[ RadSafe ] Rad water leak reported at Czech nuclear plant near Austrian border

[Sandy Perle]

Note:  One of my pictures from Balboa Island is featured on Page 92 
of the 2005 California Visitors Guide. My picture shows the Balboa 
Island Ferry with Balboa Island in the background. My name is next to 
the picture, and that is also a clue!  

There is a digital on-line version that can be viewed at:
http://www.nxtbook.com/fx/books/sunset/ca-visitor-guide/
			-------------------------------------

Index:

Rad water leak reported at Czech nuclear plant near Austrian border
Savannah River Site May Be New Nuclear Power Plant Site
US To Start Paying Workers Exposed To Radiation, Toxins
Federal Board Rejects Utah's Nuke Appeal
Child Cancer Survivors Have Other Problems
Report: Japan ready to give up hosting international fusion reactor
U.S. to help Ukraine safeguard nuclear waste storage
Vt Bill Would Make Entergy Pay Waste Site Charge -Paper
============================================

Rad water leak reported at Czech nuclear plant near Austrian border

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) - About 3,000 liters (780 gallons) of 
radioactive water leaked at troubled nuclear power plant near the 
Czech border with Austria, an official said Saturday.

The leak in the village Temelin did not contaminate the environment 
and posed no danger to employees, plant spokesman Milan Nebesar said.

He said the water leaked late Friday at the plant's second unit, 
currently shut down for routine maintenance and fuel replacement.

Nebesar said that the water, used for cooling, went through a special 
sewage system and was contained in a tank.

The unit was expected to be back on line around June 20, but could be 
restarted later due to the leak, he said.

The plant's first unit was running at full capacity Saturday.

Construction of the plant's two 1,000-megawatt units, based on 
Russian designs, started in the 1980s. The reactors later were 
upgraded with U.S. technology, but they have remained controversial 
because of frequent malfunctions.

The facility, 60 kilometers (35 miles) north of the Austrian border, 
has been a source of friction between the two countries. 
Environmentalists in Austria demand it be closed, while Czech 
authorities insist it is safe.
------------------

Savannah River Site May Be New Nuclear Power Plant Site

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)--The Savannah River Site near Aiken may become 
the home of one of the first nuclear power reactors built in three 
decades.

Electric power consortium NuStart Energy Development LLC will decide 
this fall where it wants to build two nuclear power plants that could 
be running by 2015.

The other sites under consideration are the Tennessee Valley 
Authority's Bellefonte Nuclear Plant in northeast Alabama; Entergy 
Nuclear's Grand Gulf Nuclear Station in Port Gibson, Miss.; River 
Bend Nuclear Station in St. Francisville, La.; Constellation Energy's 
Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Lusby, Md.; and Entergy's Nine 
Mile Point Nuclear Station in Scriba, N.Y.

The communities surrounding those sites have until Aug. 15 to present 
proposals.

Site selection teams from NuStart would visit the sites this summer 
if community leaders invite them.

General Electric Co. and Westinghouse Electric Co. each would build a 
plant, estimated to cost $1.5 billion to $2 billion apiece.

"There is no better time for a renaissance in nuclear power in this 
country than today," said Deputy Secretary of Energy Clay Sell.

NuStart and the federal government are touting nuclear power as an 
answer to the nation's burgeoning energy needs, the growing problem 
of greenhouse gases and Americans' heavy reliance on oil.

Nuclear power boosters around the Savannah River Site, a former 
nuclear weapons complex, see the possibility of a new power plant as 
a source of jobs and economic growth. SRS now is a nuclear storage 
and research facility owned by the Energy Department.

NuStart says each plant could bring up to 3,000 construction jobs and 
up to 400 permanent positions.

"We want this power generated here," said Fred Humes, director the 
Economic Development Partnership of Aiken and Edgefield Counties. "If 
you want to grow, and you're going to need power, why don't we do it 
in this isolated and secure site at Savannah River?"

The United States has 103 operating nuclear plants that supply a 
fifth of the nation's electric power. The Bush administration has 
agreed to offset some new plant startup costs and wants plant 
licensing streamlined.

Nuclear power opponents say if those plants were good investments 
they wouldn't need government subsidies. They also note the nation 
has yet to come up with a solid plan to dispose of waste the existing 
reactors produce.

"What do you do with the waste? We have to safeguard it from all 
other living organisms for 10,000 years," said Dell Isham, director 
of the South Carolina chapter of the Sierra Club. "That's a crucial 
and moral issue we haven't seemed much concerned about in the last 
decade or so."
------------------

US To Start Paying Workers Exposed To Radiation, Toxins

WASHINGTON (AP)--Tens of thousands of former nuclear weapons workers 
exposed to radiation and other industrial toxins at government 
facilities can soon start filing for compensation.

