[ RadSafe ] Germany to compensate 500 ex-soldiers who developed cancer after radiation exposure

[Sandy Perle]

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Index:

Germany to compensate 500 ex-soldiers who developed cancer
German police find radioactive container in street
Fire breaks out at nuclear waste disposal facility in central Japan
Ukraine and China sign treaty on peaceful use of nuclear energy
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Germany to compensate 500 ex-soldiers who developed cancer after 
radiation exposure

BERLIN (AP) - Germany's defense ministry said Wednesday it would 
compensate some 500 former soldiers who have suffered from cancer due 
to exposure to radiation while serving in the army.

A government commission tasked with studying the issue said the 
selected men would receive an extra pension as compensation for their 
suffering. It did not name a sum.

German soldiers and their families have long sought damages for 
illnesses such as leukemia and testicular cancer that they believe is 
the result of poor protection against radiation from radar equipment.

About 2,500 former soldiers originally applied for compensation, but 
many were rejected on the basis they were not suffering from a 
radiation-related illness, or did not serve in exposed areas.

The claimants include soldiers who served in the armies of both the 
former West Germany and communist East Germany.
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German police find radioactive container in street

BERLIN, June 30 (Reuters) - Police in the German city of Wiesbaden 
sealed off a busy street on Thursday after a passer-by discovered a 
small container with a radioactive warning symbol and emergency 
services confirmed low levels of radiation.

A police spokeswoman said there were faint traces of radiation from 
both the metal container and a nearby dustbin, but the levels were 
too low to pose any danger.

"We're taking this very seriously and taking sensible measures, but 
at the moment it doesn't look like turning into an emergency 
situation," spokeswoman Gaby Goebel said.

She said the area had not been contaminated and no one had been 
exposed to radiation or needed hospital checks.

But residents had been told to stay indoors while specialists 
examined the container and dustbin. The street, popular for its cafes 
and restaurants, had been closed off.

Police were working on the theory that the low-level radioactive 
material could have come from a hospital.
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Fire breaks out at nuclear waste disposal facility in central Japan, 
no injury or radiation leak

TOKYO (AP) - A fire broke out at a nuclear waste disposal facility in 
central Japan on Thursday, but no injuries were reported and there 
was no radiation leak, the plant operator said.

It was not immediately clear what sparked the blaze in the basement 
of the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant's disposal facility, some 200 
kilometers (120 miles) southwest of Tokyo, said Shigehisa Osawa, 
spokesman for Chubu Electric Power Co.

The disposal facility is not in the same building as the plant's 
nuclear reactors, he said, and did not cause a radiation leak.

Osawa did not know whether the disposal facility dealt with 
radioactive materials.

The Hamaoka plant is located in Omaezaki, a city Shizuoka Prefecture 
(state) in central Japan.

Plant officials were investigating the cause of the fire and the 
extent of the damage to the building, Osawa said.
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Ukraine and China sign treaty on peaceful use of nuclear energy

KIEV, Ukraine (AP)- Ukraine announced Thursday that it had signed a 
treaty with China aimed at improving cooperation in nuclear energy.

The treaty is tailored "to contribute to bilateral cooperation in 
peaceful use of nuclear energy," and was signed Wednesday by Wang 
Yuqing, deputy minister of the Chinese State Environmental Protection 
Administration and his Ukrainian counterpart Vadym Gryscshenko, a 
statement from Ukraine's State Committee for Nuclear Regulation said.

"The agreement also envisions cooperation in the areas of safety 
regulations and accident management," it said.

Ukraine operates 15 nuclear reactors, and China has about 40.

Ukraine was the site of the world's worst nuclear accident, the 1986 
reactor meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, which spewed 
radiation over much of northern Europe. Chernobyl was shuttered in 
2000.

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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) 296-1902 

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/