Free Republic

While the detonation of a nuclear weapon in the United States is considered highly unlikely, Los Angeles and other U.S. cities are preparing for such a disaster by assessing old bomb shelters and preparing emergency response plans, the Los Angeles Daily News reported Monday.

15,000 Will Die From CT Scans Done In 1 Year Scans have higher levels of radiation than thought, researchers say Dec. 14: According to new reports in the Archives of Internal Medicine, radiation exposure from commonly performed CT scans may contribute to thousands of future cancer cases. NBC's Robert Bazell reports. Dec . 14, 2009 CHICAGO - Radiation from CT scans done in 2007 will cause 29,000 cancers and kill nearly 15,000 Americans, researchers said Monday. The findings, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, add to mounting evidence that Americans are overexposed to radiation from diagnostic tests, especially from...

MIDDLETOWN, Pa. - November 22, 2009 -- The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission says the small amount of radiation detected at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant is not significant.

From X-Rays to MRI's you are exposed to radiation in many medical treatments. Certain forms of cancer and other tumors are specifically treated with radiation. What are the potential hazards, and short-term/long-term effects?

More than 200 patients undergoing CT brain scans at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center got doses of radiation eight times higher than normal, prompting the Food and Drug Administration to issue an alert to prevent similar problems, it was reported Saturday. About 40 percent of the patients lost patches of hair as a result of the overdoses, a hospital spokesman told the Los Angeles Times. The overdoses went undetected for 18 months, raising questions about why it took Cedars-Sinai so long to notice that something was wrong. "The magnitude of these overdoses and their impact on the affected patients were...

NASA is running out of the special kind of plutonium needed to power deep space probes, worrying planetary scientists who say the U. S. urgently needs to restart production of plutonium-238. But it's unclear whether Congress will provide the $30 million that the administration requested earlier this year for the Department of Energy to get a new program going. Nuclear weapons use plutonium-239, but NASA depends on something quite different: plutonium-238. A marshmallow-sized pellet of plutonium-238, encased in metal, gives off a lot of heat. "If you dim the lights a little bit, it glows a little red, because it's...

By Richard Knox In his full-bore battle against brain cancer, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy resorted to treatment many consider experimental -- proton beam radiation therapy. Sen. Kennedy returns to Senate last year after treatment for brain cancer. Medicare pays for it. But his death leaves open a slew of questions about the costly treatment, which delivers high doses of radiation to tumor cells while largely sparing healthy tissue from damage. Did it do him any good? Should Medicare (or private insurers) pay for the unproven treatment? And most politically fraught, should Kennedy's legacy issue -- universal health care -- include...

Dirty bombs are one of the biggest threats to the world's urban populations. Now an American molecular biologist has developed a drug that may protect against the effects of radioactivity. Military officials are thrilled, and the discoverers could make billions. On Friday afternoons, as the Sabbath approaches and the sun hangs low in the sky over the Mediterranean, the Restaurant Turquoise north of Tel Aviv is a carefree oasis. Every seat in the place is taken, and the crowd is in high spirits. Only one patron, Yacov Reizman, seems serious as he glances at a stack of documents -- a...

When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in October 1957, the United States feared that nuclear missiles would soon follow. How could we stop them? In the Dr. Strangelove era, no idea was too absurd, and Nicholas Christofilos, an elevator engineer turned nuclear physicist, had a doozy. Christofilos had only undergraduate degrees in electrical and mechanical engineering, but he had become a top military scientist at California's Livermore Laboratory with a reputation for audacious creativity. He suggested that an atomic explosion in space could generate a vast flux of electrons, which would form a shell of energy over Earth, a phenomenon...

Medication that can protect humans against nuclear radiation has been developed by Jewish-American scientists in cooperation with a researcher and investors from Israel. The full story behind the dramatic discovery will be published in Yedioth Ahronoth's weekend edition. The ground-breaking medication, developed by Professor Andrei Gudkov – Chief Scientific Officer at Cleveland BioLabs - may have far-reaching implications on the balance of power in the world, as states capable of providing their citizens with protection against radiation will enjoy a significant strategic advantage vis-à-vis their rivals. For Israel, the discovery marks a particularly dramatic development that could deeply affect the...

Exclusive: Dramatic discovery by Jewish-American scientists could change world; anti-radiation medication proves effective, safe in tests. Further experiments to be fast tracked, FDA approval possible within 1-2 years Ronen Bergman Published: 07.17.09, 00:18 / Israel News Medication that can protect humans against nuclear radiation has been developed by Jewish-American scientists in cooperation with a researcher and investors from Israel. The full story behind the dramatic discovery will be published in Yedioth Ahronoth's weekend edition.

