With thanks to all who participated... --Marylia
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/
Hundreds turn out to protest nuclear weapons in Livermore
Anniversary of Hiroshima bombing prompts activist rallies at sites across
nation
By Paul Burgarino, STAFF WRITER
LIVERMORE - Hundreds of protesters took part in a rally and processions
outside of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Saturday to protest
the use of nuclear weapons.
The Livermore event was one of four nationally coordinated major rallies at
active nuclear weapon sites on the 60th anniversary of the American
bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Other protest sites were in Las Vegas, near the Nevada Test Site; Y-12
Production Plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn.; and Los Alamos Lab in New Mexico.
At the site many consider the brain of the nuclear weapons complex in the
United States, the Seeds of Change: No Nukes! No Wars! rally began with a
pot-luck family picnic, where organizers used sharing and coming together
to show their aspirations for a nuclear-free world.
It is important for us to be here to keep the memories of the horror of
Hiroshima alive, said Jeffrey Schurtleff of the Sam Mateo County Green
Party. There is a need for activism. If everyone just says no and does not
act, then nothing happens.
The theme of the event called for protesters to celebrate resistance to
nuclear weapons and solidarity.
It is wonderful to get everyone together on such a solemn anniversary, said
Marylia Kelly of Tri-Valley CARES. We have to promise the victims that this
will never happen again and that it is time for [the U.S.] government to
stop the further development [of nuclear weapons].
The event culminated with a half-mile peaceful walk to the lab from William
Payne Park.
At the gates of the weapons site, members of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship
conducted a peace meditation.
The ceremony concluded with members being able to symbolically plant the
seeds of change, by putting sunflower seeds in the earth along the
fenceline of the lab.
Sunflowers are the international symbol for nuclear disarmament.
The goal of the event was to demand an end to nuclear arms development in
Livermore and plant the seeds of a more peaceful future for the next
generation.
It is our hope that our voice helps stop the dangerous design of nuclear
weapons, said Tara Dorabjl of Tri-Valley CARES. We are trying to send a
clear message that having nuclear weapons anywhere makes us less secure.
The Livermore Lab is one of the primary nuclear weapons design labs in the
world, and has been named as the sole site to develop the Robust Nuclear
Earth Penerator, or RNEP, a new high-yield bomb.
Lawrence Livermore was founded in September 1952 as a second nuclear
weapons design laboratory to promote innovation in the design of the
nations nuclear stockpile through creative science and engineering.
The protest was about something that happened seven years before the lab
even opened, said David Schwoegler, spokesman for Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory. What they are protesting now is a question of national
security policy and something we can't control here in Livermore.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the only uses of nuclear weapons in the history
of warfare. The two bombs caused approximately 210,000 deaths by the end of
1945.
We are gathered in part to honor the victims that suffered from the horror
of 60 years ago, and to show that we are a growing non-violent community
and celebrate our resistance, said Dorabjl.
In Japan, Hiroshima marked the anniversary with prayers and water for
the dead, and a call by the mayor for nuclear powers to abandon their
arsenals and stop jeopardizing human survival. At 8:15 a.m., the time of
the blast, the citys trolleys stopped and more than 55,000 people at Peace
Memorial Park observed a moment of silence that was broken by the ringing
of a bronze bell.
More than 500 people gathered at a Los Alamos park where research
laboratories stood during the Manhattan Project, which developed the worlds
first atomic bomb,
Near Oak Ridge, some 1,100 demonstrators carrying signs and beating drums
marched to the gates of the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, where the uranium
for the original bomb was supplied and warhead parts are still
manufactured.
Fifteen people were arrested at Oak Ridge for blocking a road outside the
heavily guarded weapons factory that helped fuel the bomb during World War
II.
University of Nevada, Las Vegas, students and peace activists in Las Vegas
gathered for seminars and speeches on eliminating nuclear weapons.
The stance of protest organizers in Livermore is that the U.S. continues to
ramp up its nuclear arsenal as the death toll in Iraq mounts.
The government chose Lawrence Livermore to develop the RNEP and plans to
double the plutonium supply at the lab, Kelly said. We feel that that a
total security of peace comes from getting rid of nuclear weapons, not the
creation of more of them.
Kelly mentioned that another demonstration outside the lab is being planned
for Aug. 9 to commemorate the Nagasaki bombing.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
ends
Marylia Kelley
Executive Director
Tri-Valley CAREs
(Communities Against a Radioactive Environment)
2582 Old First Street
Livermore, CA USA 94551
- is our web site address. Please visit us
there!
