The United Nations has charged that Israel has been burying radioactive nuclear waste in the occupied Golan Heights. Antonio Guterres is the U.N. Secretary General. He recently submitted a report for the U.N. Human Rights Council’s Fortieth Session which will begin in Geneva next week. He said in the report, “The Syrian Arab Republic noted that Israel continued to bury nuclear waste with radioactive content in 20 different areas populated by Syrian citizens of the occupied Syrian Golan, particularly in the vicinity of Al-Sheikh Mountain [Mt.Hermon]. The practice has put the lives and health of Syrians in the occupied Syrian Golan in jeopardy and constituted a serious violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.” Syrian has been claiming for the last decade that Israel has been burying waste in the Heights.
         Emmanuel Nahshon is a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry. He said that the charge from Syria was “utter nonsense.” He added that the claim was “another false report from the UNHRC which specializes in attacking Israel” and that many of its member states “are bloody dictatorships hiding behind attacks against Israel in order not to allow scrutiny of their own human rights records.”
       The Heights were captured from Syria in the 1967 Six Day War between Israel and Arab nations. Israel formally annexed the Heights in 1981. The international community of nations has refused to recognize Israel’s right to the Heights. The U.N. has regularly demanded that Israel return the Heights to Syria.
       The new U.N report also says that Israel is “providing logistical support to terrorist groups,” operating in the Heights such as the Nusrah Front. It charges that Israel is supplying “those groups with weapons, ammunition, money and medical care to frighten the local population and to maintain a no-go zone along the ceasefire lines.” Israel says that such claims are not true.
      The report claims that “the decision of Israel to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the occupied Syrian Golan was null and void and without international legal effect” and “demanded that Israel rescind forthwith its decision.”
      The office of the U.N. Secretary General says that it wrote the report at the request of the UNHRC and that it had only used information supplied by members of the U.N. There was no attempt to independently verify the contents of the report.
       The U.N. report on the Heights will be debated as Agenda Item 7 at the annual UNHRC conference in the middle of March along with six other topics. Agenda Item 7 mandates that that the UNHRC must debate alleged Israeli human rights violation at every UNHRC session. Any charges of human rights violations made against any other country are debated under Agenda Item 4.
        As usual, the UNHRC will hear more reports against actions taken by the Israeli government than any other country at the annual conference. The UNHRC also said that at this session, it will publish a controversial database of companies that are doing business with companies in areas of Israel that are beyond the pre-1967 borders. Israel has prevented the publication of this database before.

Ambient office  =  58 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 83 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 85 nanosieverts per hour

Carrot from Central Market = 111 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 130 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 122 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office  =  82 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 79 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 79 nanosieverts per hour

Beefsteak tomato from Central Market = 99 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 115 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 108 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office  =  158 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 101 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 99 nanosieverts per hour

Broccoli tomato from Central Market = 89 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 95 nanosieverts per hour

Dover sole – Caught in USA = 119 nanosieverts per hour

        I have blogged before about the importance of the molybdenum-99 radioisotope. This radioisotope is used to produce technetium-99m for about four fifths of nuclear imaging procedures for disease diagnosis. Mo-99 is produced primarily in research reactors and, since it has a half life of sixty-six hours, it cannot be stockpiled. Most of the world’s current supply of Mo-99 comes from just four reactors in Belgium, the Netherlands, Russia and South Africa.
        The security of the Mo-99 supply is precarious because unexpected shutdowns of any one of the four producing reactors can result in major shortages of this critical radioisotope. In addition, most Mo-99 is produced by irradiating targets made of highly enriched uranium (HEU) which, by definition, means that the targets have twenty percent or more of U-235 which is highly radioactive. With enrichment at this level, there is a danger of nuclear proliferation.
       Mo-99 is used in more than forty thousand procedures in the U.S. every day. However, the U.S. does not currently produce any Mo-99 and must import it. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) at the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) has been working with commercial partners since 2009 to create a domestic Mo-99 supply network. They hope to make use of a variety of supply options that do not depend on HEU. Last year, the NNSA announced a new funding opportunity for the production of Mo-99 without HEU.
       Yesterday, the DoE reported that the NNSA has completed its analysis of the applications submitted for the new funding. An independent review panel provided recommendations to the NNSA. Four companies have been selected to move to the next stage of the selection process to potentially receive cooperative agreement awards. The four companies are Niowave Inc, NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes LLC, Northwest Medical Isotopes (NWMI) and Shine Medical Isotopes. Funds have been allocated by Congress to provide up to fifteen million dollars for each of these companies with industry partners matching any government award.
       Niowave is located in Lansing, Michigan. They are working on the use of superconducting electron linear accelerators for the production of medical radioisotoes such as Mo-99.
       NorthStar is located in Beloit, Wisconsin. They are working on two different processes for the production of Mo-99 without HEU. The first process being developed relies on the Missouri University Research Reactor to irradiate Mo-98 targets to produce Mo-99. The second process will utilize a linear accelerator to produce Mo-99.
        NWMI is located in Corvallis, Oregon. They have obtained technology from Oregon State University for new low-enriched uranium (LEU) to use in Triga research reactors. They have notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of their intent to submit an application for the construction of a facility that would produce the LEU targets. The targets would then be shipped to a network of university research reactors where they would be irradiated. The irradiated targets would then be shipped back to the NWMI facility to be processed to recover the Mo-99.
      Shine is located Janesville, Wisconsin where they are building a facility. They will produce medical radioisotopes including Mo-99 at the facility. Their process uses a low-energy, accelerator-based neutron source to produce fission on a LEU target dissolved in an aqueous solution.
       Rick Perry is the U.S. Secretary of Energy. He said, “Mo-99 is such a critical toll in healthcare. Doctors count on it every day. This industry outreach helps to develop a reliable domestic supply of a vital medical isotope, reduce dependence on foreign imports, and bring new opportunity to the heartland.”

Ambient office  =  81 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Red bell pepper from Central Market = 72 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 81 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 70 nanosieverts per hour