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Bruce Breslow is getting his feet wet. He just hopes the water won't be laced with radioactive remnants from nuclear waste that the Department of Energy plans to entomb in Yucca Mountain. Breslow, who turns 53 today, took over for Bob Loux on Jan. 12 as Nevada's chief strategist on defeating the project. After having been executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects since the agency's inception in 1985, Loux stepped down Sept. 29 amid controversy that he gave himself and his staff large, unauthorized pay raises.

As plans progress for a radioactive-waste site buried deep in Ontario limestone, the federal nuclear watchdog says the related safety research is full of holes. Ontario Power Generation wants a licence by 2012 to bury low-to intermediate-level radioactive waste at its Bruce nuclear plant near Kincardine, Ont. It's the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission's job to approve or reject that application.

There are no plans to add a second nuclear reactor to the Clinton power plant anytime soon, Exelon Nuclear officials say, despite rumors to the contrary. Exelon Nuclear received an early site permit in March 2007 from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. That allows the utility to "bank" the property adjacent to the Clinton plant for a potential new reactor for up to 20 years. "We have no immediate plans to build a nuclear plant at the site, but if over the course of the next 18 years we decide to do something, we have the process started," Exelon spokesman Bruce Paulson said.

Gov. Jim Gibbons has appointed a former Sparks mayor to replace a state agency head who resigned who resigned after disclosures that he raised his own pay and that of his staff without authorization. Advertisement Bruce Breslow will start Jan. 12 as executive director of the Nevada Commission for Nuclear Projects, which advises the governor and Legislature and is chaired by former U.S. senator and governor Richard Bryan. Breslow was a television sportscaster for 11 years before being elected mayor of Sparks in 1991 and 1995. He is a Sparks Planning Commission member and real estate broker and has been a Nevada Transportation Services Authority commissioner, chairman of the Nevada State Employee-Management Committee and chairman of the Reno-Sparks Convention & Visitors Authority board.

Bruce Breslow, a former Sparks mayor and television sportscaster, said Tuesday that in his new job as head of the state Nuclear Projects Office he'll continue Nevada's fight against federal plans to open the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump. "The state policy is not changing toward a new direction," said Breslow, who currently works in commercial real estate and serves on the Sparks Planning Commission. "My primary goal is to protect the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of Nevada as it relates to the Yucca Mountain project."

Brenda Brochu is afraid. If Bruce Power has its way, she worries years down the road, clouds of steam from nuclear cooling towers could rise into the sky near Grimshaw, 30 km from her Peace River home. "It will get into my garden produce, it will get into my pets, it will get into my grandchildren when they come to visit. This is not what I want," said Brochu, vice-president of the Coalition for a Nuclear Free Alberta, who was pounding on the walls of the Alberta legislature yesterday.

A community group has sprung up to fight a proposal to build two nuclear reactors in the industrial area of Haldimand County. Bruce Power, which operates a nuclear power plant on Lake Huron near Port Elgin, is seeking to build the reactors beside the coal-fired Nanticoke Generating Station, which is set to close in 2014. The province is not endorsing the idea, but it has support from both Haldimand and Norfolk councils, plus local MP and cabinet minister Diane Finley.

A recent fact-finding mission to an Ontario nuclear power plant by Prince Albert officials has got residents wondering about the possibility of one coming here. In a story published Monday by the Daily Herald, Prince Albert city council is reportedly considering whether the city should become the location of the first nuclear power plant in Saskatchewan. Mayor Jim Scarrow, along with chamber of commerce president Allan Hopkins, Director of Economic Development and Planning Joan Corneil, and SIAST Woodland Campus's director Larry Fladager, paid a visit to Bruce Power's facilities in Ontario as part of a fact-finding mission. Scarrow stressed that the trip was only to learn more about how such plants work, and that a plant couldn't be considered until they consult with the Prince Albert Grand Council and the province.

A private consortium is staking a $30-million gamble that the province will allow it to build a nuclear power plant in Nanticoke. Bruce Power announced plans yesterday to build two nuclear reactors in Haldimand County, on an 800-hectare site almost next door to the Nanticoke coal plant, which will be shut down by 2014. But the province says it has no plans for a nuclear plant on the site. It plans instead to build two nuclear reactors at the Darlington nuclear generating station east of Oshawa by 2018.

