- - - - - - - - - -



- - - - - - - - - -

[see yesterday's items]

* MRIs are called magnets for patient injuries

* Nuclear news photos - November 13, 2005

* List of 162 new documents Friday from NRC PDR

Today's source articles

* REVIEW : How nuclear physics exploded over the world
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (subscription required)

This is an interesting review of Diane Preston's new book about the nuclear age. It highlights, for example, the chillingly intriguing "what if" question related to the physics community's rejection of findings which could have prompted discovery of fission five years earlier. The course of WWII could have been quite different if Hitler's atomic scientists had been able to draw on the open literature which would have been generated, as well as perhaps research captured along with France. The review is bylined to a Philadephia Inquirer writer, although that sister paper hasn't yet published it.

* Nuclear reactor may have been terrorist target
ABC

* Terror suspects 'near N-reactor'
News Limited

* Relying on Computer, U.S. Seeks to Prove Iran's Nuclear Aims
William J. Broad and David E. Sanger, New York Times

* Iran 'trying for nuclear warhead'
Anne Penketh, The Independent

* IAEA Chief to Press Iran on Compromise
George Jahn, Guardian

* Iran rejects US claim on atomic weapons work
Alireza Ronaghi, Reuters

* Iran insists on enrichment
Reuters

* US says new evidence of Iran nuclear arms ambition
Reuters

* Stolen Iranian laptop displayed as evidence of nuclear program
Yahoo! News

* Iran confirms rejection of nuclear compromise
Yahoo! News

* Iran insists on carrying out uranium enrichment inside country
IRNA

* Iran insists on carrying out uranium enrichment inside country
IRNA

* No new proposal on Iran's nuclear issue, says Asefi
IRNA

* Iran, Russia emphasize expansion of bilateral cooperation
IRNA

* Larijani: IAEA should respect application of NPT
IRNA

* Compromise nuclear offer could take years, says Samore
IRNA

* US-NKorean mistrust seen as biggest hurdle to nuclear talks
Yahoo! News

* U.S., N. Korea to Discuss Sanctions in Talks Break
Chosun Ilbo

* No date for next nuclear talks
Choi Sang-yeon and Ser Myo-ja, Joongang Ilbo

* Editorial: Message to North Korea
Korea Herald

* U.S. Exercises for Preemptive Aerial Nuclear Attack on DPRK unde
Minjok Tongshin

* Armistice Day bomb practice slammed
Alan Crawford, Sunday Herald

* Livermore Lab's future tied to risky laser project
Keay Davidson, San Francisco Chronicle

* A rocky road ahead as ex-Flats workers lose out on benefits
Karen AugŽ, Denver Post

* Congress to investigate chemical-weapons dumping in oceans
John M.R. Bull, The State

* Activists: Keep nuclear waste here
Reid Magney, LaCrosse Tribune

* State legislation proposes to help veterans exposed to depleted uranium
Mid-Hudson News

* Behind the headlines, UN labs test for nuclear violations
Yahoo! News

* Dump debate stifled for Territorians, Martin says
ABC

* Navy keeps public away from Greenpeace ships
Myolisi Gophe, IOL

* America's 5 Best Governors
Amanda Ripley and Karen Tumulty, TIME

* Ailing nuclear workers sought
Kerry Cavanaugh, Los Angeles Daily News/Long Beach Press-Telegram (California)

James Roesch was an equipment mechanic and volunteer firefighter at the Santa Susana Field Lab from 1955 to 1967. He died in 1998 at age 62 from multiple myeloma, or cancer of the plasma cells. In 1997, Roesch wrote a five-page work history, homing in on an incident in 1959 the same year there was partial meltdown in the Sodium Reactor Experiment, the nation's first civilian nuclear power plant. Roesch wrote that he was called to the reactor to put out a fire. He rushed in with a fire extinguisher but found only smoke. He saw large, twisted steel beams overhead and men in white smocks working in a small room. "They looked quite surprised upon seeing me enter the room. One of them asked me what I was doing in there? I explained that I was looking for spot fires. He said, in what I would consider an almost panicked voice, 'There is no fire in here! Get out of here! Quick! Get out now." I left." Afterward, the auxiliary firefighters were taken to a fire station, ordered to shower thoroughly and given company coveralls to wear home. They were told to have their wives launder the clothes that night.

Roesch wrote the work history in 1997, the year after he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a condition his doctor suggested could be work-related. Roesch underwent chemotherapy and spent long periods in the hospital, racking up medical bills. He was denied workers' compensation, and hired an attorney to appeal the decision. He died before the case went to trial, but his widow continued to press the case for three more years. "The Boeing attorneys said they would never settle, they would take it to Supreme Court," Charleen Roesch said. "It was very intimidating for a regular person, who had never been in a courtroom, to go through that." The judge overseeing the case died before issuing a decision, but a judge who took over the case ruled in 2001 that Roesch's illness was unrelated to his work at the field lab. Charleen was devastated by the decision and stopped her fight for compensation until now.

It was for workers like James Roesch that Congress passed and Clinton signed the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act in 2000. The goal was to assess whether employees developed cancers and other illnesses from their work with radiation and toxic materials. If they did, workers and their survivors could claim up to $150,000. Five years after President Bill Clinton pledged billions of dollars to former nuclear employees who got sick from their Cold War-era jobs, just seven of the nearly 600 claims filed by workers at the Santa Susana Field Lab and other local facilities have been compensated. The U.S. Department of Labor, which is responsible for doling out the payments, has struggled with a backlog of 20,000 claims nationwide. So far, the Department of Labor has awarded more than $1 billion in more than 16,000 claims nationwide. Former employees can receive up to $250,000 and their spouses and dependent children can receive up to $175,000.

* Field lab health claims in limbo
Kerry Cavanaugh, Los Angeles Daily News

* Plan gives Goodrich 10 months to build test wells
Nikki Cobb, San Bernardino Sun