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"Some residents of the Apollo area say in a new lawsuit that they developed cancer from exposure to radiation and toxic chemicals at the former Babcock & Wilcox plant, Team 4's Paul Van Osdol reported Wednesday. It's closed now, but the property in Parks Township, Armstrong County, was once the site of the largest private nuclear processing facility in the country. Neighbors and former workers there say all the radiation left them poisoned. A new lawsuit says that "repeated releases of hazardous and radioactive substances into the area" around the plant caused three area residents to develop cancer. One of those people -- Eva Myers -- lived 400 feet from the plant. She died of lung cancer two years ago."

"Up to 217 workers may have been exposed to nuclear radiation at a Bruce nuclear power plant near Owen Sound, Ont., says the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission in a document released Tuesday. The nuclear safety watchdog first confirmed last month that workers who were upgrading the Bruce A Unit 1 reactor may have been exposed to radiation. A routine airborne sample taken on the morning of Nov. 26 at the plant threw up some red flags, according to a preliminary report by Bruce Power. Further testing of samples uncovered the presence of alpha particles, which can damage human tissue and cause cancer. The number of workers who may have been affected by the incident was unknown until Tuesday, when the CNSC, the safety commission, filed a report with new details on the November incident. The report later appeared on Scribd.com, an online site for publishing and sharing documents. "

"The Hanford Advisory Board is questioning whether the Department of Energy is doing enough to protect Hanford workers from an incurable lung disease caused by exposure to beryllium. DOE officials in Washington, D.C., are about to launch a review of the Hanford beryllium protection program because of the concerns of some workers. But by the time that review is finished, three more cases of chronic beryllium disease could be diagnosed if current trends continue, said board member Mike Korenko at a meeting Thursday of the advisory board in Kennewick. "How can you not look at that data and have adrenaline flowing?" he asked Doug Shoop, deputy manager of the DOE Hanford Richland Operations Office. Ten months have passed since the advisory board last recommended that DOE improve its beryllium protection program, and since then three more Hanford cases of chronic beryllium disease have been verified. That brings the total with the disease to 32 and the number of workers determined to be sensitized to beryllium to 95, up from 88."

The Legacy of Nuclear Energy, Nuclear and Chemical Weapons Upon US Indigenous & Communities of Color We are communities that, in partnership with the Peace Development Fund, form the Building Action for Sustainable Environments Initiative (BASE). We are citizens who represent some of the communities in the US who bear the legacy of 50 years of nuclear energy and weapons production. We are indigenous nations, we are Latino citizens and farm-workers, and we are African American communities living near nuclear power and weapon production sites. Reducing and eliminating the wasteful and dangerous means of producing nuclear energy and bringing renewable green energy production and jobs to our communities are the goals in which our communities have a major stake. Our communities suffer from diseases and illnesses that we contend are related to our exposure to the highly toxic processes of mining and milling uranium, the unsafe storage of radioactive materials and the lack of clean-up of sites and facilities, the transportation of highly radioactive waste through our communities, and the lack of safe disposal methods for highly deadly nuclear waste. Cancer, neurological damage, genetic damage, lung disease, respiratory disorders, lupus, and heart problems are among some of the illnesses that affect our communities.

The Legacy of Nuclear Energy, Nuclear and Chemical Weapons Upon US Indigenous & Communities of Color We are communities that, in partnership with the Peace Development Fund, form the Building Action for Sustainable Environments Initiative (BASE). We are citizens who represent some of the communities in the US who bear the legacy of 50 years of nuclear energy and weapons production. We are indigenous nations, we are Latino citizens and farm-workers, and we are African American communities living near nuclear power and weapon production sites. Reducing and eliminating the wasteful and dangerous means of producing nuclear energy and bringing renewable green energy production and jobs to our communities are the goals in which our communities have a major stake. Our communities suffer from diseases and illnesses that we contend are related to our exposure to the highly toxic processes of mining and milling uranium, the unsafe storage of radioactive materials and the lack of clean-up of sites and facilities, the transportation of highly radioactive waste through our communities, and the lack of safe disposal methods for highly deadly nuclear waste. Cancer, neurological damage, genetic damage, lung disease, respiratory disorders, lupus, and heart problems are among some of the illnesses that affect our communities.

Because New York State is a leader in monitoring radiotherapy and collecting data about errors, The Times decided to examine patterns of accidents there and spent months obtaining and analyzing records. Even though many accident details are confidential under state law, the records described 621 mistakes from 2001 to 2008. While most were minor, causing no immediate injury, they nonetheless illuminate underlying problems. Following are 18 accidents representing a variety of medical mistakes."

