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A proposed nuclear reactor that would power mining operations in Quebec's remote regions carries more risks than benefits, according to an environmental group. Western Troy is a mining company that plans to open up a copper mine in Lake McLeod, about 200 kilometres north of Chibougamau. The company has begun a feasibility study to investigate using a mini-nuclear reactor that could provide inexpensive power to the mine. Western Troy will need to provide at least 10 megawatts of electricity to power the operation, said Rex Loesby, company president. The nuclear reactor under study is a promising option, even though it poses certain problems, he told CBC News

Inspectors in Japan have detected "weld defects" inside two massive steam generators being built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for installation at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. Gil Alexander, a spokesman for plant owner Southern California Edison, said in a statement Wednesday that similar defects have not been found in two similar generators already delivered to San Onofre and scheduled for installation inside its Unit 2 containment dome this fall. "The deficiency, which is being corrected, was caused by a manufacturing process that was not used on the Unit 2 steam generators," Alexander said.

Faced with a paper trail of minor maintenance problems and mounting pressure from regulators, Southern California Edison has changed maintenance contractors at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. Gil Alexander, a spokesman for Southern California Edison, the plant's majority owner and operator, said Friday that the company has hired Louisiana-based Shaw Industries to conduct all maintenance operations at the seaside plant. Since 1994 that work had been done by multinational Bechtel Inc., which also helped build the plant's atom splitters in the late 1980s. Shaw also performs maintenance activities at 36 of the nation's 104 operating nuclear power plants. A division of Bechtel has been working for years on an $800 million project to replace steam generators inside both of San Onofre's concrete containment domes. Alexander said the company will continue to work on that project.

The municipality and public are likely to have continued input on plans to remove historic low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) in Port Hope, after asking the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) that its involvement be a condition of the project moving forward. "We've had an excellent cooperative consultation program and we look to that to continue," said Mayor Linda Thompson. "The comments of the CNSC staff reassured us." The commission spent Wednesday, Aug. 26 and half of Thursday, Aug. 27 listening to local concerns about Atomic Energy of Canada Limited's (AECL) application for a nuclear waste substance license to operate a long-term low-level waste management facility.

Dozens of workers diagnosed with cancer after their employment at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory may have more leverage in claiming federal compensation to help with their health care. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health first granted a special designation earlier this month for those assigned to the field lab's 270-acre Area IV, where much of the nuclear work was conducted. The designation applies to those who were exposed to radiation for at least 250 days, between Jan. 1, 1955 and Dec, 31, 1958. On Wednesday, the federal agency broadened the designation to include those who worked at the field lab in 1959, the year of a partial nuclear meltdown at the site. The federal action is the result of a efforts by Bonnie Klea of West Hills, who worked as a secretary for Rocketdyne in the 1960s. A survivor of bladder cancer, she compiled letters, press releases, news articles and documentaries about radioactive and chemical contamination at the site. She delivered the petition in 2007, after learning that the Department of Labor had denied most of the claims for compensation filed by cancer-stricken workers under the 2000 Energy Employees Occupational Illness Program Act. Of the 993 claims filed by Thursday with the Department of Labor, 249 had been denied, 164 had been approved and the rest are pending.

Will they or won't they? And if they do, for how long? The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) will decide whether 1.2 million cubic metres of low-level radioactive and historic waste from around Port Hope will be excavated and contained in an encapsulated mound south of Highway 401. The commission is expected to decide whether to grant a licence to Atomic Energy Canada Ltd. (AECL) to proceed with the cleanup project within the next two months. There was a lot of ground and a lot of history to cover at the one-day public hearing Wednesday. Everyone was on best behaviour as the televised and webcast proceedings, complete with English/French translators, transcript stenographers and large-screen monitors for better in-house viewing got underway at the Town Recreation Centre. As the licence requester, Atomic Energy Canada Ltd. (AECL) outlined its plans for the estimated $150-million chore ahead. The CNSC, as safety overseer of the project, had its staff there, too, formal presentations and answering questions of panel members. With 96 intervenors registered -- 43 of them with oral presentations -- it was a full day and evening for all concerned.

Human error helped worsen a nuclear meltdown just outside Los Angeles, and now human inertia has stymied the radioactive cleanup for half a century. "During an inspection of fuel elements on July 26 at the Sodium Reactor Experiment, operated for the Atomic Energy Commission at Santa Susana, California by Atomics International, a division of North American Aviation, Inc., a parted fuel element was observed.

