Cold War Patriots.org - We did our part to keep America free!

Cold War Patriots is hosting a Resource Fair:

Thursday, March 15, 2012

10:00 am to 2:00 pm

H. Odell Weeks Center

1700 Whiskey Road

Aiken, SC 29803

Please click the link below for more information.

CWP South Carolina Resource Fair

888-903-8989
info@coldwarpatriots.org
coldwarpatriots.org

Reuters posted this article January 18th. Click here for original article.

(Reuters) – The radiation exposure of 16 workers at a nuclear research lab in Idaho stemmed from a failure to properly assess the risks posed by the handling of decades-old plutonium fuel cells, federal investigators concluded on Wednesday.

In its report on the November 8 mishap at the Idaho National Laboratory, the U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Health, Safety and Security also found the lab erred in not activating its emergency plan sooner after the accident, a delay that may have compromised medical treatment of the workers.

The panel recommended the lab conduct a fresh assessment of “the likelihood, severity and risk of accidents,” as well as the effectiveness of hazard controls at the deactivated reactor where the exposure occurred.

The Idaho National Laboratory, occupying 890 square miles in eastern Idaho, is the Energy Department’s leading nuclear research center, employing some 6,000 government workers and contractors.

The decommissioned reactor involved in the accident is located within a complex of facilities used for remotely handling, processing and examining spent nuclear fuel, radioactive waste and other irradiated materials.

Sixteen workers were exposed to low-level plutonium radiation when a container holding a plutonium fuel plate was opened in the process of preparing the material for shipment to another facility. Subsequent inspections found that a layer of stainless steel cladding that envelopes the spent nuclear fuel inside the container was defective.

Thirteen of the workers tested positive for actual radioactive contamination, either on their clothing or from nasal swabs, and two of those were found to have inhaled radioactive particles, lab spokesman Ethan Huffman told Reuters.

None has shown any sign of radiation sickness or other ailments, and all 16 returned to the job the next day, though the two who tested positive in lung scans have stayed away from further radiological work while medical evaluations of them continue, Huffman said.

Still, the radiation doses were all believed to be minimal and “we don’t believe there is anything that would be of concern in terms of long-term effects for them,” he said.

The decommissioned reactor has remained closed since the accident amid continuing decontamination efforts, but officials said the radiation release posed no risk to the public.

The exposed workers are all employees of laboratory contractor Battelle Energy Alliance.

Lab director John Grossenbacher issued a statement on Wednesday saying officials there “deeply regret” the incident and promising to improve safety and training programs “and to better understand the hazards of our work.”

The board of investigators said the accident could have been avoided had the lab and Battelle paid more attention to well-documented safety risks posed by the plutonium fuel plates and taken greater precautions.

“Through a review of records, the board found that the probability of encountering damaged plutonium fuel plates is higher than expressed” in existing safety protocols for the reactor, which was decommissioned in 1992, the panel said.

“As a result, workers were at increased risk of exposure to uncontrolled radioactive material,” the safety board said.

Battelle, the report found, had rated the chance of an accident like the one that occurred as “extremely unlikely,” and there was no evidence “that any drill was performed that would have prepared the workforce to respond to an event like the” November 8 mishap.

The panel also faulted the lab for failing to activate its emergency plan sooner to ensure a better-coordinated and timely response. That error “limited the effectiveness of the medical response” and delayed an assessment of how strong a dose of radiation the workers received, the panel said.

The effects of radiation worsen the longer radioactive material remains in the body.

Plutonium is considered more dangerous when inhaled than ingested because particles lodge in the lungs instead of being eliminated by the body, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Republic posted this article January 25th. Click here for original article.

SANTA FE, N.M. — Amid the uncertainty of what House Speaker Ben Lujan‘s Stage 4 lung cancer means for him and his family, one thing is clear in Lujan’s mind: His exposure to asbestos at the Los Alamos National Laboratory from the 1960s to the ’80s is to blame for the dreaded disease.

Lujan said in an interview last week that nothing else makes sense.

“I never was a smoker, and my friend Ray Ruiz also worked up there with me, and he had a similar situation,” Lujan said. “Other than that, I don’t see any other reason for me to have it.”

Ruiz, a former state representative, died in 2004 of lung cancer that he said was caused by his work at LANL.

