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Legislation to mandate new cooling towers at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station will be held until the start of the 2010 session in February when the state Senate Environment Committee can get more information from plant operators Exelon, says committee chairman Sen. Bob Smith, D-Middlesex. 'Barnegat Bay is going to be the major thrust of this spring in front of this committee," Smith said, after telling a hearing room packed with plant workers and environmental activists the committee was split evenly on releasing bill S-3041 today. Exelon officials claimed the bill is singling out Oyster Creek as the biggest threat to Barnegat Bay due to the environmental impact of its cooling water intake and discharge. Company senior vice president James D. Firth said the committee should address the bay's other problems with non-point pollution.

Legislation to mandate new cooling towers at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station will be held until the start of the 2010 session in February when the state Senate Environment Committee can get more information from plant operators Exelon, says committee chairman Sen. Bob Smith, D-Middlesex. 'Barnegat Bay is going to be the major thrust of this spring in front of this committee," Smith said, after telling a hearing room packed with plant workers and environmental activists the committee was split evenly on releasing bill S-3041 today. Exelon officials claimed the bill is singling out Oyster Creek as the biggest threat to Barnegat Bay due to the environmental impact of its cooling water intake and discharge. Company senior vice president James D. Firth said the committee should address the bay's other problems with non-point pollution.

In a surprise announcement, the state Department of Environmental Protection said it is moving to require cooling towers at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant to protect the Barnegat Bay ecosytem. The DEP said Thursday that the proposed water-discharge permit for the plant would require the Exelon Generation Co. to convert its once-through cooling water flow into a closed-cycle system, using the towers, with less daily demand for bay water. "We had a commitment to get this draft permit issued, so we wanted to make sure it gets a proper review," acting DEP Commissioner Mark N. Mauriello said of the cooling tower requirement.

In a surprise announcement, the state Department of Environmental Protection said it is moving to require cooling towers at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant to protect the Barnegat Bay ecosytem. The DEP said Thursday that the proposed water-discharge permit for the plant would require the Exelon Generation Co. to convert its once-through cooling water flow into a closed-cycle system, using the towers, with less daily demand for bay water. "We had a commitment to get this draft permit issued, so we wanted to make sure it gets a proper review," acting DEP Commissioner Mark N. Mauriello said of the cooling tower requirement.

Nuclear power suffered because of accidents. But no one abandoned it because of accidents The impact of water used as coolant may extend up to about 500 metres from the discharge point The doses to members of the public are too small and well within the AERB limit The speakers at a well attended side event at the recently held International Conference on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy at Delhi (September 29-October 1) recommended a proactive, public awareness programme on issues related to energy, particularly nuclear energy. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Department of Atomic Energy and Indian Nuclear Society jointly organized the meeting.

Nuclear power suffered because of accidents. But no one abandoned it because of accidents The impact of water used as coolant may extend up to about 500 metres from the discharge point The doses to members of the public are too small and well within the AERB limit The speakers at a well attended side event at the recently held International Conference on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy at Delhi (September 29-October 1) recommended a proactive, public awareness programme on issues related to energy, particularly nuclear energy. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Department of Atomic Energy and Indian Nuclear Society jointly organized the meeting.

"An environmental group lost the latest round in a court fight over a disputed water permit for North Anna Power Station. The Virginia Court of Appeals ruled this week that the State Water Control Board's 2007 renewal of a Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit was appropriate. In February, Richmond Circuit Court Judge Margaret Spencer sided with the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League's contention that the plant's waste heat treatment facility should be subject to the federal Clean Water Act. Since the plant began operating in the late 1970s, Dominion has contended that the lagoon, where heated water from the plant's two reactors is cooled, is a waste facility and not a water impoundment. The lagoon, ringed by houses and boat docks, is also known as the lake's hot side. Water from the hot side eventually drains back into the main lake through a dike."

"The Pickering nuclear power plant is killing fish by the millions. Close to one million fish and 62 million fish eggs and larvae die each year when they're sucked into the water intake channel in Lake Ontario, which the plant uses to cool steam condensers. The fish, which include alewife, northern pike, Chinook salmon and rainbow smelt, are killed when they're trapped on intake screens or suffer cold water shock after leaving warmer water that's discharged into the lake."