The Labor Department's compensation program is one of two designed to 
pay workers who got sick while helping to build Cold War-era bombs or 
clean up the waste left behind.

"We are totally committed to ensuring that workers who are eligible 
for this program receive compensation as quickly as possible," Labor 
Secretary Elaine L. Chao said before the rules were released late 
Thursday night.

Earlier this year, the Labor Department began giving lump-sum checks 
of $125, 000 to survivors of workers who died from job-related 
illnesses. So far, it has paid more than $53 million for 430 claims.

But living workers had to wait for officials to develop a payout 
formula that accounts for permanent impairments and lost wages.

Payouts in the new program are capped at $250,000, but compensation 
to workers who were paid through another program isn't. The Labor 
Department will start processing claims within a week, Chao said.

Most of the people covered by the program worked at facilities in 
Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, New Mexico, Ohio, South Carolina, 
Tennessee and Washington.

Critics point to several problems, including how impairments are 
measured and the burden of proof required for claimants.

Congress concluded in a report on the law that the American Medical 
Association Guides might not list all illnesses caused by exposure to 
toxic substances, including certain mental impairments. But the new 
rules say people whose illnesses can't be assessed through the AMA 
Guides won't qualify for impairment payments.

People may lose compensation "because of a bureaucratic determination 
that their illness doesn't fall into a particular book that the 
Department of Labor is using," said Richard Miller, a policy analyst 
for the Government Accountability Project, a Washington-based 
watchdog group.

In their claims, workers must prove that they came in contact with 
toxins while on the job at government facilities. But Miller said the 
Energy Department didn't always monitor toxic exposure, and "in the 
absence of monitoring records, workers are facing an insurmountable 
burden of proof."

Congress last year gave the Labor Department authority over the 
revamped compensation program after lawmakers criticized how the 
Energy Department was managing it.
----------------

Federal Board Rejects Utah's Nuke Appeal

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A federal licensing board on Tuesday rejected 
Utah's appeal to thwart the stockpiling of spent nuclear fuel rods at 
an American Indian reservation.

The state had argued in April that radiation could escape from waste 
casks if an outer protective shield was breached, even if the 
interior canister holding the fuel rods remained fully intact.

But lawyers for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Utah's 
argument was too late and lacked scientific merit, advising the three-
member Atomic Safety and Licensing Board to reject it.

Although turning aside the state's argument, the board suggested the 
NRC study whether radioactive waste could leak from a cask that was 
damaged but not breached.

The ruling clears the way for the NRC to approve the project, which 
would create a temporary waste dump for spent rods on the reservation 
pending the opening of a national repository at Nevada's Yucca 
Mountain. It was not immediately clear when the commission would 
issue its final decision.

The Goshute Indian tribe has sought the waste station at its 
reservation in Skull Valley, about 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake 
City, hoping to earn as much as $3 million. The tribe is teaming with 
Private Fuel Storage to build the station, which would store more 
than 40,000 tons of nuclear waste.

The state had previously argued that the proposed waste station's 
proximity to an Air Force base increased the risk of a fighter jet 
crashing into the spent fuel rods. The licensing board dismissed that 
scenario as unlikely.

The state also contended that rods could end up permanently in Utah 
because the Energy Department isn't obligated to transport them to 
Nevada, but the board rejected that argument in February.

Gov. Jon Huntsman's legal counsel, Mike Lee, said the governor was 
disappointed with Tuesday's ruling but "remains firm in his resolve 
to fight this battle at every possible front."

He said the state is pursuing various options, including appeals in 
the courts and with the NRC, the Bureau of Land Management and the 
Bureau of Indian Affairs.

PFS spokeswoman Sue Martin said the company was pleased the process 
was moving forward.

"All of these challenges and the additional hearings and things like 
that that have gone on for the last eight years is evidence of how 
rigorous this process is," she said.

The issue has wound its way through the courts since Skull Valley 
Band Tribal Chairman Leon Bear signed a lease in 1997 allowing PFS to 
store the fuel on Goshute land.

The planned underground nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain has also 
endured a string of problems. The Energy Department recently 
abandoned a 2010 completion date and did not set a new one.
-------------------

Child Cancer Survivors Have Other Problems

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Two-thirds of children who survive cancer 
develop other chronic health problems, such as heart disease and 
blindness, because of radiation and the treatments that saved their 
lives, according to new research.

The research shows the tremendous medical, financial and emotional 
burdens that those treated in the 1970s and 1980s are now facing. One 
study found that 1 in 10 survivors are saddled with $25,000 in cancer-
related debt.

