima said the
government had illegally denied benefits to overseas survivors of the
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, public broadcaster NHK and
Kyodo News agency reported.
The government recognizes some 285,600 survivors of the 1945 U.S.
atomic bombings, including an estimated 5,000 living overseas.
Some survivors have developed radiation-related problems, including
cancer and liver ailments. Japan provides monthly allowances of up to
140,000 yen (US$1,260; euro960) and free medical checkups to those
living in Japan.
-----------------
Bush Appoints Two to NRC
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush on Wednesday appointed two new
members to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, including the science
adviser to Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., a leading opponent of a proposed
nuclear waste site in the state he represents.
Bush named Gregory Jaczko, Reid's adviser on nuclear issues, and
Peter Lyons, science adviser to Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., to fill
the two vacancies on the five-member commission.
Reid has fought for years to keep the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste
site out of Nevada. Domenici, chairman of the Energy and Natural
Resources Committee, is among its staunchest supporters.
Lyons was named to the NRC after retired Vice Admiral Albert Konetzni
withdrew his name from consideration. Bush had nominated Konetzni to
the NRC last year, but Reid blocked his nomination - and scores of
other Bush nominations - until he received assurance that Jaczko's
nomination would go through.
Reid has called Jaczko "eminently qualified" and said he "has the
background and experience necessary to evaluate information
objectively."
A deal brokered in November cleared the way for recess appointments
of Jaczko and Konetzni to the NRC. Such appointments do not require a
Senate hearing.
In recent weeks, Konetzni, a Republican, expressed second thoughts
about the NRC post when it became apparent he would not be elevated
to chairman later this year. The current chairman, Republican Nils
Diaz, has made it clear he wants to remain chairman through his term,
which ends in July 2006.
Some Senate Republicans and the nuclear industry had opposed Jaczko's
nomination, fearing he would work to further Reid's desire to kill
the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project, 90 miles northwest of Las
Vegas.
Reid, the top Democrat in the new Senate, has been its strongest
voice against the Yucca project and has fought for years to block it
or limit its funding.
Domenici hailed Lyons' appointment. "His experience and expertise on
nuclear matters is unsurpassed," said Domenici. Lyons, a nuclear
physicist, spent 28 years at the federal Los Alamos National
Laboratory in New Mexico. Since 1997 he has worked as an adviser to
Domenici on technology and science issues.
By law, three of the five commissioners at the NRC must be of the
same party as the president. The commission currently has two
Republican members and one Democratic member.
The NRC is expected to begin considering a license for the Yucca
Mountain facility later this year. The licensing process is expected
to take at least three years.
-------------------
Global Dosimetry Solutions Relocates to New Corporate Headquarters
IRVINE, Calif., Jan. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Dosimetry Solutions, a
leading provider of personal radiation monitoring solutions, recently
moved its corporate headquarters to a new state-of-the-art facility
in Irvine, California. The new facility is a single occupancy, 43,000
square foot building with increased space for all operations,
including over 2 1/2 times more space for customer service,
manufacturing and badge processing.
"This facility allows unconstrained implementation of lean
manufacturing principles, and will have a significant impact on our
overall efficiency and quality," according to Thomas Logan, CEO of
Global Dosimetry Solutions. "This will give us the ability to better
serve our customers while also providing the room necessary for our
future growth and expansion."
The building will house all core operations including executive
management, customer service, manufacturing, badge processing, and
technical support. The new facility is located at 2652 McGaw Avenue,
in Irvine, California. The main phone number is 949-419-1000 and the
toll free customer service number will remain the same being 1-800-
251-3331.
About Global Dosimetry Solutions
Global Dosimetry Solutions, based in Irvine, California, is one of
the world's largest providers of radiation dosimetry services. GDS
offers a full range of services for measuring ionizing radiation
primarily through film, thermoluminescent and track etch
technologies. Since early 1970, the company has continually provided
state-of-the-art personal radiation monitoring services to hospitals,
medical and dental offices, university and national laboratories,
nuclear power plants and other industries. GDS provides services to
more than 500,000 people globally. Global Dosimetry Solutions is
majority owned by American Capital Strategies, Ltd. (Nasdaq: ACAS), a
$3.5 billion investment fund headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. For
more information, please visit: www.dosimetry.com.
