[ RadSafe ] NJ hosts hearing on study of radiation in baby teeth

[Sandy Perle]

Index:

NJ hosts hearing on study of radiation in baby teeth
Nuclear industry asks Congress to fund new plants
Exelon Nuclear Sets Generation Record
Framatome Sets Up US Team To Design, Site New Nuclear Reactor
Environmentalists - Hungary cancel nuclear waste exports to Russia
In a New Mexico desert town, residents stake their future on uranium
NASA Awards Grant to Study Cancer Risks From Space Radiation
A pillar in Iran's nuclear plans, Bushehr plant nearly completed
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NJ hosts hearing on study of radiation in baby teeth

EWING, N.J. (AP) - Children who live near nuclear plants carry 
lifelong radioactive residue, according to a group that appealed for 
support Wednesday in a public hearing before the New Jersey 
Commission on Radiation Protection.

The nonprofit Radiation and Public Health Project, which has been 
conducting the "Tooth Fairy Project," examining the baby teeth of 
children who grow up near nuclear reactors, said the data may hold 
clues to stemming increases in childhood cancer.

The Tooth Fairy Project, begun in 1998, has collected more than 4,000 
baby teeth nationally - 600 in New Jersey - and examined them for 
evidence of Strontium-90, a radioactive byproduct of atomic reactions 
that lodges in bones and teeth.

The study, which is ongoing, has found that levels of the element 
were 30 to 50 percent higher among children living in counties with 
nuclear plants, according to Joseph J. Mangano, national coordinator 
of the Radiation and Public Health Project.

"In several areas, including Ocean and Monmouth counties, RPHP found 
that trends in Sr-90 in baby teeth were matched by similar trends in 
cancer diagnosed in children under age 10," he said.

Edith Gbur, a spokeswoman for Jersey Shore Nuclear Watch, said high 
cancer rates in some parts of New Jersey have not been explained by 
authorities.

"We need to demonstrate scientifically that the nuclear plant has 
harmed people, especially children," she said.

New Jersey has four nuclear power plants: Oyster Creek in Ocean 
County and Salem I and II and Hope Creek in Salem County.
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Nuclear industry asks Congress to fund new plants

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Nuclear power plants can be built if 
Congress provides financial support for the industry, said John Kane, 
the Nuclear Energy Institute's vice president of governmental 
affairs, on Wednesday. "If Congress is going to provide an effective 
energy bill that will help wean us off foreign sources of energy, it 
must...encourage through various incentives the development of those 
sources that can best help us reach our goals," Kane told the member 
of the House Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee. Industry is pushing 
lawmakers to include investment tax credits, production tax credits, 
accelerated the timeframe for plant depreciation, and federally 
backed loan guarantees, in energy legislation.
-----------------

Exelon Nuclear Sets Generation Record

WARRENVILLE, Ill., Feb. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Exelon Nuclear, 
the nation's largest operator of commercial nuclear reactors, 
produced 129.7 million megawatt-hours of electricity in 2004, an all-
time Exelon Nuclear record.

The previous record was 121.3 million megawatt-hours, set in 2003. 
The increase came from the December 2003 acquisition of British 
Energy's 50- percent share of AmerGen, which owns three single unit 
nuclear stations in Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
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Framatome Sets Up US Team To Design, Site New Nuclear Reactor

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Framatome ANP, a joint venture of French state-
run nuclear engineering company Areva (427583.FR) and Siemens AG 
(SI), has set up a new team aimed at designing and siting new 
commercial nuclear reactors in the U.S.

In a press release Tuesday, Areva said the Framatome team will be led 
by Ray Ganthner and will push to get a new pressurized-water reactor 
called the EPR licensed and built in the U.S. The team will also 
support the global effort to develop a more advanced high-temperature 
gas reactor.

Despite a revival of the nuclear industry in Asia, support from the 
Bush administration for nuclear power in the U.S. and mounting 
concerns about emissions of carbon dioxide, no new nuclear reactor 
has been built here in a quarter century. A number of nuclear 
operators are, however, pursuing early site permits.

Framatome has approached the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission about 
its intentions to certify the EPR and plans to apply for design 
certification as soon as possible, Areva said in a release.

Licensing and engineering work will be done primarily in Charlotte, 
N.C., and Lynchburg, Va., Areva said.

Areva says it designed and installed 30% of the world's current 
nuclear generation capacity and provides nuclear fuel to 46%.
---------------

U.S. donates radiation detection equipment to Uzbekistan

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan (AP) - The United States on Tuesday granted 
radiation detection equipment and other supplies to Uzbekistan as 
part of efforts to prevent proliferation of weapons of mass 
destruction, the U.S. Embassy said.

The radiation and metal detectors, night vision binoculars and other 
equipment worth US$750,000 (580,000) were handed over to the ex-
Soviet country's border service and its health and emergencies 
ministries, the embassy said in a statement.

The aid comes under a U.S. State Department security designed to help 
halt the spread of weapons of mass destruction, their delivery 
systems, related technologies and other weapons, the statement said.

