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An investigation into serious allegations of misconduct at the Savannah River Site found no specific wrongdoing, but did discover "unusual levels of distrust and acrimony" as well as failures by key officials. The investigative body that oversees the Department of Energy released its report, painting a picture of SRS with disorganized lines of leadership, discrimination, racism and many different stories about controversial incidents. Sparked by an anonymous complaint from an SRS employee, the Inspector General's office came to investigate five specific allegations "concerning improprieties by a senior official with the Office of Environmental Management." The 12-person investigative team interviewed 80 DOE and contractor employees and scoured through about 150,000 e-mails.

An investigation into serious allegations of misconduct at the Savannah River Site found no specific wrongdoing, but did discover "unusual levels of distrust and acrimony" as well as failures by key officials. The investigative body that oversees the Department of Energy released its report, painting a picture of SRS with disorganized lines of leadership, discrimination, racism and many different stories about controversial incidents. Sparked by an anonymous complaint from an SRS employee, the Inspector General's office came to investigate five specific allegations "concerning improprieties by a senior official with the Office of Environmental Management." The 12-person investigative team interviewed 80 DOE and contractor employees and scoured through about 150,000 e-mails.

The Foreign Ministry kept a written record of a meeting with the U.S. ambassador in 1968 in which he reminded ministry officials of a secret 1960 bilateral nuclear deal, a former senior ministry official said Tuesday, further contradicting government claims that no such pact existed. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's administration has been pressing the ministry to reveal whether there was a secret U.S.-Japan pact since assuming office last month. Up to now, the Foreign Ministry has repeatedly denied the existence of a deal despite confirmation of the pact in declassified U.S. documents and statements by former Japanese vice ministers. According to the senior official, who once headed the ministry's former Treaties Bureau and who spoke on condition of anonymity, the records were maintained covertly by the Treaties and the North American Affairs bureaus at least until the end of the 1990s.

The Foreign Ministry kept a written record of a meeting with the U.S. ambassador in 1968 in which he reminded ministry officials of a secret 1960 bilateral nuclear deal, a former senior ministry official said Tuesday, further contradicting government claims that no such pact existed. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's administration has been pressing the ministry to reveal whether there was a secret U.S.-Japan pact since assuming office last month. Up to now, the Foreign Ministry has repeatedly denied the existence of a deal despite confirmation of the pact in declassified U.S. documents and statements by former Japanese vice ministers. According to the senior official, who once headed the ministry's former Treaties Bureau and who spoke on condition of anonymity, the records were maintained covertly by the Treaties and the North American Affairs bureaus at least until the end of the 1990s.

Though it is not in his congressional district, complaints have surfaced that House Majority Whip and 6th District Congressman James Clyburn is putting pressure on the Department of Energy that stimulus funds he acquired should benefit his interests. An anonymous complaint filed with the Department of Energy's Office of the Inspector General made many allegations of wrongdoing at the Savannah River Site. The whistleblower specifically outlined high-level DOE executives who the person said were using their positions to gain power and bolster their position within the department. Those same people, specifically Cynthia Anderson, DOE Environmental Management's (EM) head of the American Recovery Act Program, have allegedly demanded that Clyburn's district benefit from the funds and that his district should be the focus for events.

Though it is not in his congressional district, complaints have surfaced that House Majority Whip and 6th District Congressman James Clyburn is putting pressure on the Department of Energy that stimulus funds he acquired should benefit his interests. An anonymous complaint filed with the Department of Energy's Office of the Inspector General made many allegations of wrongdoing at the Savannah River Site. The whistleblower specifically outlined high-level DOE executives who the person said were using their positions to gain power and bolster their position within the department. Those same people, specifically Cynthia Anderson, DOE Environmental Management's (EM) head of the American Recovery Act Program, have allegedly demanded that Clyburn's district benefit from the funds and that his district should be the focus for events.

"Not everybody is so sanguine about the Soviet experience. Speaking on condition of anonymity, an expert from Russia's largest oil exporter Rosneft (ROSN.MM), urges the United States to ignore calls for the atomic option. "That would bring Chernobyl to America," he says. Vladimir Chuprov from Greenpeace's Moscow office is even more insistent that BP not heed the advice of the veteran Soviet physicists. Chuprov disputes the veterans' accounts of the peaceful explosions and says several of the gas leaks reappeared later. "What was praised as a success and a breakthrough by the Soviet Union is in essence a lie," he says. "I would recommend that the international community not listen to the Russians. Especially those of them that offer crazy ideas. Russians are keen on offering things, especially insane things." Former Minister Mikhailov agrees that the USSR had to give up its programme because of problems it presented. "I ended the program because I knew how worthless this all was," he says with a sigh. "Radioactive material was still seeping through cracks in the ground and spreading into the air. It wasn't worth it.""

The Susquehanna nuclear plant in northeastern Pennnsylvania is the nation's leader in anonymous allegations made by employees to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The agency says it believes some workers at the plant near Berwick are afraid to raise safety issues with their bosses because they fear retaliation. Regulators have issued a warning letter to Allentown-based PPL saying the company must take steps to preclude a "chilled" work environment at the power plant.

U.S.-based Bechtel Power Corp is leading a shortlist of firms and consortia bidding to design Egypt's first nuclear power station, an official at the ministry of electricity said. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the other firms on the shortlist included Australia's WorleyParsons, Sweden's AF Consult, a consortium of Spain's Iberdrola and Empresarios Agrupados, a consortium of Finland's Poyry and Invap of Argentina, a consortium including Belgian Tractebel, and a group of U.S. companies with Egypt's Excel.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission released today a publication that provides new insights into how best to protect the public during a nuclear power plant accident. The publication is based on the results of focus groups and telephone surveys conducted in the Emergency Planning Zones (EPZs) around reactor sites. The data will help the NRC review its regulations and guidance related to emergency preparedness and determine if changes need to be considered to existing protective action strategies. Focus groups were used in 2007 to collect information that guided the development of the phone survey. The phone survey was administered in 2008 by Sandia National Laboratories, under contract to the NRC, to approximately 2,500 households randomly selected in order to obtain 800 completed, anonymous surveys.

