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"The U.S. Justice Department announced today that it has launched an "intensive outreach effort" in the Four Corners area to Native Americans and their families whose work in the uranium industry during the Cold War benefitted the United States but exposed them to radiation. Tony West, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, said in a news release that workers and their families may be entitled to compensation under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA). Under the act, people in the following categories may receive payments: uranium miners, millers and ore transporters; people who were present at nuclear weapons test sites; and people who lived in certain areas "downwind" of the Nevada Nuclear Test Site. In the latest outreach in the Four Corners area - Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona - the Justice Department has developed an internship program using part-time college and graduate students recruited from tribal communities."

"Is an 'area of haze of unknown composition' that crossed into California last week the remnants of a radioactive dust storm from China? Is another on the way? :::::::: On March 17 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) noted that "an area of haze of unknown composition and origin has entered the US along the central California coast and stretched northeastward across southeast Oregon and into southwest Montana.' The next day, the NOAA tracked the progress of this alien air mass to southwest Nevada: 'Areas of blowing dust are spreading S[outh] across parts of the western US....In Nevada blowing dust can be seen moving S[outh]across the counties of Mineral, Lyon and Churchill." As you keep going east from Lyon and Churchill counties to Mineral county, and then over two more counties, you get to the city of Las Vegas where at 10:00 A.M. that day (March 18) a radiation monitoring station outside the Atomic Testing Museum began to go haywire. "

A PROPOSED site for a new nuclear power station has been branded the most damaging prospect for Cumbrian wildlife in a decade. HOPPING MAD: Kirksanton is a key site for the natterjack toad - and plans to build a nuclear power station there have infuriated members of the Cumbria Wildlife Trust Cumbria Wildlife Trust's planning officer has described the site at Kirksanton as one of the most important areas in the country for natterjack toads. The trust estimates the area is home to around 24 per cent of the UK's natterjack population. Writing in the May edition of Cumbrian Wildlife magazine, Dr Kate Willshaw said: "It is the most damaging proposal for wildlife in Cumbria that we have seen in the last 10 years. "Kirksanton is incredibly special. As well as holding a collection of designations that protects the land and its wildlife, it is home to a number of European protected species." Dr Willshaw told the Evening Mail: "It would destroy a lot of habitats. The whole Duddon Estuary is a stronghold for natterjack toads.""

A group of island residents and members of the Pacific Association for Radiation Survivors met yesterday to discuss legislation that proposes to include Guam in the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. Advertisement The federal RECA law, passed in 1990, compensates people who have been diagnosed with specific cancers and chronic diseases that could have resulted from exposure to agents associated with nuclear weapons testing, according to a 2005 report published by the National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council. The law covers exposure to nuclear tests carried out for more than 20 years during and after World War II. According to the report, both on-site participants of above-ground nuclear tests and "downwinders" in areas designated by RECA are eligible for compensation. Areas of Nevada, Utah and Arizona are covered in the law as "Downwind Counties," the report states.

A group of island residents and members of the Pacific Association for Radiation Survivors met yesterday to discuss legislation that proposes to include Guam in the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. Advertisement The federal RECA law, passed in 1990, compensates people who have been diagnosed with specific cancers and chronic diseases that could have resulted from exposure to agents associated with nuclear weapons testing, according to a 2005 report published by the National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council. The law covers exposure to nuclear tests carried out for more than 20 years during and after World War II. According to the report, both on-site participants of above-ground nuclear tests and "downwinders" in areas designated by RECA are eligible for compensation. Areas of Nevada, Utah and Arizona are covered in the law as "Downwind Counties," the report states.

"Nuclear workers honored" (Oct. 31) was a nice article about a celebration of former nuclear plant workers who worked and sacrificed themselves to clean up the nuclear waste sites from the Mallinckrodt chemical plant in the St. Louis area. There are still nuclear waste sites today in St. Louis that are being cleaned up by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The sites are in the downtown St. Louis area, a north St. Louis County site and several St. Louis County sites. There is one nuclear waste landfill site that is not being cleaned up: The West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton. It is in the flood plain of the Missouri River and near the drinking water intake plants for St. Louis north of Interstate 70 and the city of St. Louis.

