The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

NORTHWEST HERALD Section B Friday, August 23,19*5 Pag* 7 Nation Long lost uranium U.S. opens top-secret documents i Home again Capt. John Testrake laughs as he watches his grandchildren Patrick Smith (left) and Larry play in the cockpit of the hijacked TWA 727 Hope wears thin for terminal cancer cure UPI photo plane Wednesday. The plane taxied back home and Testrake saw it for the first time since he left it in Beirut By Lori Santos United Press International WASHINGTON - In March 1980, an eyewitness told the FBI how large amounts of weapons-grade uranium missing from a U.S. nucle­ ar plant may have been given to Israel 15 years earlier, leading fed­ eral agents to reopen an investiga­ tion they had closed three times before, newly declassified docu­ ments show. The eyewitness account, included in thousands of pages of classified documents released under the Free­ dom of Information Act, forced the FBI to reactivate project "Divert," the code name for the probe of the alleged diversion of hundreds of pounds of enriched uranium from the small processing plant in Apol­ lo, Pa. It was yet another chapter in the longstanding investigation -- closed three times before for lack of evi­ dence. It was first launched in 1966 when the government concluded that 206 pounds of the special nucle­ ar material vanished from the plant without a trace. The documents show that the FBI, the CIA and the now defunct Atomic Energy Commission spent 15 years and untold dollars and manhours trying to discover what happened to the uranium, investi­ gating allegations it was somehow diverted to Israel by Zalman Sha­ piro, a Jewish scientist who headed the Nuclear Materials and Equip­ ment Corp., the nuclear processing plant. Today, government records show 342 kilograms of highly enriched uranium, or 752 pounds -- enough to make almost 38 Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs -- were lost during the plant's 20 years of operation and remain unaccounted for. During the period Shapiro headed the compa­ ny, 267 kilograms, or 587 pounds, turned up missing. But Shapiro, who was also a half owner with the Israeli government of Isorad, a company based in Isra­ el that made nuclear equipment, denied in an interview with United Press International that he diverted any uranium to Israel and main­ tained that "essentially all" of the missing material was found when the plant was decommissioned in 1978. He also said such losses were not unusual. An NRC spokesman said only half of what was lost during Shapiro's reign alone, 131 kilograms, has turned up so far, although decom­ missioning is continuing at this time. An Energy Department official said, "Everyone thinks it was di­ verted and diverted by Shapiro," but it's never been proven. The de­ partment's investigation is still offi­ cially open although there is no ac­ tivity, the official said. The eyewitness, whose name and large blocks of testimony are de­ leted from the files, told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and then the FBI of entering the loading dock area of the plant late one evening and finding several employees load­ ing a flatbed truck with nuclear materials. The scene that night in "late March or early April 1965," was a departure from normal, the infor­ mant said. The employees, whose names also are blacked out for se­ curity reasons, "never loaded trucks themselves," and "it was highly unusual that any equipment would be shipped at night," the FBI document said. The eyewitness said he "was sure this was high enriched uranium products due to the size and shape of the container and the labeling." One ton of uranium would fit in a cube measuring about 14 by 14 by 14 inches. URANIUM - Page 10B By D. Morgan McVicar Providence Journal Lea DiSandro turned 40 in perfect health. Not a scar on her body, a healthy diet, an optimist's disposition. - At 44, Ms. DiSandro sits in her home, swollen legs prqoped on a table, her stomach distended as if by pregnancy, expecting to die. Death by lymphoma. Three years ago, Ms. DiSandro was unwilling to accept the prognosis. Remission came after seven months on chemo­ therapy. But even before the treat­ ment period had ended, she had decided death would be preferable to a return to chemotherapy. "At Christmas time, I was lying en the couch with no hair, very, very ill. Eventually, I lost my eye- >ws and eyelashes. I couldn't has to be done ... If you