Bechtel National has taken disciplinary action against four managers at the Hanford vitrification plant for reportedly eavesdropping on a meeting between safety representatives and the Department of Energy. An investigation was begun by Bechtel 12 days ago after an anonymous call was made to an employee concerns program.

Quoting anonymous sources, the Western media are making a stir by saying that the United States is ready to freeze the intergovernmental agreement with Russia for peaceful nuclear cooperation because of the Georgian conflict.

Centrica is being barred by the government from making a solo bid for British Energy, according to one of the nuclear generator's largest institutional shareholders. The shareholder, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also questioned why preferred bidder EDF retains the 'irrational total support' of the government.

Group of Eight leaders meeting in Japan will push for more nuclear power generation as a way to curb greenhouse gas emissions, sources said Sunday. The Yomiuri Shimbun quoted anonymous sources saying the G8 nations will pressure China and India to satisfy a greater percentage of their electricity needs from nuclear power

Would you want to dig up dirt at a former nuclear waste site? That's what construction crews at the Denver Federal Center site in Lakewood have been doing for the past year. But what's worse, some workers tell FOX 31 that they never knew about the radioactive history until they saw our story on the news. "We were told there was asbestos and lead at the site," says one worker who wants to remain anonymous. He says when he and his co-workers learned that lead and asbestos were not the only danger, they became concerned for their health.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will announce Monday that his department is temporarily barring the filing of new uranium mining claims on about 1 million acres near the Grand Canyon, an Obama administration official said. The land is being "segregated" for two years so that the department can study whether it should be permanently withdrawn from mining activity, said the official, who requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter. The announcement comes ahead of Tuesday's congressional hearing on a bill to set aside more than 1 million acres of federal lands north and south of the canyon. The bill's sponsor, Democratic U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, and environmental groups had been looking to Salazar for temporary protections at the Grand Canyon while the legislation is pending.

Weapons Complex Monitor reports that the Dept. of Energy is investigating an ethics complaint filed against Cynthia Anderson, who heads the Recovery Act efforts for DOE's Office of Environmental Management. The newsletter's Mike Nartker reported that the investigation was prompted by an anonymous complaint, which alleged improper acts in hiring-related activities at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and other issues. The newsletter received a copy of the complaint, which also was reportedly sent to U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., the House Majority Whip, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and others. In a statement, DOE spokeswoman Shari Taylor Davenport told the newsletter, "The Department of Energy takes allegations of unethical behavior seriously and is looking into the matter."

A bomb alert at a French nuclear power station proved a hoax and no explosives were found, power supplier EDF (EDF.PA) said after checking the entire site. EDF evacuated the Chinon plant after an anonymous phonecall was made at dawn from a nearby phonebox. "The controls carried out today ... have just ended and showed that the Chinon nuclear production site was totally secure. No suspect object was found," EDF said in a press release. The Chinon plant, which has four 900-megawatt nuclear reactors and supplies electricity to around 6 percent of the French population, continued to operate during the searches.

"An e-mail from an anonymous whistleblower claiming Vermont Yankee nuclear power station officials were aware of a radioactive leak years ago and failed to properly fix it is being investigated by the state attorney general's office. On Wednesday, state officials said the e-mail claims that leaking underground pipes carrying radioactive fluids at the Vernon plant were first discovered two years ago and never reported to authorities. Utility regulators said the claims are true, but are now exploring them further with help from the state attorney general's office. The tip, from a person who claims to be a VY employee was received last weekend, and alleges Yankee employees were told to patch the leaking pipe rather than shutdown the power plant to make permanent repairs."

"The Obama administration is preparing to revive a civilian nuclear cooperation deal with Moscow that President George W. Bush angrily canceled two years ago after Russia invaded Georgia, administration officials said Thursday. The two officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter. One of the officials said the deal would be submitted to Congress for approval soon. The State Department declined to comment. The deal would allow the two countries to exchange nuclear energy technology, engage in joint commercial nuclear power ventures and collaborate on nonproliferation goals. Coming on the heels of the nuclear arms reduction treaty that Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed last month, it is the latest indication of Obama's attempts to reset relations with Russia. "

"A Democratic aide says President Barack Obama is poised to ask Congress to agree to $9 billion more in loan guarantees for the nuclear energy industry - on top of $18 billion announced earlier this year. The president is pushing for a new round of construction of nuclear plants. At the insistence of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, the request for more spending on nuclear energy would be coupled with $9 billion in loan guarantees for renewable energy such as wind and solar. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity before a formal announcement from the White House. The money would be tacked onto a spending bill for Haiti, Afghanistan and domestic priorities that Congress is expected to tackle after Memorial Day."

"Atsuko Ogasawara's family rejected offers of some ¥160 million for their property on the northern tip of Honshu during a two-decade bid to prevent construction of a nuclear plant. The result: Their fenced-in house is little more than a stone's throw from a facility that opens in 2014. News photo Subsidized: A fishing boat is moored last month in Oma, Aomori Prefecture. BLOOMBERG PHOTO The family's protest illustrates the challenges facing opponents when they go up against the nuclear industry, a pillar of Japanese energy policy since the late 1960s. Ogasawara says her mother faced harassment that included letters from local authorities and neighbors pressuring her to sell, unidentified men following her and anonymous phone calls that included a threat to sabotage the family's fishing boat."