Pennsylvania Health Department Distributing Potassium Iodide to People Living, Working Near Nuclear Power Plants

Comment: Good Advise since the Federal Gov't thinks Nuke Power is CO2 free, get a clue, it is not, from uranium mining to building the nuke plants! No to Nuke Plants and no to uranium mining!

Previously Distributed Tablets Expire Aug.31;
New Tablets Available Beginning Sept. 1


HARRISBURG, Pa., Aug. 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Department of Health will provide free potassium iodide, or KI, tablets to people who live or work within a 10-mile radius of Pennsylvania's five nuclear power plants beginning next month.

The KI tablets that were distributed previously by the commonwealth will expire on Aug. 31 and should be discarded in the trash. The pills should not be used after the expiration date.

The new KI tablets will be distributed beginning Tuesday, Sept. 1, through Thursday evening, Sept. 3, at sites across Pennsylvania. Hours will be from 11:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., with the exception of Montgomery County's site, which will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

If for any reason people are unable to pick up KI during the initial three-day distribution, or if they decide at a later time that they'd like to get KI, Health Department offices will maintain a supply and will make it available for pick up by the public during normal business hours. The locations are listed on the department's Web site, www.health.state.pa.us.

Pennsylvania has five nuclear power plants: Beaver Valley Power Station, Limerick Generating Station, Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, and Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station.

Each person who lives within the 10-mile radius of one of the five power plants will be eligible to receive four 65-milligram tablets per person. Individuals will be allowed to pick up tablets for their family members and those who are unable to pick them up on their own.

In addition to the tablets, instructions will be available detailing how to store the tablets and when they should be taken. Health department staff also will be on site to answer questions.

The public is reminded to not take KI during a test of the Emergency Alert System or during a test of the sirens located near nuclear power plant sites. Residents should only take the pills when directed to do so by the Governor or state public health officials.

KI will also be available for those who work within the 10-mile radius, but do not live there. Employers can contact the Department of Health at 1-877-PA-HEALTH to make arrangements to pick up tablets for their entire workforce.


School districts within the 10-mile radius also have the option of deciding whether to accept and how to distribute KI for their students. These schools have received instructions for requesting KI.

Residents who have questions about the KI tablets can also talk to their family physicians and pediatricians about whether or not there are specific reasons why KI should not be taken.


For additional information about potassium iodide, visit www.health.state.pa.us or call 1-877-PA-HEALTH.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Below are the KI distribution sites for Sept. 1-3. Residents are welcome to go to any distribution site within the 10-mile radius of the nuclear facility in their area:
Beaver Valley Power Station
Beaver County - State Health Center, 300 S. Walnut Lane, Beaver, PA 15009
Limerick Generating Station
Berks County - Keystone Fire Company, 240 N. Walnut St., Boyertown, PA 19512 - Phone 610-367-2200
Chester County - Kimberton Fairgrounds, Rt. 113 South of Seven Stars Rd., Kimberton, PA 19442
Montgomery County - Hope Community Church, 2732 N. Charlotte St., Gilbertsville, PA 19525
Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station
Lancaster County - Solanco High School, 585 Solanco Rd., Quarryville, PA 17566 - Phone: 717-786-2151
York County - South Eastern School District, Administration Building, Community Room, 377 Main St., Fawn Grove, PA 17321
Susquehanna Steam Electric Station
Columbia County - Bloomsburg State Health Center, 1000 Market St., Unit 4, Bloomsburg, PA 17815
Luzerne County - Butler Township Municipal Building, 415 W. Butler Dr., Drums, PA 18222 - Phone: 570-788-3547
Luzerne County - Luzerne County Community College, Public Safety Training Institute (PSTI) 1333 S. Prospect St., Nanticoke, PA 18634 - Phone: 570-740-0481
Three Mile Island Nuclear Station
Dauphin County - Harrisburg Mall, Upper Level Center Court, 3601 Paxton St., Harrisburg, PA 17111
Lancaster County - Masonic Village, Freemasons Cultural Center, 1 Masonic Drive, Elizabethtown, PA 17022
York County - Fairview Township Fire Department, 340 Lewisberry Rd., New Cumberland, PA 17070
York County - Manchester Township Municipal Building, 3200 Farmtrail Rd., York, PA 17406
CONTACT: Stacy Kriedeman
(717) 787-1783

http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/08-28-2009/0005084712&EDATE=

Udall reasserts controversial pro-nuclear position

Comment: Nuke Power is not clean, not CO2 clean, it is full of CO2 from uranium mining to building the nuke plants, from trucking to the processing uranium mills! In addition, it ruins our air, water, our health, and our land. The Nuke Bunch are giving money away to our so call leaders who are sending their people down the nuke river for greed!

