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Cogema Mining, Inc.; Establishment of Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Pursuant to delegation by the Commission dated December 29, 1972, published in the Federal Register, 37 FR 28,710 (1972), and the Commission's regulations, see 10 CFR 2.104, 2.300, 2.303, 2.309, 2.311, 2.318, and 2.321, notice is hereby given that an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (Board) is being established to preside over the following proceeding: Cogema Mining, Inc. Irigaray and Christensen Ranch Facilities (License Renewal for Source Materials License SUA-1341) This Board is being established in response to requests for hearing that were filed pursuant to a Notice of Request to Renew Source Materials License SUA-1341, COGEMA Mining, Inc., Irigaray and Christensen Ranch Facilities, Johnson and Campbell Counties, WY, and Opportunity to Request a Hearing dated February 9, 2009 (74 FR 6436). Requests for hearing dated April 10, 2009 were filed by: (1) The Powder River Basin Resource Council; and (2) the Oglala Delegation of the Great Sioux Nation Treaty Council (Oglala Delegation), which also seeks ``leave to make filings by e-mail due to problems with the NRC's EIE document system encountered by [petitioner's counsel] due to computer system and software incompatibilities'' (Pet. for Hearing at 125)

The CEO of Energy Fuels, George Glasier, holds up a tiny pellet, smaller than a ping-pong ball, to illustrate his point. This pellet of nuclear fuel, he says, is the equivalent of five gallons of oil, one railroad car, or 100 tons of coal. Behind this small finished pellet, however, is a long and expensive chain of production, from mining the uranium ore, to milling it into concentrated yellowcake that will travel across the country to be refined again into pellets that are placed into a fuel rod and used in a nuclear reactor. Right now, the price of uranium is too low to support that chain of production, according to Denison Mines President Ron Hochstein. Hochstein said that Denison's White Mesa Mill, the nation's only operating uranium mill, has ceased its regular milling operations for the remainder of 2009. "We will stop processing conventional ore through 2009, but will be processing alternate feedstock on a reduced scale, and we'll be laying off some personnel," said Hochstein. "Our costs are higher than the current spot price." Hochstein was upbeat about the future of the uranium market, and his company already has processing contracts in place for 2011, when he expects that the spot price of uranium will again make it profitable to process the radioactive material.

AREVA Enrichment Services (AES) LLC submitted the original license application on December 30, 2008, that proposes the construction, operation and decommissioning of a gas centrifuge uranium enrichment facility to be located near Idaho Falls, Idaho. On April 24, 2009, AREVA resubmitted the application to request an enrichment capacity increase. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and 10 CFR Part 51, announces its intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) evaluating this proposed action. The EIS will examine the potential environmental impacts of the proposed facility. DATES: NRC invites public comments on the appropriate scope of issues to be considered in the EIS. The public scoping process begins with publication of this NOI. Written comments submitted by mail should be postmarked by no later than June 19, 2009

Hopes were rekindled in mid 2009 that the proposed uranium mining project in Meghalaya will finally see the light of the day but these were dashed towards the end of the year by renewed protests prompting the government to put it in on the back burner. Within three months of clinching power after the collapse of the NCP-led coalition of regional parties, the Congress-led government headed by Chief Minister D D Lapang sought to break the deadlock over the uranium mining project that has been hanging fire over two decades now. The Lapang cabinet on August 24 decided to lease 422 hectares of land to the Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) for 30 years in the uranium-rich West Khasi Hills district for "pre-project" developmental works.

Hopes were rekindled in mid 2009 that the proposed uranium mining project in Meghalaya will finally see the light of the day but these were dashed towards the end of the year by renewed protests prompting the government to put it in on the back burner. Within three months of clinching power after the collapse of the NCP-led coalition of regional parties, the Congress-led government headed by Chief Minister D D Lapang sought to break the deadlock over the uranium mining project that has been hanging fire over two decades now. The Lapang cabinet on August 24 decided to lease 422 hectares of land to the Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) for 30 years in the uranium-rich West Khasi Hills district for "pre-project" developmental works.

