Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

"Ministers went to court yesterday to try to stop former British servicemen from receiving compensation for illnesses that they allege they suffered during Britain's atomic testing programme in the 1950s. In June last year the High Court ruled that 10 test cases out of more than 1,000 claims could proceed to trial. The servicemen blame their ill-health, including cancer, skin defects and fertility problems, on involvement in the nuclear tests on the Australian mainland, Monte Bello islands and Christmas Island between 1952 and 1958. Many are terminally ill and seven - including five of the test case claimants - have died since the litigation began. While acknowledging the "debt of gratitude" owed to the men, the Ministry of Defence denies negligence and fought the cases on the preliminary point that they were all launched outside the legal time limit."

"Tim Bridgewater and Mike Lee, the Republican candidates for Bob Bennett's U.S. Senate seat, say they support the resumption of underground nuclear testing in Nevada, either to verify the reliability of the existing arsenal or to develop new weapons. But Utah's deadly history as a downwind victim of fallout from previous nuclear tests argues for a much more cautious approach to any resumption of testing. First, it is not necessary to resume test explosions to verify the safety, security and reliability of existing nuclear weapons. That was the conclusion of a panel of the National Academy of Sciences in 2002. It has since been confirmed by the JASON group of independent scientific advisers that consults with the U.S. government on defense issues. "

"No nukes » Matheson says there is no need for new nuke tests; primary foe, GOP nominee agree. U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson said it would be "a giant step backward" to resume nuclear weapons testing and he will oppose any efforts to move down that road. Matheson was responding to recent comments from two Republican Senate candidates -- Tim Bridgewater and Mike Lee -- who told The Salt Lake Tribune last week that they supported modernization and underground testing of the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal. The Democratic congressman will get no argument from his primary opponent, Claudia Wright, nor from Republican nominee Morgan Philpot. Both oppose resumption of nuclear weapons testing. "

The Marshall Islands has become the 151st state to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, according to a press release issued today (see GSN, Oct. 9). The Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization called the Oct. 28 move "highly symbolic." The United States from 1946 to 1958 conducted 67 nuclear Test blasts in the atmosphere above the Marshall Islands' Bikini and Enewetak atolls. The treaty to date has been signed by 182 nations and ratified by 151 countries. In the Pacific islands region, 12 states have signed and 10 countries have ratified the treaty. Niue, Tonga and Tuvalu have yet to join the list of signatories. Before it can enter it to force, the treaty must be ratified by the 44 "Annex 2" countries. There are nine holdouts -- China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and the United States.

The Marshall Islands has become the 151st state to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, according to a press release issued today (see GSN, Oct. 9). The Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization called the Oct. 28 move "highly symbolic." The United States from 1946 to 1958 conducted 67 nuclear Test blasts in the atmosphere above the Marshall Islands' Bikini and Enewetak atolls. The treaty to date has been signed by 182 nations and ratified by 151 countries. In the Pacific islands region, 12 states have signed and 10 countries have ratified the treaty. Niue, Tonga and Tuvalu have yet to join the list of signatories. Before it can enter it to force, the treaty must be ratified by the 44 "Annex 2" countries. There are nine holdouts -- China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and the United States.

Duke Energy says first two tests were sufficient, denies waning interest Duke Energy, which has been testing French-made mixed-oxide nuclear fuels in its Catawba 1 reactor to gauge the suitability of similar fuels to be made at Savannah River Site, has exercised an option not to conduct a third 18-month testing cycle. Sign up for breaking news alerts from The Chronicle "It was used for two operating cycles and we made a decision that an additional cycle is not required," said Rita Sipe, a nuclear media relations spokeswoman for Duke Energy. The reason, she said, is that the first two cycles provided sufficient data that will be analyzed as part of the evaluation process for MOX, which is made by blending plutonium from dismantled nuclear bombs with conventional reactor fuels.