Medication that can protect humans against nuclear radiation has been developed by Jewish-American scientists in cooperation with a researcher and investors from Israel. The full story behind the dramatic discovery will be published in Yedioth Ahronoth's weekend edition. The ground-breaking medication, developed by Professor Andrei Gudkov – Chief Scientific Officer at Cleveland BioLabs - may have far-reaching implications on the balance of power in the world, as states capable of providing their citizens with protection against radiation will enjoy a significant strategic advantage vis-à-vis their rivals. For Israel, the discovery marks a particularly dramatic development that could deeply affect the...

Mobile phones have become an essential component of modern living. However, the marked increase in the use of wireless mobile telephony throughout the world has also raised some serious health concerns, as mobile phones utilize electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range. While currently available data does not show any negative health effects resulting from the low levels of electromagnetic energy emitted by mobile phones, there is some conflicting scientific evidence that may be worth additional study, according to FDA. "We don't see a risk looking at currently available data, but we need more definite answers about the biological effects of...

A brilliant burst of gamma rays may have caused a mass extinction event on Earth 440 million years ago—and a similar celestial catastrophe could happen again, according to a new study. Most gamma-ray bursts are thought to be streams of high-energy radiation produced when the core of a very massive star collapses. Such a disaster may have been responsible for the mass die-off of 70 percent of the marine creatures that thrived during the Ordovician period (488 to 443 million years ago), suggests study leader Brian Thomas, an astrophysicist at Washburn University in Kansas. The simulation also shows that a...

So heres my trip to Chernobyl in pictures.The trip was booked with http://www.tourchernobyl.com. I just emailed info@tourkiev.com, and got in touch with the guy who runs the whole place, Sergei. Really, really helpful guy who talked me through the whole process and answered numerous dumbass emails i sent him. You can book everything through them, from the flights (cost me about 500 euro) to hotel (160 euro for 2 nights), to a pickup at the airport and dropoff when leaving ($40 each). First off we need to give props to our guide, Yuri. Yuri has worked in the zone for...

Enter your location. Choose a weapon and hit the button "NUKE IT" at the bottom of the map. Voila!

laboratory in Russia says it has built a proton accelerator for treating cancer victims that is 10 times cheaper then any similar device. It may provide salvation for millions of oncology patients around the world. Treating cancer with proton beams is one of the most promising methods to date. The particles are accelerated in a device similar to the famous Large Hadron Collider scaled down to ‘just’ a dozen meters and then fired at a tumour. The beam slices cancerous cells’ DNA and kills them.

A tense standoff has developed in waters off Somalia over an Iranian merchant ship laden with a mysterious cargo that was hijacked by pirates. Somali pirates suffered skin burns, lost hair and fell gravely ill “within days” of boarding the MV Iran Deyanat. Some of them died. Andrew Mwangura, the director of the East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme, told the Sunday Times: “We don’t know exactly how many, but the information that I am getting is that some of them had died. There is something very wrong about that ship.” ....

New Scientific Evidence For The Shroud of Turin Photo negative of Shroud of Turin Scriptural Reference To The ShroudJohn 19:38-42 After this Joseph of Arimathe'a, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him leave. So he came and took away his body. Nicode'mus also, who had at first come to him by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds' weight. They took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths with the...

TOKYO - JAPANESE Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura berated his subordinates on Saturday for failing to notify him of a radioactive leak from a US nuclear submarine, saying he learnt of the incident on television." The communication glitch came the same day that Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda installed a new cabinet to revive sagging public support for his government. 'This (Saturday) morning I was watching CNN, and even if I don't understand English that well I saw that something strange was going on', Mr Komura, who retained the post in the new cabinet, told a news conference. 'I therefore contacted (his...

TOKYO: A U.S. nuclear-powered submarine may have leaked a small amount of radiation as it stopped by Japan in the spring and was then deployed throughout the Pacific Ocean, the Japanese government said Saturday. The Japanese government said that it was informed Friday by the U.S. Navy that the submarine, the USS Houston, may have discharged an amount of radiation that was too small to be considered harmful. The chief government spokesman, Nobutaka Machimura, said at a news conference that the radioactive amount - estimated at less than half a microcurie - was too insignificant to "affect the human body...