(925) 443-7148 - is our phone
(925) 443-0177 - is our fax
*****************************************************************
55 Albuquerque Tribune: Package from LANL contaminates lab
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
August 9, 2005
LOS ALAMOS - A package sent from Los Alamos National Laboratory
contaminated a Pennsylvania lab with a tiny amount of
radioactive material, according to a report.
A Los Alamos lab worker sent the package on July 20, before he
knew he had been contaminated with americium 241, according to a
Los Alamos lab incident report made public Monday by the Project
on Government Oversight, a lab watchdog based in Washington,
D.C.
Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory spokeswoman Cindy Clark confirmed
that the West Mifflin, Pa., Department of Energy lab received
the contaminated package.
Eleven workers who handled the shipment did not suffer any
adverse effects, but medical tests on them continued, she said.
"We don't expect to find anything," she said.
The amount of radioactive material found at Bettis was
one-one-thousandth of the amount of americium that is typically
found in a household smoke detector.
Los Alamos lab spokeswoman Kathy DeLucas said Monday that
officials also surveyed a private vehicle that was used to
transport the package to the lab's warehouse in Los Alamos,
where it was picked up by FedEx. A contaminated towel in the car
was removed.
The warehouse and the workers there were also checked, but
DeLucas said nothing turned up.
The incident began July 14 when a Los Alamos researcher opened a
separate package that contained slightly enriched uranium
nitride pellets. That package was contaminated with americium
241, a radioactive decay product of plutonium.
The lab said the researcher failed to follow lab procedures by
unloading the pellets without the help of a radiological control
technician.
He spread the contamination to his home and locations he visited
in Colorado and Kansas.
The contamination was discovered July 25 when a technician
noticed a radiological material tag in a trash can in a
nonradiological area. It wasn't until two days later that the
lab learned of all the possible pathways of contamination,
including the package sent to Bettis.
DeLucas said once an investigation into the incident is
finished, the lab will issue a report on how to prevent such
contamination in the future.
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56 Courier Journal: Agreement reached to cleanup water table around Paducah plant
Posted on Tue, Aug. 09, 2005
Associated Press
FRANKFORT, Ky. - The U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday agreed
to spend nearly $41 million to help clean up contaminated
groundwater around the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
The agreement signed between the state and two federal agencies
requires the installation of a system to remove contamination
caused by a cleaning solvent long used at the plant, where
uranium has been enriched for atomic energy plants.
Design of the system will take 15 months. The system is expected
to become operational in the fall of 2006 and will be active for
several years.
Federal authorities learned in 1988 that pollution from the
plant had leaked into aquifers and residential wells. The
pollution included the degreaser trichloroethylene and
technetium 99, a water-soluble radioactive contaminant.
The degreaser was used in the C-400 maintenance shop at the
plant, which is about 10 miles west of Paducah and employs about
1,500 people.
The Energy Department has provided free water since the early
1990s to about 100 residents affected by the plume of polluted
water under their homes.
The plan basically calls for the installation of an underground
system of electrical wires to heat up and vaporize the solvent.
The resulting fumes and steam will be vacuumed out of the ground
and filtered and contained.
Some residents are skeptical about the new plan. But Ronald
Lamb, a mechanic who lives near the plant and has been a critic
of the slow pace of the cleanup, said, "Anything they can do to
slow it down has got to be good."
Lamb noted the government has been studying the plume for 16
years and has touted other cleanup technologies that did not
work.
Lamb believes the underground water pollution has devalued his
property, but the government has opposed neighbors' claims in
several property damage lawsuits that have been dismissed.
Congress recently asked the Energy Department to study the
feasibility of buying the approximately 10,000 acres of private
property and homes over the polluted groundwater.
---
Information from:
The Courier-Journal, http://www.courier-journal.com
The Paducah Sun, http://www.paducahsun.com
*****************************************************************
57 SF Chronicle: Error at lab spreads nuclear material / Contamination
from Los Alamos found in 4 states
Keay Davidson, Chronicle Science Writer
Tuesday, August 9, 2005
The apparent mishandling of a potentially hazardous radioactive
substance by an employee of the University of California-run Los
Alamos National Laboratory has resulted in contamination of
sites in four states, according to a report released Monday.
Traces of the substance have been found in homes in Colorado and
Kansas that the Los Alamos employee visited, his own home in New
Mexico, and also at the Pennsylvania laboratory where the
employee apparently shipped a contaminated package via FedEx.