"To date, the U. S. government has paid out $61,650,000 on some 1,213 claims prepared right here in Globe under the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. The majority of these claims are called "downwinders," filed on behalf of persons who became ill with one of the certain type of cancers on a government approved list while living here in Gila County between Jan. 21, 1951 and October 1958, for a total period of 24 months, or for the period of June 1962 through July 3l, 1962. However, one needs to examine the U.S. Justice Department's list of approved cancer diseases, because not all cancers are eligible for compensation for "downwinders." In addition, the compensable disease list differs for other types of claims available under this federal act, if they are used. "

"War » But sickened warriors searching for help will have to wait for science and government bureaucracy to link their conditions to their service. Emily Rainwater, a Defense Contract Management Agency employee, served two tours of duty in Iraq.... * « * 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * » Related * Sickened by Service * Jan 15: * Officials just now recognizing Agent Orange exposures * Government waits for proof - sometimes for decades - before caring for sick veterans * Vets say toxic tests sickened them; government says prove it Editor's note: Second in a three-part series Combat had changed him. Yet Andrew Rounds was still the adoring son his mother had sent off to war. He was still the hard worker who had helped her deliver newspapers after school. He was still the amiable soul who knew the names of everyone in the tiny village of Waterloo, Ore., from the mayor to the man who lived under the narrow bridge that crosses the river on the east side of town. "

"Glenn Alcalay, a former Peace Corps volunteer on Utrik in the Marshall Islands, now an adjunct professor of anthropology at Montclair State University in New Jersey, has studied the impact of U.S. Cold War nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands. In the following article, he relates the story of the BRAVO H-bomb test and its aftermath: John Anjain, then-mayor of Rongelap Atoll in the Marshall Islands, told me in 1981 how a man working with the Atomic Energy Commission in February 1954 stuck out the tip of his index finger - about a half-inch - and said, "John, your life is about that long." When asked what he meant, the AEC man explained that they were about to explode a big bomb at Bikini. John inquired why they were not evacuating the people of Rongelap [130 miles away] beforehand as they had done for a series of A-bomb tests at Bikini in 1946, and was told that "they had not gotten word from Washington to evacuate the people." "

"As if destroying a country and its culture ain't bad enough, how about destroying its future, its children? I want to scream it from the rooftops! We are complicit in crimes of such enormity that I find it difficult to find the words to describe how I feel about this crime committed in my name! In the name of the 'civilized' world? "Forget about oil, occupation, terrorism or even Al-Qaeda. The real hazard for Iraqis these days is cancer. Cancer is spreading like wildfire in Iraq. Thousands of infants are being born with deformities. Doctors say they are struggling to cope with the rise of cancer and birth defects, especially in cities subjected to heavy American and British bombardment." - Jalal Ghazi, for New America Media "

"Some toiled in uranium mines, transported the extracted ore and carried it home on their clothes. Others participated in nuclear weapons testing or lived downwind from test sites. Not all have been compensated, let alone know about a federal program that does so. Larry Martinez knows of thousands of them who live on the Navajo Nation, and this summer he hopes to get some help finding more in the towns that dot the 27,000-square-mile reservation. A new U.S. Department of Justice program will select 30 students to travel the vast reservation and other communities in the Four Corners region to identify potential participants in the federal compensation program."

"The Supreme Court won't hear an appeal from the indigious people of the Marshall Islands over whether they can sue the federal government again for blowing up and irradiating the land during nuclear tests in the 1940s and 1950s. The high court on Monday turned away the appeal from the people of Bikini Atoll and Enewetak Atoll, both part of the Marshall Islands. The United States detonated 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands, then a U.S. protectorate under the United Nations. The blasts were equal to exploding 1.6 Hiroshima atomic bombs a day for 12 years. The federal government agreed to pay the people of Enewetak $385 million and the people of Bikini $563 million for the loss of their land. But only a token amount has been paid so far."

Chalk River supply headed back to U.S. By Sheldon Alberts, Canwest News ServiceApril 13, 2010 Canada has agreed to ship an 11-year stockpile of highly enriched uranium back to the United States out of concern the spent fuel could fall into the hands of terrorists and be used to produce a nuclear weapon, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Monday. Seeking to burnish Canada's reputation with President Barack Obama on the opening day of a global summit on arms control, Harper said the world faced an "immediate threat" from nuclear terrorism unless nations moved to secure supplies of bomb-grade uranium. The deal will result in supplies of spent inventories of uranium at the Chalk River Laboratories being shipped to the U.S. over an eight-year period, starting this year."

"In two previous posts, I wrote about the path I had gotten on, back in 1995, to shut down a research reactor at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island. The reactor, called a High Flux Beam Reactor, or HFBR, had its operations suspended and was eventually shut down, in 1999, after an investigation established that tritium had leaked from spent fuel pools and had contaminated ground water within and beyond the Brookhaven Lab site. I met many people while working on the BNL issue, as well as other battles involving nuclear power. One of them was Randy Snell, a Long Island resident who raised his family near Brookhaven. Snell's daughter developed a rare form of cancer, rhabdomyosarcoma, which was found in several other children living near BNL. The total number of cases was fifteen times the national average. Snell, and others who were struggling with "rhabdo" (and other soft tissue cancers) near reactors or enrichment facilities, told me that exposure to low-level radiation is a factor in the disease."