Since 2000, the U.S. government has donated more than US$12 million 
(9.3 million) in security equipment and training to Uzbekistan, and 
plans to grant more equipment worth another US$8.2 million (6.4 
million) within the next two years, the statement said.

The Central Asian republic is a key U.S. ally in the war on terror, 
and hosts hundreds of U.S. troops to support operations in nearby 
Afghanistan.
-----------------

Russian environmentalists call on Hungary to cancel nuclear waste 
exports to Russia

MOSCOW (AP) - A Russian environmental group on Wednesday renewed its 
call on Hungary to halt nuclear waste exports to Russia.

The EcoDefense group timed its call for the start of Hungarian Prime 
Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany's first visit to Russia, which was expected 
to focus on economic and trade ties. Gyurcsany was scheduled to meet 
with his Russian counterpart, Mikhail Fradkov, and the speakers of 
the two chambers of parliament.

In 2003, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungary's then-prime 
minister, Peter Medgyessy, called for speeding up talks on delivering 
Russian nuclear fuel to Hungary for use in its single nuclear power 
plant and returning 1,500 metric tons of spent fuel to Russia's Mayak 
reprocessing facility in Chelyabinsk. Hungary does not have 
facilities for the long-term storage of spent fuel.

Last year, the Mayak facility was ordered to make improvements to 
prevent liquid radioactive waste stored in closed reservoirs from 
leaking into surrounding rivers.

Environmentalists say a 2001 law signed by Putin allowing for the 
widespread import of spent nuclear fuel will turn Russia into a 
nuclear dumping ground.
----------------

In a New Mexico desert town, residents stake their future on uranium

EUNICE, New Mexico (AP) - Like many others in this former boomtown, 
Mayor James Brown knows more about isotopes, centrifuges and uranium-
235 than your average college student.

Brown's recent crash course in nuclear physics was a prerequisite: 
Many of his constituents are counting on the jobs and economic 
trickle-down that are being promised if a $1.3 billion (1.02 billion) 
uranium enrichment plant that would make fuel for nuclear power 
plants comes to town.

The project would be the first privately operated uranium enrichment 
plant in the United States and the first U.S. installation to use 
centrifuge technology, rather than a process known as gaseous 
diffusion that has been around since the Manhattan Project.

Louisiana Energy Services, the international consortium behind the 
plant, wanted to build the project in rural Louisiana, but backed out 
in 1998 after opponents accused it of targeting a predominantly poor 
and black parish. Then it pulled out of Hartsville, Tennessee, in 
2003 after running into opposition from former Vice President Al Gore 
and others.

Critics say the proposed National Enrichment Facility could pollute 
the environment, guzzle scarce water and leave this oil-producing 
town with tons of radioactive waste and nowhere to put it.

But the mayor warns that without the plant, Eunice faces extinction.

"We have to have something else in place or communities like Eunice 
and Jal will just disappear," he said. "The oil industry won't be 
able to support our economy 20 or 30 years from now."

The new proposed site is in the flat, scrub-covered desert 550 
kilometers (340 miles) from Albuquerque in the southeastern corner of 
the state, close to the Texas line. LES has promised that the plant 
would employ 400 workers during the construction phase and, once it 
is up and running, 210 people, with a payroll of more than $10 
million (7.84 million) and an average salary of $50,000 (39,179).

Last week, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Atomic Safety and 
Licensing Board held public meetings on the LES plan. At one, Lea 
County Commissioner Darrold Stephenson made his point by flipping the 
lights off.

If the project is turned down, "this is what we're passing on to our 
future generations: nothing," the 70-year-old commissioner said 
later.

Oil and natural gas have been the region's lifeblood for decades. 
Today, bobbing oil pumps and high-pressure gas lines are woven into 
Eunice's modest street grid.

But many oil-related jobs are disappearing because of new labor-
saving technology, and companies have discovered more lucrative oil 
fields elsewhere. Since 1985, Eunice's population has fallen by a 
third, to 2,500.

The uranium enrichment plant would be the biggest commercial nuclear 
project in the United States in years. The nuclear industry is 
watching the project's fate closely, said Marshall Cohen, an LES 
spokesman.

"If it's a good, steady, on-track process, that's encouraging to 
others who might want to look at nuclear-related construction. 
Because it's very expensive - the amount of money spent on obtaining 
the license is serious money," he said.

Townspeople in Eunice overwhelmingly support the project. Some have 
grown tired of environmentalists and other out-of-towners preaching 
doom, and many note that they have lived with industrial hazards all 
their lives.

"Don't tell me how dangerous this is when I grew up in this oil 
field," said Fay Thompson, owner of The Bakery and More restaurant on 
Main Street. Compared to working with oil, the plant is a "walk in 
the park," Thompson said.

Her husband, she said, died 40 years ago of cancer related to 
benzene, a petroleum byproduct.

Still, a few in town are skeptical.

"We're such a gullible lot here, what can I say?" said Rose Gardner, 
owner of Desert Rose Flowers and Gifts. "The whole world knows the 
negative side, but Lea County doesn't seem to know it."

