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The nuclear industry could be on the verge of a major expansion just as the government cancels a plan to store the waste. Where's it going to go? BAY CITY, Texas (CNNMoney.com) -- At a Texas power plant, two men in head-to-toe yellow jumpsuits are perched above a pool filled with still, crystal-clear water -- and nearly 20 years worth of nuclear waste. The 40-feet deep pool, about the size of an Olympic-sized swimming pool, is the current home to thousands of uranium-filled fuel rods -- the radioactive byproducts of a nuclear reactor. The men are using a robotic arm to position the rods sitting at the bottom of the pool. Pools such as this one are a temporary solution to a very long term problem: the hotly contested debate over what to do with the country's nuclear waste.

The nuclear industry could be on the verge of a major expansion just as the government cancels a plan to store the waste. Where's it going to go? BAY CITY, Texas (CNNMoney.com) -- At a Texas power plant, two men in head-to-toe yellow jumpsuits are perched above a pool filled with still, crystal-clear water -- and nearly 20 years worth of nuclear waste. The 40-feet deep pool, about the size of an Olympic-sized swimming pool, is the current home to thousands of uranium-filled fuel rods -- the radioactive byproducts of a nuclear reactor. The men are using a robotic arm to position the rods sitting at the bottom of the pool. Pools such as this one are a temporary solution to a very long term problem: the hotly contested debate over what to do with the country's nuclear waste.

Westinghouse and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will meet next week to discuss issues over the design of the safety building for the proposed AP1000 nuclear reactor, Bloomberg reports. Last month, the NRC rejected the design of the building that houses the reactor. The regulator says it is not clear the building can stand up to natural disasters such as tornadoes and earthquakes. It asked Westinghouse to make additional changes or demonstrate that the building meets the required standard. Bloomberg quotes NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko as saying that plans to build the structure in parts instead of a solid, single piece has raised regulatory concerns. Westinghouse and its principal parent Toshiba Corp. have growing nuclear operations in Charlotte. The Shaw Power Group, also based in Charlotte, is the preferred contractor for AP1000 projects. Its parent, The Shaw Group, owns a 20 percent stake in Westinghouse.

Westinghouse and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will meet next week to discuss issues over the design of the safety building for the proposed AP1000 nuclear reactor, Bloomberg reports. Last month, the NRC rejected the design of the building that houses the reactor. The regulator says it is not clear the building can stand up to natural disasters such as tornadoes and earthquakes. It asked Westinghouse to make additional changes or demonstrate that the building meets the required standard. Bloomberg quotes NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko as saying that plans to build the structure in parts instead of a solid, single piece has raised regulatory concerns. Westinghouse and its principal parent Toshiba Corp. have growing nuclear operations in Charlotte. The Shaw Power Group, also based in Charlotte, is the preferred contractor for AP1000 projects. Its parent, The Shaw Group, owns a 20 percent stake in Westinghouse.

Repairing a cracked containment wall will force Progress Energy to keep the Crystal River nuclear plant offline longer than anticipated. Progress Energy shut down the plant on Sept. 26 for a major maintenance project that was expected to last only into December. But on Friday the utility told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that it now plans a major repair: removing and replacing part of the containment wall, which has developed a gap below the surface. "It is clear that the repairs will require us to extend our outage," Progress Energy spokeswoman Jessica Lambert said.

Repairing a cracked containment wall will force Progress Energy to keep the Crystal River nuclear plant offline longer than anticipated. Progress Energy shut down the plant on Sept. 26 for a major maintenance project that was expected to last only into December. But on Friday the utility told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that it now plans a major repair: removing and replacing part of the containment wall, which has developed a gap below the surface. "It is clear that the repairs will require us to extend our outage," Progress Energy spokeswoman Jessica Lambert said.

"French nuclear giant AREVA were force to issue a profit warning yesterday. It has had to find an extra 400 million euros to cover the additional costs of building its so-called flagship European Pressurised Reactor at Olkiluoto in Finland. This is on top of 2.3 billion euro provisions put aside in previous years and brings the current estimated overrun to an eye-watering 2.7 billion euros. The initial cost of the project was 3.2 billion euros. While the rocketing costs of the OL3 EPR have dragged down AREVA's results for years, this is the first time that they have sent the company into the red. The company's financial health has already been suffering thanks to the Olkiluoto project, as it struggles to build up its reserves for planned future investments. But that's not the end of it. This announcement of another enormous cost overrun will not be the last. This newly announced 400 million is based on the assumption that OL3 will be operational by end of 2012 and not the middle of 2012. However, it became clear last week that the end of 2012 milestone will - at best - be completion date for construction. It will then take at least another six months before the newly finished power plant can go into commercial operation. That would mean roughly another extra 400 million euros being added to the project's budget."