"A man died Monday as he was working under water at the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Buchanan, N.Y., officials said. The unidentified diver was doing working on a wall that separates the Hudson River from a discharge canal when he stopped responding to communication checks, according to Entergy Nuclear, which owns the Indian Point Energy Center. A canal channels water back to the river after being used to cool a reactor or make steam. "The gentleman was doing some maintenance work under water, and when a co-worker up above asked him a question and he did not respond, he was pulled up immediately," said Jerry Nappi, a spokesman for the Indian Point plant."

" Levels of radioactive tritium remain high in a number of monitoring wells at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey, according to new state data. The Oyster Creek nuclear plant looms near its discharge canal in Lacey (file photo by Peter Ackerman) Through late April, the highest tritium level - nearly 50 times government limits - was in a well in the Cohansey aquifer beneath the plant. The Cohansey is used for drinking water beyond Oyster Creek property lines. A different well in the shallower Cape May aquifer beneath Oyster Creek had a tritium level that was about 45 times above government limits. The state Department of Environmental Protection has posted a map of well locations."

Rising electricity prices and last summer's rolling blackouts in California have focused fresh attention on nuclear power's key role in keeping America's lights on. Today 103 nuclear plants crank out a fifth of the nation's total electrical output. And despite residual public misgivings over Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, the industry has learned its lessons and established a solid safety record during the past decade. Meanwhile the efficiency and reliability of nuclear plants have climbed to record levels. Now with the ongoing debate about reducing greenhouse gases to avoid the potential onset of global warming, more people are recognizing that nuclear reactors produce electricity without discharging into the air carbon dioxide or pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and smog-causing sulfur compounds. The world demand for energy is projected to rise by about 50 percent by 2030 and to nearly double by 2050. Clearly, the time seems right to reconsider the future of nuclear power.

The historic discharges at the government's Oak Ridge nuclear facilities have gotten new attention in recent weeks because of the massive release of coal ash that resulted from the pond breach at TVA's Kingston steam plant. One concern was that TVA's cleanup efforts, including the likelhood of dredging, might stir up some of the old radioactive pollution buried under sediments in the Clinch River and points downstream of Oak Ridge. DOE, as noted earlier, is planning to do some additional sampling in the Clinch to supplement the database on pollution levels from previous sampling programs -- mostly since the early 1980s.

A valve leaking radioactive water inside Vermont Yankee's reactor building was undergoing emergency repairs Wednesday, Entergy Nuclear said. The leak did not require the company to shut down or even reduce power, according to Entergy Nuclear spokesman Laurence Smith. Smith said the leak, which was losing about 2-1/2 gallons of "slightly radioactive" water a minute, had been discovered about two weeks ago during routine company inspection by plant operators. Smith said the radioactive water, which comes from the reactor water's cleanout system, was cleaned and filtered before being returned to the reactor building. The water is not discharged to the Connecticut River, he said.

Nancy Burton sought Monday to expand the number of health issues to be considered as the state weighs a water-discharge permit for the Millstone nuclear power plants in Waterford. Burton, a resident of Redding Ridge who has seasonal property on Masons Island, indicated in a petition for intervenor status that she wants a Department of Environmental Protection hearing officer to consider the potential health effects of toxic materials and radiation, among other issues.

An Albuquerque-based environmental group has gone to the state Court of Appeals over a discharge permit for a uranium enrichment plant near Eunice. Citizens Against Radioactive Dumping says it feels like state officials ignored its concerns about the permit. The state Water Quality Commission in April upheld the New Mexico Environment Department's decision in favor of the permit for the Louisiana Energy Services facility.

