Nation in brief: Bush appoints surgeon general

President Bush has picked a Kentucky cardiologist who is interested in fighting childhood obesity to be the nation’s next surgeon general, the White House announced on Thursday.

Bush nominated Dr. James W. Holsinger Jr., professor of preventive medicine at the University of Kentucky, to be the 18th surgeon general, who oversees the U.S. Public Health Service. Holsinger has led Kentucky’s health care system, taught at several U.S. medical schools and served more than three decades in the United States Army Reserve, retiring in 1993 as a major general.

“As America’s chief health educator, he will be charged with providing the best scientific information available on how Americans can make smart choices that improve their health and reduce their risk of illness and injury,” Bush said in a statement.

Carbon dioxide emissions decline

A mild winter followed by a cool summer caused U.S. carbon dioxide emissions to decline last year, according to the Energy Department. The results were hailed by the White House as support for its global warming policies.

The department’s Energy Information Administration said Wednesday that preliminary data shows a 1.3 percent decline in the amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide released in 2006 from energy-related sources, the first decline in 11 years and the biggest decline since 1990.

“We are effectively confronting the important challenge of global climate change through regulations, public-private partnerships, incentives and strong economic investments,” President Bush said in a statement.

Whether the decline of 78 million metric tons was an anomaly, or an indicator of something more, was unclear.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.

Burst pipe forces reactor shutdown

A burst pipe forced the shutdown of a nuclear reactor Thursday, two days after it was restarted for the first time in more than two decades.

The pipe caused 600 gallons of fluid to spill at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant. The liquid was not radioactive and posed no public-safety threat, and no one was hurt, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said.

The Tennessee Valley Authority restarted the Unit 1 reactor Tuesday following a 22-year shutdown over concerns about safety and management. The reactor is not generating power during testing.