-----------------
Russian border guards halt truck carrying radioactive materials
MOSCOW (AP) - Russian border guards stopped a truck loaded with
radioactive materials on the border with the ex-Soviet republic of
Georgia, officials said Tuesday.
The Mercedes truck, laden with 2 tons of aluminum and potassium
powder whose radiation level was five times higher than the norm, was
stopped Monday as it headed into Georgia, said Sergei Petrov,
spokesman for the Emergency Situations Ministry's southern district.
Vladimir Dementyev, spokesman for the Russian Prosecutor's Office in
the North Caucasus region, said that when mixed in certain
proportions potassium and aluminum powder can be turned into
explosive.
The truck's driver has been detained and an investigation is under
way, Dementyev said.
Citing security officials, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported that
the truck had been loaded in the southern Russian town of Pyatigorsk
in the Stavropol region.
--------------------
Norwegian environmental group calls for overhaul of Russian nuclear
industry
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) - A Norwegian environmental organization
is calling on Russia to reform its nuclear energy industry, saying it
should scrap efforts to extend the service life of aging nuclear
power plants and stop reprocessing nuclear waste into new fuel.
In a report it plans to present in Russia next month, the
organization Bellona says Russia's nuclear infrastructure should be
reorganized to make it safer and more profitable, said Alexander
Nikitin, Bellona ecologist and a co-author of the report, in a
telephone interview on Wednesday.
"Russia needs to re-evaluate the nuclear structure it inherited from
the Soviet Union," Nikitin said.
The closed nuclear fuel cycle, in which spent nuclear fuel is
reprocessed instead of being stored, "has proven to be unprofitable
for the economy," Nikitin said. He said that for that reason, many
countries have stopped reprocessing or are gradually halting it.
"The United States does not reprocess its used nuclear fuel at all,"
he said.
The report, which was presented in the European Parliament in
December, says Russia has "clung to the notion of reprocessing,
rather than storing, because it envisions a future fuel economy based
on plutonium."
Because of the unprofitable policy, money Russia's nuclear power
industry receives from the West and from the government "is often
misspent on keeping the unnecessary infrastructure alive," it says.
Nikitin also said Bellona's scientists believe that "the extension of
aging nuclear power plants' engineered life-spans, which is now
practiced in Russia and often sponsored by Western donors, is
dangerous."
He said European nations indirectly support extending the life span
of reactors by buying the electricity they generate and by helping to
fund safety upgrades at the reactors in the hope that they will be
closed when their planned service life of 30 years expires.
He said the most troublesome reactor units currently chosen for
extensions are two reactor blocs at the Kola nuclear power plant, on
the Kola Peninsula in extreme northwestern Russia, and two at the
Leningrad plant, at Sosnovy Bor outside St. Petersburg.
-------------------
Southern Co. seeks federal funds to study nuclear plant sites
ATLANTA (AP) - Southern Co. is asking the U.S. Department of Energy
to help pay for a study of possible sites for a new nuclear power
plant.
The company applied for $245,000 in funding on Dec. 29, but Georgia
Power spokesman John Sell insisted Thursday that the proposal is
merely for exploratory purposes and does not imply Southern Co. will
build another plant.
Southern Co. already operates three nuclear plants within its four-
state territory. Two of the existing plants are in Georgia, one near
Baxley and the other near Waynesboro. Its other plant is in Dothan,
Ala.
If funding is approved, Southern Co. expects to complete its study by
March and decide later whether to apply for permits from the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission. The company will examine potential new sites
for a plant as well as the possibility of building plants on existing
sites.
A nuclear power plant has not been licensed in the United States in
nearly 30 years - a few years before the Three Mile Island accident
in Pennsylvania. But the Bush administration has been pushing for
that to change and has streamlined nuclear licensing.
Despite claims that nuclear-plant technology is better than it used
to be, opponents insist it is still not environmentally friendly and
that the industry has difficulties handling nuclear waste.
"We're against it," said Georgia Sierra Club spokeswoman Colleen
Kiernan.
------------------
NRC Says DOE Could Take Waste From N.M. Uranium Plant
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)--The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has
concluded that depleted uranium from a proposed uranium factory near
Eunice can be considered low-level radioactive waste.
Louisiana Energy Services, a consortium of largely European backers,
wants to build a $1.2 billion National Enrichment Facility to refine
uranium for nuclear reactors.