"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission today announced the opportunity for public participation in a hearing on a Combined License (COL) application for two new reactors at the Turkey Point site near Homestead, Fla. Florida Power & Light submitted the COL application June 30, 2009, seeking approval to build and operate two AP1000 reactors at the site, approximately 40 miles south of Miami. The Turkey Point application, minus proprietary or security-related details, is available on the NRC Web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/col/turkey-point.html. The NRC staff has determined that the application contains sufficient information for the agency to formally "docket," or file, the application and begin its technical review. Docketing the application does not preclude additional requests for information as the review proceeds; nor does it indicate whether the Commission will issue the license. The docket numbers established for this application are 52-040 and 52-041. The NRC has issued in the Federal Register a notice of opportunity to intervene in the proceeding on the application, and the deadline for requesting a hearing is Aug. 17. Petitions may be filed by anyone whose interest may be affected by the proposed license, who wishes to participate as a party in the proceeding, and who meets criteria set out in the NRC's regulations. Background information regarding the hearing process was provided by NRC staff to members of the public during an April 2009 meeting in Homestead."

"The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has prepared an Environmental Assessment for the issuance of an Order as authorized by Section 274f of the Atomic Energy Act that would modify an Order issued to EnergySolutions, LLC (formerly Envirocare of Utah, Inc.) on May 7, 1999 (64 FR 27826; May 21, 1999). In accordance with 10 CFR 51.33, the NRC prepared a draft Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for this amendment, which was published for public review and comment on October 7, 2009 (74 FR 51622). The public comment period closed on November 6, 2009. NRC received 12 comments from 4 commenters. The Order responds to a request by EnergySolutions dated September 26, 2006, to amend the package mass limits contained in Condition 4 of their 2006 Order, and to add or revise other conditions. The May 7, 1999, Order exempted EnergySolutions from certain NRC regulations and permitted EnergySolutions, under specified conditions, to possess waste containing special nuclear material (SNM), in greater quantities than specified in 10 CFR Part 150 at its facility located in Clive, Utah, without obtaining an NRC license under 10 CFR Part 70. As discussed below, the Order has been amended four times since it was issued in 1999. "

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff is seeking public comments on its preliminary conclusion that there are no environmental impacts that would preclude renewal of the operating license for the Three Mile Island Nuclear Station, Unit 1 (TMI-1) in Middletown. As part of TMI-1's license renewal application, dated Jan. 8, AmerGen Energy Company, LLC, submitted an environmental report. The NRC staff reviewed the report and performed an on-site audit. The staff also considered comments made during the environmental scoping process, including comments offered at public meetings held May 1, 2007. Based on its review, the NRC staff has preliminarily determined that the environmental impacts of the license renewal for TMI-1 are not so great that they preclude license renewal. The draft supplemental environmental impact statement (EIS) is open for public comment until March 4, 2009, and will be the subject of two public meetings to be held on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2009.

Although still in the licensing phase, full approval for the Port Hope Low Level Radioactive Waste clean-up is expected by mid-2009. "The licensing phase will continue through some hearings in the spring and summer of 2009," said Mark Stevenson, project manager for the Port Hope project. That approval would allow the municipality, together with the Low Level Radioactive Waste Management Office (LLRWMO), to move forward with plans to remediate radioactive waste within the municipality and transfer it to a long-term waste management facility, which will be constructed as part of the project.

The Department of Energy plans to spend less money in coming months at its environmental cleanup sites including Hanford than was approved by Congress in a continuing budget resolution for spending through early March. DOE's goal is to be conservative and not overspend in the first five months of the year as the funding amount for the rest of the year still unclear. DOE will use the administration request for funding in fiscal 2009, which would cut annual spending on DOE cleanup nationwide from a little more than $5.7 billion in the fiscal year 2008 budget to $5.5 billion. The fiscal year started Oct. 1. At Hanford, the budget for cleanup under the DOE Hanford Richland Operations Office would drop from the $886.5 million approved for fiscal 2008 to $851.8 million under the administration's request for fiscal 2009. That's a decrease of $34.7 million.

The last of the fuel has been removed from Hanford's shutdown Fast Flux Test Facility and shipped to Idaho almost a year ahead of a legal deadline. The research reactor is being deactivated to allow it to be put into a long-term surveillance and maintenance mode at minimum cost by August 2009. The Department of Energy was required under the Tri-Party Agreement to have the last of the fuel removed from the reactor in March 2009.

A fiscal 2009 spending bill approved by the House February 25 removes the expiration date for DOE's loan guarantee program and cuts funding for the department's spent fuel repository program. The 245-178 vote was generally along party lines. The Senate is expected to take up the bill as soon as February 27. Under current law, the loan guarantee authorizations for all the low-carbon technologies covered by the program will expire if the energy secretary has not signed a contract by September 30 -- the end of fiscal 2009 -- for a company to receive a guarantee. But the spending bill making its way through Congress would make the loan guarantee authority available indefinitely. That provision is important to the nuclear industry because it does not expect NRC to issue a license for a new plant -- a requirement for receiving financial backing from the government -- until at least 2010. Funding for the repository program at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, would be roughly $288 million. That is about $98 million below the FY-08 level of $386.4 million and about $200 million below the budget request submitted last year by then-President George W. Bush.