Duke Energy says first two tests were sufficient, denies waning interest Duke Energy, which has been testing French-made mixed-oxide nuclear fuels in its Catawba 1 reactor to gauge the suitability of similar fuels to be made at Savannah River Site, has exercised an option not to conduct a third 18-month testing cycle. Sign up for breaking news alerts from The Chronicle "It was used for two operating cycles and we made a decision that an additional cycle is not required," said Rita Sipe, a nuclear media relations spokeswoman for Duke Energy. The reason, she said, is that the first two cycles provided sufficient data that will be analyzed as part of the evaluation process for MOX, which is made by blending plutonium from dismantled nuclear bombs with conventional reactor fuels.

LAND in outback South Australia used for nuclear weapons testing in the aftermath of World War II will be handed back to the traditional Aboriginal owners. Environment and Conservation and Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation Minister Jay Weatherill today told Parliament the final section of the Maralinga test site would be returned to the Maralinga Tjarutja people. "The Maralinga nuclear test occurred during a period in our history when little regard was given to Aboriginal people and their connection with the land," he said.

LAND in outback South Australia used for nuclear weapons testing in the aftermath of World War II will be handed back to the traditional Aboriginal owners. Environment and Conservation and Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation Minister Jay Weatherill today told Parliament the final section of the Maralinga test site would be returned to the Maralinga Tjarutja people. "The Maralinga nuclear test occurred during a period in our history when little regard was given to Aboriginal people and their connection with the land," he said.

Survivors of Britain's cold war atomic bomb tests have received a major boost in their battle for compensation following the discovery of a secret journal written by a senior Royal Navy officer. The observations of the leading medical officer on a British warship ordered into the radioactive fallout of a nuclear bomb test reveal his profound concerns that the crew's health was in grave danger. His on-board journal, disclosed publicly for the first time as evidence in a legal fight for compensation, reveals misgivings that inadequate training and equipment meant the men of HMS Diana were exposed to an "omnipresent" and "dangerous" risk of radioactive poisoning during the 1950s tests. His concerns contradict the government's existing view that Britain's nuclear tests at the height of the cold war had no adverse effects on the servicemen.

A panel of US appeal judges Friday dismissed a claim to enforce a billion-dollar compensation settlement for islanders from two former Pacific nuclear test sites, an attorney for the islanders said. But the attorney said the ruling did not exonerate the US government for removing the residents of Bikini and Enewetak from their homes and leaving their atolls uninhabitable after the weapons tests. A three-member panel of judges upheld a lower court ruling which dismissed claims filed in 2006 by the people of Bikini and Enewetak in the Marshall Islands, a former US territory in the Western Pacific. The two atolls, the sites of 67 US nuclear tests from 1946 to 1958, had been awarded more than one billion dollars by the Nuclear Claims Tribunal for hardship, loss of use of the islands and clean up following the tests.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has given Entergy Nuclear permission to reduce the number of times it conducts tests on control rods, a key safety system at Vermont Yankee plant. In a decision released earlier this week, the NRC granted a license amendment to Entergy that will allow it to test the control rods on a monthly basis. The control rods are now tested weekly. Entergy filed the request in February 2008. The control rods are inserted in the reactor core in the event of an emergency or a power reduction to reduce the amount of nuclear reaction in the plant. Entergy Nuclear spokesman Laurence Smith said Friday that the plant had requested the reduction in order to put less stress on a "sensitive" component at the plant by needlessly testing it.

In 1958, Troy Wade worked at the Nevada Test Site. His knowledge of that era comes in handy as president of the Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas. "The Soviet Union Tested their own atomic bomb, and suddenly this country was faced with a very different problem. Instead of developing weapons to be used against another country, suddenly this country had to defend itself against nuclear weapons developed by somebody else. That led to the establishment of the Nevada Test Site in 1950," he said.

In an explosive revelation that may well have unsavory foreign policy repercussions, a senior official of India's premier defense organization - the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) - who played a pivotal role in orchestrating India's nuclear program during the Pokhran nuclear tests in 1998, has declared that the tests that year were a dud and not nearly as successful as projected to the world. The declaration by K Santhanam - remarkable as it comes from a top nuclear scientist directly associated with India's nuclear program - has stirred a hornet's nest in New Delhi. The scientific community and political parties - primarily the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and its principal right-wing opposition Bharatiya Janata Party under whose stewardship the tests were conducted - are scrambling to offer explanations to counter Santhanam's statement.