By John Tomasic 8/24/09 3:20 PM

At an “open hearing” held at Rocky Mountain National Park today, Colorado U.S. Sen. Mark Udall repeated his support of a national energy plan that would increase use of nuclear power as a way to combat global warming. Udall and U.S. Sen. John McCain blitzed the park this morning, taking a brief tour while reporters trailed along in a bus. Photographers snapped shots of the men gathered with park personnel around one of the state’s millions of red-brown lodge-pole pine trees. The trees, which color whole mountainsides across Colorado, are dying from beetle infestation brought by warming temperatures.

Udall is a strong proponent of the state’s New Energy sector and is seen as a friend to the green movement in the state. His advancement of nuclear power, however, has alarmed environmentalists, who see the risks posed by uranium mining and nuclear power plant construction as far outweighing any benefits to be derived from expanding the contemporary nuclear industry.

Keith Hay, energy advocate for Denver-based Environment Colorado, has argued against the inclusion of nuclear power as a part of any clean-energy discussion. Hay told the Colorado Independent in May that there was “a strong push by southern Democrats to include nuclear and clean coal in the renewable energy standard” but that environmentalists thought any such tack was misguided at best.

“Anyone who has seen the front end of uranium mining for nuclear knows that it is in no way clean.”

Udall falls into a group of green leaders turned by the climate change debate into nuclear supporters.

Stewart Brand, the famous founder of the environmentalist Whole Earth Catalog, made a splash in 2007 by endorsing nuclear power. He claimed that the problem of learning to deal with deadly radioactive nuclear waste was a more acceptable problem to pass on to future generations than was global warming.

But Brand was taken to task by detractors who ran the numbers. Groups such as TreeHugger and the Pembina Institute found that the cost and carbon generated in uranium mining, milling, refining, conversion and fuel fabrication are extremely high, to say nothing of the costs and carbon generated in erecting new nuclear power plants.

Colorado is one of five uranium-producing states in the West and has a long history of producing weapons-grade uranium. A recent boom in mining claims, which has waned a bit in recent months following a drop in prices, has focused mostly on states such as Utah and Arizona, where activists have been fighting new claims near national parks, including the Grand Canyon, Arches and Canyonlands.

Earlier this month, McCain led a congressional junket to the Grand Canyon that included Udall and former Colorado senator and now Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

Salazar recently called a timeout on new uranium mining claims on public lands near the Grand Canyon while the administration considers withdrawing up to 1 million acres of national forest from potential uranium mining. The timeout also comes as Congress considers revamping a national mining law put in place in 1872. A revised version would provide hard-rock mining royalties and create a fund for pollution cleanup.

Several uranium mining claims have been filed near the proposed Dolores River Canyon Wilderness Area along the high desert cliffs of a river known for the scenic rafting and kayaking that runs from the San Juan Mountains to the border of Utah.

The nuclear-energy industry is gaining some traction in Colorado, not just among those like Udall seeking to combat climate change, but also among those who envision nuclear plants powering the oil shale industry on Colorado’s Western Slope.

http://coloradoindependent.com/36233/udall-reasserts-controversial-pro-nuclear-position

Nuclear energy deal not welcomed by all

By ERIC JOHNSTON
Staff writer

OSAKA — The nuclear energy cooperation agreement signed Tuesday by Japan and Russia is expected to be a great boon to firms like Toshiba that are seeking new international markets for their atomic power technology, as well as ensuring Japan a steady supply of enriched uranium for its own electricity plants.

But the deal also raises international concerns about environmental issues related to the mining of uranium, and worldwide questions about the further spread of nuclear technology and transport safety of re-enriched uranium to Japan.

Tuesday's agreement marked the end of a two-year negotiating process between Tokyo and Moscow to cooperate on peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

The deal specifically means Russia will provide enriched uranium to Japan's nuclear plants at a lower cost than is currently possible with contracts in other European countries. Meanwhile, Japanese firms that are world leaders in advanced nuclear technologies will be able to expand their presence in Russia and help the country modernize its atomic facilities and nuclear energy market.

"Russia has great potential in terms of the development of energy resources and infrastructure-related projects, and we hope that Japan-Russia economic relations will progress, centered on this sector," Fujio Mitarai, chairman of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), told reporters Monday.

As Prime Minister Taro Aso and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin were meeting Tuesday, Toshiba Corp., which has pursued nuclear cooperation with Russia these past few years, announced it signed a memorandum of understanding with Technabexport, which is a part of Atemoenergoprom, the organization that supervises the Russian civilian nuclear power generation business.

