Drug Stockpiled for Nuclear Fallout.

    This file created on July 11, 2003 is a Volume III continuation of the original website at http://www.mazzaroth.com/ChapterEight/RecentNews1996On.htm and http://www.mazzaroth.com/ChapterFive/WhyAriesIsTheTenthDay.htm regarding the subject of Drug Stockpiled for Nuclear Fallout.

Nuclear Waste and Drugs
Toxic Radioactive Dust, Nuclear testing, Waste Storage,
Iodine-131, beryllium, plutonium, uranium, trichloroethylene (TCE),
Artillery shells and bombs, lung illness, thyroid cancer,
Biological and Chemical Agents
Sarin, Anthrax.

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• 3/29/1999 - Paper says U.S. condoned overexposure to toxic dust.
      Toledo, Ohio - For five decades the U.S. government risked the lives of thousands of workers by knowingly allowing them to be exposed to dangerous levels of beryllium, a metal critical to the military, but resulting in disease, an incurable and sometimes fatal lung illness.
• 4/16/1999 - Radioactive material tie to gulf illness rebutted.
      Washington -- A report released by the Pentagon indicates that exposure to a radioactive material in the persian Gulf war is unlikely to have caused the complaints from veterans whose illnesses are unexplained eight years after the war.    The Rand Corp., a Santa Monica Calif., think tank, found no evidence of harmful effects directly linked to exposure to depleted uranium, which is used in U.S. artillery shells and bombs designed to penetrate tank armor.    The shells create an airborne dust on impact.
• 8/22/1999 - Worker's bones contaminated with uranium - Remains of man suggest hazards at Paducah plant - by Joby Warrick, The Washington Post.
      The exhumed bones of a long-dead uranium worker Joseph Harding, who died of cancer in 1980, support current employees' claims from a lawsuit in 1983 of dangerous exposure inside a government-owned Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Paducah, Ky., that supplied radioactive fuel for the nation's nuclear bombs.    His bones contained levels up to 133 times higher than is normally found in bones.    This may also have occurred at a sister K-25 plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and a third facility in Ohio.    Since 1950-1970, lab technicians were unaware of the presence of plutonium, which is more radioactive than uranium, and did not test for it.    These plants were owned by the federal government and operated by corporate contractors: Union Carbide from 1950-1980, followed by Martin Marietta and Lockheed Martin Corp., who are targets of the lawsuit.
• 10/17/1999 - Scenes from an atomic desert - The legacy of nuclear testing - by Todd Lewan, The Associated Press.
      Nevada Test Site -- April 6, 1953, the day the desert died, as an Air Force B-50 bomber on a secret mission: Operation Upshot-Knothole, dropped an atomic bomb the size of a Studebaker.    For decades there was no place for life on Frenchman Flat, whose size is larger than Rhode Island, and the nuclear test site for 928 bombs.    After 1963 they were all underground tests, but for 12 years the fallout drifted far and wide, all the way to New York, contaminating milk, wheat, soil and fish, killing sheep, horse and cattle.    Every American in the Lower 48 was exposed to iodine-131, a radiactive form of iodine, releases 10 times larger than those from the 1986 explosion at Chernobyl.
  
  
• January 30, 2000 - Report links nukes, illness - U.S. admits weapons workers suffered - by Lura Frank, Staff Writer, Gannett
      After decades of claiming nuclear weapons workers were safe from harm, the federal government now says its own records show those workers have suffered illness, cancer and early deaths because of their work on behalf of the nation's defense.
      Exposure to radiation and chemicals at weapons production and research sites across the nation has resulted in cancer and other health problems, concludes the "historic" draft report of a review ordered last July by President Clinton.    It found "significant evidence that these workers have suffered material impairment of health as a result of performing their duties in the production of nuclear weapons."    It is the first time the government has openly acknowledged widespread harm to workers.
      The draft report shows increased rates of various cancers at 14 weapons sites nationwide.    It also says government data, including some new and some previously unpublished information, show increased rates of such ailments as respiratory disease and neurological problems.
      The agencies reviewed more than 40 worker health studies at the sites, where some 600,000 people have worked since World War II.    At the time, officials at the U.S. Department of Energy, which owns the sites, credited ill workers at the Oak Ridge nuclear reservation in East Tennessee with bringing the issue to the public's attention.
      "I can't believe it," said Janet Michel of Oak Ridge, one of more than 400 nuclear weapons workers suffering.    "Are we going to be vindicated finally?    It's not just us saying it now.    The big question is, what are they going to do about it?"
      Energy Secretary Bill Richardson was out of the country yesterday with Clinton in Davos, Switzerland at an economic forum and could not be reached for comment.    Another official claimed that the agencies will review ill workers' previous compensation battles even back to the mid-1960s and then move to developing a national policy about whom to help and how.    The administration has asked agencies, working under the umbrella of the White House's National Economic Council, for policy recommendations by March 31.
      "It was easy to pass the buck in the past," since this was an issue of liability or a threat to the production of nuclear weapons, the official said.    Robert Alvarez, a former senior DOE policy adviser who helped organize the review of DOE health studies, and Richard Miller, a political analyst with the union representing nuclear workers, lauded the draft report that addressed the problem.    We have finally come to terms with the legacy of the Cold War.
      Fifty workers at Oak Ridge are under review, as is the sister plant in Paducah, Ky., who government officials have admitted were unwittingly exposed to plutonium and develop certain types of cancer, also nuclear workers with lung disease related to beryllium, a metal used in atomic weapons, another possible site is Rocky Flats outside of Denver.
  
• February 6, 2000 - Workers used in uranium experiments
      Paducah, Ky. -- Contamination at Paducah Plant, the Energy Department report said some workers.    "Consequently, worker radiation exposures were high and some workers may have been exposed to hazards that were not adequately monitored or understood."    "The implementation of the radiological protection program at (Paducah) was very inconsistent between 1952 and 1989."    Wholesale pollution of the air, ground and water in and around the plant -- and in qunatities that may have been significantly under-reported -- may have exposed area residents to radiation hazards.
  
  • A TOXIC HISTORY - contamination hazards both on and off site between 1952-1990:
    
    • Some highly toxic radioactive materials then classified were not even acknowledged.
    • Safety training was lax.
    • Protection was inadequate or nonexistent.
    • Families of workers may have been exposed in their own homes from contaminated clothing.
    • Accidents exposed workers and public to radioactivce and chemical hazards without proper investigation.
    • Uranium contaminated smoke, steam and gas were emitted from stacks into the open air secretly at night.
    • Certain buildings workers were exposed to unplanned releases and leaks of radioactive gases and hazardous chemicals such as hydrofluric acid.
    • In 1980 radiologically contaminated scrap was being obtained by the public and taken from the site.
    • Companies such as Lockheed Martin Corp. and Martin Marietta Corp, former plant operators, had profited by lying to the government about the extent of environmental pollution around the plant.
    • Plant activity was limited and classified during the Cold War against the then-Soviet Union as a justification to their activity.
  • THE EXPERIMENTS - Records are hazy on some details in the mid-1950s, at least 14 workers were part of experiments testing the effectiveness of respirators in radioactive dust, gas and smoke.    It is not know whether they volunteered or were uninformed.    Research such as this was done at the University of Rochester on animal ingestion of substances such as uranium fluoride, known as green salt.
  • RADIATION DOSES - Dangerous substances found at high levels and many workers were not told for years of the presence of some substances, such as highly radioactive neptunium, because it was classified.    Also officials knew plutonium was at the facility in 1953, an estimated 328 grams (11.5 ounces) present in about 89,000 metric tons of uranium fed into the plant.    A very small amount (2/100th of an ounce) of plutonium can kill.    There were two cases of workers' urine testing positive for plutonium in 1953, and two in 1968.    In 1980, a survey found 83 percent of the seats in the plant's theater were contaminated and half in the lunchrooms.    This was not properly monitored till 1986.
  • AIRBORNE POLLUTION - Tons of uranium released into the air, an estimated 132,000 pounds of uranium (66 tons) were released into the air between 1952 and 1990, and there were no monitoring of stack emissions until 1975.    It has been estimated that between 1956 and 1970, a uranium recovery process discharged into the environment about 6.7 ounces of plutonium and almost 9 pounds of neptunium.
• May 10, 2000 - Beryllium disease up among Y-12 workers
      OAK RIDGE -- As more Department of Energy workers come forward, the number of confirmed cases of beryllium disease is growing, health officials say.
      "It seems the more we test, the more we're going to find -- particularly at Y-12," Dr. Donna Cragle, director of epidemiology for Oak Ridge Associated Universities, said of the nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge.
      Of 2,443 current or former Y-12 workers tested since 1993, there have been 89 confirmed cases of beryllium sensitivity.    That includes 35 cases of chronic beryllium disease, up from 29 cases a year ago.
      Chronic beryllium disease is an incurable and sometimes fatal respiratory ailment resulting from exposure to the lightweight metal used in nuclear bombs.
      Though Cragle's team has been conducting DOE-sponsored beryllium screenings for years, interest has increased recently following a decision by the Clinton administration to compensate some 3,000 beryllium disease sufferers.
  
