[ RadSafe ] US Plutonium Conversion Plant Moves Closer To Reality

[Sandy Perle]

Index:

US Plutonium Conversion Plant Moves Closer To Reality
treatment that gets radiation right to cancer cells shows promise
Payments Sought for Cold War-Era Workers Bush would boost Pentagon,
cut farm payments, nuclear waste storage NRC, Independent Panel
Reviewing PSEG Manager Dismissals
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US Plutonium Conversion Plant Moves Closer To Reality

WASHINGTON (AP)--The government moved a step closer Friday to gaining
approval to dispose of 34 tons of weapons-grade plutonium by turning
it into a less dangerous fuel for commercial power reactors.

The staff of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission recommended that the
commission approve licenses for building a plant at the federal
Savannah River complex in South Carolina where the plutonium would be
processed into a mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel.

Some environmentalists and nuclear nonproliferation advocates have
opposed the conversion plans, arguing plutonium should not be used to
make commercial reactor fuel and that, instead, the weapons-grade
material should be encased in glass and buried.

While the NRC staff acknowledged a severe accident at the proposed 
facility could cause additional latent cancer fatalities among 
workers and the public, it said "the likelihood of such an accident 
occurring is expected to be very low, highly unlikely."  

"The overall benefits of the proposed MOX facility outweigh its 
disadvantages and cost," the NRC staff concluded in a final 
environmental impact report on the proposed project. The commission 
is expected to decide in the coming months whether to issue a 
construction license -and later, an operating permit - for the 
facility.  

The conversion to mixed-oxide fuel is a key part of the Bush 
administration's effort to safeguard the tons of excess weapons-grade 
plutonium held by both the U.S. and Russia and reduce the risks of 
the material being obtained by terrorists or a rogue state.  

Under an agreement with Russia, the U.S. plans to blend 34 tons of
U.S. plutonium no longer needed for warheads with depleted uranium so
it can no longer be used in a bomb and can be used in a commercial
power reactor. Russia would also build a conversion plant for 34 tons
of its excess plutonium.

The Energy Department had hoped to begin building the conversion 
plant at Savannah River later this year, but construction has been 
held up because of complications that have delayed construction of a 
facility in Russia.  

Tom Clements, an adviser to Greenpeace International on nuclear 
issues, called the NRC staff report "woefully inadequate" and 
criticized its dismissal of health and environmental risks should
there be a release of radiation.

"They have to plan for the eventuality that there is some kind of
accident," said Clements. "Basically they have just waved it off as
something being acceptable."

The NRC staff report said the primary benefit of the conversion 
program would be the reduction in the amount of excess plutonium 
under storage. It concluded that converting the material to a reactor-
 suitable mixed-oxide fuel is safer than continued storage of surplus 
plutonium.  

The report said the routine operation of a conversion plant and 
proposed support facilities would pose virtually no radiological risk
to people or the environment within 50 miles of the complex.

But it acknowledged an accidental release of radioactive tritium from 
a plutonium disassembly facility to be built as part of the project 
could cause between three and 100 additional latent cancer 
fatalities, with higher estimates if contaminated food is eaten.  

"However, it is regarded as highly unlikely that such an accident 
would occur and the risk to any population, including low-income and 
minority communities, is considered to be low," concluded the NRC 
staff report.
----------------  

Study: treatment that gets radiation right to cancer cells shows
promise in lymphoma

NEW YORK (AP) - A one-time treatment that uses a homing-device drug 
to zap cancer cells with radiation made a deadly lymphoma disappear 
in three out of four patients, many for nearly eight years, 
researchers report.  

While the results were described as promising, it's not known yet 
whether the novel approach will be superior to the standard early 
treatments normally used for a slow-growing but incurable type of non-
Hodgkin's lymphoma.  

"The striking thing about it is how such a short treatment can 
produce such long-lasting remissions," said Dr. Mark S. Kaminski, who
developed the new treatment, Bexxar, with a University of Michigan
colleague.

The researchers said more studies will be needed to determine whether
doctors should use Bexxar as a first treatment to fight the immune-
system cancer. Bexxar is currently only approved for use when other
therapies, including chemotherapy and radiation, fail.

Bexxar treatment starts with a test dose followed by a full dose a 
week later instead of over months, as with chemotherapy. One 
advantage is fewer side effects, such as hair loss, the researchers 
said.  

The findings reported in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine 
were partly funded by drug maker Corixa, which recently sold the 
rights to Bexxar to GlaxoSmithKline. Some of the scientists have 
received fees from the drug makers; one was a Corixa employee. The 
university holds patents for Bexxar, and Kaminski and his co-
inventorin royalties.  

Dr. Joseph M. Connors, of the British Columbia Cancer Agency in 
Vancouver, said the results were impressive even though they involved
carefully chosen patients and no comparison group.

"This is quite promising and firmly indicates that we need to know
what would happen in comparisons to standard treatment" said Connors,
who wrote an accompanying editorial.

The Michigan researchers tested Bexxar in 76 patients with advanced
follicular lymphoma who had received no other treatment. Follicular
lymphoma strikes about 15,000 adults in North America each year.
Patients typically survive seven to 10 years.

