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Lawyers for the oil trading company Trafigura have ended attempts to keep secret a scientific report about toxic waste dumping in the Ivory Coast. The legal firm Carter-Ruck has written to the Guardian saying the paper should regard itself as "released forthwith" from any reporting restrictions. Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger welcomed the move. Trafigura said neither they nor Carter-Ruck had "improperly sought to stifle or restrict" debate and reporting. An MP revealed the report's existence to parliament earlier this week after the Guardian was served with a "super-injunction" banning all mention of it.

Lawyers for the oil trading company Trafigura have ended attempts to keep secret a scientific report about toxic waste dumping in the Ivory Coast. The legal firm Carter-Ruck has written to the Guardian saying the paper should regard itself as "released forthwith" from any reporting restrictions. Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger welcomed the move. Trafigura said neither they nor Carter-Ruck had "improperly sought to stifle or restrict" debate and reporting. An MP revealed the report's existence to parliament earlier this week after the Guardian was served with a "super-injunction" banning all mention of it.

Answering some of the most commonly asked questions about nuclear power plants. To read part I of Peak oil and nuclear energy, click here. What are we going to do with all of the spent fuel? Let's start with the saddest observation of all. There is no need to have this problem. France, which produces 79% of its electricity with nuclear plants, does not. France, and almost everyone else, reprocesses their fuel. We do not because Jimmy Carter (a nuclear engineer, for Lord's sake) decided in 1977 that it was too "dangerous" because of the fear of nuclear proliferation (which has continued nonetheless). Reagan reversed Carter in 1981 but reprocessing has never been initiated. Nonsense. Read this to learn the reality of proliferation.

"ST LOUIS (Kmox) -- A landfill in St. Louis County containing Cold-War, era nuclear waste has city leaders worried. The St. Louis Board of Aldermen took a field trip out to the site in Bridgeton Monday morning. Where they learned of the health issues that could potentially affect St. Louis City. Chairman of the Health committee Greg Carter, said Bridgeton seems far away, but we're all connected. "Even though its further out in the county our drinking water supply is not far from that, maybe fifteen miles." Besides the general proximity to the city, Professor Bob Criss with the Washington University Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences said, St. Louis County's geographic structure is all wrong to store hazardous materials, "We over estimate the integrity of our flood protection structures." Criss warned the group of a major flood swamp the nuke site and spreading the nuclear waste for miles, "the thing about radioactivity is we can't see it, taste it or feel it. There are cases when people have been exposed to intense burst of radiation and they're the walking dead." "

"Former U.S. President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jimmy Carter on Tuesday voiced cautious criticism against the United Nations sanctions imposed on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), calling them "unproductive." "North Korea (DPRK) has approximately 24 million people, and they have been suffering now for 50 years, not only because of the policies of the government in Pyongyang but because the international community increased that suffering by preventing normal supplies of the basic necessities of life," the 85-year-old former U.S. president said in a question-and-answer session following the speech titled "A Nuclear North Korea and Peace on the Korean Peninsula" at Seoul's Korea University. "My country and your country participate in this punishment of North Korean people," he said, adding that the government in Pyongyang blames the economic plight of its people on foreigners. He also called for a "more direct" negotiation with the DPRK in resolving the nuclear standoff, saying that Pyongyang, which he said appears "very paranoid" about possible foreign attempts to bring down the country, needs reassurance."

The Grand Strand, South Carolina's tourist economic engine, won't have enough electricity by 2012 to keep its beachfront towers aglow unless a new $1.2 billion coal-burning power station is built near Florence. That was the warning Santee Cooper, the state-owned electricity company, gave to state and federal regulators. It was the argument the power company presented at public hearings. And it was that caution that Lonnie Carter, Santee Cooper's president and chief executive, offered during interviews with journalists. The argument that the coal-fired power plant was the only solution formed the key justification for Santee Cooper to spend $242 million over the past three years, most of that stockpiling material to build, even though it lacked government approval to operate the facility.

The Grand Strand, South Carolina's tourist economic engine, won't have enough electricity by 2012 to keep its beachfront towers aglow unless a new $1.2 billion coal-burning power station is built near Florence. That was the warning Santee Cooper, the state-owned electricity company, gave to state and federal regulators. It was the argument the power company presented at public hearings. And it was that caution that Lonnie Carter, Santee Cooper's president and chief executive, offered during interviews with journalists. The argument that the coal-fired power plant was the only solution formed the key justification for Santee Cooper to spend $242 million over the past three years, most of that stockpiling material to build, even though it lacked government approval to operate the facility.

'Tis the season to get rid of nukes? In an effort to achieve world peace and lessen the growing threat of nuclear power, a nascent group including the likes of former President Jimmy Carter, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Bishop Desmond Tutu and Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa this week launched a campaign calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons. The new organization, Global Zero, is planning a grassroots effort to spur world powers to rid the planet of nukes over the next 25 years. Meeting yesterday and Monday in Paris, 100 past and current world leaders signed a declaration imploring the U.S. and Russia to slash their nuclear arsenals and for a system to be created to verify that countries are complying with non-proliferation treaties, according to the Associated Press.

Article Highlights * Iran's interest in nuclear power began more than 30 years ago during the Shah's government. * Even with the Shah's denials that he wasn't interested in building a nuclear weapon, the United States remained leery about Tehran's intentions. * Therefore, the Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations spent many years attempting to devise a nuclear deal with Iran that limited the chances for proliferation. Editor's note: The following article is drawn from a long-form analysis of the history of the Iranian nuclear program in the Bulletin's January/February 2009 edition. That analysis can be found here.