  
• January 3, 2002 - Drug stockpiled for nuclear fallout
      WASHINGTON -- The federal government recently bought 1.6 million doses of a drug that protects against certain kinds of radioactive fallout and will buy at least 6 million additional doses in the coming year to create a national stockpile, the Department of Health and Human Services said yesterday.    The drug is usefull if taken within a few hours of exposure to radioactive iodine, one product of a nuclear reactor.
• February 6, 2002 - Nuclear panel buys anti-cancer drug
      NEWARK, NJ -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has signed a $1 million contract to buy up to 6 million doses of a drug that could help prevent thyroid cancer in the event of a terriost attack on a nuclear power plant.
      The two-year contract with Anbex Inc. of Branchville, N.J., to supply potassium iodide pills was approved Feb. 1, comission spokeswoman Rosetta Virgilio said yesterday.
      The deal is in addition to the Department of Health and Human Services' purchase in December of 1.6 million doses of potassium iodide.
      One tablet is believed to protect an adult's thyroid gland for about 24 hours from the radioactive iodine that could be released in a reactor accident.
  
• 2/16/2002 - Bush approves nuclear waste site - Government plans to bury 77,000 tons in Nevada desert - by Eric Pianin, The Washington Post.
      Washington -- President Bush authorized construction of a huge, centralized site for nuclear waste storage 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas (which is in the general area of the previous article), saying that the long-debated project was essential to the future of nuclear power and national security.    Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham's proposed project beneath Yucca Mountain is "scientifically sound and suitable" and would enhance protection against terrorist attacks by consolidating the waste in an underground desert tomb.    This is the first time that a president has settled on a site to bury 77,000 tons of the country's nuclear waste.    Some 2,000 tons of nuclear waste is generated every year, but stored in 131 aboveground facilities in 39 states.    Nevada officials fear that the waste cannot be stored safely at the site without ground water eventually being contaminated.    Transporting the waste through 43 states is another issue.
• 7/7/2002 - Nuclear waste dump fight focuses on risk from water by Seth Borenstein, Knight Ridder News Services.
      Yucca mountain, Nev. -- U.S. Senate will open debate to approve President Bush's $58 billion plan and choice of Yucca Mountain as the nation's dumpsite for 154 million pounds of radioactive nuclear waste that will remain radioactive for millions of years.    Questions remain as to is the site watertight, in an area that was formed by a volcano millions of years ago.    Yucca would not start accepting waste until 2015, then for 24 years, and monitored for 300 years before being sealed off.
• 7/7/2002 - Amount of radioactive waste bigger every year by H. Josef Hebert, The Associated Press.
      Washington -- Every year the country's commercial power plants generate 2,000 tons of spent reactor fuel, creating a pile of highly radioactive waste that has grown to 45,000 tons.    Yucca's future, if approved will be filled with waste over 24 years beginning in 2010.    Ninety percent of the waste will come from commercial power plants and ten percent from defense programs.    Anticipated growth in spent fuel from commercial reactors in tons: 2002 (49,500), 2005 (57,200), 2010 (68,200), 2034 (121,000), according to the U.S. Department of Energy and Nuclear Energy Institute.
• 11/1/2002 - Pentagon sheds light on secret weapons tests by Matt Kelley, The Associated Press.
      Washington - The military secretly tested the nerve agent sarin in Hawaii in the Upper Waiakea Forest Reserve in 1967 and called "Red Oak, the Pentagon acknowledged in the latest disclosures about Cold War-era testing of biological and chemical weapons.    Other secret tests in Hawaii in 1966 and in the Panama Canal Zone in 1963, released a germ meant as a harmless stand-in for the Bacillus globigii bacteria, which is related to Bacillus anthracis germ that causes anthrax, the Defense Department said.    A 1966 experiment in an undisclosed "tropical jungle type enviroment" involved spraying tear gas on unprotected U.S. military volunteers.
      The Defense Department released summaries of five chemical and biological weapons tests called Project 112.    Testing done on Navy ships were called Project SHAD or Shipboard Hazard and Defense.    The personnel involved are suffering health problems linked to their exposure.    Sarin is the deadly nerve agent used in a 1995 terrorist attack on the Tokyo subway system that killed a dozen people, with a thrashing, choking death.
  
  
• 7/14/2003 - Paducah plant employees get medical testing - Government pays for screening for variety of ills - by The Associated Press.
      Paducah, Ky. -- James "Smoothy" Wilkerson is thankful for his $150,000 share of the more tham $110 million paid to compensate sick Paducah nuclear workers at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.    He has had part of his lung removed to fight against a tumor growth.    Over 1,760 Paducah workers and retirees have been screened.    This was also done at the closed enrichment plants in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and Piketon, Ohio.    About 12 percent of the tested Paducah workers have indications of asbestos exposure, 15 percent have chronic bronchitis or emphysema and 70 percent have hearing loss.    Around 28 to 34 workers with chronic beryllium disease may qualify for $150,000 compensation.
• 10/16/2003 - Congress OKs funds to benefit ill nuclear weapons workers by Nancy Zuckerbrod, The Associated Press.
      Washington - Congress gave the Energy Department the OK to spend an extra $10 million in addition to $16 million to improve a much-criticized program aimed at helping thousands of sick nuclear weapons workers in Kentucky (Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant has most of the claims) and elsewhere (8 other states) get compensation.    Many were exposed to toxins while working for Energy Department contractors, and most are dealing with a seven-year backlog for medical experts to determine that illnesses are job-related.    The department use to help contractors fight claims.    These workers were sickened by cancer-causing radiation or silica or beryllium, which cause lung diseases.    Obvious is that there is no crime involved here.
• 11/4/2003 - Energy agency sued over cleanup at nuclear plant - Families claim state penalties were lax, illegal - by James Malone, The Courier-Journal.
      Three families living near the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant have filed a lawsuit in Franklin Circuit Court that asks a judge to set aside two orders the Kentucky Natural Resources Cabinet signed (Oct. 2) with the U.S. Department of Energy to resolve a number of hazardous-waste violations at the 50-year-old uranium-enrichment plant.    There were no public notice and no public comment taken on it.    It was designed to allocated to complete most of the Paducah cleanup by 2019.    Years of Cold War weapons production at the Paducah plant resulted in the discharge of solvents, heavy metals and radioactive isotopes into the air, soil and water around the plant.    The cleanup, begun a decade ago, is expected to cost more than $5 billion.    Kentucky, meantime, is competing with Ohio for a new uranium-enrichment plant using a different technology.    The government also is building a plant at Paducah to convert depleted uranium into safer and marketable materials.    The plant contained 43,000 cylinders of depleted uranium.
• 11/20/2003 - Paducah cleanup funds approved - Cleanup figure at plant nears $1 billion since 1990 - by James R. Carroll, The Courier-Journal.
      Washington - The cost of federal efforts since 1990 to clean up the Paducah uranium plants approaching $1 billion now that Congress has approved another $181.8 million for the effort, which will go to President Bush for signing.    Completing the cleanup will require 16 years, and billions more dollars.    Set aside was $57 million to stabilize 38,000 cylinders of uranium hexafluride (500,000 tons) into a safer form for long-term storage.    The construction of a treatment facility will start next spring and take two years to build, but the actual treatment work could take 25 years.    Other areas of concern are the removal of 29,000 tons of scrap metal, including some radioactively contaminated pieces that will go to the Nevada Test Site for disposal.    Also a way to remove contamination from a degreasing solvent known as trichloroethylene, known as TCE, in the ground water and soil.
• 12/23/2003 - Judge rules against Army anthrax vaccines - Pentagon told soldiers not to be used as 'guinea pigs' - by Pauline Jelinek, The Associated Press.
      Washington - U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered the Pentagon to stop the mandatory anthrax vaccinations first ordered in 1998 using American soldiers as "guinea pigs for experimental drugs."    More than 900,000 servicemen and women have received the shots to protect troops against disease and bioterror threats.    Hundreds have been punished or discharged for refusing them.    The problem is the label on the vaccine does not specify which method of anthrax exposure it protects against.    A 1998 law prohibits this unless people are given the drug consent to its use or the president waves the consent requirement.    Congress passed this law amid fears that the use of such drugs may have led to unexplained illnesses -- which have come to be known as Gulf War Syndrome - among veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
      I understand their concern, when I was in the Air Force in the 70s, we were marched to some building on the base, and like a bunch of cows herded through a corral, were given shots, without even knowing what was given to us.
  