Environmentalists worry that radioactive material could seep into the 
groundwater and the air. Moreover, they say, uranium processing 
generates a type of waste that currently cannot be dumped anywhere in 
the United States. With processing, it could be sent to a low-level 
nuclear waste dump.

Currently, no U.S. processing facility can do that. A French company 
has offered to build such a plant in this country, but it will be 
years before it even applies for a license.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who was energy secretary in the 
Clinton administration, has indicated his support for the project is 
contingent on an assurance the waste will be sent out of the state.

Mike Sheehan, an economist hired by Nuclear Information and Resource 
Service, an anti-nuclear group, also said the new plant would 
undercut financially an anti-proliferation program in Russia that 
takes weapons-grade uranium and turns it into power plant fuel.

Other critics point out that the United States discourages the same 
kind of plants in places like Iran, which might use them to produce 
uranium for nuclear weapons.
-----------------

NASA Awards Grant to Study Cancer Risks From Space Radiation

WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA awarded a research grant 
worth more than $9.8 million over five-years to the University of 
Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

The central focus of the study entitled, "Lung Cancer Pathogenesis 
and HZE Particle Exposure," will be to identify solid tumor cancer 
risks from space radiation. Data will be collected from animal models 
and tissues at the cellular and molecular level, with special 
emphasis on extrapolating the collected knowledge to humans.

Radiation exposures required to conduct the research will use ground-
based irradiation facilities at the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory, 
Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, N.Y.

The grant adds another NASA Specialized Center of Research (NSCOR) to 
the space radiation program. NSCOR is designed to advance knowledge 
in the biological and biomedical sciences and technology arenas. The 
ultimate application of this knowledge is to enable human space 
flight and long-term planetary missions. It expands the pool of 
research scientists and engineers trained to meet the challenges, as 
we prepare for future human space exploration missions.

NSCOR differs from an individual grant award by incorporating a 
number of complementary research projects. The solicitation for 
proposals on "Estimation of Solid Tumor Cancer Risks" drew 11 
proposals. Each was peer-reviewed by scientific and technical experts 
from academia, government and industry.
----------------

A pillar in Iran's nuclear plans, Bushehr plant nearly completed - 
but not necessarily close to going on line

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Menacing anti-aircraft batteries and off-limit 
signs attest to Bushehr's importance as a pillar of Iran's ambitious 
nuclear plans. But while nearly completed, it's still unclear when 
the power plant will go on line, and how much of a potential threat 
it will be when it does.

Iran denies it is interested in making nuclear weapons. Still, 
experts say the US$800 million (613.5 million) plant could produce 
enough plutonium to make 30 rudimentary atomic bombs a year.

Located near a seaside town of the same name on the Persian Gulf, the 
Bushehr facility and the surrounding plants, laboratories and living 
quarters of the Russians who helped build it are restricted to 
outsiders. Visitors given rare government permission to visit 
describe it as a mini-city, with tree-lined street separating blocks 
of buildings.

Mindful of the Israeli attack that destroyed Iraq's Osirak plant 24 
years ago, members of the Iranian armed forces man anti-aircraft guns 
set up around the Bushehr plant, which will produce 1,000 megawatts 
of power once it goes on line.

But when that will happen remains unclear because of a prolonged 
Russian-Iranian dispute. Moscow has agreed to provide the fuel but 
wants it back once it's used to prevent the possibility Tehran may 
extract plutonium from the spent fuel.

Tehran has agreed to repatriate the fuel, but the two sides have 
disagreed on who should pay for its return.

In the last year, both Moscow and Tehran have said a deal was close, 
and on Wednesday, Russian officials said that Moscow nuclear chief 
Alexander Rumyantsev will visit Iran later this month to sign the 
fuel return agreement.

First shipments of nuclear fuel for the Bushehr plant could be 
delivered within a month or two after the signing, Rumyantsev 
spokesman Nikolai Shingarov told The Associated Press.

Diplomats in Vienna familiar with the Bushehr developments were 
skeptical, however, that the deal would be signed any time soon, 
suggesting the Russians were reluctant to do so unless concerns about 
Iran's nuclear plans were banished.

"They've said they were close to a deal many times before, and 
nothing's happened," said one of the diplomats, who is close to the 
Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency - the U.N. agency 
monitoring Iran's nuclear activities.

The main concern about Iran remains uranium enrichment - Tehran 
developed an enrichment program over nearly two decades of 
clandestine activity revealed only in 2002. It has suspended the 
program - which can produce nuclear weapons grade uranium - pending 
talks with European powers but is refusing pressure to agree to a 
long-term freeze or to scrap its enrichment plans.

Russia's insistence on having the spent fuel from Bushehr repatriated 
is meant to banish concerns that it could serve as the origin of 
plutonium, the other fissile material that can be the core of nuclear 
arms.

But - although the IAEA is policing Bushehr with remote cameras and 
other controls, even before it goes on line - the agreement to return 
all used fuel to Russia is no guarantee that nothing can go wrong.

Before repatriation, the fuel has to be stored in Iran anywhere from 
six months to a year, to allow it to cool.

"That's plenty of time to extract plutonium if they choose to ignore 
the IAEA," said another Vienna-based diplomat familiar with Bushehr.

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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/