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The discussion about Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon wasn't confined to whether or not it should continue to operate past 2012, its original license expiration date. Also of concern to both sides of the debate, and those in the middle, was whether Entergy, which owns and operates Yankee, should be allowed to spin off Yankee into a wholly independent company with financial liabilities of more than $4 billion. Vermont's Public Service Board is still reviewing whether it should issue a certificate of public good to allow the spin off. Earlier in 2009, the Department of Public Service opposed the formation of Enexus, the spin off company, unless certain conditions were met. After most of the conditions are met by Entergy, DPS recommends the PSB approve the transaction. Greenpeace warned Vermont that the formation of Enexus would not be in the best interests of the state.

The discussion about Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon wasn't confined to whether or not it should continue to operate past 2012, its original license expiration date. Also of concern to both sides of the debate, and those in the middle, was whether Entergy, which owns and operates Yankee, should be allowed to spin off Yankee into a wholly independent company with financial liabilities of more than $4 billion. Vermont's Public Service Board is still reviewing whether it should issue a certificate of public good to allow the spin off. Earlier in 2009, the Department of Public Service opposed the formation of Enexus, the spin off company, unless certain conditions were met. After most of the conditions are met by Entergy, DPS recommends the PSB approve the transaction. Greenpeace warned Vermont that the formation of Enexus would not be in the best interests of the state.

Greek conservationists from the Greek NGO, Archipelagos, work to protect endangered common dolphins and monk seals and also the region's marine ecosystems from the effects of overfishing, shipping, and the military. Dr Anastasia Miliou, manager and head scientist from Archipelagos Institute of Marine and Environmental Research of the Aegean Sea, based on the Greek island of Samos in the eastern Aegean, explains about seals, uranium deposits and sonar * Digg it * Buzz up * Share on facebook (6) * Tweet this (14) * Guardian Weekly, Friday 30 October 2009 09.00 GMT * Article history Monk seal An endangered monk seal. Photograph: Phil Mislinski/Getty Images The Mediterranean monk seal is the world's rarest and most endangered marine mammal. Its population is less than 450 and one of the most important remaining populations survives in the Aegean region. We are urging fishing communities and authorities to understand that the marine biodiversity needs to be conserved, not only for the sake of productive marine ecosystems or the endangered species, but also for the benefit of human communities, whose livelihood depends on the health and productivity of the seas."

The Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (COMARE) is a quango that is supposed to be a watchdog on the health issues arising from the activities of nuclear installations in the UK. COMARE's terms of reference are "to assess and advise Government . on the health effects of natural and man-made radiation and to assess the adequacy of the available data and the need for further research". But how seriously does this body take its responsibilities? Not very, it seems. A recent authoritative health study commissioned by the German government entitled KiKK (Kinderkrebs in der Umgebung von KernKraftwerken, or Childhood Cancer in the Vicinity of Nuclear Power Plants) found increased leukemias near all German nuclear facilities. The Environmental Health Sub-Committee of the West Cumbria Site Stakeholder Group, a group that discusses nuclear issues mainly concerning Sellafield, raised the findings of this study with COMARE and asked for its views. A one-page COMARE briefing was sent by Professor Alex Elliott, the COMARE chairman, and was read out to the May 2009 meeting of the Environmental Health Sub Committee as COMARE's official view. It is likely that other stakeholder groups near other UK nuclear sites were informed along similar lines. However the COMARE briefing was never published on its website.

The Navajo Nation has weathered severe drought conditions for about the last 20 years, so when a water source presents itself, the last thing usually considered is whether it might be contaminated. "Water is precious," said Eleanor Peshlakai, 67, of Black Falls. "Last year I was hauling water in my truck during the middle of a real dry spell. As I was filling up at a water trough, some of the water sprayed out from the hose and out of nowhere the lizards came running. They were thirsty. They, too, are suffering the drought, just like the humans, waiting for any form of moisture."

Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000, as amended AGENCY: Office of Workers' Compensation Programs, Employment Standards Administration, Labor. ACTION: Notice of revision of listing of covered Department of Energy facilities. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: The Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP) is publishing a list of Department of Energy (DOE) facilities covered under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000, as amended (EEOICPA). This notice revises the listing of DOE facilities that was included as part of the list of covered facilities last published by DOE on August 23, 2004 (69 FR 51825) to include the determinations made by OWCP on this subject through June 23, 2009.