"Nuclear workers honored" (Oct. 31) was a nice article about a celebration of former nuclear plant workers who worked and sacrificed themselves to clean up the nuclear waste sites from the Mallinckrodt chemical plant in the St. Louis area. There are still nuclear waste sites today in St. Louis that are being cleaned up by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The sites are in the downtown St. Louis area, a north St. Louis County site and several St. Louis County sites. There is one nuclear waste landfill site that is not being cleaned up: The West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton. It is in the flood plain of the Missouri River and near the drinking water intake plants for St. Louis north of Interstate 70 and the city of St. Louis.

Quarrels remain as the Northern California community and the federal government search for an affordable and environmental solution. Reporting from Livermore, Calif. - The Energy Department is spending $328 million to clean up two separate areas of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory -- the agency's largest nuclear-weapons cleanup project in California. The cleanup is relatively minor compared with others in the U.S., but it still has led to conflicts between the local community and the federal government as both search for a solution that is affordable and environmentally acceptable. Livermore is one of two U.S. labs that designed nuclear weapons. It continues to conduct research into plutonium behavior, high-powered lasers, computer-simulated nuclear reactions and other areas.

Quarrels remain as the Northern California community and the federal government search for an affordable and environmental solution. Reporting from Livermore, Calif. - The Energy Department is spending $328 million to clean up two separate areas of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory -- the agency's largest nuclear-weapons cleanup project in California. The cleanup is relatively minor compared with others in the U.S., but it still has led to conflicts between the local community and the federal government as both search for a solution that is affordable and environmentally acceptable. Livermore is one of two U.S. labs that designed nuclear weapons. It continues to conduct research into plutonium behavior, high-powered lasers, computer-simulated nuclear reactions and other areas.

As usual, last week there was an interesting article in the Nuclear Weapons & Materials Monitor. In "Pu Work Curtailed Because Of Fire Sprinkler Issues," the Monitor's Todd Jacobson reported that "Los Alamos National Laboratory [LANL] curtailed programmatic work in the lab's Plutonium Facility, putting the facility in 'standby mode' for a month from early October to Nov. 5 because of concerns about the adequacy of fire sprinkler coverage." On the bright side, the problem that 13 of 100 areas (130 sprinklers) in the facility were not adequately covered by the sprinkler system was discovered before there was a fire in one of those areas. On the not-so-bright side, two weeks ago, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) found that the facility would be vulnerable to a catastrophic fire in the case of a severe earthquake. However, it does not take an earthquake to start a fire in a glove box that could spread.

As usual, last week there was an interesting article in the Nuclear Weapons & Materials Monitor. In "Pu Work Curtailed Because Of Fire Sprinkler Issues," the Monitor's Todd Jacobson reported that "Los Alamos National Laboratory [LANL] curtailed programmatic work in the lab's Plutonium Facility, putting the facility in 'standby mode' for a month from early October to Nov. 5 because of concerns about the adequacy of fire sprinkler coverage." On the bright side, the problem that 13 of 100 areas (130 sprinklers) in the facility were not adequately covered by the sprinkler system was discovered before there was a fire in one of those areas. On the not-so-bright side, two weeks ago, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) found that the facility would be vulnerable to a catastrophic fire in the case of a severe earthquake. However, it does not take an earthquake to start a fire in a glove box that could spread.

MOVES away from using Druridge Bay for a nuclear power station have been welcomed by MP Sir Alan Beith. Campaigners have fought for years to have the area struck off a list of potential sites and last week the Government confirmed it was not being pursued as an option. Sir Alan, who represents the area, said: "Druridge Bay is the wrong site for the wrong energy policy. "I am not in favour of an expansion of nuclear power because we still do not know what to do with the waste it creates, but even if you accept the policy, Druridge Bay is a site of enormous scenic habitat which is too far from the grid transmission lines, as the Government has rightly concluded.

