[ RadSafe ] Report: Iran to build 20 atomic power stations in coming years

[Sandy Perle]

Index:

Report: Iran to build 20 atomic power stations in coming years
Georgia reports 4 new nuclear smuggling attempts
Conference OKs Stronger UN Nuclear Agency Terrorism Pact
Hollis-Eden Gets OK for Neumune Study - radiation sickness treatment
=============================================

Report: Iran to build 20 atomic power stations in coming years

MOSCOW (AP) - A top Iranian legislator said Friday that his country 
intends to build at least 20 atomic power station in coming years.

Russian news agencies also quoted Kazema Jalali, who headed a 
delegation of Iranian lawmakers visiting Moscow, as telling Russian 
atomic energy chief Alexander Rumyantsev that Iran was hoping to 
produce its own nuclear fuel.

No one answered the phone at the Iranian Embassy in Moscow Friday 
afternoon.

Russia is building a nuclear reactor in Iran under a US$800 million 
(596.3 million) contract.

The United States suspects Iran is using its once-covert nuclear 
program to produce weapons and wants it shut down. Iran says its 
nuclear technology is intended solely for producing energy.

Rumyantsev said Russia would be providing nuclear fuel to the new 
plant, which he said would likely be put into operation by June 2006, 
according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.
------------------

Georgia reports 4 new nuclear smuggling attempts

TBILISI, July 8 (Reuters) - Georgia has foiled at least four attempts 
to smuggle highly enriched uranium out of the former Soviet country 
over the last two years, a senior nuclear official said.

"There were four attempts at smuggling highly enriched uranium (HEU) 
via Georgia during the last two years," Soso Kakushadze, head of 
Georgia's Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department at Georgia's 
Ministry of Environment, told Reuters.

"In all these cases, Georgian security officials prevented attempts 
to smuggle HEU through Georgia to other countries. The HEU had been 
brought to Georgia from abroad," he said on Thursday.

When enriched to low levels, uranium can be used in nuclear power 
plants to generate electricity. But when enriched to very high levels 
it can be used in atomic weapons.

Kakushadze did not say from what countries the HEU had been brought 
or whether the uranium seized was weapons grade.

According to the U.N. nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy 
Agency (IAEA), the last confirmed case of illicit trafficking of HEU 
was in July 2001 in Paris, where three people were looking for buyers 
for half a gram of weapons-grade HEU.

Prior to the newly reported incidents, the last smuggling attempt 
Georgia reported was in September 2000 and involved a small amount of 
plutonium, which can also be used in weapons if it is pure enough.

In Vienna, a Western diplomat close to the IAEA, said agency 
officials only learned about the new incidents during a recent 
inspection trip to Georgia.

The diplomat said the news was disturbing because they could indicate 
there is an active black market for HEU.

"It's unclear why the Georgians waited so long to tell the IAEA," 
said the diplomat on condition of anonymity.

Kakushadze said Georgia did not want to report the HEU seizures 
before as officials were investigating these cases.

Nuclear experts say countries that might be secretly developing 
nuclear weapons or militant groups would be eager to buy up HEU. They 
also say that the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union opened the door 
to rampant nuclear proliferation, due to poor security of many 
stockpiles of atomic material.

QUESTIONS ABOUT ABKHAZIA

An IAEA team arrived in Georgia last month to try to assess the 
status of Georgia's nuclear material. Due to security fears, the IAEA 
experts did not to go to the breakaway region of Abkhazia, though 
Vienna diplomats say they would like to go there as soon as possible.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, several IAEA officials said there 
were questions about whether some 9 kg (20 lb) of plutonium might 
have gone missing from a nuclear institute in Abkhazia.

However, one IAEA diplomat said this week any such plutonium may have 
come from Soviet nuclear generators that use plutonium to produce 
heat and electricity in remote locations.

If the plutonium comes from such a generator, it would not be pure 
enough to use in atomic weapons and would not represent a significant 
health hazard, the diplomat said.

"But it's good to be sure," the diplomat said, adding that the IAEA 
wanted to account for all potentially lost, missing or stolen nuclear 
materials in Georgia and other ex-Soviet states.
---------------------

Conference OKs Stronger UN Nuclear Agency Terrorism Pact

VIENNA (AP)--An 89-nation conference Friday agreed to strengthen a 
treaty meant to keep nuclear material from terrorists, opening the 
way for countries to ratify the new document.

The Convention of the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material 
originally obligated the 112 countries that have accepted it to 
protect nuclear material during international transport. The amended 
version expands such protection to materials at nuclear facilities, 
in domestic storage and during domestic transport or use.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy 
Agency, welcomed the development. He called it an "important step 
towards greater nuclear security by combating, preventing and, 
ultimately, punishing those who would engage in nuclear theft, 
sabotage and even terrorism."

ElBaradei, whose Vienna-based agency acts as the U.N. nuclear 
nonproliferation watchdog, said the agreement reached in the Austrian 
capital over five days demonstrates "a global commitment to remedy 
weaknesses in our nuclear security regime."

An IAEA statement said the revamped treaty also will provide for 
expanded international cooperation for "rapid measures to locate and 
recover stolen or smuggled nuclear material, mitigate any 
radiological consequences of sabotage, and prevent and combat related 
offenses."

The amended treaty will only go into effect if it is approved by at 
least two- thirds of the 112 nations - a process expected to take 
years.

The push to shield nuclear facilities first gained urgency after the 
attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, amid new security concerns and nightmare 
scenarios of fuel- laden jumbo jets smashing into atomic power 
plants.

"We can't go on with an old instrument in a new world," conference 
chairman Alec Jean Baer of Switzerland said after the opening session 
Monday.
--------------------

Hollis-Eden Gets OK for Neumune Study - radiation sickness treatment

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Drug developer Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals Inc. said 
Tuesday that the Food and Drug Administration cleared the way for the 
company to begin testing its radiation sickness treatment in humans.

The company said it will begin Phase I clinical trials to determine 
how much of the radiation sickness treatment Neumune is most likely 
to be effective in humans. Hollis-Eden said that it is running a 
similar trial in the Netherlands.

Animal studies on more than 200 primates have shown that Neumune 
improves the likelihood of survival after high-dose radiation 
exposure versus placebo. The drug is designed to treat Acute 
Radiation Syndrome, which can greatly reduce levels of white blood 
cells and platelets in blood. Acute Radiation Syndrome can result 
from a nuclear or radiological terrorist attack or from an accident 
at a nuclear power plant, the company said.

Hollis-Eden said it is pursuing an advance purchase contract under 
Project BioShield to provide the treatment for the government's 
Strategic National Stockpile, which holds medicine and medical 
supplies to protect U.S. citizens if there is a public health 
emergency - such as a terrorist attack, flu outbreak, earthquake - 
severe enough to cause local supplies to run out.

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

E-Mail: sperle at dosimetry.com
E-Mail: sandyfl at earthlink.net 

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