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A Carson City judge today dismissed a malfeasance complaint against the head of the state agency for Nuclear Projects, saying he did not have jurisdiction in the matter. The complaint was brought against Bob Loux by conservative political activist Chuck Muth following revelations last week that the agency's head gave himself and other agency staffers unauthorized pay increases of up to 16 percent. An ethics complaint against Loux is moving forward

The U.S. Department of Energy has upheld a 2008 decision in favor of an Idaho National Laboratory employee who claims he was mistreated after filing a whistleblower complaint against the company that operates the lab. The agency issued its ruling Tuesday in the case of Dennis Patterson, a former 27-year employee at INL. Patterson, was the former manager of employee concerns and business ethics for Battelle Energy Alliance, the contractor that runs INL. In his 2006 case, Patterson accused Battelle of retaliating against him repeatedly after he filed a whistleblower complaint with the Department of Energy.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu is limiting his direct involvement in overseeing three of the Energy Department's premier research laboratories to avoid potential conflicts of interest. A department spokesman acknowledged Friday that Chu has informed the department's ethics office that he will recuse himself from contract, financial and certain work performance related decisions at the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories. They are managed by the University of California, the secretary's former employer.

Perhaps, in retrospect, the day John Fees left Central Virginia and headed to Houston to take the reins of McDermott International will be one of the red-letter days in the region's business history. Fees, you may remember, was the long-time president of B&W, the nuclear services company owned by McDermott. He took with him to Texas an in-depth knowledge of the skills, work ethic and abilities of the 2,500 people B&W employs in the region, and that's paying off in major ways for Lynchburg. Last week at a news conference in Washington at the National Press Club, Fees and his top lieutenants announced the company was undertaking a brand-new nuclear initiative that would have a major presence in Lynchburg.

U.S. Nuclear Waste Law and Policy: Fixing a Bankrupt System Source: New York University Law and Economics Working Papers The current U.S. system of nuclear waste law and policy is bankrupt. Twenty years after the designation by Congress of Yucca Mountain as the only potential site for a deep geologic repository to receive spent nuclear fuel and high level waste from reprocessing, the proposed Yucca repository remains mired in controversy and unremitting opposition by Nevada. There is no prospect for an alternative repository or for the development of a federal consolidated storage facility. The volume of these wastes already exceeds the current maximum storage capacity set by Congress for Yucca and continues to grow. This article first provides a brief overview of nuclear wastes and a summary history of federal nuclear waste law and policy to date. It then diagnoses the major failures in the current design and proposes a suite of new measures to launch a comprehensive new approach, including a reconsideration of the ethical principles underlying the drive for immediate waste burial; the creation of a high-level National Waste Management Commission; the creation of two new federal entities to manage nuclear wastes and to site waste storage facilities and repositories; the elimination of Environmental Protection Agency regulatory authority over these activities; the adoption of a thoroughgoing risk-based approach to waste regulation and management; and the adoption of new, more flexible and adaptable strategies for siting storage and disposal facilities. + Full Paper (PDF; 240 KB)

Federal regulators have expressed serious safety concerns about the design for 14 of the nation's 25 proposed new nuclear reactors, raising questions about the future of what the industry calls its "renaissance." The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced last month that Westinghouse failed to demonstrate that the building designed to shield its AP1000 reactor (pictured at right) from outside threats such as tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes is adequate. In addition, there are concerns about whether the shield building, which also provides a radiation barrier, will be able to support the 8 million-pound emergency cooling water tank that's supposed to sit on top.

Federal regulators have expressed serious safety concerns about the design for 14 of the nation's 25 proposed new nuclear reactors, raising questions about the future of what the industry calls its "renaissance." The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced last month that Westinghouse failed to demonstrate that the building designed to shield its AP1000 reactor (pictured at right) from outside threats such as tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes is adequate. In addition, there are concerns about whether the shield building, which also provides a radiation barrier, will be able to support the 8 million-pound emergency cooling water tank that's supposed to sit on top.

The Project On Government Oversight has obtained hundreds of pages of internal NRC documents from an NRC Inspector General investigation into then-Commissioner Jeffrey Merrifield. The documents outline, among other things, how he disregarded advice from NRC's General Counsel and voted on two matters that "could have potentially" financially benefitted three companies-Shaw Group, Westinghouse, and General Electric-during the time he was directly involved in employment negotiations with those companies. The IG investigation found that in the two months before accepting a job created for him at the Shaw Group, Commissioner Merrifield voted both to approve China's purchase of AP 1000 reactors (in which the Shaw Group had a financial interest) and to change criteria of emergency cooling systems that would directly benefit Westinghouse (of which the Shaw Group owned a 20 percent interest). The IG referred the case to the Department of Justice.

The Project On Government Oversight has obtained hundreds of pages of internal NRC documents from an NRC Inspector General investigation into then-Commissioner Jeffrey Merrifield. The documents outline, among other things, how he disregarded advice from NRC's General Counsel and voted on two matters that "could have potentially" financially benefitted three companies-Shaw Group, Westinghouse, and General Electric-during the time he was directly involved in employment negotiations with those companies. The IG investigation found that in the two months before accepting a job created for him at the Shaw Group, Commissioner Merrifield voted both to approve China's purchase of AP 1000 reactors (in which the Shaw Group had a financial interest) and to change criteria of emergency cooling systems that would directly benefit Westinghouse (of which the Shaw Group owned a 20 percent interest). The IG referred the case to the Department of Justice.

"This week Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev will sign a new strategic arms reduction treaty. Since the US and Russia own 95% of the world's nuclear weapons, the signing of this treaty is the most significant step towards nuclear arms reduction since the original document was signed in 1991. Despite this advance, the nuclear non-proliferation treaty is under increasing pressure. Nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation are firmly back at the top of the political agenda and their importance at this time cannot be overestimated. Every country has a responsibility to contribute towards disarmament efforts, strengthening the non-proliferation regime and ensuring our nuclear security. At the same time, we also face the spread of nuclear technology as growing numbers of states harness the use of civil nuclear power for their increasing energy demands. States that can enrich uranium and reprocess spent fuel can more readily acquire the capability to create a nuclear weapon, so a truly international and non-discriminatory regulatory system is urgently needed to govern these technologies."