Health

Two decades after Chernobyl, Scottish sheep get all-clear

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

NEARLY a quarter of a century after the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in the Ukraine
exploded and spewed radioactivity across the world, it has finally stopped making Scottish
sheep too "hot" to eat.

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Nuclear firm funding for cancer study questioned

Thursday, December 11, 2008

A study to investigate whether living close to a nuclear power plant increases the risk of childhood cancer is being co-financed by electricity companies.
The decision to allow the firms, Axpo and BKW Energy, to fund around a quarter of the SFr820,000 ($672,000) study raises questions about whether they will try to influence the results, due to be published in 2011.

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Sizewell "cancer risk" fears

Thursday, December 11, 2008

A COMMUNITY watchdog group is calling for more information about a German study which suggests that there are clusters of childhood leukaemia cases near nuclear power station sites.

The Sizewell Stakeholder Group - set up to improve liaison between the nuclear site, the local community and regulators - wants to know if there is any UK implication.

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Normandy Dairy Towns Challenge EDF on Nuclear Reactor

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The lush green hills overlooking the dairy farms of Le Chefresne in Normandy have become a battleground in France’s efforts to boost power production.

In a corner of France known for Camembert cheese and apples, state-controlled Electricite de France SA plans to build 200 foot-tall steel pylons with high-voltage cables to carry electricity from a nuclear plant. The proposal would add to the 400,000 volts that pylons already carry from two existing reactors.

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Does Radiation Cause Malignant Diseases?

Friday, November 28, 2008

Russian roentgenologists studied what caused death of liquidators of Chernobyl nuclear accident. Scientists analyzed 1466 death cases.

Researchers tried to find out whether diseases and death of Chernobyl liquidators depended on the year they participated in the clean-up. Chernobyl liquidators most often died of blood circulation dysfunctions (48%) and malignant growths (30%). More than half of first group deaths (55%) happened due to coronary heart disease. Lung (27.8 %) and stomach (17.1 %) cancers were predominant among oncological death causes. Average death age was 51 years.

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Schools given a store of anti-radiation pills

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Thousands of anti-radiation pills have been handed out to schools in Portsmouth and Gosport for the visit of a French nuclear sub.

Potassium iodate tablets are being held at schools within a 2km area of Portsmouth Naval Base in the event of a nuclear reactor meltdown.

The 113,000 pills – given out every time a nuclear sub visits the city –are designed to stop radiation from being absorbed by the thyroid gland.

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Nuclear power project is fraught with 'ordeals', expert says

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

The Belarusian government’s plans to build a nuclear power plant are fraught with “multiple troubles and ordeals for the people,” Belarusian expert Heorhiy Lepin said at an international conference in Vilnius on October 9.

He described nuclear energy programs as “the most costly and the most hazardous of all power generation technologies.” “This danger is connected not only with the possibility of accidents: a nuclear reactor pollutes the environment during its routine operation,” Dr. Lepin said.

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Study Shows Significant Impact of Chernobyl Nuclear Accident on Bone Development in Russian Women

Friday, September 19, 2008

This study of bone density compares BMD development in 2854 women affected by the Chernobyl nuclear accident with two non-contaminated control groups using the DXL Calscan portable bone densitometer device. By Prof. S.S. Rodionova, CITO (Moscow).

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Fallout From Soviet Atomic Bombs Persists in Kazakstan

Friday, September 19, 2008

ALMATY, Kazakstan, September 18, 2008 (ENS) - Kazakstan's nuclear test zone has lain deserted for the last 20 years largely forgotten by the outside world, but experts say radiation will continue to be a health risk until the huge site is cleaned up thoroughly.

The testing ground was closed for use in 1991. This month, the international Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization is running a series of trials at the Semipalatinsk site to test equipment that can identify and give the location of nuclear explosions.

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Sellafield body parts inquiry legal hitch

Saturday, September 13, 2008

The Sellafield body parts inquiry has hit a major legal hitch after a doctor suggested his patients’ medical records should remain confidential – even though they are dead.

Michael Redfern QC is leading an inquiry into claims organs and tissue were secretly removed from workers at Sellafield and other nuclear plants without the knowledge of bereaved loved ones.

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