The approach used in Bexxar, called radioimmunotherapy, delivers
lethal radiation directly to cancer cells. The method is being tested
in other types of cancers, and Bexxar and another treatment called
Zevalin are approved for advanced non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. In Bexxar,
radioactive iodine-131 is attached to antibodies that target and kill
lymphoma cells.

In the study, 72 patients or 95 percent had some shrinkage of their 
tumors after getting Bexxar. The cancer disappeared in 57 
participants (75 percent), and three-quarters of them were still 
disease-free after five years. Many remained cancer-free until the 
end of the study, a maximum of about eight years. The researchers are 
continuing to follow the participants.  

The most common side effect was a brief drop in white blood cells. 
Nine patients died, six from lymphoma. 
---------------  

Payments Sought for Cold War-Era Workers

ST. LOUIS (AP) - Marilyn Schneider worked as a secretary at 
Mallinckrodt Chemical Co. in the 1950s, when the business was 
producing materials for atomic weapons for the federal government.

In 1975, she learned she had colon cancer. By 2001, she had breast
cancer and leiomyosarcoma, cancer of the soft tissue.

Schneider believes she was exposed to radiation and other carcinogens
while working for a year and a half at Mallinckrodt's site in Weldon
Spring. After eight tumor-related surgeries, she has applied for
$150,000 under a federal program to compensate nuclear weapons
workers.

On Monday, Schneider joined former Mallinckrodt workers and others
urging the government to speed up approval of payments to about 3,500
Cold War-era atomic workers. She said the process to receive funds is
too cumbersome and time-consuming, especially when many are already
sick.

But, Schneider noted, "Whatever dollar amount I get won't guarantee 
no more tumors, no more cancers, and that I won't die from it."  

Missouri Sen. Kit Bond, a Republican, also stressed the urgency of 
the matter.  

"Time is running out. Justice has long been denied to these former 
Mallinckrodt workers who helped to win the Cold War," Bond said at a 
news conference Monday.  

Under legislation passed in 2000, the government has been 
compensating Cold War-era workers for job-related disabilities and 
lost wages. Bond is working with activist Denise Brock, whose father 
was a former Mallinckrodt worker who died of lung cancer, to try to 
eliminate the complex process needed to determine exposure levels 
before money can be paid or denied.  

While Brock's family has already received a payment, she remains
committed to helping other Mallinckrodt families through the process.

"Thousands of people haven't gotten anything," Brock said.

Mallinckrodt is now a subsidiary of Mansfield, Mass.-based Tyco 
Healthcare and is cooperating with the government and former workers 
to verify their work history.  

"Our company will continue to do everything possible to cooperate to 
the fullest extent," Tyco spokesman David Young said.  

Brock filed a petition in July asking the National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health to grant Mallinckrodt workers from two
sites - one in St. Louis and one in the suburb of Weldon Spring - a
special status to expedite compensation.

An advisory board for the institute is expected to recommend a 
decision relating to the St. Louis site next week. Agency spokesman 
Fred Blosser encouraged people to contact NIOSH if they have 
questions about the status of their application.  

"We have to go searching for any data we can use to make our 
recommendation," he said. 
---------------  

Bush would boost Pentagon, cut farm payments, nuclear waste storage

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush will propose a nearly 5 percent
increase for next year's defense spending while calling for cuts in
payments to farmers and work on a nuclear waste storage site in
Nevada, according to documents and federal officials.

Bush also will propose boosting the size of Pell grants for low- 
income college students as he seeks to abolish a widely used college 
loan program and to shrink federal subsidies for banks that lend 
money to students.  

Those details and others emerged Friday about the roughly $2.5 
trillion budget for 2006 the president will ship Congress on Monday.
Including a smaller defense boost than was planned a year ago, the
proposals underscore how Bush is responding to a string of record
federal deficits by paring expenditures across the breadth of
government.

"The people in Congress on both sides of the aisle have said, 'Let's
worry about the deficit,"' Bush said Friday in Omaha, Neb., as he
barnstormed the country for his Social Security plan. "I said, 'OK,
we'll worry about it again.' My last budget worried about it, this
budget will really worry about it."

Bush administration officials also revealed new details of some 
health proposals the president will unveil.

Among them, Bush will propose $3,000 tax credits to encourage people 
who don't have public or employer-provided health insurance to buy 
coverage. The plan, which would cost $74 billion over the next 
decade, would be part of $140 billion in tax breaks and expenditures 
aimed at improving health care over the coming 10 years.  

Administration officials had already said Bush will seek $60 billion 
in Medicaid savings over the coming decade. These will come largely 
from smaller reimbursements to pharmacies, reducing payments to other 
health providers, and making it harder for parents to qualify for 
coverage if their assets have been shifted to their children.  

According to documents obtained by The Associated Press, Bush will
propose $419.3 billion for the Pentagon for next year, a 4.8 percent
boost over this year. That total, however, is $3.4 billion less than
he planned a year ago for fiscal 2006, which begins Oct. 1.