  
• 1/5/2004 - Paducah plant suit dismissed by U.S. judge - McKinley: There was no evidence that uranium output posed hazard - by Associated Press
      Paducah, Ky. - U.S. District Judge Joseph McKinley has dismissed a lawsuit filed in 1997 against former operators Union Carbide and Lockheed Martin of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant by nearby residents who claimed their land was contaminated.    The plaintiff claimed decades of pollution from the uranium-enrichment plant devalued their property and harmed plants, crops, livestock and wildlife on their land.    The government had sampled groundwater monitoring wells on their property but had not provided them with results.    They claim a plume of groundwater containing trichloroethylene, a hazardous solvent, flows under their land, making the water unusable.    In the mid-1990s, the federal government paid to extend municipal waterlines to homes around the plant, as a precautionary measure.
• 1/29/2004 - Proposed nuclear safety rules stir debate by Nancy Zuckerbrod, Associated Press
      Washington - The Bush administration is moving to replace safety requirements for more than two dozen federal nuclear weapons plants and research labs, 100,000 workers, with standards written by contractors.    Among the plants in question is the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
• 2/5/2004 - Nuclear workers exposed to toxic metal - Beryllium results surprise manager of two plants - by James Malone, The Courier-Journal
      Paducah, Ky. - At least 65 current and former workers at the Energy Department's gaseous diffusion plant in Kentucky and Ohio have been exposed to beryllium, a toxic metal that can be fatal.    Health screenings at Paducah have found one worker with chronic beryllium disease and five workers who have developed a sensitivity to it, and also eight workers at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio, have chronic beryllium disease and 10 are sensitive to it.
      The Energy Department has never acknowledged the use of beryllium in production equipment at either plants, but are now taking it seriously.    Beryllium dust can settle in the lungs, causing serious respiratory illness and, in severe cases, death.    The maximum amount of allowable exposure for workers over eight hours is 0.002 milligrams per cubic meter - the equivalent of something about the size of a pencil point distributed around a footbal field covered by a 6-foot-high box.
      U.S. Energy Department officials said that aluminum blades were discovered last month to contain beryllium.    Workers had suspected since the mid-1990s that the metal was at the plant because higher than normal concentrations of the substance had been found in soil and water samples taken nearby.
• 2/19/2004 - Planned nuclear dump could leak, expert says by Associated Press
      The nation's nuclear waste dump proposed for Nevada is poorly designed and storage canisters could leak highly radioactive waste, said Paul Craig, a physicist and engineering professor at the Universiy of California-Davis.    Yucca Mountain, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is expected to begin receiving waste in 2010.    Some 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste at commercial and military sites in 39 states would be stored in metal canisters underground.
• 3/7/2004 - U.S. lags in recovering uranium on loan - 12 nations might not participate in return program - by Joel Brinkley and William J. Broad, The New York Times
      Washington - As the United States presses Iran and other countries to shut down their nuclear weapons development programs, the U.S. is making little effort to recover large quantities of weapons-grade uranium - enough to make roughly 1,000 nuclear bombs - that the government dispersed to 43 countries over the last several decades.    Iran and Pakistan received some of this, and it turns out that Pakistan had secretly sold uranium and nuclear technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea.    This has been done since the 1950s under the Eisenhower administration to help other countries develop nuclear energy facilities or pursue scientific or medical initiatives, through 1988.    Only 5,700 pounds of 38,500 pounds has been recovered.    The Bush administration is now worried that terrorist organizations such as al-Qaida are trying to obtain nuclear materials to make a bomb, which only takes about 22 pounds.    Among these countries who received this are Iran, Pakistan, Israel, Mexico, Jamaica and South Africa.
• 3/12/2004 - Ex-nuclear dump worker sues, says dust was toxic by Associated Press
      Las Vega, NV. - A former tunnel worker at the nation's nuclear waste dump in the Nevada desert sued Bechtel Corp. and its Nevada subsidiaries on the Yucca Mountain project, claiming they deliberately exposed employees to toxic dust at the Yucca Mountain project.   
• 3/31/2004 - Just one sick nuclear worker gets compensation by Nancy Zuckerbrod, Associated Press
      Washington - It's been nearly four years since Congress passed a law to help sick nuclear weapons workers at sites such as the one in Paducah.    Only one unidentified worker from Washington state has received $15,000 in compensation.    The Energy agency says it needs more time and funds waiting on an additional $33 million on top of the $26 million already budgeted.    At present 22,000 have filed for help, 372 - less than 2 percent have been notified whether their illnesses are thought to be job related.    Those determined to be exposed to cancer-causing radiation will be paid $150,000 plus medical expenses or their survivors.
• 5/13/2004 - Agency has trouble getting employees' radiation data by Nancy Zuckerbrod, Associated Press
      Washington - The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health says it is having a hard time getting data on how much exposure to radiation some Cold War-era nuclear weapons plant workers may have received in order to process some 15,000 compensation claims.    Many of the records are missing, or unusable, or the sites are closed, and the secrecy of the nature of the work was not documented.    NIOSH has determined levels of radiation exposure for more than 2,000 claims.
• 6/9/2004 - Defense bill might help nuclear workers get aid by Nancy Zuckerbrod, Associated Press
      Washington - The Senate is trying to approve an amendment to the defense bill to move the Energy Department to the Labor Department a program aimed at compensating Cold War-era nuclear workers who were exposed to toxic chemicals.   
• 7/10/2004 - Court rejects arguments against nuclear waste site - But government told to ensure its safety beyond 10,000 years - by H. Josef Herbert, Associated Press
      Washington - A federal appeals court rejected Nevada's argument against building a nuclear waste site in the state, but ordered the government to develop a new plan to protect the public against radiation releases beyond the proposed 10,000 years.    The EPA standards were challenged that many of the isotopes in the waste would reach their peak radiation levels and be most dangerous up to 300,000 years into the future.    They were also concerned about the volcanic ridge 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, suggesting that the Yucca Mountain site cannot meet the (radiation) standard beyond 10,000 years.    The site is planned to store underground 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste, mostly spent reactor fuel from commercial power plants.
• 7/22/2004 - Work to begin on plant that will recycle waste by Courier-Journal
      Paducah, Ky. - Work is expected to begin soon on a plant that will recycle low-level nuclear waste at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, which presently produces material for use in nuclear fuel.    It will be built in front of the uranium enrichment plant in McCracken County and will handle about 38,000 cylinders of nuclear waste, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.    The new factory is expected to take two years to build and generate 100 to 200 construction jobs.    It will operate for about 25 years to convert spent uranium hexafluoride from enrichment operations into more stable material that might be used commercially.
      The following is an update on why I created this article on Nuclear Drugs from an article I found in the 1960's.    After years of the government exposing personnel to radiactivity, and research going on for antedotes or vaccines, through experimenting on test subjects, we get.
• 8/12/2004 - Two drugs to ease effects of radiation win approval of FDA by Associated Press
      WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration approved two new products yesterday to help deal with the consequences of terrorists using dirty bombs.
  • Approved were:
    • Penetate calcium trisodium injection, Ca-DTPA.
    • Penetate zinc trisodium injection, Zn-DTPA.
      Acting FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford said that the products, to be available by prescription only, are designed to speed up elimination of radiation from the body.    Dirty bombs have become an increasing concern.    Unlike warheads designed to kill and destroy through a huge nuclear blast and heat, so-called dirty bombs are radiation weapons.    They would rely on conventional explosives to blow radioactive material far and wide.    A successful bomb could make a section of a city unihabitable for years.
      The FDA said the goal is to provide protection from both nuclear accidents and threats.    It said the two drugs are safe and effective for treating contamination from the elements plutonium, americium or curium.
     The FDA said that while these drugs have been used on an experimental basis for several years, until now there have been no approved drugs for treatment of internal contamination by the three radioactive elements.
      Plutonium, americium or curium can enter the body through a variety of routes including ingestion, inhalation or direct contact through wounds.    By removing them quickly the victim may avoid possible future effects including the development of certain cancers, which may occur years after exposure, the FDA said.
• 8/20/2004 - Diffusion plant's ditch cleaned up five months early by Associated Press
      Paducah, Ky. - An $8 million cleanup of a ditch that runs from the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion plant has been completed, five months ahead of schedule, and replaced with a layer of clay and clean soil, and reseeded.    More than 23,000 tons of soil were removed from a half-mile stretch, which for four decades was a catchall for contaminated runoff wasterwater and may have been a regular dump site for toxic, radioactive waste at the plant.    The sediment consisted of uranium, heavy metals and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), there were traces even of highly radioactive plutonium, neptunium and technetium, and trichloroethylene (TCP), a now banned toxic degreaser.    The soil will be buried in a government landfill north of the plant.
• 9/3/2004 - Paducah plant cleanup company fined for leaks by Associated Press
      Paducah, Ky. - The company Bechtel Jacobs overseeing waste management and cleanup at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant will pay at least $200,000 in penalties for having leaking containers of Uranium tetrafluoride in three recent shipments to the Nevada Test Site, the Department of Energy said.    Their shipments to the waste facilities have been suspended, until the packing procedures are resolved.
• 10/9/2004 - Nuclear worker's program reformed, shifted to Labor - Change designed to speed payments - by Nancy Zuckerbrod, Associated Press
      Washington - Congressioanl lawmakers have agreed to reform a compensation program for sick nuclear weapons workers and take it out of the hands of the Energy Department and move it to the Labor Department, and require the government to pay the bills instead of the contractors.
      The government previously kept quiet about the toxins workers were exposed to at the nuclear sites, and was brought to light during the Clinton administration.
• 10/14/2004 - A Tennessee plant now processing old uranium into fuel for TVA by Duncan Mansfield, Associated Press
      Knoxville, Tenn. - A plant at Erwin, Nuclear Fuel Services, 120 miles north of Knoxville, next to the Nolichucky River, that supplies fuel for nuclear submarines has started turning weapons-grade uranium into uranyl nitrate solution, then into uranium oxide powder for commercial reactor fuel for the Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation's largest public utility.    This powder will also be shipped to Framatome ANP Inc. in Richland, Wash., to be processed into pellets and then loaded into fuel rods for use by TVA at the Browns Ferry nuclear station in Alabama.
  
