May 1, 2012 - Latin American Herald Tribune -
Radioactive Material Stolen in Brazil - A vehicle carrying a capsule filled with radioactive material was stolen over the weekend in Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian police said. Armed men intercepted the vehicle, which belonged to an industrial maintenance firm, on the highway that links Rio to Sao Paulo. The vehicle’s occupants warned the robbers about the presence of the potentially dangerous cargo, police said. The stolen vehicle was transporting Selenium-75, a radioactive substance with industrial applications, the maintenance firm said. Inside the capsule, the material poses no risk, but a leak of the Selenium-75 could have serious effects for human health and the environment, authorities said. Officials fear a repeat of what happened in the central state of Goiania in 1987, when a scavenger forced open a capsule of Cesium-137 that a clinic illegally discarded at a dump. Four people died and dozens were sickened in Brazil’s worst-ever accident involving radioactive material.
May 1, 2012 - Science Codex - Experts write on the risks of low-level radiation - Each time a release of radioactivity occurs, questions arise and debates unfold on the health risks at low doses—and still, just over a year after the disaster at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Station, unanswered questions and unsettled debates remain. Now a special issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, published by SAGE, examines what is new about the debate over low-dose radiation risk, specifically focusing on areas of agreement and disagreement, including quantitative estimates of cancer risk as radiation dose increases, or what is known as the linear non-threshold theory (LNT). The issue, which includes essays written by the top experts in their fields, does not claim to put the argument to rest—however, it does provide an indispensible update of the existing literature. As Jan Beyea, guest editor and nuclear physics and epidemiology expert, says: "The reader will be ready to join the debate armed with a broad-based view of the epidemiologic evidence and its differing interpretations, along with an awareness of the stakeholder and researcher landscape." Beyea personally contributes to the issue and deconstructs the low-level radiation debate, unpacking all its parts and illuminating what deserves more attention and scrutiny.
May 1, 2012 - Iowa City Owl - Iowa Department of Public Health Lacks Funds to Conduct Radon Testing - Recent investigations have shown that the Iowa Department of Public Health has not been doing radon testing, as demanded by law, due to lack of funds. State legislation demands that the Iowa Department of Health conduct radon testing and inspect radon-removal systems from basements in homes, due to Radon's radioactivity and health hazard to humans when inhaled. These tests have not been done in hundreds of homes recently. Radon is an odorless and colorless gas that is usually found in the basement of a home, after seeping in from the ground. It is classified as a class A carcinogen, because it is found to kill nearly 400 people in Iowa each year. Other carcinogens in this category include more well-known hazards like arsenic and asbestos. Radon can be breathed in when a person enters a basement that contains the odorless and colorless gas, which causes lung cancer and damage to the DNA. It is a major concern because Radon is thought to be the second leading cause of lung cancer death. People rarely survive lung cancer contracted from radon. Even though radon is such a dangerous material, the Iowa Department of Public Health still does not conduct as many tests as demanded by law and needed according to the amount of homes in Iowa City.
May 1, 2012 - Today's Sunbeam - 'Unusual event' declared at Salem 1 nuclear reactor after plant automatically shuts down - An "unusual event" was declared at the Salem 1 nuclear reactor here this morning after the plant shut down and fire alarms sounded, a spokesman for the plant’s operator said. An unusual event is the least serious of four emergency classifications at a nuclear power plant. Salem 1 automatically shut down at 10:15 a.m., according to Joe Delmar, spokesman for the reactor’s operator, PSEG Nuclear. According to Delmar what caused the reactor to trip remains under investigation, but testing was occurring on the reactor’s emergency cooling system at the time. After the reactor shutdown, multiple fire alarms sounded, according to Delmar.
May 1, 2012 - Fox 31 - Firefighters get active about radio actives - Everyday Albany firefighters put their lives on the line to protect the community, but before they can do that, they have to have training. Monday they received specialized training in radioactive materials. Items containing radioactivity are shipped all around the world for many purposes and there's the possibility that if an accident occurs, the public may be in danger. "It has happened in Albany once before and it dealt with Radio pharmaceuticals," says instructor David Lewis. Although this doesn't happen often, firefighters are trained to know what type of radioactive materials there are and how to tell if they pose a threat or not. "What it's going to do is prepare them in the event of an incident for how to respond to that incident and what to do upon arrival and what to do as the incident progresses," says Eugene Anderson, Albany Fire Department Training Captain. Trainees went over the protocol for judging materials. "The package type will give them direct indication as to what type of hazard that material poses to them as emergency responders," says David Lewis.