Radiation Protection

News for July 16, 2008

Radioactive Waste

• Congress weighs plutonium spill (Denver Post)
  Those concerns include the amount of radiation individuals were exposed to, the amount of radioactive materials released into the Boulder sewer system and procedures at the Boulder facility, particularly those related to the handling and storage of radioactive material.
   
  WIPP
• Manhattan Project waste leaving Tennessee for WIPP (Carlsbad Current Argus)
  Motorists across the South could soon be sharing the highway with nuclear waste generated decades ago in developing the first atomic bomb.
  Tons of this so-called "transuranic waste" have been waiting for years to leave what is now the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for a final home near Carlsbad, where the government has built a permanent vault in salt beds nearly a half-mile deep.
   
  Hanford
• Murray, Hastings want explanation from DOE about contract delay (Mid Columbia Tri City Herald)
  As you can imagine, with three new contracts being awarded at Hanford there are questions and concerns about what the changes will mean, they wrote.
   
  Yucca
• Yucca Mountain cost estimate tops $90 billion (Las Vegas Review)
  She said there are unresolved issues at Yucca Mountain, including unfinished designs for nuclear waste canisters, the lack of a federal radiation safety.
   
  Safety and Security
• GAO Report Says Government Not Doing Enough to Secure Dirty Bomb Materials (FOXNews)
  The GAO also found that there is not enough personal radiation detection equipment for Customs officials at land borders. In 2003, 8000 out of 18000.
• Costly Weapon-Detection Plans Are in Disarray, Investigators Say (Washington Post)
  Bush administration initiatives to defend the nation against a smuggled nuclear bomb or a biological outbreak or attack remain poorly coordinated, costing billions of tax dollars while basic goals and policies remain incomplete, according to new reports by congressional investigators.
   
  Nuclear Power
• Missing brackets blamed in Vermont nuke mishap (Forbes)
  The Vermont Yankee nuclear plant remained at less than half its normal power output Tuesday as state and federal regulators zeroed in on missing brackets on support beams as the cause of a new round of problems with the plant's cooling towers.
   
  Nuclear Weapon
• Nuclear Blasts Show Terrifying Power (Wired News)
  The camera was completely enclosed in a 2-inch lead sheath as a protection against radiation. The only source of light was that from the detonation.

News for July 15, 2008

Radioactive Waste

WIPP

• Plutonium waste prepared for long haul (Oak Ridger)
  Federal officials hope to begin shipping plutonium-contaminated waste from Oak Ridge to New Mexico later this year.

Cleanup

• Cleanup Planned for Tainted Creeks Near Ohio Superfund Site (Environment News Service) 
  A month-long public comment period begins today on a proposed $3.8 million plan to clean a toxic insecticide from soil and sediment in two creeks near the Nease Chemical Superfund site in Columbiana County, Ohio.

Hanford

• Contaminated US site faces 'catastrophic' nuclear leak (New Scientist)
  More than 210 million litres of radioactive and chemical waste are stored in 177 underground tanks at Hanford in Washington State. Most are over 50 years old. Already 67 of the tanks have failed, leaking almost 4 million litres of waste into the ground.
• Energy Department Faulted for Mishandling Hanford Nuclear Waste (Environment News Service)
  The U.S. Department of Energy doesn't know enough about the condition and contents of millions of gallons of radioactive and hazardous wastes stored in tanks at its Hanford Site in Washington state to make good decisions about cleanup and costs, according to a new report by Congress's investigative agency.

Safety and Security

• Report: Gov't tardy securing radioactive material (NYTimes)
  The government is taking too long to secure radioactive materials across the country that could get into terrorists' hands, according to a government report.
• Special nuclear inspection after cooling tower leak at Vermont Yankee (Boston Globe)
  NRC officials said the tower leak is not considered safety-related to the plant’s operation. The tower cools water that cooled machinery in the plant before releasing it into the Connecticut River.

Health

• Leeds-pioneered radioactive 'seeds' killing cancers (Yorkshire Evening Post)
  IMPLANTING radioactive seeds into the body to kill cancer sounds like the stuff of science fiction.  But in fact Leeds pioneered this innovative treatment in the UK more than 10 years ago.

Nuclear Weapons

• IAEA board to meet Aug. 1 on India nuclear deal (San Francisco Chronicle)
  India, which developed its own nuclear weapons, has been shut out of such deals because it did not sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which was designed to prevent the spread of atomic arsenals.