A draft cleanup agreement between the state and two federal agencies that conducted operations at a polluted former rocket engine and nuclear test site near Simi Valley was released Wednesday for public review and comment. Missing from the consent order between the state's Department of Toxic Substances Control, the U.S. Department of Energy and NASA is the Boeing Co., the primary owner of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory. "Unfortunately we have not gotten to a public review stage with Boeing," Maziar Movassaghi, acting director of the DTSC, said in an interview.

The first shipment of nuclear waste byproduct has been delivered to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in the southeastern corner of New Mexico. The Department of Energy said the shipment arrived safely early Friday morning. The DOE estimates that about 30-40 shipments will be sent from a facility in California to WIPP. The waste is a byproduct of the nation's nuclear defense program. It consists of tools, rags, protective clothing, sludge, soil and other materials contaminated with radioactive elements that have atomic numbers greater than uranium. The material arrives by truck in lead-lined casks certified by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Steam-cleaning technology created by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was used to clean a Superfund site in Visalia, in California's Central Valley - and the job was finished a century earlier than first expected. Utility company Southern California Edison used the site to soak wooden utility poles in creosote and other protective chemicals for some 80 years. Those chemicals contaminated the soil and underground water in the area. By the 1970s, the chemicals had seeped down as much as 100 feet in places. The site, called the Visalia Pole Yard, was one of the first Superfund sites, part of a federal government cleanup program for very toxic places. Superfund sites are on the National Priorities List of the Environmental Protection Agency because they may seriously threaten public health.

Steam-cleaning technology created by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was used to clean a Superfund site in Visalia, in California's Central Valley - and the job was finished a century earlier than first expected. Utility company Southern California Edison used the site to soak wooden utility poles in creosote and other protective chemicals for some 80 years. Those chemicals contaminated the soil and underground water in the area. By the 1970s, the chemicals had seeped down as much as 100 feet in places. The site, called the Visalia Pole Yard, was one of the first Superfund sites, part of a federal government cleanup program for very toxic places. Superfund sites are on the National Priorities List of the Environmental Protection Agency because they may seriously threaten public health.

After protests, NRC agrees to reschedule hearing slated for point equidistant - and far - from Diablo Canyon and San Onofre plants Bowing to local pressure, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission has agreed to reschedule a hearing to take public comment on generic rules governing the renewal of nuclear power plant licenses. The meeting had been set for Tuesday evening in Westlake Village, a Los Angeles County town near Thousand Oaks. However, local elected officials and activists argued that San Luis Obispo County residents were unlikely to attend a meeting held about 160 miles away. The agency has agreed to postpone the hearing to an undetermined later date and location, said Roger Hannah, NRC spokesman.

A new report has found that most Saskatchewan residents oppose building a nuclear power plant in the province, but that doesn't mean the idea has hit a dead end, according to the government. The 166-page report released Tuesday gathered reaction from public consultations held on the future of uranium development in Saskatchewan. There were more than 1,400 responses specifically on the nuclear power issue and 84 per cent of those opposed the idea. Energy Minister Bill Boyd suggested that's not a sign to stop, but says his "foot is off the accelerator." "When I look at this report, it's neither a green light nor a red light for the future uranium development. It's more like a yellow light - take any next steps with great caution," said Boyd. "There's no question there's strong opposition, I've never said that there wasn't. Of the people that attended the meetings, there was a very strong concern about the future in this area."

The Coalition for a Nuclear Free Alberta launched its province-wide Green Ribbon Campaign at the Grande Prairie Public Library yesterday. The purpose of the campaign is to urge Albertans to reject what the CNFA deems to be a risky and expensive proposal to develop nuclear power in the province. "People are beginning to see that there's more to this nuclear development story than meets the eye," said Norman Dyck, a spokesman for CNFA. "The information is getting out to the alternate media; people mostly want to be responsible in what we leave to our great-great-great-great grandchildren." The coalition does not see nuclear power as a climate change solution. It believes renewable energy options can be brought about faster and more cheaply, with less risk to the health of Albertans and the environment.

The Coalition for a Nuclear Free Alberta launched its province-wide Green Ribbon Campaign at the Grande Prairie Public Library yesterday. The purpose of the campaign is to urge Albertans to reject what the CNFA deems to be a risky and expensive proposal to develop nuclear power in the province. "People are beginning to see that there's more to this nuclear development story than meets the eye," said Norman Dyck, a spokesman for CNFA. "The information is getting out to the alternate media; people mostly want to be responsible in what we leave to our great-great-great-great grandchildren." The coalition does not see nuclear power as a climate change solution. It believes renewable energy options can be brought about faster and more cheaply, with less risk to the health of Albertans and the environment.