French nuclear firm Areva has found a uranium leak at a factory in southeastern France, but there is no danger to the environment, the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) said on Friday. The news came a day after the government ordered safety tests at all the country's 19 nuclear power plants following another leak at an Areva facility earlier this month. However, Energy and Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo moved to reassure the public over the latest incident. "We mustn't over-exaggerate," he told reporters, saying there were 115 such "little anomalies" in France's nuclear industry each year. "This is something which...

What it all means According to the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA), specific absorption rate, or SAR, is "a way of measuring the quantity of radiofrequency (RF) energy that is absorbed by the body." For a phone to pass FCC certification, that phone's maximum SAR level must be less than 1.6W/kg (watts per kilogram). In Europe, the level is capped at 2W/kg while Canada allows a maximum of 1.6W/kg. The SAR level listed in our charts represents the highest SAR level with the phone next to the ear as tested by the FCC. Keep in mind that it is possible...

Several Texas Tech researchers and graduate students will leave for Ukraine on Sunday to begin their collaboration and training programs with the Iraqi government. Earlier this year, scientists at the Center of Environmental Radiation Studies received $948,000 in grants from the U.S. Department of State and $363,500 from the United Kingdom to train Iraqis on how to dismantle nuclear facilities in a manner consistent with international standards. Ron Chesser, director for the Center of Environmental Radiation Studies, said the goal of this program is to assist the Iraqi government in several different ways. "They want to get back into international...

On May 22, researchers at Osaka University presented the first demonstration of cold fusion since an unsuccessful attempt in 1989 that has clouded the field to this day. To many people, cold fusion sounds too good to be true. The idea is that, by creating nuclear fusion at room temperature, researchers can generate a nearly unlimited source of power that uses water as fuel and produces almost zero waste. Essentially, cold fusion would make oil obsolete. However, many experts debate whether money should be spent on cold fusion research or applied to more realistic alternative energy solutions. For decades,...

Chinese environment authorities say they have found fifty hazardous sources of radiation since this month’s earthquake. Senior environment official, Wu Xiaoqing has said the situation is returning to normal after the discovery of thirty five of the radiation sources. The other fifteen had been also been pinpointed but not yet dealt with. He said none of the radiation was accidentally released from nuclear facilities. He said the fifteen unrecovered sources were mostly buried in rubble or in dangerously unstable buildings. The disaster area is home to China's chief nuclear weapons research lab in Mianyang, as well as several secretive atomic...

2008 Radiation Shield Technologies has been granted a new patent for Demron, the protective garment that shields users from alpha and beta radiation, gamma rays, x-rays, and other nuclear emissions. The flexible, cool, and lightweight suit provides all the protection of a lead apron with a new level of comfort, and without any dermal or inhalation risks. ..

By Judi McLeod Tuesday, March 25, 2008 In an effort to provide them a fair trial, the Canadian government is seeking a limited publication ban on the identities of the adults charged with belonging to the so-called “Toronto 18” group. The identity of the youth charged with belonging to a homegrown terror cell is already protected under the Young Criminal Justice Act. The trial for the youth gets underway in a Brampton court today. Almost unheard of since they were nabbed in a foiled undercover operation to kidnap and behead members of Parliament, among other things on June 2, 2006,...

Defense establishment officials reported on Sunday that Israel has recently purchased a new supply of "Logol" pills against nuclear radiation. The pills were first experimentally distributed in 2004 to residents of Arad and Yavneh in southern Israel, and were met with strong opposition from the mayors of these Negev towns. The initiative to repurchase the pills was reported by officials on Sunday as part of a visiting delegation of Knesset Members to the Soreq Nuclear Research Center, located southeast of Dimona. Advertisement However, the defense establishment is still mulling whether to redistribute the pills to residents of communities located near...

Radiation From Mobile Phones Changes Protein Expression In Living People, Study SuggestsA new study on effects of mobile phone radiation on human skin strengthens the results of the human cell line analyses: living tissue responds to mobile phone radiation. (Credit: iStockphoto/Luis Pedrosa) ScienceDaily (Feb. 25, 2008) — A new study completed by the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) on effects of mobile phone radiation on human skin strengthens the results of the human cell line analyses: living tissue responds to mobile phone radiation. Earlier studies have shown that mobile phone radiation (radiofrequency modulated electromagnetic fields; RF-EMF) alters protein...

