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I am a Middle East Consultant living in the UK and would like all people living in or near areas of conflict to understand the High Tech Weaponry used by many military establishments worldwide, especially the US (the manufacturers) and other NATO forces. The reason for pointing this out to you is as a response to my research on the terrible rise in cancer related deaths. This is not only confined to military personnel in the battle zone but also the indiscriminate contamination of civilians, field crops and water supplies in the immediate area as well as the adjacent areas/countries. Below is my report: Concerns regarding radiation contamination by the use of Depleted Uranium (DU) weaponry in the Balkans, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Eastern Mediterranean Countries. The majority of high tech weapons today contain Depleted Uranium and or other Heavy Metals. Some are coated in DU and others have both DU and Heavy Metal in their warheads. DU is also used to act as a counterweight.

Participating in nuclear power hearing can be a 'learn-as-you-go' process Joseph Wojcicki concedes his last name can twist tongues. "It's Voo-tess-kee," the West Columbia man says with a thick Polish accent. "But you can call me 'Joe the Intervenor.'" A retired Midlands Tech math teacher, Wojcicki took part as a citizen intervenor in the Public Service Commission's almost three-week-long hearing on SCE&G's $9.8 billion plan to add two reactor units to the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station at Jenkinsville. Intervenors, 12/22/08 Intervenors Pamela Greenlaw, bottom left, Meira Warshauer, center, and Joseph Wojcicki, right, listen to attorney Bob Guild, standing left, as he enters an objection to secret building cost amounts during the hearing before the commission. The intervenors sit at the table with lawyers for other groups challenging the nuclear plan. They represent the consumer. - Tim Dominick/tdominick@thestate. /The State Intervenors, 12/22/08 Lay-people known as "intervenors" question witnesses at the Public Service Commission hearing on SCE&G's plan to build two reactors at its plant in Jenkinsville. - Tim Dominick/tdominick@thestate. /The State Intervenors, 12/22/08 About a half-dozen lay-people known as "intervenors" are questioning witnesses at the Public Service Commission hearing on SCE&G's plan to build two reactors at its plant in Jenkinsville. - Tim Dominick/tdominick@thestate. /The State Intervenors, 12/22/08 Intervenors Pamela Greenlaw, bottom left, Meira Warshauer, center, and Joseph Wojcicki, right, listen to attorney Bob Guild, standing left, as he enters an objection to secret building cost amounts during the hearing before the commission. - Tim Dominick/tdominick@thestate. /The State Intervenors, 12/22/08 Intervenor Joseph Wojcicki looks through documents during the hearing before the commission. - Tim Dominick/tdominick@thestate. /The State Intervenors, 12/22/08 Citizen intervenor Meira Warshauer, left, asks a que

The Virginia Commission on Coal and Energy Uranium Mining Subcommittee is responsible for overseeing all aspects, including the scope and design, of the study that will inform the General Assembly's decision whether to reaffirm or lift Virginia's moratorium on uranium mining. The subcommittee met for the first time on Friday, Dec. 12, in Richmond. The meeting included brief remarks by Dr. Michael Karmis, a professor in the Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering at Virginia Tech and director of the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research. The meeting also included a public hearing to receive suggestions regarding points of concern that should be included in the scope of any study on the impact of mining uranium in the Commonwealth. Twenty people spoke representing citizen and/or industry interests.

Over 25 people attended a two-hour meeting Tuesday night to discuss a planned evaporation capping project and other issues of concern to residents regarding the Yerington Mine. Advertisement The meeting was called by the Yerington Community Action Group and featured U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials and a pair of EPA consultants who gave presentations on the mine's evaporation pond removal project. Nadia Hollan Burke, Remedial Project Manager with EPA Region 9 (Superfund) over the Yerington Mine remediation project, was joined by her superior, Roberta Blank, as EPA representatives. Also giving a presentation was Victor Early, senior engineering geologist wih Tetra Tech, a consultant for EPA, who was joined by Tetra Tech's Doug Herlocker, an air quality specialist/environmental project manager.

Faced with the challenges of delivering the right training to the right people, the IAEA´s International Decommissioning Network (IDN) has begun using popular social networking tools to connect with more than 400 nuclear professionals in 60 countries all year round. Described as a network of networks, the IDN brings together experts in the decommissioning of nuclear facilities so they can share ideas and learn from each other. It has proven difficult for some young nuclear professionals who are actually involved in day-to-day decommissioning to attend workshops, seminars and global site visits. So the IDN´s coordinators at the IAEA are using non-traditional approaches to engage them.

Faced with the challenges of delivering the right training to the right people, the IAEA´s International Decommissioning Network (IDN) has begun using popular social networking tools to connect with more than 400 nuclear professionals in 60 countries all year round. Described as a network of networks, the IDN brings together experts in the decommissioning of nuclear facilities so they can share ideas and learn from each other. It has proven difficult for some young nuclear professionals who are actually involved in day-to-day decommissioning to attend workshops, seminars and global site visits. So the IDN´s coordinators at the IAEA are using non-traditional approaches to engage them.

"WHEN news spread in December 2007 that an ageing nuclear reactor in Canada might shut down for much longer than its scheduled two weeks, the world caught its breath. The reactor, at Chalk River in Ontario, is the world's biggest supplier of radioactive isotopes for medical use, and diagnostic tests for cancer and heart disease were put on hold while radiologists scrambled to find alternative supplies. It was called a crisis. All the while, lay people couldn't help but wonder: did no one foresee this? Did no one think that this half-century-old reactor might someday need to be replaced?"

Workforce shortages could slow the growth of an industry poised for a comeback. Quirin Schiermeier reports. François Perchet, an electrical engineer by training, has seen the ebb and flow of the nuclear power industry in the course of his long career. He spent more than 30 years with the French electricity company EDF, which operates the country's 58 nuclear reactors, and knew most of the 19 nuclear plant sites in France. He worked in operations management, then in maintenance and repair, and later in probability-based safety studies. But last December, he crossed the English Channel for a two-year assignment as programme coordinator with the World Nuclear University (WNU) in London, where he helps promote nuclear training and education throughout the world.