Supplement to the Environmental Impact Statements for a Geologic Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, NV SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE or the Department) is announcing its intent to prepare a Supplement to the ``Final Environmental Impact Statement for a Geologic Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada'' (DOE/EIS-0250F, February 2002) (Yucca Mountain Final EIS), and the ``Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for a Geologic Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada'' (DOE/EIS-0250F-S1, July 2008) (Repository SEIS). The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff determined, pursuant to Section 114(f)(4) of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended (NWPA), that it is practicable to adopt, with further supplementation, DOE's environmental impact statements prepared in connection with the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada. The NRC staff concluded that the Yucca Mountain Final EIS and Repository SEIS did not address adequately all of the repository-related impacts on groundwater, or from surface discharges of groundwater, and therefore requested that DOE prepare a supplement to these environmental impact statements. Based on a review of the NRC staff evaluation, the Department has decided to prepare the requested supplement.

Radioactive liquid spilled into a river during maintenance work on a nuclear submarine, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed. The Royal Navy said up to 280 litres (62 gallons) of contaminated water spilled from a ruptured hose as it was used to pump out coolant from HMS Trafalgar at the Devonport Naval Base in Plymouth. The incident happened shortly after midnight on Friday and the contaminated liquid spilled into the River Tamar. An MoD spokesman said: "During a standard operation to transfer primary coolant from HMS Trafalgar to an effluent tank on the jetty, a hose ruptured, resulting in a leak of the coolant. A maximum of 280 litres of coolant were discharged from the hose on to the submarine casing, jetty and into the river Tamar.

Tomorrow's column will be about a tentative agreement to extend the deadline (now at 2016) for completing the Oak Ridge cleanup of the Dept. of Energy's Oak Ridge reservation. One of the decisions yet to be made is what to do with White Oak Lake, which historically was used as a giant settling basin for ORNL's radioactive discharges before the water was released into the Clinch River and reservoirs beyond.

SELLAFIELD HAS the world's biggest stockpile of plutonium and uranium and storage tanks contain highly volatile radioactive waste "more dangerous" than the Chernobyl reactor, according to a study published today. The study, Voodoo Economics and the Doomed Nuclear Renaissance, also says the British government is now unlikely to meet its 1998 commitment under the Ospar Convention to reduce "close to zero" Sellafield's radioactive discharges into the Irish Sea by 2020.

A device described by its operators as a hi-tech worm has been used to probe the condition of a pipeline once used to discharge radioactive effluent. The £100,000 pipe crawler has beamed back images from inside the system at the Dounreay plant in Caithness. The underground pipeline to the sea was in use from 1957 to 1992.

Two months after a radioactive leak at the 52-year-old Chalk River nuclear reactor, a government report seems to confirm that contaminated water was discharged into the Ottawa River. The report is adamant the spill of radioactive tritium Dec. 5, and another ongoing leak in the reactor, pose no threat to human health and won't make the fish glow. Yet, the incidents raise some serious questions about the independence of the country's nuclear watchdog. A year ago, the Harper government fired the head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission for ordering a temporary shutdown of the Chalk River reactor for safety reasons.

A nuclear power station has been sent a final warning letter after radioactive waste leaked into the sea. Around 2600 litres of low-level waste was discharged from Hunterston B into the Firth of Clyde because of a problem with a valve. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) said the leak did not cause an environmental issue, but it issued the Ayrshire power station with a final warning letter because procedures were not followed. Extracts from a letter sent by SEPA radioactive substances specialist Keith Hammond to the director of Hunterston B on July 8 emerged in the Sunday Herald. He wrote: ''SEPA is deeply concerned over this matter.

Yucca Mountain may never be used, but a physicist lays out his argument favoring repositories over costly reprocessing. By Frank von Hippel September 15, 2009 * EmailE-mail * printPrint * Share * increase text size decrease text size Text Size The Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository project is now comatose, if not dead. And that puts us back at square one on a crucial question: What are we going to do with all the radioactive waste being discharged by U.S. nuclear power reactors? Many conservatives on Capitol Hill favor the French "solution": spent-fuel reprocessing. But reprocessing isn't a solution at all: It's a very expensive and dangerous detour. Reprocessing takes used or "spent" nuclear fuel and dissolves it to separate the uranium and plutonium from the highly radioactive fission products. The plutonium and uranium are then recycled to make new reactor fuel, thereby reducing the amount of fresh uranium required by about 20%. But based on French and Japanese experience, the cost of producing this recycled fuel is several times that of producing fresh uranium reactor fuel.