In the article on nuclear power [''A Comeback for Nuclear Power", August 2009], there was no discussion about what to do with the nuclear waste or the actual cost to build nuclear power plants. I have heard it may be approaching $1 billion dollars. Do not forget the cost of dealing with nuclear waste (if there is a safe way). I wonder how much solar or wind power we could build for a billion dollars.

In the article on nuclear power [''A Comeback for Nuclear Power", August 2009], there was no discussion about what to do with the nuclear waste or the actual cost to build nuclear power plants. I have heard it may be approaching $1 billion dollars. Do not forget the cost of dealing with nuclear waste (if there is a safe way). I wonder how much solar or wind power we could build for a billion dollars.

More Lobbying Expected in 2010 in Even Tougher Environment After Yucca Mountain and Soaring Cost Estimates; Outside of Bans, Industry Falters on CWIP in Missouri and Key Fights in Other States. WASHINGTON, Aug. 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --The so-called "nuclear renaissance" is finding few friends among state lawmakers in the United States. The nuclear power industry has been shut out across the board in 2009 in its efforts in all six states -- ranging across the nation from Kentucky to Minnesota to Hawaii -- where it sought to overturn what are either explicit or effectively bans on construction of new reactors, according to the nonprofit Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS). Efforts to overturn bans also have failed to advance in Illinois and West Virginia and Wisconsin. Beyond failing to reverse a single state-level ban on new reactors, the industry also suffered a wide range of major defeats, including an effort to repeal a ban on "Construction Work in Progress" (CWIP) payments that would have been imposed on Missouri ratepayers to finance a new nuclear power plant, which was then promptly mothballed. Industry efforts to get nuclear declared "renewable" by the states of Indiana and Arizona also failed to achieve results. Also going nowhere is a California bill to lift the state's pioneering law banning new reactors until a high-level waste dump is in place. That follows a 2008 California statewide referendum drive with the same focus that failed for lack of sufficient signatures to get it on the ballot.

Following recent action by Africa, a majority of the world's countries have now banned nuclear weapons from their national territory for the first time. The change happened when an all-Africa treaty entered into force in July. International civil society organizations including the World Council of Churches (WCC) played a catalytic role. Taking a shared approach to a safer world, Africa became a nuclear-weapon-free zone when Burundi recently became the 28th state to ratify the Treaty of Pelindaba. A WCC delegation visited the central African country in March 2009 to encourage the step. The addition of 54 countries in Africa means that 116 nations are now within treaty zones banning nuclear weapons. The WCC Central Committee has saluted Africa's new nuclear-free status in a September 2009 statement and invites further church support for such actions. The committee has also urged Russia and the United States "to join China, Britain and France in ratifying the treaty protocols that give Africa added protection" from nuclear attacks.

The $34.3-billion energy measure would also allow water transfers to help California farmers suffering from severe drought conditions. Similar legislation has been approved by the House. Associated Press July 30, 2009 Washington -- The Senate on Wednesday passed a $34.3-billion energy spending bill that backs up President Obama's promise to close the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste facility in Nevada. The bill, passed by a 85-9 vote, also covers water transfers to help farmers in California and hundreds of water projects by the Army Corps of Engineers. * Schwarzenegger proclaims that California is in a drought Schwarzenegger proclaims that California... The House passed a similar bill two weeks ago. Once the measures are reconciled, the bill will go to the president for his signature.

The $34.3-billion energy measure would also allow water transfers to help California farmers suffering from severe drought conditions. Similar legislation has been approved by the House. Associated Press July 30, 2009 Washington -- The Senate on Wednesday passed a $34.3-billion energy spending bill that backs up President Obama's promise to close the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste facility in Nevada. The bill, passed by a 85-9 vote, also covers water transfers to help farmers in California and hundreds of water projects by the Army Corps of Engineers. The House passed a similar bill two weeks ago. Once the measures are reconciled, the bill will go to the president for his signature.

Proponents of nuclear power in Utah probably have not noticed an article in the UK Times (July 13, 2009) regarding the problems France is having with its nuclear-power plants, problems that bear on the feasibility of nuclear power in Utah. France is in the grips of another hot summer, with air temperatures in the 80s. Water temperatures have exceeded the limits under which plants cooled by river water can safely operate. As a result of the heat, France has had to reduce power generation by one-third and is now importing power from England. Much the same thing happened during the heat wave of 2003. Reading this, I couldn't help thinking about the nuclear plant proposed for Green River, where summer temperatures are regularly in high 90s. The water temperature of the Green River at Jensen on July 13, 2009, was 23.5 degrees Celsius, almost as high as the maximum allowed for water returned to rivers from France's nuclear plants. During the drought of 1999-2005, Green River water temperatures reached 25.4 degrees.