With the Starship Enterprise seemingly doomed after losing warp power, Mr. Spock exposes himself to lethal radiation in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. After repairing the engines and saving the day, Spock dies. Evidently, the movie's writers didn't think scientists would find a drug to cure radiation poisoning by the late 23rd century. Yet local scientists may be on the verge of doing just that more than two centuries before the setting of the Star Trek film. Rice University's Jim Tour and his colleagues at two Houston health institutions have found a drug that, when given to mice...

The superhero power to see through walls will soon be within the grasp of ordinary mortals, thanks to a new hand-held X-ray scanner. Inventors hope the gadget could revolutionise police work and Customs searches by allowing officers to seek out contraband, weapons, bombs or hidden people. The LEXID device sends out low-level X-rays which are collected in a lens based on the design of a lobster's eye. Rick Shie, senior vice-president of its American inventors, Physical Optics Corporation, said that lobsters' eyes, which are able to see in deep, murky water, use thousands of tiny squares to focus by reflection...

Rockwall man boasts of nuclear reactor, but no arrest made Thursday, January 10, 2008 By JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News A 22-year-old Rockwall man's Internet boasts that he had made a mini-nuclear reactor in his garage resulted in a visit recently by federal authorities. Representatives with the FBI and the Texas Department of State Health Services' Radiation Control Program took away the man's science equipment on Friday – but not because he was doing anything dangerous or illegal. Rather, the man's parents, with whom he is living, asked that the equipment be removed, officials said. The man, who...

A mounting number of studies are coming to some surprising conclusions about the dangers of nuclear radiation. It might not be as deadly as is widely believed.

A number of studies conducted at the sites of some of the worst radiation incidents in history have concluded that the danger from radiation isn't as great as was previously believed. Deaths from radiation incidents including the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan in WW2 and Russian nuclear accidents such as Chernobyl were in the hundreds, not tens of thousands. The risk of genetic deformity was also lower than expected.

Researchers at Eureka Aerospace are turning a fictional concept from the movie 2 Fast 2 Furious into reality: they're creating an electromagnetic system that can quickly bring a vehicle to a stop. The system, which can be attached to an automobile or aircraft carrier, sends out pulses of microwave radiation to disable the microprocessors that control the central engine functions in a car. Such a device could be used by law enforcement to stop fleeing and noncooperative vehicles at security checkpoints, or as perimeter protection for military bases, communication centers, and oil platforms in the open seas. The system has...

The Trojan Twinkie caper BY DAVE BARRY I'll tell you when I start to worry. I start to worry when ''officials'' tell me not to worry. This is why I am very concerned about the following Associated Press report, which was sent to me by a number of alert readers: 'RICHLAND, WASH. -- Radioactive ants, flies and gnats have been found at the Hanford nuclear complex, bringing to mind those Cold-War-era `B' horror movies in which giant mutant insects are the awful price paid for mankind's entry into the Atomic Age. Officials at the nation's most contaminated nuclear site insist...

A new report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office charges that the Department of Homeland Security used biased methods to enhance performance results in tests on a new generation of radiation detectors meant to protect U.S. ports. At stake are $1.2 billion in contracts to produce advanced spectroscopic portal (ASP) monitors and thousands of lives should they fail to work. Experts from four national laboratories were consulted prior to publication of the report (PDF) by the GAO, the nonpartisan audit and investigative arm of Congress, which was released yesterday. The agency found that the DHS' Domestic Nuclear Detection Office "used...

SANTA ANA, Calif. — The ACLU and Muslim advocacy groups sued the FBI and the Justice Department on Tuesday, alleging that authorities failed to turn over records detailing suspected surveillance of the Muslim-American community. The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, alleges that the FBI has turned over only four pages of documents to community leaders, despite a Freedom of Information Act request filed more than a year ago. The request sought records that described FBI guidelines and policies for surveillance and investigation of Muslim religious organizations, as well as specific information about FBI inquiries targeting 11...

VIENNA — Pierre Lagoda pulled a small container from his pocket and spilled the contents onto his desk. Four tiny dice rolled to a stop. “That’s what nature does,� Dr. Lagoda said. The random results of the dice, he explained, illustrate how spontaneous mutations create the genetic diversity that drives evolution and selective breeding. He rolled the dice again. This time, he was mimicking what he and his colleagues have been doing quietly around the globe for more than a half-century — using radiation to scramble the genetic material in crops, a process that has produced valuable mutants like red...