MOVES away from using Druridge Bay for a nuclear power station have been welcomed by MP Sir Alan Beith. Campaigners have fought for years to have the area struck off a list of potential sites and last week the Government confirmed it was not being pursued as an option. Sir Alan, who represents the area, said: "Druridge Bay is the wrong site for the wrong energy policy. "I am not in favour of an expansion of nuclear power because we still do not know what to do with the waste it creates, but even if you accept the policy, Druridge Bay is a site of enormous scenic habitat which is too far from the grid transmission lines, as the Government has rightly concluded.

The Energy Department will tell Congress in the coming weeks it should begin looking for a second permanent site to bury nuclear waste, or approve a large expansion of the proposed waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The Yucca Mountain area of Nevada is the proposed site of the nuclear waste repository for the United States. The Yucca Mountain area of Nevada is the proposed site of the nuclear waste repository for the United States. Edward Sproat, head of the department's civilian nuclear waste program, said Thursday the 77,000-ton limit Congress put on the capacity of the proposed Yucca waste dump will fall far short of what will be needed and has to be expanded, or another dump built elsewhere in the country. The future of the Yucca Mountain project is anything but certain. President-elect Barack Obama has said he doesn't believe the desert site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas is suitable for keeping highly radioactive used reactor fuel up to a million years and believes other options should be explored.

Katherine Peshlakai, Faye Willie and Elsie Tohannie have a lot in common, besides their years.Following the Long Walk in the 1860s and the imprisonment of Navajos at Bosque Redondo, their families settled in an area later known as Wupatki National Monument. Recognition of Navajo occupancy was not included in enabling legislation that created the park, and in the early 1960s, the families were kicked out. Driven from their winter sheep camps at Wupatki and across the Little Colorado River to make way for the national monument near Flagstaff, they settled in Black Falls, an area contaminated in the 1950s by radioactive fallout from above-ground atomic testing at Nevada Test Site.

Federal officials are pursuing the Savannah River Site as the location for two controversial projects that would bring the pits, or cores, of U.S. nuclear warheads -- and several tons of plutonium -- to the Augusta area. The decision means the federal government is moving closer to transporting the plutonium from Texas to SRS -- possibly through Georgia -- and then storing it there until it can be converted into nuclear fuel for commercial power plants. The U.S. Department of Energy has for years been considering SRS, a massive federal entity near Augusta that processes nuclear materials, as the location for the projects.

Federal officials are pursuing the Savannah River Site as the location for two controversial projects that would bring the pits, or cores, of U.S. nuclear warheads -- and several tons of plutonium -- to the Augusta area. The decision means the federal government is moving closer to transporting the plutonium from Texas to SRS -- possibly through Georgia -- and then storing it there until it can be converted into nuclear fuel for commercial power plants. The U.S. Department of Energy has for years been considering SRS, a massive federal entity near Augusta that processes nuclear materials, as the location for the projects.

The first comprehensive survey of soil contamination from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant showed that 33 locations spread over a wide area have been contaminated with long-lasting radioactive cesium, complicating Japan's effort to clean up the disaster-hit region, the government said Tuesday. The survey of 2,200 locations within a 100-km radius of the crippled plant found that those 33 locations had cesium-137 in excess of 1.48 million becquerels per square meter, the level set by the Soviet Union for forced resettlement after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Another 132 locations had combined amount of cesium 137/134 over 555,000 becquerels per square meter, the level at which the Soviet authorities called for voluntary evacuation and imposed a ban on farming.

he government on Monday expanded evacuation areas around the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant beyond a 20-kilometer radius from the plant, as cumulative radiation levels have become high in wider areas. People living in the newly designated municipalities -- Katsurao, Namie, Iitate, part of Kawamata and part of Minamisoma -- will be asked to evacuate within one month, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a news conference. At present, those who live in the 20-km range must evacuate while those in the 20-30 km radius are asked to stay indoors.