"Kuwait signed here Wednesday a Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) with the US Government on nuclear safeguards and other nonproliferation topics. The MOC was signed by Secretary General of the Kuwait National Nuclear Energy Committee (KNNEC) Dr. Ahmad Bishara and the Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Thomas D'Agostino during a ceremony held at the Department of Energy. The MOC proposes cooperation in nuclear legislation and regulations; human resource planning and modeling; nuclear safeguards and security; radiation protection; environmental, safety and health issues; low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste management; reactor operations, safety and best practices. During the ceremony, D'Agostino said "it is clear that both of our countries recognize the importance of preventing nuclear proliferation, and keeping dangerous nuclear materials out of the hands of terrorists and proliferators."

"Cracks in support for $36 billion in new US Department of Energy loan guarantee authority for nuclear projects appeared on Thursday, after a House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee postponed a meeting scheduled to discuss a draft 2011 appropriations bill because the bill did not contain provisions for that authority. The Obama administration requested the additional authority in its 2011 budget, and that request has the support of most members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, an aide to Representative Chet Edwards said Friday. The Texas Democrat is the vice chairman of the subcommittee. "To eliminate or dramatically cut the President's $36 billion request for nuclear loans in fiscal year 2011 would be devastating for the jobs and economic growth our country desperately needs," Edwards said in a statement. "I believe a clear majority of House members favor the expansion of nuclear power in America, and I will do everything I can to work in partnership with business and labor, which are united in support of this effort," he added. "

"NEARLY a quarter of a century after the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in the Ukraine exploded and spewed radioactivity across the world, it has finally stopped making Scottish sheep too "hot" to eat. For the first time since the accident, levels of radioactive contamination in sheep on all Scottish farms dropped below safety limits last month, enabling the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to lift restrictions. Controls on the movement and sale of sheep have been in force since after the explosion in 1986. The Chernobyl reactor near Kiev scattered a massive cloud of radioactivity over Europe after it overheated, caught fire and ripped apart because of errors made by control room staff. It was the world's worst nuclear accident, and has been blamed for causing tens of thousands of deaths from cancers. Peat and grass in upland areas of Scotland were polluted with radioactive caesium-137 released by the reactor, blown across Europe and brought to ground by rain."

"RADIATION from Chernobyl was carried far and wide by the wind and some of it was deposited in heavy rain on the upland areas of North Wales. More than 300 Welsh farmers are still unable to take a total of 180,000 lambs to market without calling in Government inspectors armed with Geiger counters. The men from the ministry scan animals for signs of radiation because the land they graze is still contaminated. Many continue to have to be moved to lower pastures in order to be clear of radioactivity."

"Washington Closure Hanford has stopped work at 27 buildings at Hanford as it makes sure they have no beryllium contamination. The 27 buildings are among a couple of hundred under the contractor's control and have not been sampled for beryllium, in some cases because they are new structures. An independent inspection released by the Department of Energy Office of Health, Safety and Security on June 2 found a new sitewide program to prevent chronic beryllium disease at Hanford had shortcomings. As it became clear during the inspection this spring that improvements were needed, DOE Hanford officials instructed the site's environmental cleanup contractors to take actions, such as completing sampling for beryllium at any facility where it is required."

"The Obama Administration is attempting to get $9 billion more in loans for new nuclear reactor construction. They're trying to sneak this money on to an emergency supplemental funding bill intended to provide funds for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and to provide additional disaster relief money. But there is no emergency requiring new nuclear loans! The Department of Energy is playing sleazy politics by asking for this money on an emergency basis. To try to appease clean energy advocates, the administration is tying the nuclear loans to an equal amount of loans for renewable energy projects--but renewable energy projects have barely begun to tap their existing loan authority. Unlike for nuclear projects, which are extraordinarily expensive, there is currently plenty of money available for renewables loans. The House Appropriations Committee was scheduled to meet on May 27 to consider this bill but postponed the meeting at the last moment. It now isn't clear when or if the meeting will be rescheduled. One possibility is that the House will simply take up a similar Senate emergency funding bill--one that does not include taxpayer loans for dirty new nuclear reactors. Your actions can stop this unnecessary nuclear bailout: Tell your Representative to pass a "clean" emergency funding bill--one that provides funding only for actual emergencies, not for unnecessary and polluting nuclear reactors."

"BP's apocalyptic Gulf gusher has put our ability to survive in serious doubt. We have no reason to believe an end to the crisis is near---or even in sight. Nor can we begin to calculate the damage to our Mother Earth…to her oceans, to the core of her being…and to each of us as individual organisms. Only one thing IS clear: we cannot ultimately survive without a rapid conversion to a Solartopian economy that is totally green-powered. That transformation will be forced by biological imperatives, not money or markets. The powers that be studiously avoid the core reality that this disaster stems from the ability of large corporations to make all of us pay for their irresponsible greed. The black poisons killing our global body gush from a system that grants corporations human rights but does not demand human responsibility. It is suicidal to allow corporations to deploy technologies they cannot mange or insure and then make us pay for their greed. "