  
• 1/11/2005 - Nuclear worker's widow is awarded $125,000 by Duncan Mansfield, Associated Press
      Knoxville, Tenn. - The widow of an Oak Ridge nuclear weapons worker received a $125,000 check, the first issued by the Labor Department.    Only 31 claims had been paid previous to this.    The estimated cost of this program will be more than $2 billion over 10 years.
• 1/27/2005 - New safety rules proposed for Paducah plant, others - Government could fine contractors - by Nancy Zuckerbrod, Associated Press
      Washington - The government would be able to fine contractors who violate worker safety standards at federal nuclear facilities under rules proposed by the Energy Department.    Previously contractors were free to pick and choose which safety rules they should be required to follow.
• 2/11/2005 - Radiation dosages disputed by James Malone, The Courier-Journal
      Paducah, Ky. - One worker who handled highly radioactive cobalt at the Paducah plant in the late 1970s claims he was told by supervisors to take off the badge measuring his exposure.    He did suffer from a cancer in his chest in 2004, and he has chronic lung disease.    He was not the only worker there who claim that this occurred.    Workers at Paducah have filed 6,252 claims as of Jan. 14 and $176.5 million has been paid on 1,807 claims.    About 2,140 claims have been denied and 1,394 have been referred to the agency for review.
• 3/9/2005 - Court upholds dismissal of uranium workers' suit by Associated Press
      Paducah, Ky. - The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati upheld the ruling of U.S. District Judge Joseph McKinley to dismiss a lawsuit seeking more that $10 billion for the 10,000 Paducah plant workers for emotional distress and potential medical expenses from exposure to radioactive materials.
• 5/28/2005 - More ill weapons workers eligible for compensation, by Labor Department by Hilary Roxe, Associated Press
      Washington - The Labor Department so far has paid more than $53 million for 430 claims.    Workers must prove that they came in contact with toxins while on the job at government facilities, which may be difficult for many.
• 7/10/2005 - U.S. may study buyout around Paducah plant - Chemicals tainted land's groundwater - by The Courier-Journal
      Kevil, Ky. - Discovered in 1994 that the water had been tainted by the Paducah plant, the government is studying on buying the property of 120 homes from Heath and Grahamville sitting above 10 billion callons of contaminated groundwater from technetiun-99 and trichloroethylene.
• 8/9/2005 - Paducah site's groundwater may be cleaned up - Nuclear fuel plant polluted area - by James Malone, The Courier-Journal
      Paducah, Ky. - State and federal regulators are expected to sign an agreement to use underground heaters to help clean groundwater contamination found in 1988 at the Paducah plant, according to the Energy Department.
• 8/10/2005 - EPA sets radiation limits for 1 million years by AP
      Washington - Conceding there's no way to know what life will be like in a million years, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed limits on how much radiation a person should be exposed to from a nuclear waste dump in that distant time.    The proposal would limit exposure near the proposed Yucca Mountain facility in Nevada to 15 millirems a year for 10,000 years into the future, but then increase the allowable level to 350 millirems for up to 1 million years.    That higher level is more than three times what is allowed from nuclear facilities by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
• 10/25/2005 - Uranium-filled cylinders may be corroding - Toxic gas in containers at Paducah plant, two others - by James Malone, The Courier-Journal
      Paducah, Ky. - About 1,825 cylinders storing depleted uranium at the Paducah plant may be corroding because of a chemical warfare toxic gas, phosgene, mistakenly left in them, according to a memo from the Department of Energy.    It is possible that these could release hydrogen fluroride, a ground-hugging toxic gas.    Only 2,500 of the 37,000 cylinders may have had phosgene gas in them, and records are being reviewed that these were cleaned before reusing.    Phosgene is a corrosive, toxic gas the Germans used briefly during World War I.    Exposure to skin can cause lesions and burns and inhalation causes a victim's lungs to fill with mucous and fluid.
• 11/9/2005 - Study of phosgene threat urged by James R. Carroll, The Courier-Journal
      Washington - Congress has been asked to order an independent study from the Government Accountability Office of whether a toxic gas left in depleted 1,825 uranium cylinders poses a danger at the Paducah plant from phosgene left in them.    The spending bill also included: $105 million for ongoing cleanup of chemical and radiological contamination; $42.9 million for continued construction of the facility that will process the depleted uranium; $465,000 for health monitoring of current and former workers at several facilities.
• 12/24/2005 - Nuclear plant cancer study gets review by James Malone, The Courier-Journal
      Paducah, Ky. - A federal study used to deny hundreds of former Paducah nuclear workers payment for cancer claims will be reviewed for possible flaws.    The study might be used to review about 1,150 claims, according to the Department of Labor.    Payments of $9.45 million have been made in 63 cases and 383 have been formally denied.    The rest are pending.    Getting to the truth will be difficult since many contractors of the past downplayed radiation risks at Paducah.
  
  
• 2/15/2006 - Administration tries to limit nuclear benefit program costs - U.S. lawmakers express concerns - by Nancy Zuckerbrod, Associated Press
      Washington - The Bush administration is taking steps to limit the cost of a benefit program for Cold War-era nuclear workers who developed cancer from radiation exposure.    Both Republicans and Democrats say they are concerned, and plan to hold hearings.    Specifically aimed at compensating thousands of nuclear workers at places such as the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky, to contain growth in the costs of benefits.    Under the program workers get $150,000 plus future medical benefits and the concern is that these families get what they deserve.    Also in the recommendations is whether groups of workers in Colorado, Iowa, Tennessee and the Marshall Islands should be automatically compensated under the program.    To get this the workers must have radiation-related cancer and must have worked at a facility with poor records.
• 2/18/2006 - U.S.: Sick nuclear workers could get more assistance by Associated Press
      Washington - The government has paid about $1.5 billion in benefits to thousands of sick nuclear weapons workers under a 5-year-old program, according to Donald Shalhoub, the ombudsman to the Labor Department progam.    He wrote that workers have reported frustrations with the requirement that they obtain workplace records.
• 2/23/2006 - Hearing to focus on aid for Cold War nuclear workers by Associated Press
      Washington - The Bush administration's efforts to limit the cost of a benefits program for Cold War-era nuclear-weapons workers will be the focus of a congressional hearing on March 1.
• 3/12/2006 - Cost up for nuclear workers program - Contractors cite cases' complexity - by Nancy Zuckerbrod, Associated Press
      Washington - The contractors involved in a program to compensate sick Cold War-era nuclear weapons workers have spent millions more that was expected, congressional investigators reported.    A five-year contract with Oak Ridge Associated Universities, who is helping to determine how much radiation exposure for each case, has nearly tripled from $70 million originally allocated to more than $200 million, according to the Governemnt Accountability Office, the auditing arm of Congress.    The task cost more or took longer to complete than originally estimated for Kentucky, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, New Mexico, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Washington.
• 6/2/2006 - Nuclear workers' benefits to continue by Associated Press
      Washington - The Bush administration will continue to support a benefit program for Cold War-era nuclear weapons workers.
• 8/4/2006 - Timeline for nuclear dump questioned by Associated Press
      Washington - A Senate committee chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., says the new timeline for opening the Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste dump in Nevada in 2017 ignores the possibility of lawsuits and delays.    The dump originally was to open in 1998.    Last year Edward F. Sproat, director of the department's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, abandoned a 2010 deadline and the new schedule is the best achievable one.
• 8/5/2006 - Incentive plan touts nuclear power - Government offers aid for new plants - by Greg Bluestein, Associated Press
      Atlanta - The nation's Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman announced a plan to provide incentives to companies willing to build the first new nuclear plants in 30 years, offering $2 billion in federal insurance for construction of six plants.    Presently the U.S. has 103 nuclear power plants in 31 states, and no new ones since 1973 because of the debate over where to store radioactive waste and the incident of the partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island plant in 1979 in Pennsylvania.    With energy prices on the rise this is being promoted as a way to generate cheaper electricity without churning out greenhouse gases, and to stop the possiblity of blackouts, brownouts, and rolling blackouts.
• 8/15/2006 - Uranium plant's landfill will be tested for safety - Screening to check for 150 materials - by James R. Carroll, The Courier-Journal
      A landfill handling waste from the Paducah uranium enrichment plant will be tested by the U.S. Department of Energy for uranium and other radioactive materials to be sure that treatment at the site is shielding the public and the environment.
• 8/28/2006 - Nuclear cleanup company criticized over safety issues at Paducah plant by Associated Press
      Paducah, Ky. - The U.S. Department of Energy has criticized the lead nuclear cleanup contractor, Paducah Remediation Services, for the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant for a series of safety problems and may penalize them financially if the problems are not corrected immediately.    The company took over as the plant's cleanup contractor April 24 under a $192 million contract, with a number of industrial and radiological safety incidents, such as multiple forklift accidents, near-miss events, radiological control violations and first aids.    Work has stopped at least three times due to these problems with no serious injuries.
• 9/5/2006 - Paducah seeks nuclear-recycling grant - Building of plant would be studied - by Associated Press
      Paducah, Ky. - Paducah is vying for one of four $5 million federal grants to study building a recycling plant for spent nuclear fuel, a project officials call one of the biggest in 50 years.    Previously having the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, which enriches uranium for commercial use, helps the area's bid.    The program is part of President Bush's initiative to develop new technology for safely and effciently using nuclear power.    At least seven other states also are competing for the project which will create more than 5,000 construction jobs and employ more than 1,000.
      The project consist of a consolidated fuel-treatment center, owned by the Energy Department, with a 500- to 2,000-megawatt advanced burner reactor that will further break down the more highly radioactive components of the spent fuel; and a $1.8 billion, 250-megawatt test burner reactor, operational by 2014.
• 9/13/2006 - Report: No Gulf War syndrome exists by Associated Press
      Washington - The unexplained symtoms that afflict thousands of Gulf War veterans don't constitute a single illness, a federally funded study has concluded.    Even though U.S. and foreign veterans of the 1991 war report more symptons of illness than do soldiers who did'nt serve in the Persian Gulf, there is no such thing as Gulf War syndrome, according to the Veteran Affairs-sponsored report released.
      Nearly 30 percent of all those who served in the brief war have reported problems.    "We know that there is no single thing that made veterans sick.    We know this thing is likely a combination of various exposures," said Steve Robinson, governemnt-relations director for Veterans for America.
• 11/25/2006 - Nuclear waste dump's future in doubt - Democrat now has the power to say so - by Erica Werner, Associated Press
      Washington - When Congress targeted Nevada as the nation's nuclear dumping ground, the state didn't have the political power to say no.    Twenty years later, the most ardent foe of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump is about to become Senate Majority leader.    Nevada Democratic Sen. Harry Reid's new job, which gives him control over what legislation reaches the Senate floor, could deal a crippling blow to the stumbling project.    The dump is planned 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas as the first national repository for radioactive waste.    It's supposed to hold 77,000 tons of material - from commercial power plants reactors and defense sites across the nation - for thousands of years.    About 50,000 tons of the waste is now stored in temporary sites at 65 power plants in 31 states.    The opening date was to be 2017 and cost about $9 billion, $6.5 billion of which has been spent on Yucca, and the estimated cost of the project was $58 billion to build and operate for the first 100 years.    New projections are expected to total more than $70 billion.    The government was obligated to take nuclear waste off utilities' hands starting in 1998.
      Reid plans to kill the dump outright.
• 11/30/2006 - Uranium plant will be part of fuel recycling study by AP.
      Paducah - The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Palnt is one of 11 plants that will receive federal funding to study if it can contain a spent-fuel recycling facility.    The 11 plants will receive up to $16 million from the U.S. Department of Energy next year.    An advanced nuclear fuel recycling center contains building were uranium is separated from spent light water reactor fuel.    It is then used to produce a new fuel that can be used in a power reactor.
• 12/2/2006 - Radioactive mounds found by gaseous diffusion plant by AP.
      Paducah, Ky. - Six areas of radioactive dirt mounds have been found east of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, prompting plans to search the 6,463-acre West Kentucky Wildlife Management Area for more.    All the mounds have been roped off and posted with warning signs, although officials said they do not appear to pose health risks.    All are believed to have been created decades ago during dredging of Little Bayou Creek, which runs through the wildlife area to the Ohio River.
  