"After reports from a German lab highlighted the threat of high uranium content in water, linking it with high incidence of abnormalities among residents of the Southern-West Malwa region of Punjab, another preliminary report by Baba Atomic Research Center (BARC), Mumbai, and researchers at Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Amritsar, has found unsafe concentrations of uranium and heavy metals in water samples collected from Bathinda, Faridkot, Muktsar and adjoining areas. This comes at a time when the state health department is facing flak for its alleged attempts to play down this serious threat to people's health. Dr HS Kushwaha, director health, safety and environment group of BARC, said, "235 water samples were collected from the region about a year back, and many of these were found to have high uranium content. So, we assigned the task of exploring the possibility of uranium prospect and health risk assessments in area to physics department of GNDU, about six months back." "

"The Department of Energy is proposing extending a chemical barrier along the Columbia River at Hanford after a pilot project successfully trapped radioactive strontium before it entered the river. At the same time, a system to pump contaminated water out of the ground and treat it, which had disappointing results, would be torn out. DOE has been testing the chemical barrier technology since 2005, with the most recent results showing a 90 percent reduction in strontium contamination in ground water, according to DOE. The test area extends 300 feet along the Columbia near Hanford's N Reactor, but DOE is proposing extending the chemical barrier to 2,500 feet to span the width of the area where strontium exceeds drinking water standards in ground water near the river."

"Port Penn resident Julie L. Harrington is surrounded by nuclear reactors. So is Dae Y. Kwak in Hockessin and Carl Cook in Middletown. In fact, no region in America has so many people living within the overlapping, 50-mile planning areas of so many nuclear power reactors as northern Delaware and nearby areas in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland, according to a review of nuclear sites and Census Bureau statistics by The News Journal."

"Powertech USA Inc. is embarking on a path of destruction from which there is no return. The company plans to start in situ leach mining in South Dakota's Custer and Fall River counties that will puncture through four aquifers on the Great Plains and endanger a fragile geologic system. As a result of ISL mining planned at the Dewey-Burdock site - 12 miles northwest of Edgemont - we on the Plains must face the threat of groundwater contamination for generations, while the corporate leaders reside far away in their homelands of Canada and France. This new corporation has no history of accountability in adhering to environmental laws or in the clean-up of a mined-out area. There are thousands of reports by mining corporations that document problems trying to contain uranium-laden water at mine sites, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Web site."

"A new nuclear energy power station must not be built in the Pyhäjoki region in Finland's northern Ostrobothnia because of the rich bird population in the area, according a statement by BirdLife Finland on Friday. According to BirdLife, the area has a diverse population of birds and is part of an important migratory path for large birds, which would suffer from the construction of a nuclear power plant. BirdLife is also concerned about the local nature and feels that plans to build the new power station neglect the importance of wildlife. The government has presented a new nuclear power station construction permit to Finnish utility Fennovoima, but the company has yet to decide whether to build the station in Pyhäjoki or Simo, in northern Finland."

"What usually comes to mind when one hears about radiation is nuclear energy or anything that is radioactive. But few realize that radiation has numerous benefits, and agriculture is one of the areas that largely gain from it. The Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI) of the Department of Science and Technology which is the sole agency of the government that advances and regulates the safe and peaceful applications of nuclear science and technology in the country, identifies agriculture and natural resources as among its priority areas. Researchers from PNRI have been developing improved crop varieties through mutation, a non-conventional method of plant breeding which uses mutational agents (mutagens) such as radiation or chemicals e.g. ethyl methyl sulfonate (EMS)"

The 1000 Islands could be at risk when radioactive nuclear waste is shipped through the region in September, says Senator Bob Runciman. In an interview Friday, Runciman said radioactive metal from the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station will be transported on aging ships on a river that this year has very low water levels. The shipment could be especially dangerous in the narrow passages of the 1000 Islands region west of Brockville, he added. "My main concern is essentially that we have had two groundings (of ships) in the past two weeks, one in our area and one in the Quebec area, and the lake fleet is an aging fleet, with an average age of 40," the senator explained. "Both of the breakdowns in the last couple of weeks have been attributed to mechanical failure." He also said St. Lawrence River water levels remain low, which creates a greater danger when the 1,800 tonnes of nuclear material from radioactive steam generators is transported through the "