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The two Russian Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bombers that landed in Venezuela last week have successfully carried out a patrol mission along the South American coast, a Russian Air Force spokesman said on Tuesday. "The aircraft took off from the Libertador airbase in Venezuela on Monday and flew along the South American coast toward Brazil," Lt. Col. Vladimir Drik said.

A request for a hearing or petition for leave to intervene may be filed with the NRC electronically in accordance with NRC's E-Filing rule promulgated in August 2007, 72 FR 49139 (Aug. 28, 2007). Information about filing electronically is available on the NRC's public Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals.html. To ensure timely electronic filing, at least five days prior to the filing deadline, the petitioner/requestor should contact the Office of the Secretary by e-mail at HEARING.DOCKET@NRC.GOV, or by calling (301) 415- 1677, to request a digital ID certificate and allow for the creation of an electronic docket.

Flame-licked doors of a hydrogen furnace clatter open at a Cold War bomb factory in the Altai Mountains of Kazakhstan, spilling a tray of baked metal capsules into the pale winter light. Each enriched-uranium pellet the size of a Brazil nut packs almost as much energy as a ton of coal. Former cognac and car salesman Mukhtar Dzhakishev says he plans to triple production at the Ulba Metallurgical Plant in Oskemen, a formerly secret city south of Siberia known in Russian as Ust Kamenogorsk.

Brazil's state-run nuclear mining and fuel company INB on Thursday chose local fertilizers producer Galvani as the private partner to mine phosphate and uranium at the Santa Quiteria reserve.

Brazil's vice president says in an interview published Friday that his country should develop nuclear weapons. Other officials stressed that his comments were not government policy. Jose Alencar, who also served as defense minister from 2004 to 2006, said in an interview with journalists from several Brazilian news media that his country does not have a program to develop nuclear weapons, but should: "We have to advance on that." "The nuclear weapon, used as an instrument of deterrence, is of great importance for a country that has 15,000 kilometers of border to the west and a territorial sea" where oil reserves have been found, Alencar said.

Efforts by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to keep countries from acquiring nuclear technology by offering them alternatives got a boost this week as three plans for nuclear fuel banks and multinational fuel factories were tabled. The latest proposal was put forward by Germany on Friday. The text foresees the creation of an internationally-governed nuclear fuel production plant. Two additional, complementary, proposals for Russian and IAEA fuel banks to provide supply of last resort are also to be considered by the 35 countries on the IAEA's governing board in June. The ideas were proposed by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei in 2003 to keep countries such as Iran from acquiring uranium enrichment and reprocessing technologies, which can be used not only for energy purposes, but also for making nuclear bomb material. But diplomats say the Vienna-based nuclear agency is split on the issue between those countries that already hold the technology, and sceptical countries such as Egypt, Argentina and Brazil, many of them developing economies.

An Indiana manufacturer unknowingly used metal blended with a dangerous radioactive isotope to make parts for 1,000 La-Z-Boy recliners more than a decade ago. The discovery of that contamination -- which received virtually no publicity at the time -- triggered a federal and state effort to keep the popular chairs out of American living rooms, a Scripps Howard News Service investigation has found. The isotope -- Cobalt-60 -- used by No-Sag Products Co. of Kendallville, Ind., had been blended in Brazil into metal No-Sag used in 1998

Published this weekend by Rio daily O Globo, a report by a Brazilian official organization criticized the lack of security at Brazil's nuclear installations, which range from electricity-generating plants to hospital equipment. "The deficiencies signaled out by the Brazilian Court of Audit (which ensures proper management of federal public resources) go from a state of chaos in radioactive installations to the lack of enough adequately trained technicians supervising the power stations at Angra dos Reis, a seaside resort where two nuclear plants for generating electricity are located, the newspaper said.

The mayor of a mudslide-devastated city has urged a precautionary shutdown of Brazil's only nuclear power plants due to blocked highways while the death toll from flooding and slides rose to 75. Angra dos Reis Mayor Tuca Jordao said on Sunday that while the nuclear power plants are not damaged or threatened, mudslides that that have killed at least 44 people in his city alone have disrupted escape routes needed to cope with any emergency.

The mayor of a mudslide-devastated city has urged a precautionary shutdown of Brazil's only nuclear power plants due to blocked highways while the death toll from flooding and slides rose to 75. Angra dos Reis Mayor Tuca Jordao said on Sunday that while the nuclear power plants are not damaged or threatened, mudslides that that have killed at least 44 people in his city alone have disrupted escape routes needed to cope with any emergency.