  
• 2/5/2007 - Officials to submit plan for further testing of soil by AP.
      Paducah, Ky. - Department of Energy officials will submit a plan this week to state and federal regulators for more extensive testing of contaminants in old dirt piles found around the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
      The work will determine the extent and depth of uranium and polychlorinated biphenyl contamination, particularly in seven old, overgrown mounds near Little Bayou Creek in the West Kentucky Wildlife Management Area.    Levels of radiation and PCBs found in shallow soil sampling were not an imminent threat to public health, but additional testing will be deeper and more thorough.
• 2/23/2007 - Petagon scraps 700-ton test blast in Nevada desert by AP.
      Washington - Facing stiff opposition from two Western states, the Pentagon scrapped plans for a 700-ton non-nuclear blast that would have produced a mushroom cloud of dust over the Nevada desert.
      The Defense Department said it would find other ways to test the nation's ability to penetrate underground bunkers.    In Nevada and Utah, there was concern that the blast would scatter decades-old radioactive material from previous Cold War-era tests.    Other critics contend the big explosion would be a step toward new tests to develop "bunker buster" nuclear weapons.
• 3/3/2007 - Nuclear waste landfill limits debated - S.C. site slated to stop serving nation by AP.
      Snelling, S.C. - Chem-Nuclear, a disposal site for low-level radioactive waste from hospitals and power plants around the nation will be closing its doors and devasting the 23,300 people of the local community of Barnwell County in loss of jobs, a $1 million a year for local schools, and college scholarships handouts, and equipment for police and paramedics.    The landfill has long been under attack from environmentalists, and a 2000 state law says that starting next year it can accept waste only from South Carolina and two other states.    But now lawmakers are considering extending the deadline to 2023.    Nuclear power plant debris and radioactive hospital clothing have been buried at the site since 1971 atop aquifiers that run to the Savannah River.    The concern is over tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, may get into the water sources.
• 3/14/2007 - Ohio plant lost small amount of radioactive material recently by The Courier-Journal.
      Federal Department of Energy officials acknowledged they have been looking for some missing radioactive material from a closed uranium enrichment facility Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant at Piketon in southern Ohio.    It was in a medical capsule-sized amount of radium-226 that poses no security risk and not a threat to people or the environment.
• 4/16/2007 - Floating nuke plant in works by AP.
      Moscow - Russia began construction on its first floating nuclear power plant, and plans to build at least six more despite long standing environmental concerns they are vunerable to accidents at sea.    Russia justifies the program as a way of bringing power to some of the country's most remote areas, and some of the plants could be sold to other nations.    These plants will be using reactors similar to those on a submarine.
• 5/6/2007 - Nuclear program being revived - TVA leading push for new reactors by AP.
      Knoxville, Tenn. - America's nuclear energy program is being revived at the site of one of its worst accidents.    The startup of TVA's Unit 1 reactor at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in Athens, Ala., culminated a five-year, $1.8 billion restoration, the first in the 21^st century.    Mothballed since 1985, TVA's oldest reactor was the scene of a major fire three decades ago.    It has been reborn as a modern 1,200-megawatt generator capable of lighting 650,000 homes.
      Growing demand for electricity and concern over global climate change are propelling this nuclear renaissance.    The Energy Department estimates 50 new reactors will be needed by 2030 to keep pace with the controls tightening on greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants.
      These plants produce radioactive waste which would cover a football field 7 feet deep, and where it will be buried still remains a problem, unless they find a way to reprocess it.
• 5/7/2007 - Quake threat is obstacle to plant - Paducah seeks nuclear facility by AP.
      Paducah, Ky. - Working around a geological fault line (New Madrid Fault) is the biggest obstacle to Paducah landing a nuclear fuel recycling plant, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.    Also required is a way to dispose of high-level nuclear waste and whether the plant can be made earthquake resistant.    The present 1,100-employee Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant will be closing in 2012.
  