Residents couldn't have been happier when, in February, a ribbon cutting was held to officially open the Black Falls Church watering point. Ideally, it meant water haulers wouldn't have to travel long distances anymore to fill their barrels with safe drinking water. For people such as Nina Tohannie, it meant that her brother Ronald wouldn't be sending her down into Dry Spring to scrub the walls of the well with chlorine and pull out the bones and carcasses of dead animals. "When it's like that, you can smell it," Ronald said. "We'd have to clean out the well and siphon all that water out with a water pump. Then somebody has to crawl down in there and get what's left. I can't get it with the water pump. It's really thick. So we have to take a bucket down there with a rope on it.

It's been a big year at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Cleanup there was one of the biggest items in the federal stimulus package. And the largest federally funded construction project right now - Hanford's Vitrification plant - reached the halfway point. But are we closer to cleaning one of America's dirtiest places? If Hanford were a student, Washington State Ecology's Ron Skinnarland says he'd give the site an "A" on its end of the year progress report. Here's Hanford's list of got-it-done in 2009: A newly negotiated Tri-Party Agreement that sets deadlines for cleanup. A massive factory to treat nuclear waste is 50 percent complete. And 51 buildings were taken down. Ecology's Skinnarland says without the stimulus funding many projects would have been put off.

It's been a big year at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Cleanup there was one of the biggest items in the federal stimulus package. And the largest federally funded construction project right now - Hanford's Vitrification plant - reached the halfway point. But are we closer to cleaning one of America's dirtiest places? If Hanford were a student, Washington State Ecology's Ron Skinnarland says he'd give the site an "A" on its end of the year progress report. Here's Hanford's list of got-it-done in 2009: A newly negotiated Tri-Party Agreement that sets deadlines for cleanup. A massive factory to treat nuclear waste is 50 percent complete. And 51 buildings were taken down. Ecology's Skinnarland says without the stimulus funding many projects would have been put off.

President, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Before the Indian Parliament votes on limiting the liability of nuclear operators due to accidents, it should carefully consider the much higher limits that the United States has set for itself about $11 billion per incident industry maximum (under the Price-Anderson Act). The liability of the operator of the plant would be just Rs. 500 crores, about $110 million, which is just one percent of the U.S. limit, and about $450 million per accident. The proposed law allows an adjustment of this upwards or downwards to a possible lower limit of just Rs. 300 crores, or about $65 million. But more than that, Parliament should consider that the actual damages could be far greater than the U.S. liability limit. A 1997 study by the U.S. governments own Brookhaven National Laboratory, on Long Island, New York, found that the severe spent fuel pool accidents could result in damages from somewhat under $1 billion of up to $566 billion, depending on a how full and hot the pool is at the time of the accident and the intensity of the postulated fire. The high-end figure would amount to over $700 billion in 2009 dollars. Vast amounts of land --- up to about 7,000 square kilometers in the worst case would have to be condemned. Large numbers of people would have to be evacuated. Further, the maximum estimated monetary damages do not take into account some critical elements. For instance, the Brookhaven amount does not include excess cancer deaths, estimated to range from 1,500 to more than 100,000. Worst case nuclear reactor accident cancers and condemned area were estimated to be generally comparable to the upper end of the spent fuel accident estimates.

Moody's Investors Service, a leading independent credit rating firm, recently released a report that says it's considering taking a "more negative view" of debt obligations issued by companies seeking to build new nuclear plants. Titled "New Nuclear Generation: Ratings Pressure Increasing," the report raises concerns that investing in new nuclear plants involves significant risks and huge capital costs at a time when national energy policy is uncertain. Yet companies investing in new nuclear projects -- cost estimates for which are hovering in the $6 billion range -- haven't adjusted their finances accordingly, according to Moody's:

Areva and Electricité de France (EDF) are French-based companies at the heart of worldwide attempts to re-launch nuclear ordering - the so-called Nuclear Renaissance. Areva is an electricity industry equipment supplier offering transmission and distribution equipment as well as the full range of civil nuclear technologies. For its nuclear business, it operates as Areva NP, a joint venture with the German company Siemens in which Areva holds 66% and Siemens the balance, although in January 2009, Siemens announced it would be withdrawing from the joint venture (see below). EDF is an electric utility operating all the main generating technologies. The French state retains a majority holding in both companies although the priorities of their private shareholders, for EDF small shareholders and for Areva NP, Siemens, can no longer be ignored. In addition, the European Union law on unfair State Aids only allows governments to meet company losses or provide other assistance if such measures do not distort competition. For the markets Areva and EDF operate in, it would be hard to argue that any state aids did not distort competition.