Nuclear Information and Resource Service and Public Citizen, two
conservation groups which have intervened to protest the proposed
plant, challenged LES's strategy for disposing of waste from the
enrichment process.
State officials and others have raised concerns about disposal
because the uranium enrichment process produces a type of waste that
cannot be disposed of anywhere in the United States.
LES officials have been holding discussions with companies to build a
deconversion facility that could treat the waste, and have said that
is their preferred option. LES spokesman Marshall Cohen said Tuesday
the talks were going well.
The other option would be for Congress to give LES the right to
deliver uranium waste to the U.S. Department of Energy to handle.
The conservation groups argued that LES lacks a "plausible strategy"
for disposal because the waste is not low-level. The DOE can accept
only low-level waste.
The NRC ruled Tuesday the waste could be legally transferred to the
DOE because it is low level.
"We are still studying the decision," said Lindsay Lovejoy, attorney
for the conservation groups.
Cohen called the ruling a narrow one, dealing only with the backup
option for waste disposal. He also noted that the waste could not be
sent to the DOE's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad because
it does not match criteria for that facility.
The NRC ruling did not discuss other waste disposal options.
State officials said they believe Tuesday's decision will give them
more legal authority over the plant because the waste will fall under
the jurisdiction of the Rocky Mountain Low-Level Radioactive Waste
Board, a state-level body that includes representatives from New
Mexico, Colorado and Nevada.
State Environment Secretary Ron Curry said the decision gives the
state "yet another iron in the fire to make sure LES keeps the waste
promises it has made to Gov. Richardson and the people of New
Mexico."
LES officials have pledged to ultimately remove the waste from New
Mexico, but critics contend other states aren't likely to accept it.
The federal government has hundreds of thousands of tons of such
waste stockpiled in Kentucky and elsewhere.
LES applied for an NRC license last December, and the NRC plans
hearings in Hobbs beginning Feb. 7.
-------------------
Lawmaker aiming to exempt some companies from Hanford initiative
RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) - A state lawmaker plans to offer legislation
that would exempt medical and other research businesses from
restrictions in an initiative that seeks to restrict nuclear-waste
imports at the Hanford nuclear reservation.
Initiative 297, overwhelmingly approved by Washington state voters
last fall, bars the U.S. Department of Energy from sending any out-of-
state nuclear waste to Hanford until all existing waste there is
cleaned up.
The measure took effect Dec. 1. The Energy Department immediately
began taking action to halt some cleanup projects at Hanford, as well
as research involving radioactive material at Pacific Northwest
National Laboratory, a national Energy Department science laboratory.
The Energy Department's order also affected cancer research and
environmental remediation programs, among others, and production of a
new radioactive seed - intended to treat prostate cancer - by a
Richland company. Part of the seed production takes places at the
national lab under a contract with the Energy Department and the lab.
A federal judge has ordered a temporary halt to enforcement of the
initiative. Meanwhile, Sen. Jerome Delvin, R-Richland, says he is
pursuing legislation to address unforeseen consequences of the
measure.
"The intent of the initiative was not to affect cancer research,"
Delvin said Tuesday.
The company, IsoRay Medical, had planned to build a production
facility near Richland by next fall and increase its workforce from
16 employees to about 250.
Now IsoRay officials say Initiative 297 may force them to relocate.
They worry that the few gallons of radioactive and hazardous wastes
produced annually during radioactive-seed production at the national
lab would not be allowed to go to Hanford as planned.
"I-297 hit us between the eyes Dec. 1," said Michael Dunlop, chief
financial officer of IsoRay. "Prior to that time, we had no thought
but to establish our manufacturing base and company in the Tri-
Cities."
Idaho state officials have offered IsoRay a long-term $1-a-year lease
of land in Eastern Idaho for its manufacturing plant. Idaho State
University in Pocatello wants to provide curriculum to train workers
for the plant.
"With the package they are offering, it may make it attractive,"
Dunlop said, although he also said moving from Richland would be "a
very traumatic and expensive thing."
The halt in enforcement of I-297 was ordered after the federal
government sued to have the initiative thrown out on grounds that it
is unconstitutional and violates federal laws governing nuclear
waste, among other things.
The state attorney general's office has promised to defend the
initiative in court.
-------------------------------------
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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