Both were ironworkers on the Hill, and Lujan said his work involved mixing dry asbestos powder into a wet solution. There was no requirement to wear a face mask or respirator, he said.

The speaker faces a mountainous battle against the disease, which has left him visibly weakened and not running for re-election.

But in that struggle, Lujan is not alone. Many former LANL workers have fought a similar war.

Putting a figure on the number of people with the same condition as Lujan’s is tricky. A LANL spokesman said the lab doesn’t keep that kind of health statistic.

A broader look at overall LANL work-related illness claims, however, shows 10,177 applications for claims have been filed by 3,361 workers as of Jan. 16, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Those claims are for a variety of illnesses and ailments.

The Department of Labor has paid more than $285 million in compensation and medical benefits to LANL workers, according to its website.

Some of those workers have had help filing their claims from the state’s Office of Nuclear Workers’ Advocacy, which Lujan helped fund with a $125,000 appropriation in 2007. The office assists any former or current employee of a site operated by the Department of Energy.

When he pushed for the office, Lujan, who has championed other worker health legislation, said government has a responsibility to help those who worked for the country.

“I believe that it is the duty of the state of New Mexico to advocate and assist nuclear workers who have been exposed to toxic substances, which have adversely affected their bodies, livelihood and quality of life,” he said at the time. “The current system requires lay people to navigate through a difficult bureaucracy.”

Lujan, who was a contract worker on and off at the lab, said he hasn’t given thought to seeking compensation for his illness.

In his announcement about the cancer earlier this week, Lujan said he was “certain” it was caused by exposure to asbestos.

LANL spokesman Kevin Roark said it “would be pure speculation to say anything about a connection between his work here and his current health issues.”

One woman well-versed in the story of former LANL ironworkers who developed lung cancer is Harriet Ruiz, the widow of Ray Ruiz, who worked at the lab in the ’60s and ’70s.

“I believe that it is the duty of the state of  New Mexico  to advocate and assist nuclear workers who have been exposed to toxic substances, which have adversely affected their bodies, livelihood and quality of life,” he said at the time. “The current system requires lay people to navigate through a difficult bureaucracy.”

Harriet Ruiz sat in the audience when Lujan made his announcement earlier this week and immediately knew why the speaker had invited her, despite the fact that she’s been out of politics since 2007. She had been a representative in the House, filling the spot her husband held in the chamber before he died.

“It totally hit home for me. I was devastated,” she said. “It just broke my heart to see Carmen (Lujan, Ben Lujan‘s wife), bless her heart, and the family. I have been there and done that, and it is awful.”

Harriet Ruiz, who pushed for federal legislation that helps compensate workers stricken with cancer, said she’s heard the same story too many times. In her work to get the federal government to more quickly recognize and pay workers whose cancer is connected to their work, she heard countless stories around the country from former Department of Energy workers who are sick.

“It’s the same story over and over again at those DOE sites, and it’s heartbreaking,” she said. “You’d see these little viejitos pulling oxygen tanks behind them, while some of them aren’t that old.”

Loretta Valerio, director of the state’s Nuclear Workers’ Advocacy Office, said the agency has worked with about 500 people on cases, including those that are now closed or resolved. The majority are related to LANL.

“It’s a good program. It has helped a lot of New Mexicans, and it has helped a lot of nuclear workers throughout the country,” she said.

Valerio said the office, which is part of the state’s Environment Department, is the only one of its kind in the country. She gets an average of 100 new clients a year and helps them navigate what can be a challenging maze of paperwork and government requirements.

Depending on the type of illness, the years in which it developed and the paperwork available to document it, workers can receive various levels of compensation — $150,000 in some cases, $250,000 in others and, in some cases, both those amounts.

Along with Lujan, members of the state’s congressional delegation also have fought for those who say they’ve been sickened by work at nuclear facilities.

Sens. Tom Udall and Jeff Bingaman were both key supporters of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000, as was then-Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson. The act compensates those who have become ill from working at energy facilities.

The senators also are supporting a current measure to set up a panel that will look at whether sick employees are getting the support and help they need from the federal government.

In addition, they are behind a move to expand restitution for workers who were sickened by working in uranium mines or living near atomic weapons test sites by expanding the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.

As for Lujan, who first started feeling ill in 2009, he likely won’t work on much more of the legislation he has pushed for in the past.

Instead, he’s spending some of his time at The University of New Mexico Cancer Center — another place he helped fund during his time in office.

