2020 July 08 « nuclear-news

Faith in Climate Action — The Church’s Response to Hothouse Earth — robertscribbler

As a people deeply concerned about the rising climate crisis, we have often called upon our fellow members of faith communities to fulfill the inherent moral imperative to protect human life, to defend a just civilization, and to guard life-supporting creation. To stand firm by the creation justice imperative laid down in ancient religious and […]

via Faith in Climate Action — The Church’s Response to Hothouse Earth — robertscribbler

July 8, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Iran says world ‘must respond’ to Israel after blast at nuclear site

Iran says world ‘must respond’ to Israel after blast at nuclear site, Times of Israel,

Government spokesman calls for ‘limits to these dangerous actions by the Zionist regime’; Mideast official says explosion at Natanz was meant as a ‘wake-up call’ to Tehran

By TOI STAFF7 July 2020, Iran on Tuesday called for action against Israel, following a recent blast at the Natanz nuclear facility that has been blamed on the Jewish state.

“This method Israel is using is dangerous, and it could spread to anywhere in the world,” government spokesman Ali Rabiei said during a press conference, according to a translation of his remarks by Israel’s Channel 12 news. He added: “The international community must respond and set limits to these dangerous actions by the Zionist regime.”

His comments came as Iran appeared to publicly acknowledge on Tuesday that last week’s fire at Natanz, which badly damaged a building used for producing centrifuges, was not an accident. Israeli TV reports, without naming sources, have said the blast destroyed the laboratory in which Iran developed faster centrifuges and set back the Iranian nuclear program by one or two years.

Nour News, seen as a mouthpiece of Iran’s Supreme Council of National Security, claimed that the blast at the Natanz facility, which came amid a series of mysterious disasters that struck sensitive Iranian sites in recent days, bore similarity to other strikes against the country’s security infrastructure.

While asserting that “an airstrike on the Natanz plant is almost impossible” due to its strong air defenses, an article on the site said that “the combination of intelligence, logistics, action and the volume of destruction” prove that the incident was deliberate.

The Washington Post and New York Times quoted Middle Eastern officials earlier this week as saying the blast at Natanz was caused by a large bomb planted by Israeli operatives……..

A member of the Revolutionary Guard confirmed to the Times on Sunday that an explosive was used, but didn’t specify who was responsible. …..

The building at Natanz was constructed in 2013 for the development of advanced centrifuges, though work was halted there in 2015 under the nuclear deal with world powers, Iran’s atomic agency spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said earlier this week. When the United States withdrew from the nuclear deal, work there was renewed, Kamalvandi said.

He claimed the fire had damaged “precision and measuring instruments,” and that the center had not been operating at full capacity due to restrictions imposed by the nuclear deal. Iran began experimenting with advanced centrifuge models in the wake of the US unilaterally withdrawing from the deal two years ago…….. https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-says-world-must-respond-to-israel-after-blast-at-nuclear-site/

July 8, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | incidents, Iran, Israel, politics international | Leave a comment

Radiation-related health hazards to uranium miners

Radiation-related health hazards to uranium miners https://www.docwirenews.com/abstracts/radiation-related-health-hazards-to-uranium-miners/

July 8, 2020 This article was originally published here

Semenova Y, et al. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int 2020 – Review.

ABSTRACT

Concerns on health effects from uranium (U) mining still represent a major issue of debate. Any typology of active job in U mines is associated with exposure to U and its decay products, such as radon (Rn), thorium (Th), and radium (Ra) and its decay products with alpha-emission and gamma radiation. Health effects in U miners have been investigated in several cohort studies in the USA, Canada, Germany, the Czech Republic, and France. While public opinion is particularly addressed to pay attention to the safety of nuclear facilities, health hazard associated with mining is poorly debated. According to the many findings from cohort studies, the most significant positive dose-response relationship was found between occupational U exposure and lung cancer. Other types of tumors associated with occupational U exposure are leukemia and lymphoid cancers. Furthermore, it was found increased but not statistically significant death risk in U miners due to cancers in the liver, stomach, and kidneys. So far, there has not been found a significant association between U exposure and increased cardiovascular mortality in U miners. This review tries to address the current state of the art of these studies.

PMID:32638305 | DOI:10.1007/s11356-020-09590-7