Environmental groups say Ontario's atomic focus detracts from efforts to develop greener electricity The Ontario government's goal of increasing the amount of green power in its 20-year electricity plan can't be met unless it pulls back on its commitment to nuclear, a coalition of influential environmental groups argued yesterday. The energy ministry's response: Current nuclear levels are here to stay. "We're still not moving off maintaining that commitment of 50 per cent nuclear," ministry spokesperson Amy Tang said. But the coalition, a group led by environmental think tank the Pembina Institute, said the same dollar can't be spent twice - some part of the plan has to give. It took aim yesterday at the aging Pickering B and Bruce B nuclear generation stations, which will begin reaching the end of their lives in 2013.

Ontario Power Generation is planning an underground radioactive waste dump in Bruce County, a mere kilometre from the shore of Lake Huron. Citizens from across the Great Lakes region fear the independence of the environmental assessment panel will be compromised by the presence of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. Great Lakes United's Green Energy and Nuclear Free Task Force urges that a completely independent review board be established, without Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission presence. The task force also calls on Great Lakes residents on both sides of the border to speak out, given the potential hazards of the proposed dumpsite for the entire Great Lakes watershed.

Those who filed a federal whistle-blower lawsuit against EnergySolutions say they hope their fourth attempt at their suit will be successful. U.S. District Judge Bruce Jenkins dismissed the group's last False Claims Act suit but in a ruling last month allowed the three men to modify and refile, to the protest of EnergySolutions attorneys.

Those who filed a federal whistle-blower lawsuit against Energy Solutions say they hope their fourth attempt at their suit will be successful. U.S. District Judge Bruce Jenkins dismissed the group's last False Claims Act suit, but in a ruling last month allowed the former employees to modify and re-file, to the protest of Energy Solutions attorneys.

REGINA -- Greenpeace Canada is warning taxpayers to hold on to their wallets if nuclear power gets the go-ahead in Saskatchewan, even with the provincial government pledging not to put public money into any project. Greenpeace energy co-ordinator Dave Martin questioned how serious Bruce Power LP is about the province's nuclear prospects after the company announced last week it would undertake a feasibility study in Saskatchewan.

Nuclear energy is not the magic bullet to solve global warming and the costs of building reactors far outweigh the benefits, warns a retired University of Regina professor. Jim Harding visited Saskatoon and Prince Albert Wednesday and Thursday to speak against uranium mining and nuclear energy, a hot topic in Saskatchewan since last week's announcement by Bruce Power LP that it is studying the feasibility of a reactor for the province. In his presentation, Harding said now is the time for public debate on whether the province should pursue nuclear power -- and his long-held argument is that we shouldn't.

Alberta and Saskatchewan are competing to house Western Canada's first commercial nuclear power plant, Saskatchewan's Natural Resources Minister Bill Boyd confirmed Tuesday. The energy point man for the recently elected and decidedly pro-business Saskatchewan Party said his government has held "early" talks with Bruce Power LP, the private nuclear operator from western Ontario, which laid out plans in March for a $10-billion-plus nuclear complex near Peace River, in Alberta's northwest Peace Country, operating by 2017.

The Alberta Liberal Opposition is raising concerns that the "fix is in" for nuclear power after a Conservative campaign manager was hired by the Ontario firm looking to build Alberta's first nuclear reactor. The Liberals say Randy Dawson was hired recently by Bruce Power to do government relations after he ran a successful campaign for Premier Ed Stelmach's Tories in the March provincial election.

TORONTO - Electricity consumers in Ontario will be on the hook for about one half of a cost overrun that could reach 35 per cent for refurbishing reactors at a privately operated nuclear station. Bruce Power, the privately owned consortium that operates the nuclear station on Lake Huron, said yesterday that the total cost for getting two of the idle reactors up and running will now range between $3.1-billion and $3.4-billion, well above the initial estimate of $2.5-billion.

It's human arrogance to think science and technology are simply going to step in and save us from climate change says Bruce Cox, and he's kicking off a 10-city tour across the province to let people know what we need to do. "We are really running out of time," he adds. Carpooling to Peterborough in an old Ford Escort isn't exactly a stylish way for the executive director of Greenpeace Canada to travel, but it's all part of walking the talk.