In an explosive revelation that may well have unsavory foreign policy repercussions, a senior official of India's premier defense organization - the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) - who played a pivotal role in orchestrating India's nuclear program during the Pokhran nuclear tests in 1998, has declared that the tests that year were a dud and not nearly as successful as projected to the world. The declaration by K Santhanam - remarkable as it comes from a top nuclear scientist directly associated with India's nuclear program - has stirred a hornet's nest in New Delhi. The scientific community and political parties - primarily the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and its principal right-wing opposition Bharatiya Janata Party under whose stewardship the tests were conducted - are scrambling to offer explanations to counter Santhanam's statement.

A study suggests some younger Americans may be getting too many imaging tests that expose them to worrisome amounts of radiation, which over a lifetime may raise their risk of cancer. Here are some procedures that deliver the biggest doses of radiation: * Myocardial perfusion scans, done in patients with heart disease to see how much blood is getting to the heart muscle. For the test, patients are injected with a small amount radioactive liquid. The test on average delivered 15.6 millisieverts of radiation per dose, and accounted for more than 22 percent of the total radiation exposure among people in the study, more than any other test. For people living in the United States, the normal expected radiation dose from chemicals in the ground or flying in an airplane is 3 millisieverts a year.

The concrete-and-steel "dry casks" used at the Vermont Yankee plant to store spent nuclear fuel were not tested as completely as they should have been, according to federal regulators. But the decision by Holtec International, the New Jersey company that built the casks, to omit one set of tests does not pose a safety risk, Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials said Wednesday. That's because there were other kinds of inspections done on those casks, and the waste stored in the casks is not as hot as allowed, meaning they are safe even though they were not tested with pressurized helium as required under a federal licensing agreement. About 109 of the casks that were not completely tested are in use nationwide, including five at Vermont Yankee, regulators say. "The violation is a concern" because the canister "is relied upon to prevent the release of radioactive material," according to a letter from the NRC to Holtec. "It is also relied upon to maintain an inert environment and sufficient helium pressure to keep cladding temperatures below the acceptable limit."

Almost two hundred former Fiji nuclear test workers, or their families, are expected to take legal action against the British government following a UK High Court ruling. The ruling allows ex-servicemen who took part in the tests off Australia and Christmas Island in the 1950s to sue the British government for compensation. 289 Fijians took part in the tests, but only about 100 are still alive. The Fiji Nuclear test Veterans Association's president, Jone Tabaiwalu, says the ruling is an important step.

A French Polynesian court has ruled in favour of three children of a deceased nuclear weapons test veteran who sought compensation for the effects of the tests. The court found that the Atomic Energy Commissariat had failed in its obligation as an employer to provide security. The labour court in Papeete ordered that they each be paid 11,000 US dollars. Three other cases were rejected while another four cases are to be subject to further medical tests. This means that the court failed to recognise claims that linked poor health to the effects of the weapons tests. The ruling can be appealed.

Paris - An appeals court in Paris Friday rejected a demand for compensation by 12 former soldiers who said they had contracted fatal cancers when they took part in French atomic weapons testing between 1960 and 1996, French media reported. The court ruled the cases of 11 of the soldiers were invalid because their alleged radiation contamination took place before January 1, 1976, the threshold year fixed by law. Regarding the case of the twelfth soldier, which dated from 1983, the judge ruled that the appeals court was not the correct venue. The case should have been heard by court competent to rule on workplace accidents, the judge said. Only five of the 12 soldiers were on hand to hear the verdict. The other seven had died of their ailments, which included cancer of the skin, thyroid and kidney and leukemia. An estimated 150,000 civilians and ex-soldiers who took part in the 210 above-ground nuclear weapons tests France carried out in Algeria and Polynesia were potentially affected by Friday's ruling. Defence Minister Herve Morin admitted in March that several hundred people may have developed cancers as a result of radiation from the tests. He proposed a compensation plan offering 10 million euros to the victims in 2009.