News for July 14, 2008

Radioactive Waste

• Hot cells now processing transuranic waste for final disposal (Oak Ridger)
  "This is another step in our eventual shipment of all transuranic waste out of Oak Ridge." Transuranic waste is a special class of radioactive material.
• Liquid uranium spilt into water supply (Fluid Handling)
  The plant has both a reactor and a radioactive treatment facility. ASN says it has found abnormal levels of radiation in several rivers and lakes in the region. These levels appear to be decreasing. Locals have been instructed not to drink water or eat any fish from the nearby rivers. Irrigation, swimming and water sports have also been banned.

Hanford

• Hanford vit plant gets emission stack (Mid Columbia Tri City Herald)
  And Friday the 68-foot-tall emission stack was set atop the Analytical Laboratory building at Hanford's vitrification plant by 32 workers and engineers in an hourlong operation. The stack will help block the release of contaminants from the lab into the environment.

Safety and Security

• Rule issued for Beijing Olympic spectators (Beijing 2008)
  The rule banned weapons and equipment including guns, ammunition, crossbows, and daggers; fireworks, firecrackers and other flammable materials; corrosive chemicals and radioactive materials.
• NIST gets black eye over plutonium spill (Colorado Daily)
  Even though the use of radioactive materials has increased over the years, the investigation found there were no procedures for handling plutonium.

Nuclear Weapon

• RAND chief wants new approach to non-proliferation (Reuters UK)
  It is time to consider new ways of encouraging countries such as Iran not to develop nuclear weapons, the head of one of the world's leading public policy think tanks said on Monday.

Other

• EPA on Trial (In These Times)
  In February 2001, Kaufman alerted the Denver Post to the fact that Whitman had not recused herself from the negotiations involving a radioactive Superfund site in Denver.

News for July 11, 2008

Radioactive Waste

• NRC questions Westinghouse about missing fuel (Phoenix Business Journal)
  The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission questioned Westinghouse officials Wednesday in Atlanta about the loss of 4.5 ounces of powdered uranium hexafluoride, known as UF6. Westinghouse workers at the Columbia, S.C. plant found on Feb. 11 that three five-gallon cans containing 16 sample vials of the chemical were unaccounted for. The samples had been received on Feb. 4.
• 6700 Tons of Contaminated Sand Shipped From Kuwait to Boise (OpEdNews)
  Recently the emirate of Kuwait required the United States Department of Defense to remove the contamination. Consequently, over 6,700 tons of contaminated soil sand and other residue was collected and has been shipped back to the United States for burial by American Ecology at Boise Idaho.
• PCB waste to be hauled across state to Niagara County landfill (Buffalo News)
  The state is sending almost 75,000 tons of toxic waste from a Superfund site north of Glens Falls to a Niagara County landfill. The PCB-laden waste will be dug out of an existing landfill and scraped from a former salvage yard for General Electric Co., state officials announced.

Cleanup

• Cleanup suspended at former Diamond Magnesium Co. site (All Around Cleveland)
  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is suspending the cleanup of radioactive contamination at a Painesville Township industrial site. The Army Corps had to halt the cleanup when funding ran out. The group spent about $15 million to excavate and remove contaminated soil from the former Defense Plant Corp. site, later the Diamond Magnesium Co., at 720 Fairport Nursery Road.

Yucca

• Yucca Mountain federal funds should go to research (SmartBrief)
  Millions of dollars being spent by the federal government on the planned Yucca Mountain waste repository would better be spent researching ways to minimize waste and safely store spent nuclear rods.

Safety and Security

• Columbia Westinghouse plant questioned on missing uranium (WIS-AP)
  Officials at a Westinghouse plant in Columbia say a worker accidentally threw away 16 small containers of low-grade uranium.
• Containers with radioactive material found in Karachi (Mangalorean.com)
  Pakistan's nuclear regulator is probing the circumstances under which two containers of radioactive material were buried within the premises of a state-owned company in Karachi.
• Roof of Sweden's Ringhals nuclear reactor catches fire (TopNews)
  Stockholm - A fire that broke out Friday on the roof of Sweden's Ringhals nuclear power plant was put out safely, local fire control authorities said.

Health

• Uranium contaminates water supply (Melbourne Herald Sun)
  But the ASN this week found abnormal levels of radiation in several rivers and lakes in the region although these were found to be decreasing.