The subject of a book titled "The Radioactive Boy Scout" waived his preliminary larceny hearing Monday after he was charged with stealing 16 smoke detectors from Green Valley Apartments in Clinton Township. The larceny case against him will automatically go to circuit court and that hearing is set for September 27. Investigators said David Hahn, 31, was arrested in connection with stealing a smoke detector from his apartment complex. Others were found in his apartment. Hahn had tried to build a nuclear reactor in a shed as a teenager. A Harper's Magazine article reported he was trying to produce energy...

Breaking story

DETROIT — A man who became the subject of a book called "The Radioactive Boy Scout" after trying to build a nuclear reactor in a shed as a teenager has been charged with stealing 16 smoke detectors. Police say it was a possible effort to experiment with radioactive materials. David Hahn, 31, was being held Friday on a $5,000 bond in the Macomb County Jail after he was arraigned Thursday on felony larceny charges. Clinton Township police Capt. Richard Maierle said Hahn denied the charges. A district court clerk on Friday said Hahn did not have an attorney. The Associated...

Concerns circulating Hawaii County about possible depleted uranium at Pohakuloa Training Area on Mauna Kea are likely the reason Big Island residents have taken to purchasing radiation monitors, a Department of Health official says. But a lack of training in how to use the monitors, as well as the use of older models and uncalibrated machines, is leading to weekly calls to the department and a false alarm, like one Sunday in the Kona District, said Noise, Radiation and Indoor Air Quality Branch Program Manager Russell Takata. "It was an unnecessary alarm," Takata said of the incident, which he learned...

Reassurance about the public's safety is coming from the U-S Nuclear Regulatory Commission following word of the release of a small amount of radiation when the Oyster Creek Nuclear power plant in Ocean County was shut down this week. N-R-C spokesman Neil Sheehan says a Senior Health Physicist was on hand at the time the reactor was being vented releasing a weak radioisotopeTritium. He says "the Physicist looked at the plant's data on what was emitted and is very confident that this didn't represent any sort of threat to members of the public." Oyster Creek's parent company AmerGen, a subsidiary...

Almost 900 Canadian military personnel were exposed to radiation from nuclear weapons tests during the Cold War as well as two serious reactor accidents in Chalk River, Ont. during the 1950s, according to a report produced for Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor. The January 2007 report, obtained by the Ottawa Citizen, is the first time the full extent of the involvement of Canadian military personnel in U.S. and British nuclear weapons testing has been documented. In all, 689 Canadians were exposed to radiation from the detonation of U.S. and British atomic weapons, the 292-page report concludes. In addition, another 191 servicemen...

Scientists from a Norwegian environmental group say they have obtained a leaked report by the Russian government's highest nuclear authority warning of imminent risk of explosion in the enormous tanks holding discarded submarine fuel rods at its Andreeva Bay facility on the Arctic Ocean. According to the Rosatom report, obtained by researchers at Bellona, an environmental group that has monitored the Russian site near the year-around ice-free naval port of Murmansk for evidence of leakage from radioactive wastes, three large cement tanks, built to house used fuel rods that began leaking in 1982, have begun to deteriorate due to cold...

If nothing else, this should worry smokers: the radiation dose from radium and polonium found naturally in tobacco can be a thousand times more than that from the caesium-137 taken up by the leaves from the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Constantin Papastefanou from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece measured radioactivity in tobacco leaves from across the country and calculated the average radiation dose that would be received by people smoking 30 cigarettes a day. He found that the dose from natural radionuclides was 251 microsieverts a year, compared with 0.199 from Chernobyl fallout in the leaves (Radiation Protection Dosimetry,...

Scientists have long assumed that fungi exist mainly to decompose matter into chemicals that other organisms can then use. But researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found evidence that fungi possess a previously undiscovered talent with profound implications: the ability to use radioactivity as an energy source for making food and spurring their growth. "The fungal kingdom comprises more species than any other plant or animal kingdom, so finding that they're making food in addition to breaking it down means that Earth's energetics-in particular, the amount of radiation energy being converted to biological energy-may...

f you thought donning tin foil caps was excessive, Isabodywear is out to make those contraptions looks mighty mild. While the debate about just how dangerous (or not) cellphone radiation is still rages on, there's certainly a paranoid sect that will snap up anything that claims to "protect them," and this Swiss garb maker is latching onto said opportunity. The briefs are purportedly constructed with threads made of silver, which the company claims will fend off harmful cellphone radiation; moreover, in an effort to really prove just how effective these undergarments are, it suggests that phone calls originated within the...