have the disease and you're not wealthy, you're deprived of choice. You're at the mercy of chemotherapy, be­ cause that's what the government and Blue Cross are going to pay for." The chairman of the Committee for Freedom of Choice in Medicine, Michael Culbert, estimates 12,000 Americans annually seek some form of nontraditional therapy for cancer. In Haiti, Ms. DiSandro be­ friended a lung cancer patient from suburban New York, a youth from New Jersey, a man from Arizona. Ms. DISandro's story invites a look at cancer treatment in the United States today, as perceived by cancer patients like Ms. DiSan­ dro, as perceived by the medical establishment, and as perceived by an organization that claims to rep- follow a conversation. My resent the intewssts of peojrte like ; tflteeltairifs. DlSamfcOP * rfulBoWnoniftio. Ms. DiSandro first felt the pains, in her lower abdomen and down her arms, in early 1982. In October, the pain in Ms. DISan­ dro's abdomen had become acute and constant. She was wearing size 11-12 pants. So she admitted herself to a hospital. A battery of tests, including a pregnancy test, showed nothing. Her doctors ran an ultra­ sound test. Two weeks later, her gynecologist, to whom the results were sent, called. Ms. DiSandro had cancer and an inoperable, rapidly growing retro­ peritoneal tumor. ° She was at work when the doctor called. Ms. DiSandro hid behind a filing cabinet and clutched the cabi­ net with her fists in a silent, de­ spairing venting of rage. She^ thought of her father, her "good buddy," who had died of cancer two years earlier. She recalled the dev­ astation to his body brought, she felt, by the chemotherapy. Ms. DiSandro got up, walked over to a friend, fell into her lap and sobbed. In November, she entered Rhode Island Hospital for more tests. Nine days later, her oncologist told her she was to start chemotherapy the next day. He told her she had three to five years to live if she went into remission from the chemotherapy. A week after she started chemo­ therapy, Ms. DiSandro had the diag­ nosis and prescribed treatment con­ firmed at New York's Memorial Sloane-Kettering Cancer Center. After 7 months and 11 treatments of chemotherapy, her oncologist told her she was in remission. I looked at him and said, i don't ... It to walk apd function. "I don't care what people say, it's an emotionally devastating experi­ ence for a woman. I made a pact with myself that I'd rather die." Ms. DiSandro wanted a nontoxic cure for cancer. She wanted life. Oncologists in Providence and New York told her chemotherapy was the only proven treatment. So Ms. DiSandro looked beyond the pale of the medical establishment. She put her complete trust and thousands of dollars in people on the fringes of medicine, in a doctor in Milwaukee whose treatment is spurned by cancer treatment ex­ perts, in a doctor in New York un­ der repeated investigation by state health authorities, and in a man in Canada who had been forced to flee France and who is being tried in Quebec for illegal practice of medi­ cine and criminal negligence. Ms. DiSandro spent more than $12,000 on air fare, hotels and treat­ ments without any hope of insur­ ance reimbursement. She accepted money from relatives and borrowed from friends. Ms. DiSandro talked of her ordeal with cancer. She spoke of gratitude for a year of "beautiful remission" she attributes to her Canadian treatment. She talked of putting or­ der in her personal and business affairs before she dies. And she spoke with bitterness of a medical establishment she says closes doors on cancer treatments that work: "If I'm living in the cancer belt, why did I have to travel 1,000 miles for treatment? I mean I'm a $10,600 Rhode Island worker. It's too late ^jive a rift™** anymore for me, but good Lord, something CANCER-Page 10B YOUR YARD... # IS THE FIRST INTRODUCTION TO YOUR HOME MAKE AN INVESTMENT THAT GROWS -• AND SAVE UP TO 20%! ALL POTTED SHRUBSAND EVERGREENS ARE 20% OFF SHADEAND ORNAMENTAL TREESARE 10% OFF COMPARE STONEGATES ALREADY LOW PRICES SALE YARD AND OFFICE LOCATED AT 6565 ALGONQUIN RD. BETWEEN RT. 31 AND RANDALL RD. CLOSED MONDAY Stonegate Fans Nursoxy Confer 658-5354 as SAY IT WITH Ol'U Vi.v) E gone Ramie cotton sweaters in floral print & floral skirts by Sophisticate.® in black & royal, (y i (I s.m.L Sweater :*:*.()(). Skirt 3().()(). Moderate Sportswear. SPRING HILL CRYSTAL LAKE ST. CHARLES CHARGE IT! Use your SPIESS CHARGE, Visa. MasterCard & American Express.