Florida regulators on Tuesday approved plans to allow the state's two largest utilities to collect more than $600 million next year in costs for new nuclear plants expected to be online in eight to 10 years. "We are encouraging utility investment in nuclear electric generation today to ensure Florida's residents have reliable power for tomorrow," said Matthew M. Carter II, chairman of the Florida Public Service Commission.

"I feel that former President Jimmy Carter should come forth with all of the facts surrounding the Three Mile Island Accident, especially those which involved the radiation release and the dose to the public. This disclosure should, moreover, be in language which can be easily and correctly understood by the public, and not massaged to hide the truth. After the accident, for example, I found that the dose officially assigned to the public, was called: "measured dose to the public from the accident" - where "measured" meant it only included the dose after the rate matres were in place the third day after the accident began; "accident" meant that the radiation dose received during the same time period in 1978 when the TMI reactors were all operating and there was Chinese nuclear test fallout, could be subtracted.

The Indo-US civil nuclear cooperation allows the South Asian country access to US civil nuclear fuel and technology. The cooperation initiated by President Bush during his visit to New Delhi in July 2005 that formed its concrete shape on October 10, 2008. In the last these three years both New Delhi and Washington had to face some opposition at home as well as obligations by IAEA, Nuclear Supplies Group (NSG) and the congressional approval to overcome these obligations. Some laws were amended that posed a question for global non proliferation efforts. There are certain facts on which it became obvious that the Indo-US agreement undermined the non proliferation regime. The 1974-Indian Pokhran test was a result of diversion from civil facilities to military. India was the first country to convert illegally a civilian nuclear facility which was provided by the US for peaceful purposes. The 1974 test was a challenge to the US non-proliferation policy. The US supplies for nuclear power plant were ceased immediately after that. Even Canada suspended work on Rajasthan Atomic Power Plant and left it half way. Officially the cooperation was stopped and President Jimmy Carter signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act 1978 restricting nuclear trade with that states that did not agree to safeguards.

The sideshow at the Public Service Commission is overtaking the historic consideration of a rate increase for Florida Power & Light. Today, PSC chairman Matthew Carter took the unusual step of offering a press release proclaiming his independence from utility lobbyists. It seems unusual for a commissioner who is considering a rate increase from a utility to specifically note his votes against that utility in the past. Here is Carter's statement, (and see below for FPL comment): Assertions have been made that the Florida Public Service Commission is too "cozy" with regulated utilities, FPL in particular. To the extent that these criticisms are directed toward me, I take great offense because they are false. An examination of the record, not some special interest's characterizations, demonstrates my independence and freedom from external bias. In nearly every high-profile issue that FPL has brought before this Commission, I have voted to deny or severely limit the company's request.

The Florida Public Service Commission took several measures this week aimed at addressing allegations that some agency officials improperly conversed with FPL. Some PSC commissioners and staffers have talked to FPL employees in private meetings and via phone calls and text messages -- conversations that leave no paper trail. State law restricts conversations between commissioners and employees of utilities they regulate. There's debate about whether the law applies to commissioners' chief advisors. Amid the accusations, the PSC took several actions and floated a few proposals: -Four PSC employees stepped down or went on leave -PSC Chairman Matthew Carter ordered the agency to disable both text and instant messaging on state-issued smart phones. -Commissioner Lisa Edgar asked for a review of the agency's policies on retaining public records in light of new technologies such as instant messaging. -Commissioner Nathan Skop proposed blocking agency computers from accessing instant messaging sites on Yahoo, AOL and Twitter during hearings; banning all smart phones from the PSC hearing room; and buying software that allows the PSC to log smart phone use.

Call it the Sage Brush Rebellion II. Several Republican senators Wednesday launched a new Western Caucus to advocate relaxing government's grasp of resources and lands in the wide-open swaths in the West. The move harks back to 1970s effort by Western officials to turn back federal lands to state and local governments. "As one of the senators who helped initiate and carry the battle on the original Sage Brush Rebellion back in the Carter years, we're there again," Sen. Orrin Hatch said at a news conference at the Capitol. "We have to fight very, very hard to make sure that the West is being treated fairly." Hatch joined Utah colleague Bob Bennett, Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso and Idaho Sen. Jim Risch

A June 25 opinion editorial by a vice president for Entergy Nuclear about nuclear waste reprocessing proposed that "reprocessing can reduce the amount of radioactive material." Few countries in Europe and Asia have such programs because these have been financially and environmentally catastrophic. The Bush administration began the new push for a Global Nuclear Energy Partnership. In 1979 a United States naval nuclear engineer and president, Jimmy Carter, ended this dangerous program. Reprocessing spent nuclear fuel was supposed to be one alternative to lots and lots of mining forever and forever. The biggest experiment in reprocessing was at Sellafield in Britain. In 2005, after decades of contamination and leaks and general spewing of horrible matter into the ocean, air, and land around the reprocessing plant, Sellafield was shut down because a bigger-than-usual leak of fuel dissolved in nitric acid -some tens of thousands of gallons - was discovered. It contained enough plutonium to make about 20 nuclear bombs.

"A documentary by a British director exploring the dangers of nuclear weapons received a special screening at the Cannes Film Festival. Lucy Walker's Countdown to Zero focuses on the risks of nuclear proliferation and on attitudes towards nuclear weaponry in the wake of the Cold War. The documentary features interviews with past world leaders such as Tony Blair, Mikhail Gorbachev and Jimmy Carter, as well as international experts, as it investigates the possibility that an accident, miscalculation or terrorist activity could trigger mass destruction. The film's message is that of international campaign Global Zero, which calls for the gradual elimination of nuclear weapons."