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The 2009 federal budget was late in arriving, but the Omnibus bill brought some good news to Oak Ridge National Laboratory. I had a chance to talk with ORNL Director Thom Mason Thursday, and he was pretty upbeat -- especially about the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. The U.S. involvement in ITER got a lift after a huge disappointment at the start of this fiscal year. U.S. ITER, which is headquartered in Oak Ridge, got $124 million in funding for the rest of the year, Mason said, and that's a really big deal for the ITER folks.

"The European Union is heading for a clash with other major economies over the timetable for building an experimental fusion reactor. European governments want to slow down construction of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) because they are paying for the bulk of the construction costs and are concerned that the budget is spiralling out of control. Other countries involved in the ITER project are, however, strongly opposed to any kind of delay. The countries participating in the ITER project will hold a special high-level meeting on 23-24 February to try to resolve the dispute. "

"AREVA Federal Services LLC, out of Charlotte, N.C., has been awarded a basic ordering agreement for design and fabrication of the Tokamak Cooling Water System for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. The cooling system is one of the major U.S. contributions to the international fusion project, and AREVA will oversee and integrate industry work on components via task orders and subcontracts, according to Ned Sauthoff, the project chief for U.S. ITER."

"The U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has repeatedly affirmed that any exposure to radioactivity, no matter how small, carries a health risk. In its 2006 BEIR VII report ("Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation," 7th iteration), NAS even reported mounting evidence that low dose radiation carries a supra-linear health hazard. That is, low doses are disproportionately more harmful, per unit dose, than high dose radiation. The bottom line is, exposure to low dose radiation, such as intentional "routine" discharges or "accidental" leaks of tritium into the Connecticut River and downstream drinking water supplies and food chains, risks human and wildlife health impacts. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 20,000 picocuries per liter limit on tritium in drinking water is not a conservative health standard. The state of California has a goal to limit tritium in drinking water to 400 picocuries per liter, a fifty-fold strengthening. The state of Colorado's goal is 500 picocuries per liter, a forty-fold strengthening. EPA's and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) radiological health standards are inappropriately based on "Reference Man" faulty assumptions, which leaves more vulnerable women, children and fetuses at increased risk."