Los Alamos doctors are monitoring the health of the employee and
five lab colleagues who might have been contaminated by the
substance, radioactive americium-241. So far, none show ill
effects, lab officials said Monday.
Los Alamos investigators uncovered the incident and reported it
in a July 27 press release, but a more extensive internal report
by lab officials, obtained by the Project on Government
Oversight (POGO), a Washington-based watchdog group, was
released Monday.
"The package could have contaminated Federal Express workers and
other packages," Beth Daley, a POGO spokeswoman, told The
Chronicle. "Surprisingly, it took Los Alamos two full days after
it discovered the initial contamination incident to notify (the
Pennsylvania laboratory) that it was in possession of an
unmarked radioactive package."
It shows "there's a complete lack of accountability when it
comes to health and environmental protection at the lab," Daley
added. "It's a sign that the DOE needs to rein UC in. One way to
do that is to start fining the university when it violates its
regulations and laws."
Los Alamos spokeswoman Kathy DeLucas said the lab's
investigation of the incident is still under way. She declined
to identify any of the people who are being monitored medically,
to protect their privacy.
The Los Alamos employee normally worked in Los Alamos' Building
66 and studied ways to weld together nuclear fuel pellets for
production of fuel for nuclear reactors, DeLucas said. She said
a radiological control technician discovered the contamination
July 25 while monitoring the building lab for unusual levels of
radiation.
The lab reported July 27 that it had found contamination of the
employee's work space, car and in several locations inside his
home. It also found radiological contamination to the employee's
skin and clothing.
Subsequently, lab investigators have found traces of the
radioactive substance at the West Mifflin, Pa., lab of Bettis
Laboratory, which had received a FedEx package from the
employee, and at homes in Colorado and Kansas that he had
visited.
The FedEx package was shipped on July 20 as a nonhazardous,
domestic unclassified shipment from Los Alamos to Bettis
Laboratory, which according to its Web site, "plays a key role
in all aspects of the (U.S.) Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program."
DeLucas declined to identify where in Colorado or Kansas the
contamination occurred. Authorities are still trying to
determine how the contamination occurred.
There is disagreement over the potential health risks of the
contamination. July 27, lab officials said the amount of
radioactivity that traveled away from Los Alamos "is a fraction
of the radioactivity contained in a typical residential smoke
detector ... (The) extremely low levels of radioactive material
found at the employee's home do not pose a credible risk to the
general public."
But POGO officials said they were disturbed by news of the
contamination. "The nuclear contaminant involved, americium-241,
is far more deadly than 'normal' plutonium if inhaled, despite
rosy depictions by the laboratory's public relations office. One
speck of the material inhaled can cause cancer," Daley said.
According to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Web site,
"americium poses a significant risk if enough is swallowed or
inhaled ... It generally stays in the body for decades and
continues to expose the surrounding tissues to radiation. This
may eventually increase a person's chance of developing cancer,
but such cancer effects may not become apparent for several
years."
UC manages the lab under contract to the U.S. Department of
Energy. At present, UC and a few industrial partners, including
Bechtel National, are competing for the next Los Alamos
management contract with another team led by aerospace giant
Lockheed Martin and the University of Texas. DOE is expected to
announce the winner by Dec. 1.
UC spokesperson Chris Harrington declined Monday to comment on
the americium-241 contamination.
Americium-241
What is it? A man-made radioactive metal discovered by nuclear
chemist Glenn Seaborg. The most important isotope of americium
is americium-241.
Where does it come from? Americium is produced when plutonium
atoms absorb neutrons in nuclear reactors and in nuclear weapons
explosions.
What is it used for? It is the radiation source for medical
diagnostic devices, gauges and distance-sensing devices.
Source: Environmental Protection Agency
E-mail Keay Davidson at kdavidson@sfchronicle.com.
Page A - 1
The San Francisco Chronicle]
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58 TheNewMexicoChannel.com: LANL Sends Contaminated Package To Pennsylvania
UPDATED: 7:40 pm MDT August 8, 2005
LOS ALAMOS, N.M. -- A report shows a package sent from Los
Alamos National Laboratory contaminated a Pennsylvania lab with
a tiny amount of radioactive material.
A Los Alamos lab worker sent the package July 20, before
realizing that he had been contaminated with americium 241.