  
• 3/1/2008 - Anthrax vaccines OK'd for military by AP.
      Washington - The Pentagon can require troops to be vaccinated against anthrax, a federal judge said that the FDA acted appropriately when it found the vaccine to be safe and approved its use.    Judge Rosemary M. Collyer dismissed a lawsuit by eight military members who argued that the drug is unproven and the scientific data unsound.
• 3/11/2008 - Design of building may slow weapons destruction by Jeffrey McMurray, AP.
      Lexington, Ky. - The Pentagon has raised questions about the design of a building that was to withstand an explosion in which Kentucky's stockpile of chemical weapons would be destroyed, and the concerns could delay the project.    Concrete was expected to be poured this summer at the munitions demilitarization building, the primary facility at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Richmond where Cold War-era rockets and other lethal weapons are set to be destroyed by 2017 to comply with an international treaty.    Most of the design snag is in how the steel beams holding the concrete are connected.
• 3/11/2008 - Gulf War illness linked to pesticides by AP.
      Increasing evidence ties pesticides and other chemicals to some of the illnesses that afflict thousands of Gulf War veterans, an analysis by Dr. Beatrice Golomb of the University of California, San Diego.    Nearly 30 percent of troops who took part in the brief 1991 war have reported symptoms that include fatigue, memory loss, pain and difficulty sleeping.    Multiple chemical exposures have long been chief suspects and they viewed 115 studies of neurological symptoms and veteran's exposure to three related chemicals: the anti-nerve gas pyridostigmine bromide, or PB, given to troops at the time; pesticides used aggressively to control sand flies; and the nerve gas sarin.    Those chemicals belong to a family known as acetylcholinesterase inhibitors that work the same way in the body.
• 4/6/2008 - Used uranium worth billions by James R. Carroll, The Courier-Journal.
      Washington - About 40,000 canisters of depleted uranium are spread out in rows at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, with 20,000 also stored at a sister facility in Piketon, Ohio, and for years their contents were considered worthless waste.    But now worldwide uranium supplies are tight and prices are soaring from $7 per pound to $140 per pound, but has settled at $73 per pound.
      Now they are considering that the recovered waste could be worth about $7.6 billion according to the GAO, and legislation is directing the Department of Energy to re-enrich the depleted uranium, known as tails, into usable fuel for nuclear reactors.
      This work would be done under contract with the United States Enrichment Corp. (USEC), which operates the Paducah plant giving it new life from its former closing date of 2012, and profits will go to cleanup the Paducah and Piketon facilities.    Turning the uranium into a marketable commodity would remove the burden to taxpayers of storing the material, where it is costing $200 million annually.
• 6/4/2008 - Nuclear waste storage plans move forward by H. Josef Hebert, AP.
      Washington - The Bush administration has submitted a formal application to the NRC for a license to build an underground storage facility at Yucca Mountain, located about 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas.    Everything was released except the final public radiation exposure standard, as the EPA had issued a standard designed to be protective for 10,000 years.    The federal court wanted it to be protective for up to a million years, the time that some of the isotopes in the waste will remain dangerous.    If approved it will take seven to eight years to build the facility, and estimates for the lifetime cost of the facility will be between $70 billion and $80 billion.
• 6/20/2008 - VA approved few claims over germ warfare tests by AP.
      The VA Department has granted only 6 percent of health claims filed by veterans of secret Cold War chemical and germ warfare tests conducted by the Pentagon, according to figures obtained by the AP.    Veteran advocates called the number appallingly low, since during the tests thousands of service members were exposed, often without their knowledge, to real and simulated chemical and biological agents, including sarin and VX.
• 6/21/2008 - Guardsmen reportedly exposed to chemical by Maureen Groppe, Gannett News Service.
      Washington - Indiana National Guardsmen of the 152nd unit who protected defense contractors at the Qarmat Ali pumping plant in Iraq in 2003 were exposed to a potentially deadly chemical, sodium dichromate, a known and very potent carcinogen, despite the KBR contractors assurances the site was safe, two ex-workers at the site said.    They said the plant was covered in bright orange dust when the contractors arrived to work on the plant's pumps, and dust storms made the chemical airborne, and workers were not given breathing mask or other protective equipment.
• 6/24/2008 - Last of Ark. nerve-agent mines destroyed by Jon Gambrell, AP.
      White Hall, Ark. - The last VX nerve-agent land mine that moved along a conveyor belt on its way to incineration at the Pine Bluff Arsenal, making central Arkansas free of the danger posed by the weapons for the first time since the 1960s and being the Army's second-largest stockpile in the nation.
• 8/23/2008 - Nevada's objection to nuke dump rejected by AP.
      Washington - Nevada filed a petition asking the NRC to reject the government's license application for a 77,000-ton underground nuclear waste dump, but federal regulators have rejected their petition, which seems to be premature since no decision has been made yet.
• 8/12/2008 - Nerve agent stockpile destroyed by Rick Callahan, AP.
      Indianapolis - An Army contractor has finished three years of work on destroying 275,000 gallons of a deadly VX nerve agent at the Newport Chemical Depot in Western Indiana north of Terre Haute and is now proceeding to dismantle the equipment built for the billion dollar project.    Although the destruction of VX by chemical neutralization process destroys its chemical bonds it produces a caustic wastewater product called hydrolysate, which they have been shipping 900 miles to a plant in Port Arthur, Texas, for incineration due to end next month.    The VX destruction project had a cost of $1.2 billion.
• 9/11/2008 - Diluted nerve agent to be destroyed at Blue Grass depot by James R. Carroll, The Courier-Journal.
      Washington - The government next month hopes to begin destroying 157 gallons of diluted nerve agent, known as GB at Kentucky's Blue Grass Army Depot for the first time at the Richmond facility.    The agent originally was taken as samples out of M55 rockets.    The diluted samples were in steel containers, but were caustic enough to cause them to corrode and leak.    The destruction of the GB is planned to be completed by the year's end, when approval is signed off.    Still ahead is the disposal of the rest of the 523 tons of chemical weapons that have been stored at the depot for decades.
• 11/8/2008 - Expansion sought for planned nuclear dump by H. Josef Hebert, AP.
      Washington - The Energy Department will tell Congress to begin looking for a second permanent site to bury nuclear waste or approve the proposed waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.    They claim that the 77,000-ton limit Congress put on the capacity at Yucca will fall far short of what will be needed.    Within two years, the amount of waste produced by the country's 104 nuclear power plants plus defense waste will exceed 77,000 tons, and Yucca is not projected to be opened before 2020.
• 11/11/2008 - Blue Grass nerve agent to be neutralized by Jeffrey McMurray, AP.
      Richmond, Ky. - The Army will begin draining and neutralizing a leaky container of lethal nerve agent at the Blue Grass Army Depot by a mobile biological agent unit deployed from Maryland.
• 11/27/2008 - Depot chemical weapons disposal delayed by Jeffrey McMurray, AP.
      Lexington, Ky. - An Army official overseeing the disposal of chemical weapons in Kentucky says the project is again running behind schedule and now may not even begin until 2021, four years after a deadline Congress set for completion.    Neutralization of chemical weapons at Pueblo, Colo., also is behind schedule.    The delays are due to construction costs and a redesign of a building.
• 12/19/2008 - Neutralization of nerve agent finished by AP.
      Lexington, Ky. - The Army says it has completed the process of neutralizing sarin found inside three deteriorating containers at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Richmond, although the containers and the waste water still be trucked to a site in Texas.
  
  
• 3/6/2009 - Yucca ruled out as nuclear dump site by H. Josef Herbert, AP.
      Washington - Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the proposed Yucca Mountain site in Nevada no longer is an option for storing highly radioactive nuclear waste, brushing aside criticism from several Republican lawmakers.    The Obama administration decided to keep the nearly 60,000 tons of waste in the form of used reactor fuel at nuclear power plants while a new plan for waste dispoal is developed.    $13.5 billion has already been spent on the project that the Bush administration had pushed for, and the federal government is obligated by law to accept the used reactor fuel from 104 commercial reactors.    The spent fuel, growing at the rate of 2,000 tons a year, now is being held in pools and above-ground concrete containers at reactor sites.
• 4/1/2009 - Uranium plant buildings to be torn down by James R. Carroll, The Courier-Journal.
      Washington - Three idle buildings at the Paducah uranium plant will be decontaminated and demolished under a special $79 million project paid for out of the federal economic stimulus program.    The money is part of $6 billion for environmental cleanup work in 12 states, and create 150 jobs to cleanup contamination from the Cold War era of what is known as the C-340 metals plants, the C-410/420 feed plant and the C-746-A East End smelter building all by Sept. 30, 2011.
• 4/12/2009 - Advance in making nuclear fuel claimed by AP.
      Tehran, Iran - Iran now controls the entire cycle for producing nuclear fuel, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said.    A new facility produces uranium oxide fuel pellets for a planned heavy-water reactor.    But the step is less worrying for the West in terms of its potential to be used in nuclear weapons than Iran's advanced enriched uranium program.
• 5/15/2009 - Pentagon updates weapons disposal by James R. Carroll, The Courier-Journal.
      Washington - The Pentagon says the last chemical weapons at Kentucky's Blue Grass Army Depot won't be destroyed until 2021, four years after a congressionally imposed deadline.    The facility is slated to start destroying its leathal weapons in 2019 and finish in 2021.    A similar storage site in Pueblo, Colo., will begin in 2014 and end in 2017, thus both sites will miss the 2012 deadline.    An increase on spending is in the works to speed up dispoal, allowing completion by 2017.
• 5/17/2009 - Judge says Utah can accept foreign nuclear waste by AP.
      Salt Lake City - A federal judge has ruled that a Utah company can dispose of foreign nuclear waste at its facility in the western Utah desert.    EnergySolutions Inc. wants to import up to 20,000 tons of low-level radioactive waste from Italy.    After processing in Tennessee, about 1,600 tons would be disposed of in Utah.    If approve by the NRC, the waste would be imported through the ports of Charleston, S.C., or New Orleans.    EnergySolutions contends it needs to dispose of foreign waste here so it can ultimately build disposal facilities abroad.
• 5/25/2009 - Fueling deep-space dreams by John Johnson Jr., Los Angeles Times.
      The federal Energy Department has requested $30 million in 2010 to relaunch a program to make radioactive plutonium-238, the supply of which is running low.    It plans to restart its program of making radioactive fuel for NASA's deep space missions to maintain U.S. leadership in space exploration, where the sun's rays are too weak for generating solar power.    The New Horizons mission currently heading for Pluto and the Cassini mission currently orbiting Saturn are powered by devices called radioisotope power generators.    The RPGs make electricity with the heat from the radioactive decay of small amounts of plutonium-238.    The U.S. stopped making Pu-238 about 20 years ago and is not weapons-grade material, but a byproduct of making the more dangerous Pu-239.    NASA uses about 11 pounds of Pu-238 each year, and has purchased some of the material from Russia, and will run out by the end of the next decade only enough to power the upcoming Mars Science Laboratory, a rover the size of a minivan, and outer planet missions in 2020 to Jupiter and its moons Europa and Ganymede.    Currently, there are nuclear reactors in Idaho and Tennessee that could be used to make plutonium and at a cost of $150 million.
• 5/27/2009 - Weapons depot reports 2 minor leaks by Jeffrey McMurray, AP.
      Two vapor leaks were found in separate igloos where thousands of Cold War-era chemical weapons are stored in Central Kentucky, but Army officials said that they posed little danger outside the Richmond site.    The materials were mustard gas and sarin, a highly toxic nerve agent, but found at low levels, and filters attached to the igloo vents ensure that none of the agent escapes into the atmosphere.    It was believed that rising temperatures could have played a role in the leaks.
• 12/16/2009 - Energy Department is asked to halt uranium shipments by AP.
      Salt Lake City - Gov. Gary Herbert sent Energy secretary Steven Chu a letter asking him to halt the shipment of nearly 15,000 drums of low-level radioactive waste from South Carolina for disposal in Utah.    The DOE is circumventing state regulators' efforts to ensure that a private disposal facility in Utah's west desert can safely dispose of the depleted uranium.    The waste from Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., is a byproduct of the uranium enrichment process used to make nuclear weapons during the Cold War era.
      On December 18th, a U.S. Department of Energy spokeswoman says an agreement has been reached with the Utah governor to store the waste, eventhough state regulators say they need more time to determine whether depleted uranium can be stored safely.    Depleted uranium becomes more radioactive over time for up to a million years.
  
