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The most senior figure in nuclear safety has defended the regulation of an atomic power station barely 50 miles from the centre of London that leaked radioactive material for 14 years. Mike Weightman, chief inspector at the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, said it was not possible to "inspect or check every feature of a complex plant". But as soon as the leak in the sump of one of the Magnox reactors at Bradwell-on-Sea was discovered the safety body did all it could to ensure that the cause of the problem was identified and dealt with, he added. The leak became public when a little-publicised case started by the Environment Agency against the then owners of the plant, Magnox Electric Ltd, for 11 breaches of safety regulations came to court last month.

Unlike G I Crawford (Letters, November 27), even the UK government's Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) believes that " if nuclear waste storage is to address the need to protect humans and the environment for hundreds of thousands of years, while long-lived radionuclides decay to safe levels, then stores will have to be actively managed over these long timescales". Further, it argues that "storage places considerable burdens on future generations, in terms of store management, provision of funding levels, capacity to monitor and inspect the waste, repair and refurbish buildings, equipment and waste packages and maintain security" (Defra, June 2008).

The nuclear option could help ensure future power demand is met and also be good for jobs and the environment, said Neil Collins, business manager of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 2067. But the public should think twice before jumping on the nuclear power bandwagon, said Ann Coxworth of the Saskatchewan Environmental Society, citing large pricetags for nuclear power and damage to the environment.

A permit change at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant will allow the Department of Energy to eliminate continued sampling and analysis at 15 WIPP site locations. The New Mexico Environment Department approved the Class 3 permit modification, according to a news release. The DOE has sampled data at the 15 locations over the past decade, and all information has indicated that the areas pose no risk to human health or the environment. The locations include an evaporation pond, a material storage area and a number of mud pits constructed for exploratory boreholes.

Some people have been kicking up an awful lot of fuss about the EPA's decision to not regulate the amount of perchlorate found in drinking water. If you don't track hazardous waste in the environment as obsessively as we do, perchlorate is an explosive used in rocket propellant and fireworks that has been detected in the water supplies of 35 states. It's also shown up in leafy vegetables irrigated with Colorado River water, and in milk from California cows, indicating that perchlorate can disperse and concentrate itself in everything from the environment, to the food we eat, to our own bodies. No studies have yet been released on the chemical's effect on aquatic life, but we do know it's hazardous to humans. Perchlorate, according to the FDA, disrupts thyroid hormone function. Fetuses and infants are particularly at risk because thyroid hormones are crucial to normal central nervous system growth and development.

Environment America today released a new report looking at the environmental implications of John McCain's plan to build 45 new nuclear reactors by 2030, and 100 over time. Their report concludes that McCain's plan would be "an economic and environmental disaster." Environment America, which has endorsed Democrat Barack Obama in the presidential election, found that the 45 reactors would cost taxpayers $315 billion, because most of the funding would have to come from taxpayer-backed federal loans. They also found that expanding the nuclear industry would create less than a quarter of the 700,000 jobs that McCain promised in the first presidential debate. And since the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's trade association, estimates that it takes about 10 years to bring a new nuclear power plant online, it would do little for short-term energy concerns. Nuclear power is also resource-intensive -- 45 nuclear power plants would use between 200 billion to 350 billion gallons of water per year. And, of course, there are the outstanding concerns about safety, storage, and disposal.

An Alice Springs environment group say the Northern Territory Government has ignored community opposition to uranium exploration south of the town. The Government has granted a mining joint venture an exploration licence for the Angela and Pamela deposits 25 kilometres from the town. The companies plan to begin drilling next year once they get the necessary sacred sites and environmental approvals. But Natalie Wasley, from the Arid Lands Environment Centre, says the Government should have blocked the application on behalf of the community.

A U.S. Senate environment committee has passed two bills that aim to reduce the chemical contaminant perchlorate in the nation's water supplies. The legislation, however, likely comes too late to help residents of the La Quinta Ridge Mobile Home Estates in Indio, officials at the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee said.

Thousands of containers of lethal nuclear waste are likely to fail before being safely sealed away underground, a devastating official report concludes. The unpublicised report is by the Environment Agency, which has to approve any proposals for getting rid of the waste that remains deadly for tens of thousands of years.

Ministers are due to publish controversial plans to bury Britain's massive nuclear waste stockpile, as part of a campaign to persuade investors to build new nuclear power stations. On Thursday, Hilary Benn, the environment secretary, is due to publish a long-awaited white paper for dealing with Britain's 'legacy' of radioactive waste by asking for volunteer communities to bury the waste in deep underground vaults in return for government spending on things like health screening and infrastructure.

SANTA FE-The state Environment Department will investigate the improper disposal of a drum filled with radioactive liquid at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in southeastern New Mexico. The drum was shipped from Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Environment Department spokeswoman Marissa Stone says investigators will try to determine who was responsible for the improper disposal.

A coalition of environmental groups is asking federal regulators to put the brakes on the proposed expansion of the Fermi nuclear power plant in Monroe County on the grounds that it is unnecessary and poses threats to the environment and human health. Beyond Nuclear, Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination, Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan and the Sierra Club, are all representing locals who live within 50 miles of Fermi and therefore have legal standing to intervene in the reactor permitting process. According to Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Scott Burnell, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, a panel of administrative law judges, will determine whether the groups' contentions should be introduced as part of the hearing on the permit. There is one operational nuclear reactor at the electricity-generating complex in Monroe County's Frenchtown Township, known as Fermi 2. Fermi 1 shut down in 1972.