Taking a major hit are his proposals for procuring weapons and other
items. Such spending with total $78 billion - $2.4 billion less than
he projected spending in 2006 a year ago.

Despite budget pressures, it is unclear how Bush's defense plan will
play in Congress. The top Democrat on the House Armed Services
Committee, Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, has expressed concern that
Bush won't seek enough for U.S. troops and their families.

None of the figures include expenditures for the wars in Iraq and 
Afghanistan. Bush plans in a few days to ask for another $80 billion 
in a separate spending bill - for those conflicts. Congress last 
summer provided $25 billion for the wars in 2005.   

In the longer run, Bush envisions defense spending grow steadily 
after next year, hitting $502.3 billion by 2011.  

The documents said Bush's defense budget is designed "to implement 
lessons learned from ongoing operations in the war" - including more 
flexible military forces and beefed up special operations forces, 
intelligence and communications.  

Weapons systems that would get less next year than in 2005 include 
the Aegis destroyer, the F22 Raptor fighter and the C17 cargo 
aircraft. The Apache helicopter and the Army's future combat system 
would see increases.  

In other areas:

Bush will seek about $650 million for the Yucca Mountain nuclear 
waste project north of Las Vegas, said officials speaking on 
condition of anonymity. That is about half what once was envisioned 
for 2006. Though Bush and Congress approved the project in 2002, 
opposition has continued and a federal court has rejected proposed 
radiation safety standards. New standards are being developed.  

Bush will propose paring farmers' federal payments and other 
agriculture supports by $587 million in 2006 and $5.7 billion over 
the next decade. Payments to producers would drop by 5 percent, and 
the current $360,000 annual ceiling on those payments would drop to 
$250,000, said a senior administration official speaking on condition 
of anonymity.  

Two-thirds of the savings would come from cutting direct payments to 
crop and dairy farmers. Even without the cuts, aid to farmers was 
already projected to drop from $24.06 billion this year to $19.64 
billion in 2006 because stronger prices have pushed down government 
payments. Bush's proposal would push overall spending down further to 
$19.05 billion, and a battle with farm-state lawmakers is possible.  

Bush would raise the maximum Pell Grant for students from $4,050 to 
$4,550 over five years, or $100 a year. Along with other changes, 
Bush's financial aid plan would cost about $28 billion over 10 years. 
 

To help pay for it, Bush would shrink subsidies the government pays 
banks to encourage them to make low-interest loans, and to the 
agencies that insure the loans for the lenders, education department 
officials said.  

Bush would also phase out Perkins loans, 673,000 of which were made 
to graduate and undergraduate students last year. Officials said the 
plan would save $6 billion over 10 years. 
----------------  

NRC, Independent Panel Reviewing PSEG Manager Dismissals

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Federal nuclear regulators and an independent 
panel are examining the recent dismissals of Public Service 
Enterprise Group Inc. (PEG) nuclear employees to ensure they weren't 
let go in retaliation for previous actions.  

Five PSEG nuclear managers lost their jobs prior to Jan. 17, when 
Exelon Corp. (EXC) began running day-to-day operations at PSEG's Hope 
Creek and Salem nuclear plants in southern New Jersey, PSEG spokesman 
Skip Sindoni said. Exelon began running the reactors through an 
agreement associated with its planned purchase of PSEG.  

Almost two dozen Exelon employees are now working in key management
positions at the Hope Creek-Salem site, Sindoni said.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and an independent committee
are looking separately into why the job terminations weren't reviewed
by a panel PSEG established last year to consider proposed dismissals
and promotions.

PSEG created the so-called executive review board as part of a larger
effort to ensure workers could raise safety concerns without fear of
retaliation.

"We have commissioned an independent review to ensure there were no
retaliatory or chilling effect implications," Sindoni said.

Sindoni and Exelon Spokesman Craig Nesbit said separately they didn't
know why the review process wasn't followed.

The NRC is also looking into the dismissals to ensure PSEG's review
process remains in effect, even as Exelon runs the plants, commission
spokesman Neil Sheehan said.

The NRC took the unusual step last summer of boosting its oversight 
of PSEG's nuclear operations because it said the company emphasized 
production over safety.  

Separately, the NRC is reviewing allegations of a former PSEG 
employee who said she was fired in 2003 for bringing workers' 
concerns about plant safety to management. PSEG said she was let go
with others as part of a company reorganization.

It's too soon to say how Exelon's purchase of PSEG will affect 
staffing levels at Hope Creek and Salem going forward, Sindoni said.

The biggest personnel change so far has been the resignation on Jan. 
17 of A. Christopher Bakken III as PSEG's Chief Nuclear Officer. He 
is now working at the company's Newark, NJ headquarters as senior 
vice president for the merger transition effort.  

Bill Levis, an Exelon nuclear vice president, is now the top nuclear 
officer at Hope Creek and Salem.  

PSEG and Exelon share ownership of the two-unit Salem plant and the 
Peach Bottom facility in Pennsylvania, which Exelon runs.  

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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) 296-1144

Global Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com/ 
Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com/