"Cooperation between the two parties will be strictly limited to the peaceful use of nuclear power and will be undertaken within the current and future framework of cooperation between the two countries' governments, as well as the international framework for the peaceful use of nuclear power," Toshiba said.

The Japan-Russia nuclear agreement is expected to provide up to $100 million worth of Russian low enriched uranium for Japan's 53 reactors and is seen as an important step toward the government's eventual goal of having atomic power provide at least 40 percent of the nation's electricity by 2017, up from about 30 percent at present.

But the deal was immediately questioned by antinuclear groups in Japan and Russia that warned that despite the promises of both Tokyo and Moscow to carry out the deal under internationally approved nonproliferation safeguards, there are huge risks.

"Japan cannot be confident that Japanese nuclear material will not be diverted to Iran, or to other countries suspected of developing nuclear weapons. The inadequacy of International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards in nuclear weapons states and Russia's supply of fuel for Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant are grounds for serious concerns," Philip White of the Tokyo-based Citizens' Nuclear Information Center and Aileen Mioko Smith of Kyoto-based Green Action said in a joint statement.

Sergei Kirienko, head of Rosatom, Russia's nuclear regulatory body, told reporters Tuesday in Tokyo that the agreement would adhere to a variety of multilateral and bilateral nonproliferation principles. But he did not specifically say the IAEA would be allowed in to inspect current uranium re-enrichment facilities, only that Russia plans to eventually construct an international uranium center that would be certified by the IAEA.

"No Russian nuclear facility related to weapons production is under 100 percent IAEA control and all facilities dealing with uranium enrichment are classified as military facilities. This means that even if the IAEA does get access to such facilities, they will see only the parts of them that are declared for civil use," said Moscow-based antinuclear activist Vladimir Slivyak in an e-mail.

"When you cannot walk through the whole nuclear facility, what kind of control are we really talking about?"

The other issue is environmental. It's possible that under the new deal, spent uranium fuel from Japanese nuclear plants that is to be re-enriched will end up at the Angasrk uranium enrichment plant near Lake Baikal, which is a World Heritage Site nearly 10,000 km from St. Petersburg, the only Russian port that has facilities to import and export nuclear materials.

This means a long train trip from Angasrk across Siberia and the Ural Mountains before the material is put on a ship and sent to Japan, raising concerns about accidents, spills and terrorist attacks. There is some talk between Japan and Russia about building a route to Vladivostok, but who would pay for a rail and port system that could transport nuclear material is an open question.

Tenex, Russia's nuclear materials exporter, and Toshiba are expected to begin discussions soon on the possible creation of a uranium storage center in Japan that they claim would prevent accidents and the threat of terrorist attacks.

But the fact there are over 100,000 tons of radioactive waste stored in Angarsk, much of it sitting outdoors in old containers, may be influencing the discussions. It is also unclear where in Japan such a storage facility might be located, given the expected public opposition.

Related link NTV Etorofu trip sparks visa row
The Japan Times: Thursday, May 14, 2009


http://search.japantimes.co.jp/rss/nn20090514a3.html

US site for producing MOX slammed for poor design

Comment: the nuke way, cheap, charge high prices to gov't!


Weak steel and other poor-quality materials were used in construction of a $4.8 billion facility erected at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to convert weapon-grade uranium into mixed-oxide fuel for use in civilian nuclear reactors, says a report by the Energy Department's inspector general.

Bellona, 05/05-2009

One substance acquired for the project did not meet federal standards and "could have resulted in a spill of up to 15,000 gallons of high-level radioactive waste," says the report, which was based on a five-month audit of the site's activities.

Contractors purchased 9,500 tons of steel reinforcement bars that proved unusable when one of the bars broke during construction of the MOX facility. Workers had already installed 14 tons of steel bars at the facility, wasting $680,000 and delaying the site's completion.

Energy Department auditors also uncovered problems with pipes, steel plates, and a $12 million "glovebox" that did not meet the site's needs for dealing with radioactive material, the McClatchy Newspapers reported.

"The department did not provide adequate oversight of the prime contractors' quality-assurance programs at Savannah River," the report says. "Particularly, the department did not adequately establish and implement processes to detect and/or prevent quality problems."

The National Nuclear Security Administration, the semiautonomous Energy Department agency that oversees the nation's nuclear weapons complex, opposed the report's conclusions "concerning the safety of the facilities" and "related cost impacts," NNSA Principal Deputy Administrator William Ostendorff wrote.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission had completed a more thorough safety review of the MOX site that deemed lapses to be of "low significance," he added.

http://www.bellona.org/news/news_2009/mox_plant_deficiencies