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Mining lobby wants uranium ban lifted HANTS COUNTY, NOVA SCOTIA-As the global demand for energy increases and resources dwindle, a collusion of provincial government and extractive industry officials are pushing to establish a uranium mining industry in rural Nova Scotia through a "voluntary planning" process. The Mining Association of Nova Scotia (TMANS), whose board of directors represents a variety of mining companies, has been promoting an end to the 1982 moratorium on uranium mining in the province.

All is not quiet on the western front. For the Western Shoshone, an indigenous nation with an unceded Treaty covering a large swath of 60 million acres of ancestral territory stretching across Nevada, California, Idaho and Utah, their traditional homeland is better described as a war zone. Not only has the US government used Shoshone lands to test hundreds of nuclear weapons, dispose of thousands of metric tonnes of radioactive waste, and proposed Yucca Mountain as a national dumpsite for (even more) deadly nuclear waste; modern corporate gold mining, including many Canadian operations, now threatens to gouge the heart right out of Western Shoshone territory.

The Isle of Wight Citizens Association will talk about safety at the Surry nuclear power plant and county spending during a meeting Monday. The group meets at 7 p.m. at the Carrollton Library on New Towne Haven Lane. Two Dominion Virginia Power representatives will be on hand to answer the question of how safe is the nuclear power plant. The group will also talk about whether county government spending is out of control and about treated sewer sludge coming to Isle of Wight to be used as fertilizer.

Three more anti-nuclear protesters were convicted yesterday for trespassing last month at the North Anna Power Station visitor center. Paxus Calta, an activist, described in Louisa County General District Court as the "ringleader," was sentenced yesterday to two weeks in jail. He's appealing the conviction. The two other protesters, Spot Etal and Sue Frankel-Streit, were fined $250 each. Instead of jail time, they will be allowed to complete 40 hours of community service. All three were banned from entering property of the plant's owner, Dominion power, for two years. About 20 supporters gathered with signs outside the Louisa courthouse.

Notice of Acceptance for Docketing of the Application and Notice of Opportunity for Hearing Regarding Renewal of Facility Operating License No. DPR-43 for an Additional 20-Year Period; Dominion Energy Kewaunee, Inc.; Kewaunee Power Station

The Millstone nuclear power complex in Waterford has won federal approval to increase the generating capacity at one of its reactors by 7 percent. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the plan Tuesday. Millstone's owner, Virginia-based Dominion, plans to increase the Unit 3 reactor's capacity from 1,150 megawatts to 1,230 megawatts in the fall.

Six anti-nuclear power protesters were arrested at the North Anna power plant's visitor center yesterday after refusing to leave at its closing time. Richard Zuercher, a spokesman for Dominion Virginia Power, said about 25 protesters showed up at the visitor's center near Mineral in Louisa County at about 2:30 p.m.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced today that an application for a 20-year renewal of the operating license for the Kewaunee nuclear power plant is available for public review. The Kewaunee Power Station has one pressurized water reactor, and is located 27 miles east of Green Bay, Wis. The current operating license expires Dec. 21, 2013. Kewaunee's operator, Dominion Energy Kewaunee, Inc., submitted the application Aug. 14. The application is available on the NRC Web site at this address: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/applications.html. A copy is also available at the Kewaunee Public Library, 822 Juneau St., in Kewaunee.

Dominion Energy Kewaunee, Inc.; Notice of Receipt and Availability of Application for Renewal of Kewaunee Power Station Facility Operating License No. DPR-43 for an Additional 20-Year Period

Dominion Nuclear North Anna, LLC; North Anna Esp Site, Early Site Permit ESP-003; Notice of Consideration of Approval of Transfer of Early Site Permit and Conforming Amendment and Opportunity for a Hearing

State, local and Dominion Virginia Power officials will test their ability next week to handle a nuclear emergency at the utility's North Anna Power Station. Localities within 50 miles of the Louisa County plant, including Richmond and neighboring counties, will participate in the drill Tuesday and Wednesday.

A Richmond court's revocation of a water permit key to operating the North Anna nuclear power station may delay construction of a third nuclear reactor, environmental groups claimed yesterday. Judge Margaret Spencer of Richmond Circuit Court ruled on Friday that Dominion Virginia Power's water-quality permit violates the federal Clean Water Act and remanded the permit to the Virginia State Water Control Board for review. The permit allows the power company to dump heated water from its North Anna power station into cooling lagoons at Lake Anna.

The Philippines may choose to dispose of nuclear waste at the Spratlys Islands should the government proceed with a plan to use nuclear energy. Using the islands as a disposal facility for spent nuclear fuel may even end the dispute over its ownership, said Pangasinan Representative Mark Cojuangco, who authored a House Bill that intends to rehabilitate the country's only nuclear plant in Bataan. Besides the Philippines, a host of other countries including China, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam are claiming dominion over the islands. The disputed territory "can actually be a mechanism for regional peace because [other countries claiming the Spratlys] are looking for repositories of nuclear waste," Cojuangco said in a briefing.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is proposing to double the period that nuclear power plants can store spent fuel on site to 40 years, as plans to build a permanent federal repository stall. The rule would formalize a site-by-site exemption the commission has used when nuclear plants, including those owned by Dominion Resources Inc. and Progress Energy Inc., applied to renew waste storage licenses for longer than 20 years. "This change would codify a technical approach begun in 2004," the commission said in a statement today. Utilities store nuclear waste on site until the government removes the spent fuel under contracts the U.S. has yet to honor because it has no permanent storage facilities. President Barack Obama abandoned support after he took office this year for the government's Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada, which had been proposed as a permanent underground site for spent fuel.

The recent ruling of the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond was short and to the point: "Virginia law requires regulation of Dominion's thermal pollution discharge because the exception for waste treatment simply doesn't apply here." With this ruling, a decades-old viola tion of the law was ended. The impact of the decision could benefit the many thousands of people who use Lake Anna annually. Dominion's permit violated the law. In 2007 the Virginia Water Control Board approved a permit for Dominion Virginia Power to discharge hot water from its North Anna nuclear power plant into Lake Anna. The permit was illegal for several reasons.

"he nuclear power plant near the epicenter of the Aug. 23 Virginia earthquake experienced more shaking than it was built to withstand, officials said Thursday. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the North Anna (Va.) Power Station can handle shaking of as much as 18 percent of the force of gravity. The U.S. Geological Survey measured shaking of 26 percent the force of gravity at the plant on the day of the 5.8-magnitude earthquake, The Washington Post reported Thursday. Dominion Virginia Power officials said inspections revealed there has been no damage to "safety-related" structures at the plant, despite the data. Nuclear power plants are often built with a large safety margin, according to nuclear experts. The NRC has not completed its inspection of the facility and has not said when it will give approval for the plant's reactors to restart."

"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."

Nuclear-test veterans say the Government must finally "stop sitting on its hands" now international experts have upheld Massey University research exposing the extent of the genetic damage they suffered.