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"Are highly radioactive materials from western EU countries going to be deposited in Poland? asks POLSKA THE TIMES. Nuclear power plants from EU countries want to dump their radioactive waste in Centeral East European countries, including Poland. A project of such an initiative is underway at the European Repository Development Organization and is reportedly supported by the European Commission. Negotiation as to the exact dumping place are to begin in May and should take an estimated 2 years. Reportedly, building one dumping site for nuclear materials is economical. A community which accepts nuclear waste on their territory can count on subsidies from the European Union, not to mention the work places that will be created in the area, claim enthusiasts of the project in the newspaper. We already have silver, now it's time for gold! This headline is from RZECZPOSPOLITA which praises Polish cross country ski champion Justyna Kowalczyk for the second place she took in the Individual Sprint Classics at the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Kowalczyk lost only to Marit Bjoergen from Norway. "

"Nuclear energy is crucial for a quickly developing Poland to meet its growing needs, but obstacles remain to government plans to build the country's first power plant by 2020, experts say. After years of hesitancy after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, nuclear energy is now "unavoidable" if Poland wants to meet its growing energy demand, said former deputy economy Minister Jerzy Markowski, speaking at the Silesia International Economic Forum in Opole last week. A resolution on nuclear energy was adopted by Poland's government last year, with plans to build two nuclear-powered electric generating plants. That resolution calls for opening of the first such plant by 2020. The average energy needs of the Polish citizen is almost half the European Union, but consumption is forecast to grow by 90 per cent by 2025, according to the World Nuclear Association. With that growing demand, the country faces an "energy crisis" and possible blackouts if it does not move to nuclear power. Increasingly strict environmental regulations will make it impossible for Poland to continue to rely on coal-powered plants for electricity. "

Over 47% of Poles in a survey by the portal Money.pl opposed plans to build a nuclear power plant in Poland. According to latest government reports a nuclear plant will not be built in Poland before 2020. 42% were in favour of a nuclear plant, the remainder could not say, Money.pl wrote. 72% of the plant supporters had nothing against its siting within 100 kilometres of their place of residence, 18 % did not want a nuclear plant in their vicinity. According to experts the main argument for a nuclear plant in Poland is low-cost energy. A 2003 report by Finnish scientists quoted by Money.pl states that uranium, which is most frequently used in nuclear reactors, constitutes only 13% of nuclear energy costs (respectively 40% and 75% in coal- and gas-fuelled plants.

"Poland and the United States on Saturday signed a deal on a future US anti-missile shield in Europe which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said would help ward off threats from Iran. "This is the first agreement that implements the US European-based Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA) for ballistic missile defense and enables the stationing of a US land-based SM-3 missile defense interceptor system in the Republic of Poland," said a joint statement issued by Clinton and Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski. "This agreement marks an important step in our countries? efforts to protect our NATO allies from the threat posed by the proliferation of ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction," it added."

"Backed by the U.S. and France, Poland is set to tread the nuclear path and hopes to start generating atomic power by 2021. Presently, coal accounts for over 93 percent of the eastern European country's electricity, demand for which is expected to double by 2025. A four-stage plan announced by Hanna Trojanowska, the government's Plenipotentiary for Nuclear Energy, envisages appropriate legislation by the end of 2010; site, technology and construction arrangements between 2011 and 2013; technical plans and site works in 2014 and 2015; and construction from 2016 to 2020. An important step along the roadmap was taken on July 14, when the U.S. signed a joint declaration with the U.S. for cooperation in the field of nuclear energy. The signing of the agreement between Trojanowska and U.S. under secretary of commerce and international trade Francisco Sanchez followed a U.S. nuclear trade mission to Warsaw."

Missile defense advocates are scrambling to shield a system proposed for Eastern Europe from budget cuts or delays in the Obama administration. During the Bush administration, the plan to place missile interceptors in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic to protect Europe against possible missile attacks from Iran has enjoyed the Pentagon's full support. But the road hasn't been smooth. Russia has been outraged by missile defense plans, and it has and pledged to move missiles closer to Poland if the United States proceeds.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has made "no commitment" to plans for a missile defense program in eastern Europe, despite a report on the Polish president's Web site, an Obama adviser said Saturday. An adviser to Barack Obama disputed claims made on the Polish president's Web site. Obama spoke to President Lech Kaczynski over the phone about continuing military and political cooperation between the two countries and possibly meeting in person soon, both sides said. Obama "had a good conversation with the Polish president and the Polish prime minister about the important U.S.-Poland alliance," said Denis McDonough, Obama's senior foreign policy adviser.

The new U.S. missile shield plans present no risks for Russia, and favorable conditions are now emerging for bilateral dialogue, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday. U.S. President Barack Obama in September scrapped plans to deploy a radar in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland, due to a re-assessment of the threat from Iran. Moscow fiercely opposed the plans as a national security threat. "The new plan put forward by the Obama administration to replace the project to deploy the Third Missile Defense Site offers good conditions for dialogue, and according to our assessments, does not pose the risks that were generated by the Third Missile Defense Site project," Lavrov said. He added that the two countries would soon hold talks on missile defense. According to the Obama administration's new plan, land-based missile-defense shields will not be implemented before 2015. Sea-based defenses will be operating in the Mediterranean up to 2015.