In the context of disposal of radioactive waste, a performance assessment is a quantitative evaluation of potential releases of radioactivity from a disposal facility into the environment, and assessment of the resultant radiological doses. The term performance assessment can refer to the process, model, or collection of models used to estimate future doses to human receptors. Typically, a performance assessment is conducted to demonstrate whether a disposal facility has met its performance objectives. In general, a performance assessment considers the following factors: * Selected scenario (specific features and processes at the disposal facility and in the surrounding area, such as the location of the potential release, location and general characteristics of the receptors, and applicable transport pathways through which radionuclides might reach the environment and pose a threat to the selected receptor groups) * Performance of the cask or other engineered barrier system used to store low-level waste, limit the influx of water, and reduce the release of radionuclides * Release and migration of radionuclides through the engineered barrier system and geosphere (those deep-underground portions of the disposal facility where human contact is generally not assumed to occur) * Radiological dose(s) to the selected receptor group(s)

An investigation team has found three times more highly radioactive plutonium in the disused nuclear waste depot in Asse than the inventory states, the German Environment Ministry announced Saturday. The waste depot, near the town of Wolfenbüttel in Lower Saxony, was taken over by the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) from the allegedly careless former proprietor Helmholtz Zentrum in January. The BfS is currently carrying out an investigation on the site and has begun medical tests on former workers. A new investigation has revealed that 28 kilogrammes of radioactive plutonium are stored in the underground shaft depot, three times as much as the environment ministry of Lower Saxony previously understood to be there.

Cleaning up the environment often creates waste, which in turn must be carefully handled, treated and/or disposed to make sure it doesn't hurt the environment again on the back end. Make sense? Anyway, there are seven cleanup projects under way at the Y-12 National Security Complex that are funded by the Recovery Act, and it's estimated those projects will generate something approaching 3 million cubic feet of waste (of various categories). Here's where the waste will be sent for disposal: * 803,708 cubic feet to Y-12's sanitary landfill. This waste is likely to be uncontaminated demolition rubble and the like. * 1,775,029 cubic feet to the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility. This is the CERCLA landfill just down the road from Y-12, and it's set up to receive low-level and mixed low-level radioactive wastes from Oak Ridge cleanup projects. * 222,376 cubic feet to Nevada Test Site. No details here, but the waste typically sent to Nevada is the hotter low-level waste that doesn't meant the waste-acceptance criteria at the Oak Ridge landfill.

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.

The Federation for a Sustainable Environment (FSE) informs Mining Weekly that two of the three mining companies responsible for cleaning and treating the toxic mine water in the Western Basin have once again stopped pumping and treating the mine void water. The mines were instructed earlier this year by the Depart(ment of Water and Environ-mental Affairs (DWEA) to pump and partially treat the toxic water that rose up to just 0,6 m from the surface. The department further directed that, after October 31, 2009, the water had to be pumped and treated to values with sulphates of less than 600 mg/ℓ, failing which it might take any measures it considered necessary to remedy the situation, which could include taking the measures itself and recovering all reasonable costs for measures taken by the department from the parties to whom the directive was issued as well as taking legal action against the parties.

A ship wreck discovered off the coast of Italy two weeks ago may contain bodies, as well as radioactive waste, the mayor of Longobardi says. An underwater camera revealed orange barrels marked "toxic" and what may be two bodies. Authorities say the vessel was sunk in 1993 by a criminal organization to conceal toxic waste, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. It remains underwater 12 miles off the coast and by Thursday calls for government action to deal with the possible pollution were mounting. "This terrible threat from the bottom of our sea calls for more than just good intentions," Calabrian Member of Parliament Jole Santelli said. "Serious situations like the one we have now in Calabria should be examined in depth to ensure the right tools are available to clean the polluted sea swiftly and efficiently." The Environment Ministry promised to send the Astrea, an oceanographic survey ship, to look into the problem. However, Calabrian Environment Councilor Silvestro Greco said Wednesday the Astrea was not up to the task. Greco said the council of regional governments would petition the European Commission to assist. The ship was found after a mafia turncoat told prosecutors he was involved in the 1993 sinking of the Cunsky to hide 120 containers of radioactive waste. A robot was sent down to investigate the vessel.

A new system for monitoring the storage for the highly problematic liquid metal cooled reactors is taken into use. The old cores of the liquid metal cooled Alfa-class submarine reactors have been stored in Gremikha for decades and posed a radiation threat both to the environment and local residents. The new monitoring system is financed by the European Union's Northern Dimension Environ Environmental Program (NDEP) and administrated by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The new computer-based monitoring system will be incorporated in the Murmansk regional system for radiation monitoring.

This report fulfills the requirements of Chapter 14, Section 170D, of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 U.S.C. 2201 et seq.), as amended by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which states, "not less often than once each year, the Commission shall submit to the Committee on Environment and Public Works of the Senate and the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives, a report, in safeguards form and unclassified form, that describes the results of each security response evaluation conducted and any relevant corrective action taken by a licensee during the previous year." This is the fourth annual report, which covers calendar year (CY) 2008. In addition to information on the security response evaluation program (force-on-force (FOF) inspections), the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is providing additional information regarding the overall security performance of the commercial nuclear power industry and Category I (CAT I) fuel cycle facilities to keep Congress and the public informed of the NRC's efforts to protect the public health and safety, the common defense and security, and the environment, through effective regulation of the Nation's electric power infrastructure and strategic special nuclear material (SSNM).