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"Deeper and more advanced resources might be available today for a study on nuclear neighborhood risk. Members of the atomic energy industry and nuclear watchdogs alike welcomed a new study of cancer risks around nuclear facilities requested by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week. Unlike a previous similar study, this one will look at cancer incidents instead of just cancer-related deaths. Its official scope -- how it would be performed -- has yet to be determined, a representative for the National Academy of Sciences, which is overseeing the study, said Wednesday. Still, reasons the NRC has given for requesting the study, including advances in information technology since the previous study about 20 years ago, might point to resources that researchers could lean on."

"The prostate cancer program at the Veterans Affairs Department's medical center in Philadelphia, where 97 patients were given an incorrect radiation dose, went four years without a peer review or quality assessment, the agency's internal watchdog said Monday. The inspector general for the Veterans Affairs Department also found that computer problems kept several patients under treatment for cancer from receiving a check to make sure they received the correct dose. The inspector general recommended that standardized procedures be implemented throughout the VA. It also said the agency should follow-up to ensure patients who received too low of a dose receive appropriate care."

"This is in reply to the article "Power walk in Limerick." It's time for a reality check on nuclear power and green energy. The quick definition of green energy is that it leaves a small if no impact on the environment. 1. Some of the byproducts of a nuclear power plant are hazardous for 250,000 years. True it doesn't have smoke stacks spewing CO2 into the atmosphere but it spews invisible radiation. If you took a plane ride from Los Angeles to New York City, you would receive as much radiation as if you were getting a chest X-ray. This is from the "allowable" amount the plants can emit which is raising the background levels of radiation in this country."

"York County residents aren't sure local nuclear facilities can be linked to cancer. When Teri Barnes, 39, moved to Goldsboro six years ago, she didn't give much thought to the large nuclear power plant just across the river. Three Mile Island is just something that's there, she said, like the tree in the front yard. But a new study requested by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to analyze data about cancer rates of residents around nuclear facilities could cause some residents of Goldsboro and communities around the country to think twice about their neighborhoods. Barnes said it would be hard to say for sure that the two were related. "Smoke causes cancer. Second-hand smoke causes cancer. Eating this causes cancer," Barnes said, gesturing toward the large deep fryer she was cleaning. "And if they do have cancer and they're dying, how can you make that up to them?" The study will look at both TMI and Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station. Although it won't deal with the partial meltdown at TMI in March of 1979, the issue brings back unpleasant memories for some residents. Following the accident, several studies were performed on cancer rates in the area with conflicting results."

"ACE believes taxpayer funding should go to residents and small businesses for solar and wind energy installations, instead of the wealthy nuclear industry. With solar and wind there's no perpetual astronomical waste costs, no security force, no government subsidized catastrophic insurance and no need for evacuation plans. In his April 30 letter, Ross Brady used meaningless calculations to support giving our tax dollars to the wealthy nuclear industry. Brady can defend dangerous, polluting, and costly nuclear power and attack ACE, but he can't silence ACE or make us move. I lived here over 40 years before Limerick Nuclear Plant started operating. I won't stop trying to prevent harm to our community's children and their children from Limerick's operations. ACE members care deeply about others. We don't believe anyone should have to leave their community for a safer life."

"Documents reveal how then-defence minister Shimon Perez tried to sell South Africa's apartheid government the bomb Israel documents: Cover page of memo revealing secret nuclear agreement with South Africa This cover page of an ISSA (ISrael-South Africa agreement) meeting in Pretoria between Israeli and South African officials on 30 June 1975 establishes the presence of General RF Armstrong, who wrote the nuclear memo. * Minutes of third ISSA meeting, 30/6/1975 Israel documents: Memo showing secret nuclear agreement with South Africa This document details the another ISSA meeting during which Botha says he needs the 'right payload' and Peres offers it in 'three sizes' (paragraph 10). "