The new U.S. missile shield plans present no risks for Russia, and favorable conditions are now emerging for bilateral dialogue, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday. U.S. President Barack Obama in September scrapped plans to deploy a radar in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland, due to a re-assessment of the threat from Iran. Moscow fiercely opposed the plans as a national security threat. "The new plan put forward by the Obama administration to replace the project to deploy the Third Missile Defense Site offers good conditions for dialogue, and according to our assessments, does not pose the risks that were generated by the Third Missile Defense Site project," Lavrov said. He added that the two countries would soon hold talks on missile defense. According to the Obama administration's new plan, land-based missile-defense shields will not be implemented before 2015. Sea-based defenses will be operating in the Mediterranean up to 2015.

NATO would consider the suspension of Russian plans to deploy Iskander missile systems near Poland a "good step," a NATO spokesman said on Wednesday. Some media sources earlier cited a Russian high-ranking military source as saying that the Defense Ministry had so far taken no practical measures to deploy Iskander missiles in its Kaliningrad exclave. "The earlier Russian announcement that they were going to deploy missiles into Kaliningrad and point them at NATO allies was unwelcome. If that decision has now been rescinded, it is a good step," NATO spokesman James Appathurai said.

A new study published in the Dec 2008 issue of Breast Cancer Research and Treatment suggests that early exposure to x-ray may be a risk factor for breast cancer in BRCA1 carriers. The study found women with a BRCA mutation ever receiving a chest x-ray before age 30 were at an 80 percent increased risk of breast cancer compared to those with the mutation. Gronwald J and colleagues of International Hereditary Cancer Center, Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, Poland examined if there is an adverse effect of early chest x-rays on breast cancer risk in women with breast cancer susceptibility gene 1 or BRCA1.

Talks on nuclear arms getting under way in Geneva should indicate how relations will develop between the US and Russia under President Barack Obama. Over the next few months it should become clearer as to whether the two countries will agree on further reductions in their nuclear arsenals - and whether they will solve the problem of the American anti-missile system due to be installed in Poland and the Czech Republic.

If you thought the Cold War was over-that long nuclear standoff that shaped the last five decades of the 20th century-think again. Following his American counterpart, and perhaps prompted by new tensions over the war in Georgia and the agreement between the U.S. and Poland to deploy a missile defense system there, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has announced plans to upgrade that country's "nuclear deterrent" by 2020.

A new nuclear arms race has been entirely predictable. The Russian announcement (The Herald, September 27) that they plan to upgrade their nuclear space defence and build new nuclear submarines armed with cruise missiles is what was expected in response to the US decision to install new "missile shield" bases in Poland and the Czech Republic. And part of this scenario is the Blair/Brown decision to initiate a Trident renewal programme, committing us to a nuclear weapons programme for another 50 years.

Russia may review military cooperation with Belarus in response to U.S. missile defense plans in Central Europe, but will not return nuclear weapons to the country, the Russian ambassador to Minsk said Wednesday. The U.S. plans to deploy 10 interceptor missiles in northern Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic as part of a missile shield for Europe and North America against possible attacks from "rogue states," including Iran.

A former FirstEnergy Corp. engineer was found guilty Tuesday afternoon by a U.S. District Court jury on three of five counts he faced for lying or withholding information from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about Davis-Besse's operating status in the fall of 2001. A federal jury deliberated over three days before returning the verdict against Andrew Siemaszko, a native of Poland.

Russian strategic bombers may soon be deployed at airbases in Cuba, Venezuela and Algeria as a response to the U.S. missile shield in Europe and NATO's expansion, Russian daily Izvestia said on Thursday. Moscow has strongly opposed the possible deployment by the U.S. of 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and an accompanying tracking radar in the Czech Republic as a threat to its national security. Washington says the defenses are needed to deter a possible strike from Iran, or other "rogue" states.

United States Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said that Lithuania has agreed to consider hosting a missile interceptor base if the U.S. deal with Poland falls through.

US President Barack Obama has shelved plans for controversial bases in Poland and the Czech Republic in a major overhaul of missile defence in Europe. The bases are to be scrapped after a review of the threat from Iran. Mr Obama said there would be a "proven, cost-effective" system using land- and sea-based interceptors against Iran's short- and medium-range missile threat. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has welcomed the US decision, calling it a "responsible move".

Moving to avoid a rift with Moscow, Barack Obama has "all but abandoned" plans to locate parts of a controversial US missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, a leading Polish newspaper claimed yesterday. The Warsaw daily Gazeta Wyborcza said that the Pentagon has been asked to explore switching planned interceptor rocket sites from the two east European states to Israel, Turkey, the Balkans or to mobile launchers on warships. Asked about the claim, a Pentagon spokesman last night said the missile shield plans were still being reviewed. "No final decisions have been made regarding missile defence in Europe" he said.