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The state Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a $4.8 million verdict in favor of 11 pipefitters who claimed they were fired for raising safety concerns at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. The workers filed suit nine years ago against Fluor Federal Services of Richland, a contractor at the south-central Washington nuclear site. They claimed they were laid off after refusing orders to install a valve they believed was too weak for the job.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) gives notice of a decision to designate a class of employees at the Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, as an addition to the Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000. On August 15, 2008, the Secretary of HHS designated the following class of employees as an addition to the SEC: All employees of the Department of Energy (DOE), its predecessor agencies, and DOE contractors or subcontractors who worked at the Y- 12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee from March 1, 1943 through December 31, 1947 for a number of work days aggregating at least 250 work days occurring either solely under this employment or in combination with work days within the parameters established for one or more other classes of employees in the Special Exposure Cohort.

When dealing with old nuclear storage sites, there are always surprises -- or so it seems. That's certainly no different when it comes to dealing with the backlog of transuranic wastes at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Tony Buhl, the general manager and chief exec of EnergX, DOE's operating contractor at the Transuranic Waste Processing Center, said the surprise was the amount of water found in some of the concrete casks that have stored remote-handled TRU wastes for decades. It was up to 250 gallons in some casks, Buhl said.

The Finnish Construction Union said Tuesday it had withdrawn a strike notice affecting the entire Olkiluoto nuclear power station site after a day of talks with Rimec, one of the subcontractors at the site. Kyösti Suokas, a chair of the union, said late on Tuesday that Rimec had convinced the union that the company had forwarded withheld wages to the state as tax and social security contributions. Representatives from Bouygues, the main contractor of the power station, also attended the talks. The strike had been scheduled to commence on Wednesday.

The oversight panel, whose task is to review an audit for Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, wants to know how Entergy's management style and philosophy is affecting operations at the power plant in Vernon. To get to the heart of that matter, the oversight panel is asking that whichever contractor is assigned to conduct the review of Yankee also look at the operations of similar plants around the nation to see how the power plant in Vernon stacks up.

Scana Corp. said it and Santee Cooper will pay $6.4 billion to the companies hired to design and build two proposed nuclear power generators in the Midlands. The two contractors on the 1,117-megawatt nuclear expansion are Westinghouse Electric Co. and Stone & Webster Inc. The total cost of the project is estimated to be $9.8 billion, with SCE&G paying $5.4 billion and state-owned Santee Cooper paying $4.4 billion.

A leak has been ruled out as the cause for a drop in the level of highly radioactive waste in a tank at the Hanford nuclear reservation. Instead, Energy Department officials and contractors say, variations in the level of the liquid apparently are linked to the installation of a vertical pipe in Tank SX-104. The pipe was added in December to help measure waste levels in the huge tank.

A radioactive part at the Bruce nuclear power station on Lake Huron was missing for about two months until an employee came across it in June, the Globe and Mail of Toronto reported. Staff working for Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. lost the metal part while refurbishing the plant, which is about 250 kilometers (155 miles) northwest of Toronto. The contractor isn't required to immediately disclose when it loses track of highly radioactive materials, the newspaper said.

More than 900 cases alleging that government contractors and drugmakers have defrauded taxpayers out of billions of dollars are languishing in a backlog that has built up over the past decade because the Justice Department cannot keep pace with the surge in charges brought by whistle-blowers, according to lawyers involved in the disputes.

A worker who was splashed with radioactive waste at Hanford in 2002 died this week of cancer, a day before a court ruling in his lawsuit against a Hanford contractor. Daniel Golden, 56, of Sunnyside, died Tuesday. He had been diagnosed with cancer a little over a year ago, said his son, Dave Golden of Sunnyside.

CH2M Hill Hanford Group will spend $30,800 to resolve a new fine issued by the Environmental Protection Agency against the Department of Energy and its contractor for delays in notification of a radioactive tank waste spill last summer. EPA announced the fine Monday, just four days after DOE fined CH2M Hill $302,500 for nuclear safety violations related to the spill. Including a settlement of an earlier fine imposed by the state of Washington and pay withheld by DOE, the spill has cost CH2M Hill almost $1.2 million.

The Department of Energy is fining CH2M Hill Hanford Group $302,500 for safety violations related to last summer's spill of radioactive waste at the Hanford tank farms. "It was only mere chance that prevented personnel from being directly contaminated by significant quantities of tank waste during the course of the event," said a letter sent Thursday to the DOE contractor from the DOE Office of Health, Safety and Security.

The federal Energy Department has picked two contractors to design and build canisters for the transport and permanent storage of spent nuclear fuel at a planned national repository in Nevada. Yucca Mountain project chief Edward F. "Ward" Sproat calls the selection Wednesday of NAC International of Norcross, Ga., and Areva Federal Services LLC of Bethesda, Md., a significant step for federal plans to license and build the repository, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The five-year contracts with each company can pay up to $7.3 million.

Debbie Chisholm Kerr has no illusions about her share of the $926 million a judge ordered former Rocky Flats contractors to pay neighbors of the long-defunct nuclear weapons plant. "We'll be lucky if we ever see it," Kerr said Tuesday. "I'm realistic. If you got a dollar you'd be lucky. You don't count on it." Kerr is among 13,000 current and former property owners due east of Rocky Flats whose land was polluted by radioactive soil that blew from the plant, where nuclear weapons were manufactured for more than 45 years. Federal District Court Judge John L. Kane ruled Monday that two companies, Rockwell International Corp. and Dow Chemical Co., owe residents nearly $726 million in compensation. Kane also hit the firms with some $200 million in punitive damages.

RICHLAND, Wash. A worker who was splashed with hazardous and radioactive waste at the Hanford nuclear reservation in 2002 died this week of cancer, one day before a federal appeals court ruled in his lawsuit against a contractor at the site. Daniel Golden, 56, of Sunnyside, died Tuesday. He had been diagnosed with cancer a little more than a year ago, said his son, Dave Golden.

The Department of Energy needs more information to make sure its leak-prone underground tanks will last as long as they are needed to store radioactive waste, according to a report to Congress by the Government Accountability Office. "DOE and its contractors lack comprehensive information about the condition, contents and long-term viability of Hanford's aging underground waste tanks," the report said.

OAK RIDGE - In separate incidents barely a week apart in April, nuclear warhead parts were dropped at the Y-12 National Security Complex, but a plant spokesman said today there was no threat of a nuclear explosion.

Hanford is one of the two Department of Energy nuclear cleanup sites with employee benefits more than 5 percent higher than comparable organizations, according to the Government Accountability Office. It issued a report last week to Congress providing information on DOE's management of costs and liabilities for pensions and post-retirement benefits for which it must reimburse DOE contractors. DOE is concerned about future costs for pensions and benefits for retirees, such as health care and life insurance, and congressional leaders find budgeting for fluctuating amounts difficult each year.

Community activists concerned about storage of spent fuel at the Nuclear Power Station in Zion want more information from owner Exelon on its plan to have the plant dismantled by a contractor. A former commissioner with the Waukegan Park District was among about 60 people who attended a presentation by Exelon Nuclear officials last weekend that drew pointed questions.

Duke Energy won't have to reveal the cost estimate for a proposed nuclear plant any time in the near future, North Carolina regulators ruled Tuesday. The N.C. Utilities Commission agreed with the Charlotte electric utility that the estimated cost of a proposed nuclear plant is a "trade secret" under N.C. law. Duke Energy officials argued in a public hearing that revealing the cost estimates now would give tactical advantage to vendors and contractors during sensitive negotiations.