--Combination of Efficiency and Renewables Much More Economical Than New Nuclear Reactors With Skyrocketing Construction Costs; 'Low Balling' of Cost Estimates Imperils 'Nuclear Renaissance,' Just as Runaway Costs Sank the 'Great Bandwagon Market' of 1970s WASHINGTON, June 18, 2009 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The likely cost of electricity for a new generation of nuclear reactors would be 12-20 cents per kilowatt hour (KWh), considerably more expensive than the average cost of increased use of energy efficiency and renewable energies at 6 cents per kilowatt hour, according to a major new study by economist Dr. Mark Cooper, a senior fellow for economic analysis at the Institute for Energy and the Environment at Vermont Law School. The report finds that it would cost $1.9 trillion to $4.1 trillion more over the life of 100 new nuclear reactors than it would to generate the same electricity from a combination of more energy efficiency and renewables.

"Views from the Chernobyl exclusion zone twenty three years after the accident at the nuclear power plant. Communities, families and the land are still suffering after the power plant explosions in 1986. Pripyat, Ukraine. 04/06/2009. On 26 April 1986, the most serious accident in the history of the nuclear industry occurred at Unit 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the former Ukrainian Republic of the Soviet Union. The Nuclear power plants were presented as being an achievement of Soviet engineers, where nuclear power was harnessed for peaceful projects. The slogan "PEACEFUL ATOM" was popular during those times. But, the explosions that rupture the Chernobyl reactor vessel and the consequent fire that continued for 10 days or so resulted in large amounts of radioactive materials being released into the environment."

BankTrack, in cooperation with a number of working partners, today launches www.nuclearbanks.org, a new website mapping the involvement of 45 leading commercial banks in funding nuclear power projects and companies active in the nuclear sector. [1] BankTrack considers nuclear energy a grave danger for people and planet. The renewed interest in nuclear energy also poses a severe obstacle to achieving a sustainable solution to the climate crisis.[2] The website provides information on 867 transactions, involving a total of 124 banks providing finance to over 70 nuclear companies. Between 2000 and 2009, these banks…read more"

The nuclear industry funds the special armed police force which guards its installations across the UK, and secret documents, seen by the Guardian, show the 750-strong force is authorised to carry out covert intelligence operations against anti-nuclear protesters, one of its main targets. The nuclear industry will pay £57m this year to finance the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC). The funding comes from the companies which run 17 nuclear plants, including Dounreay in Caithness, Sellafield in Cumbria and Dungeness in Kent. Around a third is paid by the private consortium managing Sellafield, which is largely owned by American and French firms. Nearly a fifth of the funding is provided by British Energy, the privatised company owned by French firm EDF. Private correspondence shows that in June, the EDF's head of security complained that the force had overspent its budget "without timely and satisfactory explanations to us". The industry acknowledges it is in regular contact with the CNC and the security services.

The nuclear industry funds the special armed police force which guards its installations across the UK, and secret documents, seen by the Guardian, show the 750-strong force is authorised to carry out covert intelligence operations against anti-nuclear protesters, one of its main targets. The nuclear industry will pay £57m this year to finance the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC). The funding comes from the companies which run 17 nuclear plants, including Dounreay in Caithness, Sellafield in Cumbria and Dungeness in Kent. Around a third is paid by the private consortium managing Sellafield, which is largely owned by American and French firms. Nearly a fifth of the funding is provided by British Energy, the privatised company owned by French firm EDF. Private correspondence shows that in June, the EDF's head of security complained that the force had overspent its budget "without timely and satisfactory explanations to us". The industry acknowledges it is in regular contact with the CNC and the security services.