Nuclear Power

• Browns Ferry reactor shut down (Knoxville News Sentinel)
  A nuclear reactor at Browns Ferry has been shut down for repair of a leak in a steam pipe at the Alabama nuclear plant. Browns Ferry’s 1155-megawatt Unit 3.

Nuclear Weapon

• North Korea nuclear talks enter second day (Reuters)
  Negotiators trying to move forward with disarming North Korea made progress during a second day of talks on Friday on agreeing methods to verify the North's own account of its nuclear activities, an official said.

News for July 10, 2008

Radioactive Waste

• US Removes Uranium from Iraq (FrontPage magazine.com-AP)
  The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program - a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium - reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret US operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.
• Leak at French nuclear waste plant (Belfast Telegraph)
  Nuclear authorities in France were scrambling to calm fears yesterday following a radioactive leak from a nuclear waste processing facility near the town of  Bollène, in the Rhône valley.
• Sellafield decommissioning to take over 100 years (Irish Times)
  It will take more than 100 years before the toxic nuclear site at Sellafield is safe, it was revealed today.  A report from Westminster’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) warned that the cost of decommissioning all nuclear plants was likely to rise because successive governments and the industry found it easy to push costs on to future taxpayers.
• Strube cleanup half complete (Lancaster Newspapers)
  The emergency removal of thousands of World War II aircraft parts with radioactive radium paint from eight warehouses in Columbia.
• PCB waste to be hauled across state to Niagara (Buffalo News)
  The state is sending almost 75,000 tons of toxic waste from a Superfund site north of Glens Falls to a Niagara County landfill. The PCB-laden waste will be dug out of an existing landfill and scraped from a former salvage yard for General Electric Co., state officials announced.

                        Hanford

• Money for Hanford included in Senate appropriations bill (Mid Columbia Tri City Herald)
  More than $2 billion for work at Hanford, including nearly $222 million more than was requested in the president's budget, has been included in the Senate's 2009 Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., announced Tuesday.

                        Yucca

• Senate panel cuts Bush's budget request for Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump (Tahoe Daily Tribune)
  The government wants to entomb 77000 tons of highly radioactive waste now stored at 121 sites in 39 states at Yucca Mountain. The dump, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is years behind schedule and is not likely to open before 2020, according to the Energy Department.

Safety and Security

• COVER- Alarming: Most smoke detectors don't detect smoke (The Hook)
  Ionization detectors activate when combustion particles interact with a small amount of americium-241, a radioactive material.

Health

• Japanese nuclear fuel plant worker exposed to radiation (Earthtimes)
  A Japanese nuclear fuel company said Thursday that one of its workers was exposed to minor levels of radiation. Global Nuclear Fuel-Japan Co said a worker at a nuclear fuel producing plant in the central Japanese city of Yokosuka had inhaled a small amount of uranium on Wednesday.

Nuclear Power

• An Enriched Opportunity for Alliant: As the Appeal of Nuclear Power Grows, Alliant Techsystems is Set to Become a Key Player (EnergyCentral)
  Minneapolis Defense and aerospace contractor Alliant Techsystems is about to go nuclear in a big way. The Eden Prairie company will complete a centrifuge rotor-tube factory in West Virginia next month that will play a crucial role in delivering cheaper enriched uranium to the resurgent nuclear power industry.
• More nuclear power OK'd: G8 calls it an essential instrument in cutting use of fossil fuels (EnergyCentral)
  http://www.energycentral.com/centers/news/daily/article_share.cfm?aid=87664601
   The Group of Eight leaders gave the green light Tuesday to expanded development of nuclear power, saying it is a vital energy source in the fight against global warming.
• SA gets nuclear makeover (The Times)
  They also pointed to the fact that the spent fuel from plants retained deadly radiation levels for tens of thousands of years.
• IAEA in Talks with Azerbaijan to Construct Research Nuclear Reactor (TREND Information)
  The Azerbaijani Institute of Radiation Problems has prepared and submitted to the Government a package of proposal on the construction of a nuclear power ...

Nuclear Weapon

• Iran test-fires more missiles (CNN)
  Iran test-fired more missiles overnight, Iranian news media reported Thursday, one day after it tested a long-range Shahab-3 and other missiles in the Persian Gulf region.
• NKorean returns to nuclear disarmament talks (AFP)
  However the North's declaration only covered its nuclear facilities and the production of the plutonium, not its weapons or a suspected programme involving highly enriched uranium that can also be used to make bombs.

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