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Places Where Snow Does Not Stick Remain; Residual Radiation Claim Made Regarding Another Manufacturer; 73 Huntington Workers Filed Claims in 2006 Huntington, WV (HNN) -- USA TODAY's investigative "Smokestack Effect: Toxic Air and America's Schools" ---used an EPA model to show toxic air near America's 128,000 schools. The article listed numerous Huntington schools in the First Percentile of schools with worse air. For instance, the Cabell County Career Technology Center was ranked 56 of 127,809 schools for worst air. Other Cabell County Schools in the First (Worst) Percentile included Alternative Education High/Middle School (old HEHS), Altizer Elementary, Beverly Hills Middle School, Enslow Middle School, Highlawn Elementary School, Hite Saunders Elementary, Meadows Elementary, and Spring Hill Elementary. http://content.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/smokestack/school/96893 and, response of Cabell County School Board, http://www.huntingtonnews.net/state/090401-rutherford-stateairquality.html Nickel and nickel compounds are listed by USA Today as 89% responsible for "toxicity outside this school." During an UNRELATED inspection of public documents available on the internet, HNN found one from 2006 alleging possible continuing contamination from the former secret uranium processing plant in Altizer known as the Huntington Pilot Plant (a.k.a. Reduction Pilot Plant, HPP, or IPP ) The AEC Site consisted of 3.2 acres located east of International Nickel Company's "Huntington Works" plant. The property was bounded on the north by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, on the east by Cole Street, on the south by Altizer Avenue, and on the west by the "Huntington Works" site. The plant was enclosed by a chain link fence. Based on final minutes of an April 17, 2006 Rollout Meeting for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Dose Reconstruction Project for the Huntington Pilot Plant, the following historic descriptiv

Places Where Snow Does Not Stick Remain; Residual Radiation Claim Made Regarding Another Manufacturer; 73 Huntington Workers Filed Claims in 2006 Huntington, WV (HNN) -- USA TODAY's investigative "Smokestack Effect: Toxic Air and America's Schools" ---used an EPA model to show toxic air near America's 128,000 schools. The article listed numerous Huntington schools in the First Percentile of schools with worse air. For instance, the Cabell County Career Technology Center was ranked 56 of 127,809 schools for worst air. Other Cabell County Schools in the First (Worst) Percentile included Alternative Education High/Middle School (old HEHS), Altizer Elementary, Beverly Hills Middle School, Enslow Middle School, Highlawn Elementary School, Hite Saunders Elementary, Meadows Elementary, and Spring Hill Elementary. http://content.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/smokestack/school/96893 and, response of Cabell County School Board, http://www.huntingtonnews.net/state/090401-rutherford-stateairquality.html Nickel and nickel compounds are listed by USA Today as 89% responsible for "toxicity outside this school." During an UNRELATED inspection of public documents available on the internet, HNN found one from 2006 alleging possible continuing contamination from the former secret uranium processing plant in Altizer known as the Huntington Pilot Plant (a.k.a. Reduction Pilot Plant, HPP, or IPP ) The AEC Site consisted of 3.2 acres located east of International Nickel Company's "Huntington Works" plant. The property was bounded on the north by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, on the east by Cole Street, on the south by Altizer Avenue, and on the west by the "Huntington Works" site. The plant was enclosed by a chain link fence. Based on final minutes of an April 17, 2006 Rollout Meeting for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Dose Reconstruction Project for the Huntington Pilot Plant, the following historic descriptiv

"The memories of former workers from the radioactive material processing plant in East Huntington always comes with a preface that the shared information was formerly top secret. Some describe a high chain link fence with armed security guards. Others remember armed guards overseeing the loading and unloading of product by railcar. The Huntington, WV Department of Energy plant supplied items to three gaseous diffusion plants that enriched uranium to make atomic weapons. These plants were in Piketon, Ohio (Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion); Paducah , Ky. (Paducah Gaseous Diffusion) and Oak Ridge, Tenn. (Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant). These three plants enriched uranium in a mile-long system of pipes, ducts, chambers , motors and electrical lines. The sublimed crystalline gaseous and greenish uranium flowed through nickel filters which separated isotopes. This section of the diffusion plant has been called The Cascade. ( Description courtesy of " A Pigeon in Piketon," by Geoffrey Sea, January 1, 2004 American Scholar .) "

Some West Virginia lawmakers hope to add nuclear power to the state's energy portfolio. A bipartisan group of senators has introduced legislation to repeal a partial 1996 ban on the building of nuclear power plants. That state law sets several hurdles for such a plant. One requires that the country have a safe dumping site for radioactive waste that has operated for at least two years. A national waste repository has been proposed for Yucca Mountain in Nevada but officials there oppose its construction. Both President Obama and his energy secretary, Steven Chu, have questioned some of its safety features and want other options explored.

Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact for License Amendment to Byproduct Materials License No. 47-00260-02, for Termination of the License and Unrestricted Release of Two Union Carbide Corporation Facilities Located in South Charleston, WV AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Issuance of Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact for License Amendment. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Steve Hammann, Health Physicist, Commercial and R&D Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, Region I, 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania; telephone 610- 337-5399; fax number 610-337-5269; or by e-mail: stephen.hammann@nrc.gov. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. Introduction The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering the issuance of a license amendment to Byproduct Materials License No. 47- 00260-02. This license is held by Union Carbide Corporation (the Licensee) for its South Charleston Technology Park and South Charleston Plant located, respectively, at 3200 Kanawha Turnpike in South Charleston, West Virginia, and at 437 MacCorkle Avenue in South Charleston, West Virginia (the Facilities). Issuance of the amendment would authorize release of the Facilities for unrestricted use and termination of the NRC license.