NRC security inspections identified 133 findings in 2008, the agency said in a public version of an annual report to Congress released July 10. NRC said in a July 10 statement that "the report covers the NRC's security inspection program, including force-on-force exercises, for commercial nuclear power reactors and certain nuclear fuel cycle facilities for calendar year 2008." Of the 133 findings from a total of 182 security inspections conducted last year, the NRC said "125 were of very low security significance and eight were of low-to-moderate security significance. All were corrected immediately or compensatory measures put in place, if necessary. Details of the findings are considered sensitive and not released to the public." The public version of the report is on NRC's web site at www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/congress-docs/correspondence/2009/boxe r-06-30-2009.pdf.

"South Africa's expenditure on the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) nuclear technology, as well as on the State-owned enterprises pursuing its development, is set to fall materially over the next three years, the country's 2010 expenditure estimates show. The 846-page '2010 Estimates of National Expenditure' book, which was released together with the National Budget on Wednesday, also indicated that government's contribution to the PBMR would end altogether in 2013. Between 2006/7 and 2009/10, the country allocated R7,2-billion for the development of the PBMR demonstration and fuel plants, while it allocated a further R1,73-billion in 2009/10 for the programme. However, the chapter on 'Public Enterprises' in the expenditure documentation shows that the 'Nuclear Sector', which is code for the PBMR, would receive only R11,4-million over the next three years. For the upcoming fiscal period, some R3,6-million has been set aside, followed by R3,8-million for 2011/12 and R4-million for 2012/13."

"Extension of Public Comment Period on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Moore Ranch In-Situ Recovery Project in Campbell County, WY; Supplement to the Generic Environmental Impact Statement for In-Situ Leach Uranium Milling Facilities AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). ACTION: Extension of Public Comment Period. SUMMARY: This notice revises a notice published on Friday, December 11, 2009, in the Federal Register (74 FR 65806), which announced, in part, that the public comment period for the NRC's Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (Draft SEIS) for the Moore Ranch In-Situ Recovery (ISR) Project closes on February 1, 2010. The purpose of this notice is to extend the public comment period on the Draft SEIS for the Moore Ranch ISR Project to March 3, 2010. DATES: Members of the public have been submitting written comments on the Draft SEIS for the Moore Ranch ISR Project since the initial notice of availability was published on December 11, 2009 (74 FR 65806). In response to multiple requests received in writing, the comment period on the Draft SEIS is being extended to March 3, 2010. The NRC will consider comments received or postmarked after that date to the extent practical. Written comments should be submitted as described in the ADDRESSES section of this notice. "

According to an "Occurrence Report" obtained by the non-profit Project on Government Oversight (POGO), researchers blew up their building with a powerful cannon used to study the types of forces produced by a nuclear explosion: "On December 16, 2009, Shock and Detonation Physics Group researchers heard a loud unusual noise from Technical Area 15, Building 562 after firing a shot from a large-bore powder gun (LBPG).... the researchers conducted surveillance outside TA-15-562 and observed that two doors had been blown off the facility and concrete shielding blocks on the west and east side of the building were separated from the wall." Although no one was hurt, a POGO source puts the damage at around $3 million. We're going to say it: That was $3 million of taxpayer funds well-spent. Forget those stem cell thingies. Blow up a couple buildings every month and we'll have high school students flooding science classes like they were Jonas Brothers concerts.

According to an "Occurrence Report" obtained by the non-profit Project on Government Oversight (POGO), researchers blew up their building with a powerful cannon used to study the types of forces produced by a nuclear explosion: "On December 16, 2009, Shock and Detonation Physics Group researchers heard a loud unusual noise from Technical Area 15, Building 562 after firing a shot from a large-bore powder gun (LBPG).... the researchers conducted surveillance outside TA-15-562 and observed that two doors had been blown off the facility and concrete shielding blocks on the west and east side of the building were separated from the wall." Although no one was hurt, a POGO source puts the damage at around $3 million. We're going to say it: That was $3 million of taxpayer funds well-spent. Forget those stem cell thingies. Blow up a couple buildings every month and we'll have high school students flooding science classes like they were Jonas Brothers concerts.