For now, he prays something new will come along to wipe out the disease. He has been following developments in medical investigations.

“There’s new technology and products coming out,” he said. “In the area of cancer research, you never know.”

Knox News posted this article January 21st. Click here for original article.

OAK RIDGE — Radium-powered golf balls. Fishing lures that glow in the dark. Atomic potions that add pep to your step and cure all that ails you.

Who knew radiation could be so much fun?

Welcome to what may be the world’s finest collection of nuclear paraphernalia, atomic doodads and just about anything having to do with the history of radiation and radioactivity.

“I’ve reached the point where I’m real happy,” said Dr. Paul Frame, senior health physics instructor at Oak Ridge Associated Universities and founder and curator of what he calls simply The Collection.

“It covers all the bases I wanted to cover, quantitatively and qualitatively,” Frame said. “That is what’s unique about the collection.”

Other historical collections may have more vintage X-ray equipment, early Geiger counters and radiation dosimeters or movie memorabilia with an atomic theme. But the ORAU museum has it all, ranging from the silly to the serious, beneficial to bizarre, rare to ridiculous.

Maybe the only disappointment is that this unusual collection, located at ORAU’s south campus on Bethel Valley Road, isn’t open to the public. The atomic artifacts are used primarily for the Professional Training Program and ORAU’s other educational efforts, and there isn’t the funding or personnel to make it a public exhibit.

Some items date back more than a century, including the handblown glass tubes from the late 1800s and early 1900s. They vividly illustrate the earliest use of X-rays for medical diagnostics and cancer therapy.

Here are some of the many items of interest on display:

* The oldest “pocket dosimeter” in existence. The pioneering device, which measured an individual’s radiation dose, was designed by and hand-built by weapons developer Charlie Lauritsen sometime around 1932.

* Atomic-themed comic books and toys (such as “Atomic Robot Man”) and movie posters from such classics as “The Atomic Monster,” “Operation Uranium,” and “The Man With X-ray Eyes.”

* A shoe-fitting fluoroscope. A machine that took X-rays of a person’s feet to get the proper fit for new shoes. It was a fixture of shoe stores in 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. By the early ’50s, a number of professional safety organizations raised concerns about the radiation exposures to shoe shoppers and salespeople, and fluoroscopes were eventually banned.

* A radioactive roof tile from Hiroshima, Japan.

* A variety of radioactive quack cures, such as Degnen’s Radio-Active Eye Application, circa 1930. These glasses, with radium-226 incorporated into the lenses, were to be worn for five to 10 minutes twice a day to cure eyestrain and just about any other eye problems — farsightedness, nearsightedness and “old sight.”

* Badges and personal items from nuclear pioneers. Those include a slide rule and visitor’s badge belonging to Glenn Seaborg, discoverer of plutonium.

* A “Glowbody” fishing lure. This lure, circa 1920, had a cylinder body that contained a small amount of radium-226 and crystals of zinc sulfide. When an alpha particle from the radioactive material struck the zinc sulfide, it would create a flash of light. This happened over and over again, creating the appearance of a continuous glow.

It was some of the early X-ray items that first caught Frame’s interest back more than 25 years ago and became the start of a collection that just kept growing.

Around 1984, when Frame joined ORAU’s Professional Training Program as an instructor in health physics, the science of radiation protection, he started exploring the labs. He found a bunch of items he thought were neat, and others thought so, too, and soon one of his bosses came up with a case to display things relevant to the course work and other items that were quirky or just interesting to look at.

Oak Ridge, of course, is a treasure trove for everything atomic, and Manhattan Project veterans and others started making donations. More items were purchased from online auctions and antique dealers. The national Health Physics Society contributed funds to help it grow into the definitive collection it is today.

Some artifacts, of course, are radioactive, but Frame tries to keep the radioactive source material down as much as possible. On the website, he tells people he’s not interested in acquiring any more radioluminescent items — such as radium-dial watches — and doesn’t recommend the general public collect these radioactive things either.

While Frame enjoys talking about the items and their origins and telling stories associated with them, he doesn’t like to talk about the value of the collection. In fact, he won’t.

He acknowledges that some items are worth thousands of dollars. In fact, a friend recently donated a 1950s-era “Atomic Energy Lab” for kids. It’s highly collectible with a value of at least $5,000.