That's according to a Los Alamos lab incident report made public
Monday by the Project on Government Oversight, a lab watchdog
based in Washington, D.C.
Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory spokeswoman Cindy Clark confirmed
that the West Mifflin, Pa., lab received the contaminated
package.
Clark said 11 workers who handled the shipment did not suffer
any adverse effects.
The Los Alamos worker who was initially contaminated spread it
to his home and locations he visited in Colorado and Kansas.
Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
© 2005,Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc.
*****************************************************************
59 lamonitor.com: Contamination found out of state
The Online News Source for Los Alamos
ROGER SNODGRASS, , Monitor Assistant Editor
The intensity of the latest radiological accident at Los Alamos
National Laboratory may be relatively small, but the geographic
extent is growing, as new information about the incident
emerges.
A lab report updated July 29, revealed that the lab worker who
was contaminated by americium-241 in mid-July made an ordinary
Federal Express shipment of weld test samples he was working on
to Bechtel Bettis Inc., a DOE laboratory in West Mifflin, a
suburb of Pittsburgh, Penn.
The package, processed as a non-hazardous, domestic unclassified
shipment contained welded capsules of uranium pellets and was
shipped on July 20, according to the report.
The occurrence report was obtained by the Project on Government
Oversight, a Washington, D.C., public interest organization.
The contaminated package reached Bettis on July 21, Bechtel
Bettis lab confirmed today.
When Bettis was notified by LANL on July 27 that the package
might have inadvertently contained radioactivity, Bettis lab's
statement said, Bettis conducted a comprehensive survey of items
or locations that might have been contaminated.
"No radioactivity was found on the outside of the shipping
container or in areas of Bettis where the shipment was handled,"
the statement added.
Bettis calculated that the maxium amount of radioactivity
detected was about 1/1000 of the amount of radioactivity in a
common household smoke detector.
Americium-241 is commonly used in a variety of smoke-detectors.
While Bechtel Bettis officials found "no adverse affect on
Bettis employees, the public or the environment," their
statement indicated 11 employees who may have been exposed to
the low-level radioactivity are undergoing monitoring.
The source of the americium-241 contamination had not been
determined at the July 29 update of the occurrence report, and
identifying the source is still one of the subjects of the
investigation, Delucas said.
"We discovered the incident on July 25, but the pathways of
contamination weren't fully known until July 27," she added,
explaining the two-day delay in notifying the Bettis lab.
According to the LANL's report, the problem was initially
uncovered when a radiological control supervisor found a
radiological material tag in a trash can in an unexpected
location - in a non-radiological area of the Sigma Complex in
the main administrative area.
The supervisor began reconstructing the situation, tracing the
event to a technical staff member who had received a shipment of
radioactive materials on July 14 and unpacked it at that time.
The supervisor surveyed the room and a found reading of 118,000
dpm (disintegrations per second) in areas around the glove box
that was used in unpackaging the initial shipment.
Significantly lower amounts were subsequently measured on the
technical staff member, in his office, and personal badge. A
reading of 10,000 dpm was recorded from the back of his office
chair and 9,000 dpm on his right thumb.
The preliminary investigation led to a temporary closure of the
Sigma Complex and several workers from the immediate area were
placed on a testing regime.
Additional amounts were found at the technical staff member's
home, on computer equipment, furniture, and household pipes, as
well as on parts of his private vehicle.
The worker who delivered the repackaged material for shipment to
Pennsylvania was surveyed and a towel on which the shipment
rested before being dispatched recorded 2,000 dpm.
David Chen, a radiation biologist and director for the molecular
radiological biology group at UT Southwestern in Dallas, noted
that the alpha particle radiation of americium-241 was not
strong enough to penetrate through the dead skin of the
employee's thumb, for example, but might pose a more serious
problem if it contacted sensitive areas of the nose or eyes.
"The problem is we really don't know the low-dose effect," Chen
said, a former group leader at LANL, "That's why the Department
of Energy has a low-dose program," researching the question.
He also noted the long half-life of americium-241, over 400
years, as the reason it had to be cleaned up.
Bernie Pleau, a team leader of the Department of Energy's
Radiological Assistant Program that conducted sweeps of two
out-of-state locations the LANL employee visited, said Monday
that the employee drove to his wife's house in Colorado and then
on to a location in Kansas. He said harmless amounts of
radioactivity were detected, but some items were removed for
safe disposal.
"It is an ongoing, unraveling story," Delucas said, "One for
which we won't have all the facts and details for quite awhile."
© 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
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