The Homer Laughlin China Company (HLC) operates on the banks of the Ohio River in Newell, West Virginia, located in the state's northern panhandle. HLC's 37-acre site contains a number of plant buildings and structures used in the production of commercial and retail tableware.

Nuclear power might be the wave of West Virginia's energy future, but for now, it's back on the Legislature's shelf. Rather than tackle the divisive and controversial issue, a Senate subcommittee decided Wednesday not to send up a bill aimed at diluting an "effective ban" on nuclear power currently in state code. That is the thrust of Article 27-A that insists no such plant can be erected without a place to dispose of radioactive waste. Senate Economic Development Chairman Brooks McCabe, D-Kanawha, wanted that tiny phrase scratched so nuclear investors could start looking at West Virginia, albeit no such installation is likely for at least a decade.

Oswego, New York (WSYR-TV) - Oswego County boasts several nuclear power plants already -- but any hopes it will house Constellation energy's newest facility have been dashed. Friday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced it is postponing its review of Constellation's application for a new plant in Scriba -- at the company's request. Constellation asked for the delay because it has decided to build the first of its four proposed nuclear plants in Maryland. Paperwork to move that project forward must first be approved by the NRC before any subsequent plants can be okayed.

An accident that caused a fire in a truck carrying hazardous material briefly forced the evacuation of about 100 people in and around the Summers County community of Sandstone. Emergency dispatchers say the truck was involved in a crash with another vehicle early Sunday morning. State Police say the truck was carrying a container with about 32,000 pounds of the radioactive chemical compound called Uranium hexafluoride. After crews found the material's container to be undamaged, residents evacuated to Summers County Middle School were allowed to return to their homes. Dispatchers say no one was seriously injured in the crash.

House Finance Committee members nuked a proposal to include nuclear energy in the governor's Alternative and Renewable Energy Portfolio bill before advancing it to the full floor. The bill originally did not include nuclear energy as an alternative energy resource. "The amendment removed nuclear energy, and I think that's an important substantive improvement to the bill," said Delegate John Doyle, D-Jefferson, a member of the finance committee. "I don't think West Virginia should be encouraging the use of nuclear energy anywhere."

"West Virginia's official ban on the construction of nuclear power plants is staying put. After a lengthy discussion Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee by a lopsided voice vote gunned down a move to eliminate the prohibition. Sen. Dan Foster, D-Kanawha, who once lived near a nuclear installation in Tennessee, appeared to be the only senator in favor of the bill. A year ago, its chief proponent, Sen. Brooks McCabe, also D-Kanawha, succeeded in getting the ban removed in Gov. Joe Manchin's energy portfolio when it exited the Senate. "

During the Cold War, Huntington contained a DOE plant involved in the production of radioactive and/or potentially nuclear materials. After its decommissioning, the remains --- except for the compressor building --- were hauled away and buried in Piketon, Ohio. During a 2006 meeting with union members representatives of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Office of Compensation Analysis and support discussed compensation for health conditions acquired due to working near contaminated materials. After an exhaustive search of the internet, HNN at this time emphasizes the official analysis that current potential radiation exposure --- even at the remaining Compressor Building ---- was/is considered negligible as it results in an annual dose of less than 1 m/rem to the maximally exposure organ. (Based on CDC/OSAS documents) However, worker reports taken from the 2006 meeting create unanswered questions. In fact, the internet search did NOT turn up further documents related to the local USWA and NIOSH. Thus, we have a series of unanswered (or unfound) questions raised by those in attendance.

During the Cold War, Huntington contained a DOE plant involved in the production of radioactive and/or potentially nuclear materials. After its decommissioning, the remains --- except for the compressor building --- were hauled away and buried in Piketon, Ohio. During a 2006 meeting with union members representatives of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Office of Compensation Analysis and support discussed compensation for health conditions acquired due to working near contaminated materials. After an exhaustive search of the internet, HNN at this time emphasizes the official analysis that current potential radiation exposure --- even at the remaining Compressor Building ---- was/is considered negligible as it results in an annual dose of less than 1 m/rem to the maximally exposure organ. (Based on CDC/OSAS documents) However, worker reports taken from the 2006 meeting create unanswered questions. In fact, the internet search did NOT turn up further documents related to the local USWA and NIOSH. Thus, we have a series of unanswered (or unfound) questions raised by those in attendance.

On the wall of West Virginia Sen. Dan Foster's office is an old photograph of a whitewashed church in the hills outside Oak Ridge, Tenn. The Kanawha County Democrat grew up in Oak Ridge, where plutonium was produced for nuclear weapons during World War II. "In that church from maybe mid-1944 until the spring of 1945 was where they stored the enriched uranium they used in the Hiroshima bomb," Foster said. "Nobody knew it but about three or four people." Foster co-sponsored a bill in the spring to repeal West Virginia's effective ban on nuclear power in the state. "I've lived around nuclear energy and nuclear reactors," he said. "I am aware of the changing technology of the newer reactors." Three of those newer reactors have been proposed in states adjacent to West Virginia.

On the wall of West Virginia Sen. Dan Foster's office is an old photograph of a whitewashed church in the hills outside Oak Ridge, Tenn. The Kanawha County Democrat grew up in Oak Ridge, where plutonium was produced for nuclear weapons during World War II. "In that church from maybe mid-1944 until the spring of 1945 was where they stored the enriched uranium they used in the Hiroshima bomb," Foster said. "Nobody knew it but about three or four people." Foster co-sponsored a bill in the spring to repeal West Virginia's effective ban on nuclear power in the state. "I've lived around nuclear energy and nuclear reactors," he said. "I am aware of the changing technology of the newer reactors." Three of those newer reactors have been proposed in states adjacent to West Virginia.