Bumbling nuclear waste disposal technicians opened spent reactor fuel rods and spilt radioactive material on the ground in front of the Delta Bessborough Hotel Thursday afternoon. And people laughed, because this political vaudeville act was a protest against the closed-door Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) hearings. The two-day meetings at the hotel were held as part of the search for a long-term nuclear waste storage facility. The NWMO, a not-for-profit established by Canada's nuclear industry, has identified Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec as possible sites for deep geological storage. Coalition for a Clean Green Saskatchewan held a protest with about 20 people outside the hotel. Some supporters jumped into a media scrum with reporters and posed their own questions to a NWMO spokesperson. "What gives you the hubris, the arrogance to make us think we can solve this problem," said Jim Penna, in reference to the U.S. government's failed $90 billion Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage project.

I am a Middle East Consultant living in the UK and would like all people living in or near areas of conflict to understand the High Tech Weaponry used by many military establishments worldwide, especially the US (the manufacturers) and other NATO forces. The reason for pointing this out to you is as a response to my research on the terrible rise in cancer related deaths. This is not only confined to military personnel in the battle zone but also the indiscriminate contamination of civilians, field crops and water supplies in the immediate area as well as the adjacent areas/countries. Below is my report: Concerns regarding radiation contamination by the use of Depleted Uranium (DU) weaponry in the Balkans, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Eastern Mediterranean Countries. The majority of high tech weapons today contain Depleted Uranium and or other Heavy Metals. Some are coated in DU and others have both DU and Heavy Metal in their warheads. DU is also used to act as a counterweight.

The name Poison Canyon offers a hint of what's faced by those trying to clean up abandoned uranium mines in the West. The area north of the village of Milan contains some of the 259 abandoned uranium sites in New Mexico that need cleanup. State officials are pressuring the federal government to direct more money to those areas because of their unique hazard of radioactivity. "In this case, a pile of rocks is more than just a pile of rocks," said New Mexico Mining and Minerals Division Director Bill Brancard. There are hundreds of thousands of safety issues at abandoned hardrock mines in 13 western states, according to the Government Accountability Office. Thousands of sites, many dating to the 19th century, also are considered environmentally damaged.

The name Poison Canyon offers a hint of what's faced by those trying to clean up abandoned uranium mines in the West. The area north of the village of Milan contains some of the 259 abandoned uranium sites in New Mexico that need cleanup. State officials are pressuring the federal government to direct more money to those areas because of their unique hazard of radioactivity. "In this case, a pile of rocks is more than just a pile of rocks," said New Mexico Mining and Minerals Division Director Bill Brancard. There are hundreds of thousands of safety issues at abandoned hardrock mines in 13 western states, according to the Government Accountability Office. Thousands of sites, many dating to the 19th century, also are considered environmentally damaged.

The name Poison Canyon offers a hint of what's faced by those trying to clean up abandoned uranium mines in the West. The area north of the village of Milan contains some of the 259 abandoned uranium sites in New Mexico that need cleanup. State officials are pressuring the federal government to direct more money to those areas because of their unique hazard of radioactivity. "In this case, a pile of rocks is more than just a pile of rocks," said New Mexico Mining and Minerals Division Director Bill Brancard. There are hundreds of thousands of safety issues at abandoned hardrock mines in 13 western states, according to the Government Accountability Office. Thousands of sites, many dating to the 19th century, also are considered environmentally damaged.

Authorities are trying to determine how a shipping crate labeled "radioactive" ended up today on a residential street in South L.A. Firefighters found minimal to background-level radiation in the 3-feet-by-3-feet container after they arrived this afternoon at 109th Street between Spring and Main streets. The package was not damaged nor were the contents leaking, said Brian Humphrey, a spokesman for the Los Angeles city Fire Department. Before the radiation level had been determined, five people who had come in contact with the container were rinsed off and the area around it was cordoned off, he said. Humphrey said markings on the container will help investigators determine where it came from and where it should have been sent.

Christine Todd Whitman is the former governor of New Jersey and Environmental Protection Agency administrator. She is now the co-chair of the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition. Given the fiscal challenges facing California, there will be great temptation to put on hold any major new projects. It's important to remember, however, that postponing spending commitments doesn't mean they disappear; rather, costs rise even higher later while the needs remain.

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.

PG&E Corp plans to replace the reactor vessel heads at both reactors at the 2,240-megawatt Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in California during the next refueling outages, a company spokeswoman said Tuesday. PG&E plans to shut Diablo Unit 2 for refueling in the autumn of 2009 and Unit 1 during the autumn of 2010. The PG&E spokeswoman could not discuss the cost of the replacements or say how long the project would take. A usual refuel lasts about a month.