"Pakistan has 60 nuclear warheads and with two new plutonium reactors nearing completion in Khusab, its weapons grade plutonium production will jump seven-fold, according to latest figures released by Swedish institute SIPRI. "Our conservative estimates are that Pakistan has sixty warheads and could produce 100 nuclear weapons at short notice," the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in its latest annual report. SIPRI also said that Islamabad was developing an air launched cruise missile Ra'ad and had also carried out four tests of its land launched sub-sonic cruise missile Babur. But said it was not clear whether these missiles would be developed to carry nuclear warheads. The Swedish think-tank said that Pakistan's Khusab I reactor was giving the country 10 to 12 kgs of weapons grade plutonium. "

"The Electrical Trades Union has banned its members from working in uranium mines, nuclear power stations or any other part of the nuclear fuel cycle. The union says uranium is the new asbestos in the workplace. The ban will apply to ETU members in Queensland and the Northern Territory and breaching it could lead to expulsion, said ETU state secretary Peter Simpson. "We are sending a clear message to the industry and the wider community that vested interests in the uranium and nuclear industries are trying to hoodwink us about this dangerous product and industry," Mr Simpson said in a statement."

"n a clear reference to Pakistan, India today said clandestine proliferation network in the region had adversely affected its security and pitched for a new global paradigm to meet the challenge, factoring in the "real" risks of terrorists gaining access to nuclear material. National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon also highlighted the dangers India faces by being in the vicinity of "epicentre" of global terrorism and pressed for increased global collaborative efforts to defeat the menace particularly when terror groups are "networked to an unprecedented extent"."

"President Obama says he wants a "world without nuclear weapons." But his Department of Energy may not be so persuaded. It's prepping for a future where the U.S. keeps double the amount of nuclear weapons a new treaty permits - and at higher cost-per-nuke than it currently spends to maintain its arsenal. We're talking $175 billion over two decades. According to an Energy Department plan submitted to Congress in May that the Federation of American Scientists and the Union of Concerned Scientists obtained and published, the department's National Nuclear Security Administration proposes to slash the 5,000-warhead nuclear arsenal down to "approximately 3,000 to 3,500″ warheads. So far, so clear. Nukes going down. President Obama's plan for a nuke-free world going up."

Savannah River Site has been cleared to accept an additional 1.1 metric tons of spent nuclear reactor fuel from foreign research reactors under a program designed to prevent such material from falling into the hands of terrorists. The material -- containing enriched uranium -- would come from reactors in more than a dozen nations and could be shipped to SRS by rail or truck after being offloaded from ships at the Charleston, S.C., Naval Weapons Station, according to a notice published Friday in the Federal Register.

"Nuclear Caribou" by Mark Dowie, in the new issue of Orion magazine, explains the drama playing out on a crucial caribou calving ground in Nunavut, in northern Canada. It is emblematic of a worldwide challenge to the sovereignty of indigenous communities in Africa, Asia, Australia, and North and South America. As uranium mining companies rush to fill an expected spike in demand, they often are staking claims on native-owned lands. That's because, and I knew the number was high, but not this high: roughly 70 percent of the world's uranium resources are located under these communities, and about two-thirds of prospective uranium deposits in the U.S. are under or adjacent to Native American land. It's not at all clear if the Nunavut claims will ever be mined, though it's looking more likely all the time. But then Winona LaDuke weighs in with an alternative vision for energy projects on native lands, a green one, that promises a better future for everyone concerned.

A Thurso Church of Scotland minister is calling on the Scottish Government to end the long-standing uncertainty over what is to happen to the country's intermediate active nuclear waste. The Rev Ronnie Johnstone said a decision is long overdue about what is to be done with the stockpiles of waste at Dounreay and other sites. Mr Johnstone said people in the far north want a clear steer on whether the debris is to remain indefinitely on site, or is to be sent to a national waste dump. He said the situation is muddied by the contradictory positions of the UK and Scottish Governments and Highland Council.

The National Nuclear Security Administration announced this week that they have approved the start of construction of a Waste Solidification Building at the Savannah River Site, as part of the MOX project. The WSB is one of three critical facilities that will allow for the disposal of surplus weapons-usable plutonium. "Beginning construction of the Waste Solidification Building is another clear indication that we are moving forward with our plans to dispose of at least 34 metric tons of surplus U.S. weapons plutonium," said William Tobey, NNSA deputy administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation. The Waste Solidification Building will process liquid waste from the Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility, currently under construction, and the planned Pit Disassembly and Conversion Facility (PDCF), scheduled to be completed in 2016.

During the presidential campaign, Republican candidate John McCain pledged to build 45 nuclear reactors by 2030 to meet the nation's energy needs. With just about everybody but the most ardent of global-warming deniers recognizing the negative impact that coal-fired plants are having on the environment, the proposal was appealing politically because it rolled energy independence and global warming into one package. It also was unrealistic. The United States has neither the manpower nor the materiel to construct that many nuclear power plants in that time period, and the companies that develop and design nuclear plants would face similar constraints. Clearing regulatory hurdles can take decades - and don't forget the NIMBY factor.