"U. S. panel advises $150,000 payments Former Bethlehem Steel workers and their families got the good news Thursday for which they had been waiting for years. A federal advisory panel recommended that former Bethlehem workers-or their surviving family members - be compensated for diseases that might have resulted from their work on the company's Cold War-era nuclear programs. The recommendation by the 16- member Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health places the Bethlehem workers in a "special exposure cohort" that makes them eligible for federal payments of $150,000. "

"Fifteen area residents filed federal lawsuits on Friday on their behalf or an estate, claiming that the operations of two former nuclear fuel plants in the Parks Township-Apollo area caused illness and death. The defendants, Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group and Atlantic Richfield, operated a uranium fuel-processing plant in Apollo and a plutonium plant in Parks from 1957-86. The lawsuits add to similar suits first filed Jan. 26 in the same federal court. They were filed by the same attorneys from the Providence, R.I., law firm Motley Rice, specialists in environmental law cases, and a Pittsburgh law firm, Goldberg, Persky and White. "

A Pittsburgh-based energy advocacy group wants the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to delay a final decision on the licensing renewal process for Beaver Valley nuclear reactor Units 1 and 2, concerned about corrosion in a reactor containment liner. "We're not optimistic, frankly," David Hughes, executive director of Citizen Power, said Thursday. "Not because we don't believe our concerns don't have merit, but we're not confident with the NRC." A final decision had been expected Monday. But Neil Sheehan, an NRC spokesman, said Friday that timetable has been pushed back, as the NRC plans to release another report on the liner issue. A final decision could now come in early November, Sheehan said. History is on the side of Akron-based FirstEnergy, owner of the reactors, and against Citizen Power. According to NRC records, a license renewal request has never been refused, with more than half of the 104 reactors across the country seeking license renewals in the last decade. And the process cleared a big hurdle last week, with the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards recommending the license renewal. Licensing renewal

A Pittsburgh-based energy advocacy group wants the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to delay a final decision on the licensing renewal process for Beaver Valley nuclear reactor Units 1 and 2, concerned about corrosion in a reactor containment liner. "We're not optimistic, frankly," David Hughes, executive director of Citizen Power, said Thursday. "Not because we don't believe our concerns don't have merit, but we're not confident with the NRC." A final decision had been expected Monday. But Neil Sheehan, an NRC spokesman, said Friday that timetable has been pushed back, as the NRC plans to release another report on the liner issue. A final decision could now come in early November, Sheehan said. History is on the side of Akron-based FirstEnergy, owner of the reactors, and against Citizen Power. According to NRC records, a license renewal request has never been refused, with more than half of the 104 reactors across the country seeking license renewals in the last decade. And the process cleared a big hurdle last week, with the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards recommending the license renewal. Licensing renewal

Read the release that details how TMI will operate for an additional 20 years * Record Tracker blog: More on TMI's renewal, including links to documents. * York Town Square blog: Three Mile Island emergency indelibly written into memories. Thirty years after Three Mile Island Unit 2 suffered a partial meltdown, a federal agency has approved its sister reactor to operate for an additional 20 years. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission renewed the operating license Thursday for TMI Unit 1 in Dauphin County. The new license will expire April 19, 2034. The reactor's original 40-year license was Read TMI's response to landing license renewal. set to run out April 19, 2014.