Speakers at Nunn meeting share opinions about proposed uranium mine and pump test NUNN - Standing before a crowd of more than 100 people Monday night, Fort Collins resident Diane Marschke said she doesn't think it matters if Powertech USA's proposed Centennial Project uranium mine pollutes the water. "When people hear there's a uranium mine 10 miles away, they aren't going to come here," she said. Marschke and about 15 others confronted U.S. Environ-mental Protection Agency officials at the Nunn Community Center with their opinions about a proposed water pump test that will tell Powertech if its in situ leaching method of uranium mining is viable in the area. To conduct the test, the company needs a "Class V" permit from the EPA, which will allow Powertech to pump water out of the uranium-containing Fox Hills aquifer, store it, then reinject the water back into the aquifer. The permit will not allow the company to mine for uranium.

Speakers at Nunn meeting share opinions about proposed uranium mine and pump test NUNN - Standing before a crowd of more than 100 people Monday night, Fort Collins resident Diane Marschke said she doesn't think it matters if Powertech USA's proposed Centennial Project uranium mine pollutes the water. "When people hear there's a uranium mine 10 miles away, they aren't going to come here," she said. Marschke and about 15 others confronted U.S. Environ-mental Protection Agency officials at the Nunn Community Center with their opinions about a proposed water pump test that will tell Powertech if its in situ leaching method of uranium mining is viable in the area. To conduct the test, the company needs a "Class V" permit from the EPA, which will allow Powertech to pump water out of the uranium-containing Fox Hills aquifer, store it, then reinject the water back into the aquifer. The permit will not allow the company to mine for uranium.

Right up until practically the last minute, only an elite few knew about the building, testing and ultimate plans to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When the "gadget" was about to be tested, project manager Maj. Gen. Leslie R. Groves - who ran the project from its inception - tried to explain it as the explosion of an ammunition dump. As a precaution, Groves alerted the governor of New Mexico that it might be necessary to evacuate the state if something went wrong. "The physicists working on the project jokingly bet that testing the gadget could set fire to the atmosphere," says Cameron Reed, a professor and chairman of the physics department at Alma College in Alma, Mich., and an expert on the Manhattan Project. "They didn't know what to expect."

Right up until practically the last minute, only an elite few knew about the building, testing and ultimate plans to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When the "gadget" was about to be tested, project manager Maj. Gen. Leslie R. Groves - who ran the project from its inception - tried to explain it as the explosion of an ammunition dump. As a precaution, Groves alerted the governor of New Mexico that it might be necessary to evacuate the state if something went wrong. "The physicists working on the project jokingly bet that testing the gadget could set fire to the atmosphere," says Cameron Reed, a professor and chairman of the physics department at Alma College in Alma, Mich., and an expert on the Manhattan Project. "They didn't know what to expect."

A ceremony in the South Australian outback has marked the formal handover of the former nuclear test site at Maralinga to Indigenous people. The British Government tested weapons at Maralinga in the state's far west in the 1950s and 1960s, including seven full-scale nuclear tests. The South Australian Government says the land has been decontaminated but some will be fenced off because it remains unsafe.

A ceremony in the South Australian outback has marked the formal handover of the former nuclear test site at Maralinga to Indigenous people. The British Government tested weapons at Maralinga in the state's far west in the 1950s and 1960s, including seven full-scale nuclear tests. The South Australian Government says the land has been decontaminated but some will be fenced off because it remains unsafe.

"Australian aborigines and former servicemen are to sue the British Ministry of Defence over diseases and disabilities that they claim were caused by nuclear testing in the Outback more than 50 years ago. Maureen Williams 57 from Coober Pedy has joined the class action against the British government over the atomic testing at Maralinga Maureen Williams 57 from Coober Pedy has joined the class action against the British government over the atomic testing at Maralinga Photo: Mark Brake. A group of 250 people, including 150 former servicemen, say they have suffered cancer, skin disease and deformities because of the fallout from blasts. If they win, the British Government could be faced with a bill for compensation which will run to millions of pounds, according to lawyers for the group, which will be represented by Cherie Booth QC. "