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The preliminary approval of UniStar's application to build a new nuclear reactor at Calvert Cliffs by state regulators will not be contested, a member of an opposition coalition said Tuesday. "We are not going to appeal the decision," said Michael Mariotte, executive director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Takoma Park, one of the organizations in the intervening group. "We don't think we would prevail," he said. "We don't think it's a good use of limited resources."

"The weather power hits keep on coming, but this time it's nuclear power at the Calvert Cliffs plant in Lusby, Md. Melting snow may be behind the recent shutdown of the plant. It is believed to have leaked through the plant's roof and onto an electrical breaker, said David Fritz of Constellation Energy Nuclear Group. Federal inspectors started looking at the plant on Monday. The two reactors went down the Thursday after one of two electrical distribution buses failed, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said."

"Constellation Energy Group's joint venture with a French company to build a nuclear reactor at Calvert Cliffs is now "first in line" for a federal loan guarantee, according to an influential lawmaker from Maryland. Democratic Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, the House majority leader, said in an interview Thursday that he has been informed by senior administration officials that the Calvert Cliffs project is further along in the loan-guarantee process than competing projects in Texas and South Carolina. That's potentially significant because, at the moment, the Department of Energy has only enough loan authority to offer one project a federal guarantee. Advertisement Hoyer, whose Southern Maryland district includes Calvert Cliffs, site of two existing reactors on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay, said company officials were informed about two weeks ago that their application is nearly ready to be reviewed by the credit board that makes loan guarantee recommendations to the energy secretary."

"A proposed nuclear reactor in Maryland that is close to winning a billion-dollar federal loan guarantee would produce twice the energy of the state's two existing reactors combined. But the project at Calvert Cliffs faces many hurdles. Nuclear energy opponents are challenging the reactor's licensing qualifications with charges that the amount of foreign ownership violates the Atomic Energy Act -- which bars nuclear projects with "foreign ownership, control or domination." The Calvert Cliffs reactor would be built by UniStar Nuclear Energy -- a joint venture between Maryland's Constellation Energy Group and French company Electricite de France. Paris-based Areva would provide the reactor technology. Electricite de France and Areva are 85 percent owned by the French government."

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has filed a brief urging a review panel to reject environmentalists' petition for new hearings on a proposed nuclear power plant expansion. In a brief dated Dec. 15, NRC asked an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, recently established to review the petition, to reject it because of a lack of standing and of relevant claims. However, NRC does recommend granting an extension for revision on the groups' petition, provided the revisions are related to NRC delays in providing necessary documents.

MarylandDoesn't Need a $10 Billion Radioactive Boondoggle, Groups Say WASHINGTON, D.C. - Four environmental organizations filed a legal challenge late Wednesday against the proposed Calvert Cliffs-3 atomic reactor before the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The filing, which is a formal petition to intervene in the NRC's licensing process, marks the latest action in an ongoing fight to stop the proposed reactor before construction starts. The challenge asserts that the Calvert Cliffs project runs afoul of laws and regulations that prohibit foreign ownership or domination of a U.S. reactor; that the company - UniStar Nuclear, a subsidiary of Constellation Energy and Electricite de France - does not have adequate assurance that it will have the funds necessary to decontaminate and decommission the facility; that the license application does not consider the cumulative effects of adding yet another nuclear reactor's radioactive and chemical discharges to a Chesapeake Bay already groaning under the effects of discharges from 11 atomic reactors; and that the proposed reactor does not have any place to put either its high-level or "low-level" radioactive waste.

Unistar Nuclear Energy is seeking federal approval to build a new nuclear reactor at the Calvert Cliffs plant on the west bank of the Chesapeake Bay, just 45 miles from Washington, D.C., and 55 miles from Baltimore. At 1,600 megawatts, the new reactor would be easily the largest in the United States - and, at $10 billion, perhaps the most expensive. Supporters claim it will go a long way toward meeting future energy needs - and would do so in a "clean" manner.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission today announced the opportunity to participate in the hearing on a Combined License (COL) application for a new reactor at the Calvert Cliffs site near Lusby, Md. UniStar submitted the application in two parts -- the safety analysis and related information on March 17, 2008, and the environmental report on July 13, 2007, along with supplemental information on Dec. 14, 2007. The application, minus proprietary or security-related details, is available on the NRC Web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/col/calvert-cliffs.html.

A small group of Calvert County residents met Wednesday night to band together in opposition to a proposed third reactor at the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant. The meeting, which was organized by the Chesapeake Safe Energy Coalition, ended with the formation of a new, local group dedicated to raising awareness in Southern Maryland about nuclear power.

A proposed third reactor for the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant is a textbook example of the nation's energy dilemma. While it would help alleviate Maryland's approaching energy supply crunch, is an extremely expensive and otherwise problematic new nuclear reactor the best choice over the long haul?

As the Maryland Public Service Commission began public hearings this week on a potential new nuclear reactor, the debate about nuclear energy's cost and effectiveness continues. The Maryland Public Interest Research Group released a report recently saying a new reactor at the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant would lead to higher electric costs for Maryland ratepayers. The new plant's cost continues to escalate, and the project would likely receive substantial federal subsidies, the Baltimore organization says.

UniStar Nuclear Energy and state officials are in a dispute about new conditions the state wants to impose for building a third reactor at the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant.

On the shores of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, next to two existing atomic power reactors and just down the road from a Liquified Natural Gas terminal, a company called UniStar Nuclear Energy LLC wants to build what would be the country's largest-and probably most expensive ever-nuclear power plant. Calvert Cliffs 3 would be a 1600 Megawatt behemoth, nearly the size of the two existing reactors combined. Its technology is French: a design by Areva called the Evolutionary Power Reactor (EPR). UniStar itself is half-French; the company is 50% owned by Constellation Energy, based in Baltimore, and 50% owned by Electricite de France (EdF, which also owns several percent of Constellation itself). A growing player in the nuclear power field, UniStar isn't content with just one huge new nuclear project-its ambitions are to build, with various partners, at least four new EPR reactors in the U.S. over the next several years.

The Maryland Public Service Commission is holding several public meetings this month, beginning tomorrow, about whether a third reactor should be built at the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Lusby.

The French Government today admitted a series of dangerous radioactive spills near French nuclear giant AREVA plants at Tricastin, in a wine growing region of southeastern France. Paolo Scampa, a physicist and President of the International Association for Protection Against Ionizing Radiation, condemned the deceptive French response in the strongest possible terms. AIPRI was established in 1964. Workers at the Tricastin plant were evacuated after contamination July 27. The chain reaction of events is a public relations and radiological disaster for AREVA, owner of the plant. AREVA is partially owned by the French government.

A proposed third nuclear reactor at Calvert Cliffs won't be needed if Maryland invests in alternative energy sources and reduces consumption, according to a public interest group. "Clean energy can provide Maryland with a more reliable, more affordable supply of electricity," said Johanna Neumann, state director of Maryland Public Interest Research Group, which released a report Thursday making a case for clean energy alternatives.

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - About a dozen anti-nuclear demonstrators Friday took to the streets of downtown Baltimore City to counteract Gov. Martin O'Malley's endorsement of the construction of a third nuclear reactor at Calvert Cliffs in Maryland. "There are cheaper, safer alternatives," said Stephen Soifer, spokesman for the Chesapeake Safe Energy Coalition, which includes the Sierra Club and seven other environmental and anti-nuclear groups.