"U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch is asking a national panel to take a fresh look at the science behind the government's program for compensating people who were injured by exposure to atomic-testing fallout and the uranium industry. Sponsor of the original Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), Hatch put the request in a letter Monday to the Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board of the National Academy of Sciences. His letter comes two weeks after the Utah Republican panned bipartisan legislation in Congress to expand RECA as overbroad and too expensive. "When I worked to enact the original RECA law to help Utahns exposed to radiation, the policy was based on scientific evidence -- an absolute must when you're talking about Hatch RECA letter (pdf) these types of programs," he said Tuesday. "The goal of the letter to the National Academy of Sciences [NAS] is to see whether or not new scientific data exists to justify expanding the RECA program; in the past it did not," he added. "I want NAS to examine the data and talk with Utah radiation victims to see if that is justified before anyone puts more taxpayer dollars on the line." Companion bills in the House and the Senate would expand RECA eligibility to those who suffered from exposure in seven states: New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Nevada. Only those in certain counties in three states are now eligible to apply for payments from the fund of $50,000, $100,000 or $150,000, depending Advertisement on whether they were exposed as millers, miners, ore transporters, atomic program employees or downwinders. The Utah counties now covered include: Beaver, Garfield, Iron, Kane, Millard, Piute, San Juan, Sevier, Washington and Wayne. The federal government's current program has paid nearly $1.5 billion to more than 22,000 people. Some 4,776 of them are Utahns who have received nearly $275 million from the federal program. "

"On March 31, retired Sgt. Hermogenes Marrero was told during a visit to the Veterans Affairs (VA) outpatient clinic in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, that he didn't have cancer - or at least, his official VA computer file no longer showed any record of cancer. But Marrero was not relieved. He had been diagnosed twice before with colon cancer and suffers today from a dozen other illnesses, including Lou Gehrig's disease, failing vision, a lung condition that keeps him on oxygen around the clock, not to mention tumors throughout his body. The terminally ill and wheelchair-bound, 57-year-old veteran immediately suspected that the U.S. government had manipulated his medical record."

Army to be sued for war crimes over its role in Fallujah attacks Parents of children with birth defects say Britain knew of US chemical weapons use Allegations that Britain was complicit in the use of chemical weapons linked to an upsurge in child deformity cases in Iraq, are being investigated by the Ministry of Defence. The case raises serious questions about the UK's role in the American-led offensive against the city of Fallujah in the autumn of 2004 where hundreds of Iraqis died. After the battle, in which it is alleged that a range of illegal weaponry was used, evidence has emerged of large numbers of children being born with severe birth defects. Iraqi families who believe their children's deformities are caused by the deployment of the weapons have now begun legal proceedings against the UK Government. They accuse the UK Government of breaching international law, war crimes and failing to intervene to prevent a war crime. "

"A dire government report on cancer risks from chemicals and other hazards in the environment has drawn criticism from the American Cancer Society, which says government experts are overstating their case. The government's 240-page report, published online Thursday by the President's Cancer Panel, says the proportion of cancer cases caused by environmental exposures has been "grossly underestimated." It warns of "grievous harm" from chemicals and other hazards, and cites "a growing body of evidence linking environmental exposures to cancer." "

"Young men from the foothills were exposed to radiation in 1957, not knowing it would make them sick and impact the rest of their lives. Soldiers walk toward a mushroom cloud at a nuclear test site in Nevada in 1957. The 2007 film "Time Bombs" tells the story of 40 Canadian soldiers exposed to radiation during the nuclear testing in the United States. Fifty years later filmmakers in Quebec learned of the soldiers' struggles to find out why the Canadian military subjected them to nuclear testing and to gain financial compensation for their years of illness. The resulting film, called "Time Bombs" was released in 2007 and it will be shown for free at the Legion in Turner Valley on Monday."

"Orrin Hatch wants federal experts to take another look at the scientific information linking radioactive fallout from nuclear test explosions to illnesses suffered by downwinders. The goal is to establish whether additional Americans should be eligible for federal compensation. Sen. Hatch is right that additional study is warranted, especially now that some members of Congress from Western states are sponsoring legislation that would greatly expand eligibility under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. Sen. Hatch sponsored the original version of that law in 1990 and its expansion in 2000. He reacted with skepticism to the latest proposal to enlarge the geographical area in which Americans would be eligible, saying that it was not justified by the science and would be too expensive. He is correct that any expansion should be made in light of the latest scientific information."

"Nuclear facilities and power plants are contaminating local Canadian food and water with radioactive waste that increases risks of cancer and birth defects, says a new report to be released on Friday. The report, Tritium on Tap, produced by the Sierra Club of Canada, warned that radioactive emissions from various nuclear plants across the country have more than doubled over the past decade. The figures were based on statistics compiled by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission which measured pollution coming from the plants."