Namibian environmentalists warn expansion of uranium mining could devastate spectacular natural landscape The hidden cost of Britain's new generation of nuclear power could be the destruction of the Kalahari desert in Namibia and millions of tonnes of extra greenhouse gas emissions a year, the Observer has discovered. The desert, with its towering sand dunes and spectacular lunar-like landscapes, is at the centre of an international uranium rush led by Rössing Uranium, a subsidiary of the British mining giant Rio Tinto, and the French state-owned company, Areva, which part-manages the nuclear complex at Sellafield and wants to build others in Britain.

Namibian environmentalists warn expansion of uranium mining could devastate spectacular natural landscape The hidden cost of Britain's new generation of nuclear power could be the destruction of the Kalahari desert in Namibia and millions of tonnes of extra greenhouse gas emissions a year, the Observer has discovered. The desert, with its towering sand dunes and spectacular lunar-like landscapes, is at the centre of an international uranium rush led by Rössing Uranium, a subsidiary of the British mining giant Rio Tinto, and the French state-owned company, Areva, which part-manages the nuclear complex at Sellafield and wants to build others in Britain.

"The Council of State has suspended three articles in the regulations governing the tender process," the Union of Turkish Engineers' and Architects' Chambers, or TMMOB, said in a statement. "With this decision, the nuclear power plant tender has legally ended. It has been rendered invalid," it stated. There was no immediate response from the government to the court decision. The tender process has been under fire since it emerged in September last year that only one consortium had bid for the project and offered an above-market price. The consortium, including Russia's Inter Rao and Turkey's Park Teknik, later revised down its proposed price for supplying electricity, but Ankara said the new offer was also very high.

"The Council of State has suspended three articles in the regulations governing the tender process," the Union of Turkish Engineers' and Architects' Chambers, or TMMOB, said in a statement. "With this decision, the nuclear power plant tender has legally ended. It has been rendered invalid," it stated. There was no immediate response from the government to the court decision. The tender process has been under fire since it emerged in September last year that only one consortium had bid for the project and offered an above-market price. The consortium, including Russia's Inter Rao and Turkey's Park Teknik, later revised down its proposed price for supplying electricity, but Ankara said the new offer was also very high.

Gerald Boyd, the Dept. of Energy's Oak Ridge manager, spoke at a safety meeting a couple of months ago, and he made a comment that Oak Ridge likely has a bigger base of contractors and subcontractors than other other DOE site in the country. I don't know whether that's the case, and Boyd acknowledged that he didn't know it for sure. But it makes sense, given the diversity of operations in Oak Ridge and the scale of the work taking place.

even years ago, Finland was faced with a daunting energy dilemma. To keep its domestic industries up and running, it needed to double its electricity supply by 2025. At the same time, it had to cut carbon emissions by fourteen million tons a year to comply with its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol. The question was how to fill the gap without stifling its flourishing economy or increasing dependence on costly imports.

Two top Public Service Commission staffers resigned Tuesday and two others went on administrative leave as alleged ethics lapses again overshadowed a hearing on proposed rate increases - this time to pay for new nuclear power plants. At least the appearance of a too-cozy relationship with Florida Power & Light Co., one of two utilities seeking higher nuclear rates, led to the resignation of Ryder Rudd as director of strategic analysis and governmental affairs. Rudd, whose duties included lobbying the Legislature, last month acknowledged he and his wife attended a Kentucky Derby Party at the home of an FPL executive. That disclosure came as the commission began hearings on a separate FPL request to raise its base rates. Commissioner Nancy Argenziano's chief adviser, Larry Harris, also resigned at her request after admitting he gave the private messaging code for his smartphone to an FPL executive.

There's no legal problem here, officials with the U.S. Department of Energy say. Storing mercury at a federal site south of Whitewater won't violate the terms of an agreement the DOE signed with Mesa County more than a decade ago, a top official with the agency said. Well, that's a relief, at least to federal officials eager to find a permanent disposal site for thousands of tons of mercury. But it's not very reassuring to Mesa County residents who believed they had a commitment from the DOE years ago to keep the site near Whitewater free of additional hazardous wastes. That desert disposal site, originally known as Cheney Reservoir, was created to store millions of tons of low-level radioactive waste in the form of mill tailings from uranium milling that occurred in Grand Junction in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s.