Pilgrim missing items with trace radiation

The Pilgrim nuclear power station is missing two small pieces of equipment containing trace elements of radiation, Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said yesterday. Workers conducting an inventory of the plant's spent fuel pool this week discovered that two neutron detectors -- small tubes each containing approximately .003 grams of uranium-235 -- were unaccounted for, Sheehan said. The irradiated tubes pose a health hazard to anyone who handles them without proper shielding, but they do not contain enough radioactive material to make a weapon, Sheehan said. The NRC has found no evidence of theft, and officials say they believe the tubes are either still at the plant or were transported to a waste facility in South Carolina.

BOSTON

A Transit Police officer, now suspended, was found guilty yesterday of harming an apparently intoxicated man whom he took into protective custody in 2003, Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly announced yesterday. After taking the 51-year-old to a police substation, Douglas Hennessy, 31, of Sturbridge, removed the man's handcuffs, dared him to fight, and struck him with his hands or a metal pipe, or both, authorities said. Hennessy was convicted of violating constitutional rights resulting in bodily injury, and of filing a false written report. He was acquitted of one count each of assault and battery and of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Sentencing is set for Tuesday.

Two Boston police officers involved in the fatal shooting of an armed suspect outside a Theater District nightclub in October were honored yesterday among 10 ``Top Cops" nationwide. Ebenezer Sealy and Al Young confronted Stanley Seney, 28, who was waving a gun in front of a crowd and standing near the body of a Revere man he had allegedly killed. Sealy yesterday said he is humbled to be selected for the award, which comes after several emotionally challenging months.

Three residents have sued the Boston City Council, saying councilors violated the state open meeting law when they amended and passed a bill this month authorizing pay raises for the mayor, city councilors, and some department heads. Shirley Kressel, Kevin McCrea, and Kathleen Devine won a suit that alleged earlier open meeting law violations by the council in March . The latest suit, filed Monday in Suffolk Superior Court, asks the court to overturn the pay raises and any other actions the council may have improperly taken without public discussion.

MASSACHUSETTS

All students would have to pass a history test under the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System to graduate from high school, starting in 2012, under a proposal the state Board of Education considered yesterday at its monthly meeting, held in Falmouth. The plan, part of a broader effort to strengthen high school studies, would first affect students who are now in sixth grade. Since 2003, all students have had to pass 10th-grade tests in math and English, in addition to their classes, to earn a high school diploma. Starting in 2010, students must pass a science MCAS test to graduate.

LOWELL

A Methuen man sought as an accomplice in a 1994 homicide turned himself in to Lowell police yesterday. Nolyn Surprenant, 30, was charged with being an accessory to murder for allegedly driving an individual to shoot and kill Mark Jones, 21, of Lowell on March 18, 1994, the Middlesex district attorney's office said. Surprenant was sought after detectives revisited the case recently and found new information, authorities said. Surprenant will be arraigned today in Lowell. The shooter is still sought.

SALEM

A Lawrence woman who admitted to collecting $59,000 in housing and other public assistance while selling thousands of dollars of stolen Victoria's Secret merchandise on eBay pleaded guilty to perjury and larceny charges yesterday, prosecutors said. Salem Superior Court Judge Peter Agnes ordered Jennifer Stevanovich, 32, to pay $117,555.11 in restitution and sentenced her to 15 months of probation, including 12 months of monitoring on an electronic bracelet.