Nation in brief

Texas nuclear reactor leaking cooling water

WASHINGTON -- A nuclear reactor in Texas is leaking cooling water from the bottom of its giant reactor vessel, a development that experts said they view with concern because they have never seen it before, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Friday.

Technicians at the South Texas Project Electric Generating Station, about 90 miles southwest of Houston, have found, at one of two nuclear reactors, residues indicating that cooling water leaked from the vessel through two penetrations where instruments are inserted into the core, according to the company that operates the plant. Operators at all 103 commercial nuclear reactors have been giving closer attention to their reactor vessels since the discovery last year of extensive leaks in the vessel head at another plant, Davis-Besse, near Toledo, Ohio.

The Texas plant shows much smaller signs of leaking than the Ohio plant. No corrosion is visible, but no one is sure what is underneath.

Representatives of two national nuclear industry groups are at the plant to study the problem, and plant managers have promised to keep the reactor shut until they find the cause and repair it to the NRC's satisfaction, Dricks said.

Fla. man sentenced in deadly border crossing

PHOENIX -- A Florida man was sentenced Friday to 18 months in prison for his role in the deadliest border crossing in Arizona history.

Joel Viveros-Flores was convicted in August of conspiring to bring illegal aliens to the United States and encouraging aliens to enter the country.

Prosecutors said Viveros-Flores, a foreman at Vasquez Harvesting in Lake Placid, wired money to have five workers smuggled from Mexico to pick fruit for the company.

"My intention was never to hurt them in any way such as this," he said through an interpreter.

Defense attorney David Ochoa said he planned to file an appeal but declined to comment further.

In May 2001, a group of immigrants paid smugglers to be taken across the Arizona-Mexico border. Fourteen people died of dehydration or heat-related injuries; 12 others survived.

Doctor disciplined in death of lung study volunteer

BALTIMORE -- A Johns Hopkins School of Medicine researcher violated federal regulations in a 2001 experiment that led to the death of a volunteer, the Food and Drug Administration concluded.

In a March 31 letter posted on the FDA's Web site Thursday, the FDA said Dr. Alkis Togias failed to apply to the agency before using the chemical hexamethonium bromide in research that led to the death of Ellen Roche in June 2001.

FDA officials recommended that Togias' research be restricted, and ordered him to explain how he would begin complying with several regulations they said he violated.

Roche, a lab technician at Johns Hopkins' Asthma and Allergy Center, had taken part in an experiment designed to help scientists understand how the lungs of healthy people protect against asthma attacks. Her family reached a settlement with the school in 2001.

Elsewhere ...

EDWARDS RETURNS $10,000: Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards reimbursed employees of an Arkansas legal firm for $10,000 in campaign donations after a law clerk said her boss promised to reimburse her contribution. Edwards spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri said the campaign decided to return the money after Washington Post reporters uncovered the situation.

POLLUTION SETTLEMENT: In the largest settlement ever with a utility under the nation's clean air laws, Dominion Virginia Power Co. is agreeing to spend $1.2-billion to reduce pollution at eight power plants in Virginia and West Virginia and to pay a $5.3-million federal fine. The Richmond, Va., utility is required to install state-of-the-art emissions controls by 2013 at six coal-fired plants in Virginia and two in West Virginia.

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