Read the release that details how TMI will operate for an additional 20 years * Record Tracker blog: More on TMI's renewal, including links to documents. * York Town Square blog: Three Mile Island emergency indelibly written into memories. Thirty years after Three Mile Island Unit 2 suffered a partial meltdown, a federal agency has approved its sister reactor to operate for an additional 20 years. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission renewed the operating license Thursday for TMI Unit 1 in Dauphin County. The new license will expire April 19, 2034. The reactor's original 40-year license was Read TMI's response to landing license renewal. set to run out April 19, 2014.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has extended the operating license for two nuclear reactors in western Pennsylvania by 20 years each. The NRC extended the licenses Thursday after a series of reviews an inspections at FirstEnergy Corp.'s Beaver Valley Unit 1 and Unit 2 reactors in Shippingport, about 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. The original 40-year operating license for Unit 1 expires in January 2016 while Unit 2's license runs until May 2027. Those licenses now run until 2036 and 2047, respectively. The Unit 1 reactor went online in 1976 and Unit 2 in 1987.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has extended the operating license for two nuclear reactors in western Pennsylvania by 20 years each. The NRC extended the licenses Thursday after a series of reviews an inspections at FirstEnergy Corp.'s Beaver Valley Unit 1 and Unit 2 reactors in Shippingport, about 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. The original 40-year operating license for Unit 1 expires in January 2016 while Unit 2's license runs until May 2027. Those licenses now run until 2036 and 2047, respectively. The Unit 1 reactor went online in 1976 and Unit 2 in 1987.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is sending investigators to the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant after a small amount of radiation was detected there. About 150 employees were sent home Saturday afternoon after the radiation was detected at the central Pennsylvania plant. Officials say there is no public health risk. Exelon Nuclear spokeswoman Beth Archer says investigators are searching for a cause of the release. She says the radiation was quickly contained. Tests showed the contamination was confined to surfaces inside the building.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is sending investigators to the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant after a small amount of radiation was detected there. About 150 employees were sent home Saturday afternoon after the radiation was detected at the central Pennsylvania plant. Officials say there is no public health risk. Exelon Nuclear spokeswoman Beth Archer says investigators are searching for a cause of the release. She says the radiation was quickly contained. Tests showed the contamination was confined to surfaces inside the building.

It was just more than 30 years ago when no one noticed that a valve had opened in Three Mile Island's Unit 2 reactor allowing reactor coolant to escape. That mechanical failure was followed by a series of bad decisions that led not only to the fuel core starting to melt but also to detectable radiation being released into the air and water. It was the worst nuclear power plant accident in the United States. There were many issues and lessons learned. We thought one of them was the need for honesty and transparency from the owners of the nuclear facility. Former Gov. Dick Thornburgh was in office for just 72 days when the call came about the accident. In 1999, he offered reflections on what happened as events unfolded. One of the things he said was: "The credibility of the utility, in particular, did not fare well. It first seemed to speak with many voices, and then with none at all. On the first day, it made its debut by seeking to minimize the incident - assuring us that 'everything is under control' when we later learned it wasn't, and that 'all safety equipment functioned properly' when we later learned it didn't." And even when company technicians found that radiation levels in the area surrounding the island had climbed above normal, the company neglected to include that information in its statement to the public.

It was just more than 30 years ago when no one noticed that a valve had opened in Three Mile Island's Unit 2 reactor allowing reactor coolant to escape. That mechanical failure was followed by a series of bad decisions that led not only to the fuel core starting to melt but also to detectable radiation being released into the air and water. It was the worst nuclear power plant accident in the United States. There were many issues and lessons learned. We thought one of them was the need for honesty and transparency from the owners of the nuclear facility. Former Gov. Dick Thornburgh was in office for just 72 days when the call came about the accident. In 1999, he offered reflections on what happened as events unfolded. One of the things he said was: "The credibility of the utility, in particular, did not fare well. It first seemed to speak with many voices, and then with none at all. On the first day, it made its debut by seeking to minimize the incident - assuring us that 'everything is under control' when we later learned it wasn't, and that 'all safety equipment functioned properly' when we later learned it didn't." And even when company technicians found that radiation levels in the area surrounding the island had climbed above normal, the company neglected to include that information in its statement to the public.

Gov. Ed Rendell is steamed over a five-hour wait before officials at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant told state officials about a radiation leak. Rendell's letter sent to top Exelon Corp. executives said it is "totally unacceptable" that plant officials waited so long to report Saturday's accident. The accident at the central Pennsylvania plant exposed employees to small amounts of radiation.

Gov. Ed Rendell is steamed over a five-hour wait before officials at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant told state officials about a radiation leak. Rendell's letter sent to top Exelon Corp. executives said it is "totally unacceptable" that plant officials waited so long to report Saturday's accident. The accident at the central Pennsylvania plant exposed employees to small amounts of radiation.