NRC advisory panel supports new Westinghouse nuclear reactor; additional reviews pending By RAY HENRY , Associated Press

NRC advisory panel approves AP1000 reactor design
Westinghouse Electric's AP1000 reactor design is safe, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards. "We conclude that there is reasonable assurance that the revised design can be built and operated without undue risk to the health and safety of the public," said Said Abdel-Khalik, chairman of the advisory group. The NRC will evaluate the committee's findings before making its final decision on the AP1000 design. Star Tribune (Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.)/The Associated Press

Radiation research

Radiation research on humans staged in Richland

Kai-Huei Yau/Herald   

Sergei Tolmachev, left, succeeded Tony James as director of the U.S. Transuranium and Uranium Registries, which studies donated organs and tissues from people with documented exposures to uranium and plutonium in order to study the long-term effects of exposure.

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• Radiation research consolidated at Richland
  

  Radiation research consolidated at Richland
  

  The rows of freezers in a new metal building near the Richland airport hold tissue samples from the women who used radioactive radium in the 1920s to paint the glow-in-the dark dials of watches and clocks.
  With them are organs waiting to be processed and tissue samples from their more recent counterparts - former DOE nuclear weapons workers, including those at Hanford, who were exposed to radioactivity on the job and later volunteered to donate their bodies to science when they died.
  Shelves hold boxes filled with organ samples dissolved in acid and preserved for future research. Other boxes hold bones, potentially contaminated, that have been turned to ash.
  
• Work stops at 27 Hanford buildings for beryllium check
  
  

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  Washington Closure Hanford has stopped work at 27 buildings at Hanford as it makes sure they have no beryllium contamination.
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  Richland starting a Hanford-wide program to protect workers from beryllium disease is a step in the right direction, but improvements are needed to give the program a strong foundation, according to the Department of Energy.
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• Review helps Hanford workers with vapor protection (w/document)
  

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  HANFORD — The program to protect Hanford tank farm workers from chemical vapors has room for improvement, according to a new review by independent experts.
  The review was sponsored by the Hanford Concerns Council, an independent panel that handles worker health and safety concerns, at the request of Hanford Challenge and Washington River Protection Solutions, the contractor overseeing Hanford's tank farms.
  Hanford Challenge is a nonprofit organization that advocates for worker safety.
  

t's the nation's collection of physical evidence amassed to provide clues to how exposure to actinides such as plutonium and uranium affect the human body -- the goal of the U.S. Transuranium and Uranium Registries.
The program is operated by the Washington State University College of Pharmacy and paid for with grants from the Department of Energy. Programs at different DOE sites were consolidated in Washington in 1992, but more recently all of the nation's archives of data and samples -- both recent and decades old -- have been consolidated in Richland.
It's the only program in the world that tracks large amounts of data obtained from studying material collected at autopsies with medical and exposure information to learn more about the affects of radioactivity on the human body, said Anthony James, the just-retired director of the registries.


Read more: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/10/24/1394585/us-research-on-effects-of-radiation.html#ixzz1485wf0g8

Read more: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/10/24/1394585/us-research-on-effects-of-radiation.html#ixzz1485dq5D8

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• Radiation research consolidated at Richland (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Radiation research consolidated at Richland (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Tissue Samples From Exposure to Plutonium and Uranium To Be Studied To Determine How Individuals Who Were Exposed Have Been Affected (ducknetweb.blogspot.com)
• Court approves new Hanford toxic cleanup schedule (thenewstribune.com)
• Human Tissue, Organs Help Scientists Learn from Plutonium and Uranium Workers (wsunews.wsu.edu)
• Human tissue, organs help scientists learn from plutonium and uranium workers (sciencedaily.com)

In China, Labor Disputes Overwhelming Courts By EDWARD WONG

BEIJING — Chinese court officials say they are struggling to handle a surging number of labor dispute cases that have arisen in part because of the global financial crisis, according to a report on Wednesday in China Daily, an official English-language newspaper.
The number of labor disputes brought to court also has grown as the Chinese government has generally sought to improve workplace conditions and make workers more aware of their rights. A rash of factory strikes this year, most notably at plants that make parts for Japanese automobile companies, has cast a spotlight on working conditions in manufacturing hubs along the coastal provinces. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/16/world/asia/16china.html?ref=china