  
• 1/1/2010 - Lithuania shuts down nuclear power plant by AP.
      Vilnius, Lithuania - Engineers at Lithuania's Soviet-built nuclear power plant shut down a Soviet-built nuclear reactor as part of an agreement with the European Union, which considered the Chernobyl-type machine unsafe.    The shutdown was greeted with anguish across Lithuania, because the recession-hit country lost a source of cheap electricity and will be forced to import more expensive energy.    The EU ordered the reactor closed because it is too similar to the one that exploded at Chernobyl in 1986.
• 1/21/2010 - Senate passes nuclear waste bill by Joeseph Gerth, The Courier-Journal.
      Frankfort, Ky. - The Senate passed legislation that would allow the storage of nuclear waste in Kentucky, in hope of opening the door to having nuclear energy facilities in the state.    Plenty of critics of the Pikeville side state that since Kentucky coal produces 90 percent of the state's energy this bill shifts the debate away from coal, as the Paducah side wants nuclear energy, but all is on hold since there is still a federal ban on the storage of nuclear waste.
• 2/2/2010 - Leaks renew nuclear debate - Vermont plant under scrutiny by Dave Gram, AP.
      Montpelier, Vt. - Radioactive tritium, a carcinogen discovered in potentially dangerous levels in ground-water at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, now taints at least 27 of the nation's 104 nuclear reactors - raising concerns about how it is escaping from the aging nuclear plants.
      The leaks - many from deteriorating underground pipes - come as the nuclear energy industry is seeking and obtaining federal license renewals, casting itself as a clean green alternative to power plants that burn fossil fuels.
      Tritium, found in nature in tiny amounts and a product of nuclear fision, has been linked to cancer if ingested, inhaled or absorbed through the skin in large amounts.    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that new test at a monitoring well on Vermont Yankee's site in Vernon registered 70,500 picocuries per liter, more than three times the federal safety standard of 20,000 picocuries per liter.
      Officials of the New Orleans-based Entergy Corp., which owns the plant in Vernon in Vermont's southeast corner, have admitted misleading state regulators and lawmakers by saying the plant did not have the kind of underground pipes that could leak tritium into the groundwater.    So wheres the Trust.
      The Braidwood nuclear station in Illinois was found in the 1990 to be leaking millions of gallons of tritium-laced water, owned by Exelon Corp. ended up paying for a new municipal water system.
      In New Jersey last year, tritium was reported leaking a second time from the Oyster Creek plant in Ocean County, just days after Exelon won NCR approval for a 20-years license extension there.
      The Pilgrim plant in Plymouth, Mass., owned by Entergy, reported low levels of tritium on the ground in 2007.
      NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said leaks have occurred in at least 27 of the nation's 104 commercial reactors at 65 plant sites.
• 2/20/2010 - Chemical arms may be blown up by Jeffrey McMurray, AP.
      Richmond, Ky. - Under the gun to destroy the U.S. chemical weapons stockpiles - and now all but certain to miss their 2012 deadline - Army officials at the Blue Grass Army Depot have a plan to hasten the process: Blow some of them up.    Of course this would require a federal assessment of the potential environmental impact of the operations.    The state of Kentucky would then have to issue a permit, but could still be stopped by the Congress, and require it to be neutralized.
  
• 2/21/2010 - Depleted uranium won't come to Utah by AP.
      Salt Lake City - Utah Gov. Gary Herbert says two trainloads of depleted uranium from South Carolina won't come to Utah as planned.    Herbert said that he has reached an oral agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy to keep the waste from being disposed at EnergySolutions Inc.'s facility the Utah desert.    Depleted uranium is different from other low-level radioactive waste disposed of in Utah becacuse it becomes hotter over time, for up to 1 million years.
  
• 4/19/2010 - Groundwater cleanup begins at Paducah site by AP.
      Paducah, Ky. - A Department of Energy contractor will spend the next 18 months cleaning up after 40 years of groundwater pollution at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.    About 50,000 gallons of contaminated water from beneath a building at the government site is being processed to remove the degreaser trichloroethlyene, by using electrodes to heat the water as deep as 100 feet and vacuums the fumes that come to the surface.
  
• 5/4/2010 - U.S. has 5,113 nuclear warheads, Pentagon says by Anne Gearan, AP.
      Washington - The U.S. has 5,113 nuclear warheads in its stockpile and "several thousand" more retired warheads awaiting the junk pile, the Pentagon said from the Cold War.    Obama administration disclosed the size to get other nuclear nations to improve its position against the prospect of a nuclear Iran.    So no more top secret and the stockpile represents a 75 percent reduction since 1989.
  
• 5/6/2010 - Pentagon to spend $1.3 billion at depot by James R. Carroll, The Courier-Journal.
      Washington - The Defense Department plans to spend more than $1.3 billion over the next five years on the program to destroy aging chemical weapons at the Blue Grass Army Depot according to a budget document prepared for Congress to meet a 2021 deadline.
• 5/8/2010 - Radioactive water taints drinking supply's aquifer by AP.
      Lacey Township, N.J. - Radioactive water that leaked from the nation's oldest nuclear power plant has reached a major underground aquifer that supplies drinking water to much of southern New Jersey, the state's environmental chief said.    The state Department of Environmental Protection has ordered the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station to halt the spread of contaminated water underground.    The new investigation into the April 2009 spill and said the actions of plant owner Exelon Corp. have not been sufficent to contain water contaminated with tritium, which has been linked to cancer if ingested, inhaled or absorbed through the skin in large amounts.
  
• 7/5/2010 - Judges block effort to close Yucca Mountain nuke site by AP.
      Washington - The Obama administration has suffered a defeat in its efforts to close the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.    Three administrative judges in the NRC ruled last week that Obama and the DOE Secretary do not have the authority to close the site unilaterally.    That can only be accomplished by an act of Congress, the judges said.
  
  
  
• 5/19/2011
  
  McConnell wants U.S. action to sell depleted uranium - Paducah site storing cylinders by James R. Carroll, The Courier-Journal
      WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell urged the Obama administration Wednesday to step up its efforts to sell 40,000 cylinders of depleted uranium that have been sitting for years at Kentucky’s Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
      The material could generate revenue for the federal government and maintain 1,200 jobs at the sprawling complex, the Kentucky Republican told Energy Secretary Steven Chu.
      McConnell’s office has estimated that the re-enriched uranium recovered from the cylinders could be worth $1 billion.    Current spot prices for uranium, which is used by the nuclear power industry, are at roughly $57 per pound.
      “It happens to be the economic engine of far Western Kentucky,” the Senate GOP leader said of the Paducah facility at a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s energy and water development subcommittee.
      “These are government- owned resources, highly valued, stored in a lot, and could be sold to create revenue for the government,” he said.    “In the meantime, happily enough for Western Kentuckians, it would keep 1,200 people from collecting unemployment.”
      With Kentucky’s unemployment rate at 10 percent, “we cannot afford to lose one more job, let alone 1,200,” the senator said.
      Chu said, “We are certainly concerned about any job impacts from actions we take.”    But the secretary conceded that the Department of Energy does not have any plans for reprocessing the depleted uranium at Paducah.    In fact, he said he would have to get back to McConnell on plans for Paducah and cleanup operations there.
      “The fact that the Department of Energy is not prepared to address additional uranium enrichment during a time of fiscal crisis is staggering,” McConnell said in a statement after the hearing.    “I hope to hear from the secretary on his plan for the future of the Paducah plant and its impacts on the workers there.”    USEC Inc., based in Bethesda, Md., is the operator of the Paducah plant, which enriches uranium for nuclear power plants and is nearing the end of its operative life.    The company has applied for a $2 billion loan guarantee from Chu’s agency to build a centrifuge facility to recover uranium from another 20,000 cylinders stored at a former enrichment plant near Piketon, Ohio.
      That is newer technology than the World War II era processes used in Paducah, which also consumes more energy, Chu said.    But the government is limited as to how much reprocessed uranium it can put onto the market to avoid affecting the domestic uranium mining industry, he said.
      McConnell and other Kentucky lawmakers, including Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-1st District, where the Paducah plant is located, have been pushing for federal action on the canisters for several years.
      McConnell told his colleagues at the hearing that Chu’s department is not budgeting for continued cleanup of decades of contamination once the plant is closed.
      “Certainly, it will be our obligation to clean up if and when Paducah closes down,” Chu said.    “But that depleted uranium will be there.”
  