"We've concentrated so much on our 5- and 10-year survival that we 
haven't paid attention to the impact of our treatments," said Dr. Len 
Lichtenfeld, deputy medical director of the American Cancer Society.

Today's patients shouldn't suffer as many problems, specialists say, 
because cancer treatments have vastly improved in recent years.

Survival is at an all-time high. More than 3 out of 4 children are 
cured of cancer today, up from 58 percent in 1975.

"But the individuals cured currently pay a large and unacceptable 
price for that," said Dr. Harmon Eyre, the cancer society's medical 
director.

Nearly 10 million Americans have survived cancer, including 270,000 
who were diagnosed when they were 15 or younger.

Researchers across the country studied 10,397 of them who were 
diagnosed and treated between 1970 and 1986 and 3,034 of their 
siblings who did not have cancer.

By age 45, cancer survivors were from two to six times more likely 
than their healthy brothers and sisters to develop various health 
problems. Examples include heart disease, kidney problems requiring 
transplants or dialysis, blindness, infertility, mental retardation, 
paralysis, blood clots, lung problems and even another cancer.

Those who had Hodgkin's disease fared the worst, followed by those 
treated for brain tumors, said the lead researcher, Dr. Kevin 
Oeffinger of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 
Dallas.

Radiation is responsible for much of the damage because doses were 
much higher decades ago than they are today, he said. Chemotherapy 
drugs also have taken a toll. Some, like the widely used breast 
cancer medication adriamycin, are known to cause heart problems.

Less toxic drugs are needed, and cancer survivors and their doctors 
need to watch more carefully for health problems and try to prevent 
them, said Dr. David Johnson, a Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center 
doctor who is president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

"We want to make primary care physicians aware of these problems as 
well as patients," said Johnson, himself a cancer survivor, diagnosed 
with lymphoma 15 years ago.

The National Cancer Institute funded the study, discussed at the 
society's annual meeting.

A separate one, funded by the Lance Armstrong Foundation, found that 
half of survivors said their financial and emotional issues were 
harder to face than the physical issues, and that these needs weren't 
met by their doctors.

"We focus predominantly on the medical issues of cancer, yet what 
this survey says is that the non-medical issues are as prevalent," 
said Dr. Steven Wolff of Meharry Medical College in Nashville.

He presented the research, which was based on an Internet survey of 
more than 1,000 randomly selected cancer survivors.

Nearly half of them said they still talk about cancer at least once a 
month and that their lives are affected by it "more than a little." 
More than half reported having to deal with chronic pain and 
depression.

As cancer doctors, said Johnson, "We are very well equipped to deal 
with their physical needs. We aren't so well-equipped to deal with 
their psychological needs."
-----------------

Report: Japan ready to give up hosting international fusion reactor

TOKYO (AP) - Japan is close to conceding to France its bid to host a 
nuclear fusion reactor, in return for a leading position in the 
international consortium building it, a newspaper reported on Friday.

Representatives from the six parties involved in the US$13 billion 
(10 billion) International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project 
- Japan, the United States, South Korea, Russia, China and the 
European Union - will meet in Russia in late June to discuss the 
proposal, the Yomiuri newspaper said.

The ITER plant aims to show that nuclear fusion presents a vast, safe 
source of energy that can wean the world off pollution-producing 
fossil fuels. Nuclear fusion produces no greenhouse gas emissions and 
only low levels of radioactive waste.

Japan is prepared to concede its bid to host the plant to France, 
which has been vying to build it in southern Cadarache, in return for 
a bigger research and operations role in the project, the Yomiuri 
said, citing a copy of a plan to be proposed at the meeting.

The plan would appoint Japan as the project's organizing head. It 
would also ensure that two facilities - a remote testing center and a 
material testing plant - are built in Japan, and that 20 percent of 
personnel and supply procurement would come from Japan, the newspaper 
said.

France, as the host country, would pick up 50 percent of the plant's 
construction and operational costs, while Japan would shoulder 10 
percent. The remaining 40 percent would be paid by the other 
consortium members, the report said.
------------------

U.S. to help Ukraine safeguard nuclear waste storage

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - U.S Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman on 
Thursday began a two-day visit to Ukraine aimed at improving nuclear 
security, signing an agreement to safeguard Ukrainian nuclear waste 
that could be used by terrorists to craft a so-called dirty bomb.

"This Implementing Arrangement is a significant step forward in our 
partnership to safeguard these radioactive materials and advance the 
security of the region," Bodman told reporters after signing the 
document with Ukrainian Minister for Emergency Situations David 
Zhvaniya.