Other items are priceless, and Frame emphasizes the worth of the collection cannot be translated into dollars.

“It’s not about the money,” he said.

The Cibola Beacon released this article. Click here for original story.

CIBOLA COUNTY – Sometimes good, sometimes bad. That is what best describes the possibility of the area’s resumption of uranium production.

Today, things are looking good. The price per pound is up. In the most recent Pay Dirt, a magazine that serves the mining industry in the western United States, the spot price for uranium ore rose to about $73 per pound. However, following the tsunami disaster in Japan, which affected the nuclear industry world wide, the price dropped to less than $55 per pound. As of last week, uranium ore was approximately $55 per pound, according to Uranium Resources Industries Vice President Mathew Lueras.

“Things are looking positive,” said Lueras. “The target date for production is mid-2013.

We currently have a favorable state regulatory environment,” he emphasized in regard to the state’s new administration. “We are moving forward within the boundaries set by the state. We have every reason to believe that we will be successful,” he added.

At $55 per pound, Lueras said URI can be profitable.

It appears URI will be the first in decades to extract uranium. Section Eight at Church Rock will also be the first site for in-situ uranium mining in the state. The uranium industry had undergone some court processes because the Church Rock site was identified as ‘Indian Country.’ However, an appeal by URI was ruled in favor of the company, meaning URI did not have to follow federal Environmental Protection Agency process but just has to follow the state’s standards. “Now that all the court stuff is out of the way things are moving along very well,” said Lueras.

The Church Rock mine means 100 to 150 jobs. “We are currently looking for financial support and scheduling workshops – updating and preparing workers for construction and production,” Lueras said.

Following Section Eight’s opening, the company is looking at opening another in-situ mine at Section 17.

The company will be allowed to extract one million pounds the first three years, giving it time to prove standards will be met. When that happens the company will have the opportunity to bump production up to three million pounds per year.

The Church Rock mine Section 8 is approximately 80 miles from Grants.

Currently, URI is undergoing its feasibility study.

Lastly, Lueras said, “Our interest is sustainable long term production . . . 101 million pounds of ore will take a long time to extract.”

URI has the right to 101 million pounds of uranium in this area and one-half million pounds in Texas. However, the uranium ore in Texas can be extracted fast and is less quality than the ore in this area, according to a company spokesman.

The company’s Texas plant shut down in 2009 due to the uranium market price but is currently undergoing restoration for production.

Nonetheless, mining companies in the area today are optimistic because the price per pound is steadily rising and the state’s regulatory process is favorable.

The Washington Post released this article January 19th, click here for original story.

A 22-month review released last month by the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering said uranium could be mined, but that Virginia Uranium, the company seeking to mine its site in Southside, would have to protect workers, the public and the environment in Virginia, which has no experience unearthing radioactive element.

The study failed to address the site — a largely rural 200-acre swath — or recommend whether it should be mined. Critics argue that the study was tainted because the company, Virginia Uranium, picked up the $1.42 million cost. The state’s Coal and Energy Commission, which ordered the study, will review the findings and is expected to recommend to the General Assembly whether Virginia should lift the ban.

Many in Richmond expected the study to provide conclusions supportive of lawmakers seeking to lift the ban, but the report instead struck more of a cautionary tone. It also outlined ways mining could be conducted in the state.

Join us for an important town hall meeting to address:

• The expansion of the Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) status
• Learn if you qualify for benefits including $150,000
• Learn about no-cost medical benefit options
• Is your voice being heard in Washington D.C.?

Meeting Time:  Thursday, January 19th at 9:00 am

Meeting Location:

Ambassador Hotel —

San Jacinto Room

3100 W Interstate 40

Amarillo, TX 79102

View Map

Contact Cold War Patriots for more information:

• 888-903-8989 • info@coldwarpatriots.org • coldwarpatriots.org

Join us for an important town hall meeting to address:

• The expansion of the Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) status
• Learn if you qualify for benefits including $150,000
• Learn about no-cost medical benefit options
• Is your voice being heard in Washington D.C.?

Meeting Time:  Wednesday, January 18th at 1:00 pm

Meeting Location:

Ambassador Hotel —

San Jacinto Room

3100 W Interstate 40

Amarillo, TX 79102

View Map

Contact Cold War Patriots for more information:

• 888-903-8989 • info@coldwarpatriots.org • coldwarpatriots.org