  
• 5/31/2011
  
  Germany to end nuclear power by 2022, rely on renewable by Juergen Baetz, Associated Press
      BERLIN — Germany announced plans Monday to abandon nuclear energy over the next11 years, outlining an ambitious strategy in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima disaster to replace atomic power with renewable energy sources.
      Chancellor Angela Merkel said she hopes the transformation to more solar, wind and hydroelectric power serves as a roadmap for other countries.
      “We believe that we can show those countries who decide to abandon nuclear power — or not to start using it — how it is possible to achieve growth, creating jobs and economic prosperity while shifting the energy supply toward renewable energies,” Merkel said.
      Merkel’s government said it will shut down all 17 nuclear power plants in Germany — the world’s fourth-largest economy and Europe’s biggest — by 2022. The government had no immediate estimate of the transition’s overall cost.
      The plan sets Germany apart from most of the other major industrialized nations.    Among the other Group of Eight countries, only Italy has abandoned nuclear power, which was voted down in a referendum after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
      The decision represents a remarkable about-face for Merkel’s center-right government, which only late last year pushed through a plan to extend the life span of the country’s reactors, with the last scheduled to go offline around 2036.    But Merkel said Japan’s “helplessness” in the face of the Fukushima disaster made her rethink the technology’s risks.
      Germany’s seven oldest reactors, already taken off the grid pending safety inspections following the Japan catastrophe, will remain offline permanently, Merkel said.    The plants accounted for about 40 percent of the country’s nuclear power capacity.
      At the time of the Japanese disaster, Germany got just under a quarter of its electricity from nuclear power, about the same share as in the U.S.
      While Germany already was set to abandon nuclear energy eventually, the decision — which still re-quires parliamentary approval — dramatically speeds up that process.
      Many Germans have vehemently opposed nuclear power since the Chernobyl disaster in the Soviet Union sent radioactivity over the country.
  
  
• 6/1/2011
  
  Weapons disposal closer as pump house is finished - Depot program will take years by Associated Press
      RICHMOND, Ky. — A new pump house, which is part of a project to destroy 520 tons of chemical weapons stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot, is now in operation.    Officials say the pump house at the Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant in Richmond was declared operational Thursday.
      Site project manager Jeff Brubaker told the Lexington Herald-Leader the structure consists of two 250,000-gallon tanks filled with water and the pump house itself.    The water will be used in the destruction process, as well as for emergencies.
      Brubaker said the Richmond plant is one of nine similar chemical agent destruction projects nationwide.    Three are currently being used to destroy chemical agents, he said.
      The agents at the Richmond depot have been stockpiled there since the 1960s, Brubaker said, and over time they degrade and pose a greater chance of leaking.
      The weapons will be destroyed using a neutralization process that eventually, through a process called supercritical water oxidation, breaks down the agents into carbon dioxide, water and salts.
      Public affairs specialist Stephanie Parrett said the plant’s construction is set to be completed in 2016.    Destruction of the stockpile will begin in 2018 and is to be completed in 2021, she said.
  
  
• 6/14/2011
  
  Depleted Paducah uranium debated - Kentucky delegation backs selling ‘tails’
      WASHINGTON — Depleted uranium stored at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant and a sister facility in Ohio is worth about $4.2 billion in today’s market, a government auditor told a House panel on Monday.
      But although the amount is tempting for Kentucky lawmakers who want the government to sell the uranium “tails,” the market is volatile, said Gene Aloise, director of the Government Accountability Office’s natural resources and environment division.
      The depleted uranium’s value is about $3.4 billion less than it was three years ago, he told lawmakers at a hearing by the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s energy and power subcommittee.
      “There is no consensus in the industry about where prices are going,” Aloise said.
      Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-1st District, have introduced legislation to create a two year pilot project for the Paducah plant to re-enrich and sell some of its 40,000 cylinders of depleted uranium.    The proceeds would help pay for cleanup at the facility.
      Whitfield, chairman of the energy and power subcommittee, has scheduled a vote on the bill for Wednesday.
      But opposition has surfaced from some Democrats, including Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who said he was concerned the government could be forced to give a sole-source contract to a company using old technology under terms that may not be a good deal for taxpayers.
      That company, Bethesda, Md.-based USEC Inc., operates the Paducah plant for the government but declined to appear at Monday’s hearing.
      “We respectfully declined because we have an unsolicited proposal before the Department of Energy to enrich some of the tails,” said USEC spokesman Paul Jacobson.
      Whitfield contends that re-enriching the depleted uranium would keep the sprawling Paducah facility open past 2012, save 1,200 jobs at the plant and generate revenue to continue removing decades of environmental contamination at the site.
      “This is an important piece of legislation and makes a lot of sense,” Whitfield said.    “It appears to be a win-win-win.”
      McConnell said the Department of Energy, regardless of the political party in charge, has dawdled for years over what to do about the depleted uranium and has shortchanged cleanup efforts.
      “I would ask those present here today to consider this scenario: You have materials right in your own backyard, you have facilities to turn it into a sought-after product worth at least $1 billion, maybe more, and a workforce trained and ready to do the work,” McConnell said.    “Do you use that asset in a way that saves jobs, or do you let the department slowly dispose of all of this valuable material and in the meantime 1,200 people collect unemployment?”
      “I know which option sounds like the common sense solution to me.”    Deputy Energy Secretary Daniel Poneman was noncommittal.    “The objectives are laudable” and “we’re supportive of the purposes” of the Kentuckians’ legislative proposal, he told the panel.
      However, Poneman said, “the amount of funding needed to enrich depleted uranium tails is significant and not currently within the overall priorities for the department as supported by the president’s budget.”
      Waxman said that under the Kentuckians’ bill, USEC would be the only company capable of enriching the Paducah uranium tailings.
      “I am concerned that this legislation is not carefully crafted to yield the best deal for the American taxpayer,” Waxman said.
      A sole-source contract “is almost guaranteed” to be at a higher cost than under competitive bidding, he said.    And it is unclear how much such a contract would cost the government, he added.
      The Energy Department also should have the option of simply selling the uranium tails “as is,” without incurring re-enrichment costs, Waxman said.
      In addition, he said, the current process used at Paducah dates to World War II and consumes far more energy than newer gas centrifuge technology now coming on line.
      Herman Potter, president of United Steelworkers Union Local 689, and Jim Key, vice president of United Steelworkers Union Local 550, told lawmakers they support the Kentuckians’ plan for the uranium tails.
      The Paducah plant has been critical to the local economy, Key said.    “To even consider shipping these tails away from Paducah is simply wrong,” he said.
  
  
• 7/2/2011
  
  Court throws out nuclear waste lawsuit - States sought to send spent fuel to Nevada by Nedra Pickler and Dina Cappiello, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The Obama administration won a legal battle Friday in the long-standing fight over where to bury the nation’s nuclear waste, but it’s not likely to be the last.
      The federal appeals court in Washington ruled against South Carolina, Washington state and others that want to ship radioactive spent nuclear fuel to a repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles from Las Vegas.
      Congress chose Yucca Mountain as the leading candidate for waste disposal. But opponents are concerned about contamination, and the Obama administration said it would not consider the site and would look for alternatives.    The suit challenged the administration’s decision.
      The appeals court ruled that it’s not an appropriate time for it to intervene because the Nuclear Regu-latory Commission hasn’t made a final decision on the status of Yucca Mountain.    So the court threw out the case.
      But the court pointed out that the commission is required under the law to issue a final decision within four years of an application, which will come in 2012 for the Bush administration’s application for construction at Yucca Moun-tain.
      The court noted the commission’s decision can be reviewed by the court and that it can also be sued for failing to act by the deadline.
      Other than Yucca Mountain, the U.S. has no long-term plan for disposing of its nuclear waste.    A federal report issued early in June said the U.S. has generated more than 82,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste, which it was storing at 80 sites in 35 states.
      The amount of waste is expected to double by 2055, the Government Accountability Office said.
      The Japan nuclear disaster put a spotlight on the problems of storing spent nuclear fuel in pools at nuclear power plants.
      The spent fuel rods at the Fukushima- Daiichi plant were likely damaged after the facility lost power and the ability to keep water on the rods to cool them.
  
  
• 7/21/2011
  Lung disease linked to deployment - Fort Campbell soldiers among those treated by Malcolm Ritter, Associated Press
      NEW YORK — Soldiers — including some from Fort Campbell, Ky. — have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan with an untreatable lung disease that interferes with their ability to do physical exercise and that possibly was caused by inhaling toxic material, doctors report.    The illness is rare in otherwise healthy young people, Dr. Robert Miller of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., and colleagues say in today’s New England Journal of Medicine.
      The soldiers were referred to Vanderbilt from Blanchfield Army Hospital at Fort Campbell.
      The analysis by Miller and his colleagues can’t show how common the condition is in the troops or positively identify its cause.    But 28 of the 38 diagnosed soldiers had been exposed to a sulfur-mine fire near Mosul, Iraq, in 2003.    That suggests they inhaled a significant dose of sulfur dioxide, a known cause of the lung disease constrictive bronchiolitis, Miller said in a telephone interview.
      Dust storms and the burning of waste in pits may also have played a role, he said. Identifying the cause would help with prevention, he said.
      The soldiers were evaluated between 2004 and 2009.    The diagnoses were made after lung biopsies.    At least half the soldiers have left the service with a disability rating.    The researchers said they have counted nine more cases since 2009.
      In an email, R. Craig Postlewaite of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense and two other Army medical experts said they had “some concerns” about the lung biopsy procedures and the diagnoses.    They said they’re working with several authors of the report and others.
  
  
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