"Iran's recent formal notification to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of its nuclear fuel swap deal with Turkey and Brazil - a move aimed at budging from its previous tough stance - is expected to undercut the US-led international campaign for fresh sanctions against Teheran. Due to deep concerns over Iran's nuclear program, the international community has pushed for several rounds of Teheran-targeted United Nations Security Council resolutions, urging the Islamic nation to put a moratorium on its uranium enrichment."

"The five largest nuclear powers (USA, UK. France, Russia, and China) are set to impose tougher sanctions against non-nuclear Iran, while reminding the other two non-atomic states such as Turkey and Brazil, that only they can decide how and when to solve (or not) their purposely escalated conflict with Iran. In line with that, and in a decision clearly taken beforehand, the five permanent Security Council powers reached on May 19, 2010 a deal on a new set of tougher sanctions against Tehran. The decision was announced only few hours after Iran agreed to deliver to Turkey its low-enriched uranium and to receive, in exchange, nuclear fuel for its plants within one year. According to the terms of the agreement, the entire exchange process is to be carried out under the direct, strict supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)."

When the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Japan was knocked out with one mighty wave, the all-but-forgotten anti-nuke movement suddenly powered up in the U.S. Paul Gunter, director at Maryland-based Beyond Nuclear, barely found time to sleep. Web traffic spiked, and Gunter's mailing list exploded with new members. David Kraft, who for 30 years has quietly operated a Chicago-based nonprofit committed to ending nuclear power, scored his organization's first face-to-face meeting with the governor of Illinois. The state boasts the largest number of nuclear plants in the country. And in Pennsylvania, Eric Epstein, chairman of Three Mile Island Alert, was deluged with media requests. He trekked to the infamous plant as many as 11 times a day for TV interviews about whether what happened in Japan could happen here. The renewed interest in nuclear power comes at a time when it has become more accepted, somewhat aligned with the green movement, and opponents had largely dwindled to a small band of scientists and aging hippies. "From my vantage point, many of our meetings look like AARP reunions," Epstein said. Prior to the accident in Japan, he said, "this younger generation was more interested in a rainforest in Brazil than they were a nuclear power plant in their backyard."

Brazilian authorities gave the final go ahead to the civilian nuclear power company, Electronuclear, to continue construction of the country's third nuclear power plant. Though the decision to revitalize the 22-year-old nuclear reactor, Angra 3, came late last year, plans were finalized in July by the government's environmental regulatory agency. Electronuclear, a subsidiary of the state-owned energy firm Electrobras, plans to begin construction in February.

Globally, nuclear power has become an increasingly important source of energy, accounting for about 15% of the world's electricity supply. When it comes to Latin America, 3.1% of electricity comes from this source. However, the nettlesome security issues resulting from utilizing nuclear energy sources largely have been ignored. On March 2008, Colombian authorities discovered that the FARC insurgent movement managed to obtain (it was never clarified from where) 9 kilograms of depleted uranium. Then, in early 2009, the Argentine media reported that an employee of the Baker Atlas Company oil-drilling operation in Neuquen had stolen a canister of nuclear substance Caesium-137, demanding up to US$500,000 in ransom payments from Baker Atlas.

Globally, nuclear power has become an increasingly important source of energy, accounting for about 15% of the world's electricity supply. When it comes to Latin America, 3.1% of electricity comes from this source. However, the nettlesome security issues resulting from utilizing nuclear energy sources largely have been ignored. On March 2008, Colombian authorities discovered that the FARC insurgent movement managed to obtain (it was never clarified from where) 9 kilograms of depleted uranium. Then, in early 2009, the Argentine media reported that an employee of the Baker Atlas Company oil-drilling operation in Neuquen had stolen a canister of nuclear substance Caesium-137, demanding up to US$500,000 in ransom payments from Baker Atlas.

"Police in the north Brazilian state of Amapa have unearthed a cache with 450 kg of enriched uranium ore, a dangerous mineral used for nuclear arms production. The operation to seize radioactive material was a result of four-month work by investigators, who found a bag of pitchblende on Friday in a remote area of tropical rainforest. Pitchblende, or uraninite, is an extremely radioactive mineral used as a major component for the production of fuel for nuclear power plants and nuclear arms. An investigation is underway. Brazil's nuclear capabilities are considered the most advanced in Latin America. The country runs its sole nuclear power plant, Angra, with two reactors, and a third is under construction."