September 13, 2012 - Japan Daily Press -
Fukushima Update: First child with thyroid cancer reported - The first case of thyroid cancer in a child hailing from Fukushima has been reported. The report is significant because it’s the first after the nuclear power plant meltdown and radiation leaks caused by last year’s disaster. The Fukushima Prefectural Government panel claims that the child is not affected due to the radiation from the nuclear crisis. A meeting of the eight-member panel discussed the findings and are apparently screening the residents at regular intervals. The thyroid gland screening for 360,000 residents includes children who were 18-years or younger on March 11, 2011. So far around 80,000 residents have been screened and gone through medical checkups. Details about the child like the age and gender were not disclosed, in order to protect their privacy. According to Shinichi Suzuki, a professor at Fukushima Medical University, who is responsible for performing the medical checks, says that there is no confirmed link between cancer diagnosis and radiation leakage. Apparently unlike Hiroshima and Nagasaki or even Chernobyl, no radiation exposure – either internal or external was experienced by the residents. In any case, the Chernobyl victims displayed signs of cancer, only four years after the exposure. The professor elaborated that it takes five to six years before abnormality in chromosomes caused by radiation develops into thyroid cancer. Only then does it grow to a size that is detectable by medical checks.
September 13, 2012 - CBS 7 - Midland County Sheriff's Office Searching for Missing Radioactive Rod - Today at about 8:45 a.m. The Midland County Sheriff’s Office was notified reference possible lost or stolen equipment identified as a radioactive rod used in the oilfield. Yesterday morning a truck left Midland at about 5:00 a.m. enroute to a well site in southern Reeves County. The rod (normally under lock and key on the truck) was placed in the well bore and retrieved after the job was completed. The truck then left the site northbound on Texas 18 to I-20, east to FM 1788 in Midland County then south to a location about 20 miles inside Upton County. Upon arrival to the site in Upton County the crew discovered the radioactive rod was missing. A search has been conducted using Geiger counters and numerous personnel to no avail. The silver rod is 7 inches long and 1 inch across and has "Danger-Radioactive" stamped in red on the side and has a brass bolt screwed in one end. The rod contains Americium Beryllium 241 and is not dangerous when touched but can be hazardous if held in bare hands or carried in a pocket for a continuous length of time ( about 2 days). Continuous contact can cause radiation poisoning. If located please do not touch. Call the Midland County Sheriff’s Office at 432-688-4600 or the nearest law enforcement agency.
September 13, 2012 - Nuclear Street - Peach Bottom Nuclear Plant Reports Steam Leak, Worker Radiation Exposure - Workers refueling Exelon's Peach Bottom unit 2 were exposed to low levels of radiation following a steam leak Tuesday. They had been disassembling the reactor head vent when steam escaped from a flange at about 1 a.m., according to a report filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Radiation was contained to the building, where it was detected by monitors. Speaking to the York Daily Record, an NRC spokesman said that 51 of 138 people working in the area did not immediately clear radiation monitors. Seven then cleared them after changing clothes and showering. Seventeen recorded doses less than 10 millirems and 27 recorded doses above 10 millirems, with one worker receiving a dose of 173 millirems. The exposure limit for nuclear workers is 5,000 millirems per year. The NRC spokesman indicated workers encountered higher-than-expected levels of water, which flashed to steam when contacting a steam dryer. The unit near Lancaster, Pa., is a General Electric Type 4 boiling water reactor first licensed in 1973, according to the agency.
September 12, 2012 - Sun Herald - South Mississippi hospitals say their nuclear materials are secure - The Government Accountability Office released a report Monday that said a number of medical facilities across the United States need higher security on their radioactive materials. The GAO is concerned terrorists could get hold of the materials used to treat cancer to make a dirty bomb.What does this mean for Coast hospitals?Representatives for cancer centers run by The Singing River Health System and Memorial Hospital at Gulfport said their systems are secure.Heath Thompson, vice president of ancillary services at Singing River Health System, said all radioactive material is kept in hot labs that are secured through a locked door and then a coded door whose code is changed frequently."It's tightly governed and only key personnel are allowed access," Thompson said.He said the radiology department is a 24-hour operation, so it is never left unattended. The American College of Radiology inspects it once a year to ensure it complies with security requirements.Thompson said any nuclear medicine needing to be moved out of the department is put into a lead-lined container and transported by a nuclear-medicine technologist.
September 12, 2012 - Asahi Shimbun - Thyroid tests for Fukushima children find no effects from accident - The first round of thyroid tests for about 80,000 children in Fukushima Prefecture found no direct effects from last year's accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Although one child was found to have thyroid cancer, specialists said there was likely no link to the nuclear accident since thyroid cancer only develops four to five years after exposure to radiation. The Fukushima prefectural government on Sept. 11 reported the results of thyroid tests for about 80,000 subjects that had been compiled as of Aug. 24 to a committee looking into the health checks of prefectural residents. A total of 425 individuals were found to have either a lump of 5.1 millimeters or larger or a cyst of 2.1 centimeters or larger and were told to undergo further tests. Of those individuals, further tests were conducted on 38 individuals, and one was found to have thyroid cancer while 27 were diagnosed as having a benign tumor. Citing privacy concerns, Fukushima prefectural government officials did not reveal any details about the individual diagnosed with thyroid cancer, including gender, age, symptoms and future treatment plans.
September 12, 2012 - Center for Public Integrity - How an 82-year old exposed security lapses at nuclear facilities - The hammering on the wall of America’s premier storage vault for nuclear-weapons grade uranium in pitch-darkness six weeks ago was loud enough to be heard by security guards. But they assumed incorrectly that workmen were making an after-hours repair, and blithely ignored it. Minutes earlier, a perimeter camera had caught an image of intruders – not workmen -- breaching an eight-foot high security fence around the sensitive facility outside Knoxville, Tenn. But the guard operating the camera had missed it. A different camera stationed over another fence – also breached by the intruders -- was out of service, a defect the protective force had ignored for 6 months. In theory, the pounding might have been the work of a squad of terrorists preparing to plant a powerful explosive in the wall of the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility (HEUMF), a half-billion dollar vault that stores the makings of more than 10,000 nuclear bombs. Instead, it was a group of three peace activists, including an 82-year old nun, armed only with flashlights, binoculars, bolt cutters, bread, flowers, a Bible, and several hammers.
September 12, 2012 - RT - Nuke disposal plans seem too shaky in seismic Japan - High levels of seismic activity in Japan threaten plans for the underground storage of spent nuclear fuel and toxic radioactive waste. Calls for a temporary storage facility have sparked fears that the problem is being passed to future generations. The Science Council of Japan (SCJ) has issued a recommendation calling on the government to revoke its plans for an underground burial site for nuclear waste, urging instead for the construction of temporary storage facilities. Scientists believe that Japan’s geological instability coupled with high levels of seismic and volcanic activity would be a constant threat to the disposal site. The SCJ recommends that Tokyo construct temporary underground or aboveground storage facilities where nuclear waste cylinders can be easily removed and transported, and be safely house for decades or centuries. This would allow researchers time to study the stability of Japan’s geological formations, while simultaneously developing techniques to better reduce radioactivity in nuclear waste, the recommendation said. "Based on the current scientific knowledge, we cannot determine a geological formation that would be stable for periods of hundreds of thousands of years," Japan Times Online cited Harutoshi Funabashi as saying. Funabashi is a professor at Hosei University, and was involved in creating the SCJ’s proposal. "And in that case the best possible option is temporary storage," he said.