The dirty bomb is an explosive device filled with conventional 
explosives that disperses nuclear waste over vast areas. It is 
estimated that a medium-size bomb can easily contaminate several city 
blocks.

In recent years, many government have sought to improve nuclear 
nonproliferation to prevent the creation of the dirty bomb by 
terrorist organizations.

Under the agreement, the U.S. National Nuclear Security 
Administration's Office of Global Radiological Threat Reduction can 
begin working with Ukraine's Ministry for Emergency Situations to 
upgrade security at the six Ukrainian nuclear waste facilities.

Presidents George W Bush and Viktor Yushchenko, who met in 
Washington, D.C., earlier this year, pledged cooperation to promote 
nuclear safety, security of nuclear materials, and nonproliferation, 
Bodman said.

Bodman, who met President Yushchenko after his arrival on Thursday, 
was to use his visit to encourage the handover of Soviet-produced, 
enriched nuclear fuel to Russia, the U.S Embassy in Kiev said.

He was also expected to review the conversion of Ukraine's research 
reactors to the use of low-enriched uranium. Such a conversion would 
lower the risk of accidents and possible leakage of nuclear 
components to terrorists.

For their part, Ukrainian officials were expected to press for more 
funding. Cash-strapped Ukraine needs additional financial resources 
for the expensive task of sending used fuel rods back to Russia for 
reprocessing and converting its reactors to low-enriched fuel.

Ukraine's Soviet-built reactors are fueled by high-enriched uranium 
that could also be used for the production of weapons-grade nuclear 
material. Ukraine doesn't currently have the capacity to reprocess 
the used fuel itself.

At a recent conference in London, Western donors including the United 
States pledged more funds for the upgrade of Ukrainian nuclear power 
plants and for the handling of nuclear waste.

The West also offered additional money for the construction of a new 
structure that will cover crumbling concrete and steel shelter 
hastily erected over the destroyed reactor at Chernobyl, which 
exploded in 1986 in the world's worst nuclear disaster.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said that 
Ukraine, which currently operates 15 reactors, wants to build 11 more 
by 2030. The statement reflected Ukraine's ambition to achieve energy 
independence from Russia, its key supplier.

Tymoshenko ordered the state-run Energoatom, which is responsible for 
overseeing the operations of Ukrainian nuclear plants, to conduct a 
feasibility study for a domestic nuclear fuel reprocessing program. 
She also ordered the company to boost domestic production of uranium 
and zirconium, both components of nuclear fuel rods.

If Ukraine were to succeed in developing its own fuel reprocessing 
program, it would be able to produce its own fuel from locally 
produced uranium, which would open up opportunities for selling the 
very expensive final product all over the world.
-----------------

Vt Bill Would Make Entergy Pay Waste Site Charge -Paper

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP)--A Vermont House committee's latest version of 
legislation allowing Entergy Nuclear to build a high-level 
radioactive waste site next to the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant 
would require the company to pay $3.7 million a year, the Rutland 
Herald reported on its Web site Wednesday.

Rep. Robert Dostis, D-Waterbury, chairman of the state's House 
Natural Resources and Energy Committee, said the annual "station 
charge" would increase to nearly $5 million if Entergy does increase 
power production at the Vernon reactor, the Vermont paper reported.

"It's a charge for the right to store nuclear waste in Vermont," he 
said, according to the report.

But a spokesman for Entergy (ETR), Robert O. Williams, said the 
charge is unacceptable, the paper reported.

Entergy wants to increase power production by 20%, or 110 megawatts a 
year, at the plant. At this time, only a small portion of the new 
power would be used in Vermont, according to the Herald.

Richard Cowart, the committee's consultant, estimated that Entergy 
was making $30 million a year from Vermont Yankee, and that the 
figure would double to $60 million a year and higher if the company 
boosts power production by 20%, the report said. "There's a 
significant profit there," he said.

Cowart, who is a former chairman of the state Public Service Board, 
based his figures on research and knowledge of the field rather than 
hard numbers since Entergy has refused to provide financial 
information to the committee, Dostis said, according to the report.

Most of the money would be used to establish a renewable energy fund 
to help promote the development of alternative sources of energy, the 
Herald stated.

Entergy needs approval by the 2005 Legislature to build the storage 
facility, according to the report. The company also has to get 
approval from the Vermont Public Service Board.

Williams said that Vermont is receiving plenty of benefit from 
Vermont Yankee in terms of its low-cost power contracts with Central 
Vermont Public Service Corp., and Green Mountain Power, according to 
the report. The current cost of power generated by Vermont Yankee 
under the contract is 3.9 cents per kilowatt hour. The current market 
rate is about 6 cents, Williams said, the Herald reported.

----------------------------------------------------------------
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/