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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 plans to fine Bechtel National $385,000 over repeated quality problems at Hanford's vitrification plant. The contractor designing and constructing the plant has had numerous opportunities to correct problems in the ordering and manufacturing of piping to be used in black cells, Martha Thompson, acting director of the DOE Office of Health, Safety and Security's Office of Enforcement, wrote in a letter to Bechtel on Wednesday. The largest portion of the fine, $220,000, will be for failing to improve quality. The remainder of the fine will cover problems related to the piping, such as what DOE found to be inadequate work procedures and design problems.

The Oyster Creek nuclear plant in Ocean County will pay a $67,859 fine for killing more than 5,000 fish during two unplanned shutdowns. The Environmental Protection Department assessed the fine after reviewing the incidents, which happened in 2006 and 2007. A plant spokesman says the company has a responsibility to take care of the environment. Environmentalists say the fine is a slap on the wrist compared to a $1 million settlement for a fish kill in 2002.

The state of Oregon has fined URS, the contractor operating the incinerator at the Umatilla Chemical Depot, $111,000. Most of the fine is for violations of the facility's hazardous waste and air contaminant discharge permits as it began to burn mustard weapons agent and the agent containers. The Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility has not incinerated any chemical weapons agent or containers for 40 days while it addresses the issue. "They are delaying operations to make sure it doesn't happen again," said Rich Duval of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality's Chemical Demilitarization Program in Hermiston. URS's Washington Demilitarization Co. reported the problems to the state, including eight occasions when the plant exceeded its emissions limit for carbon monoxide as it began incinerating mustard agent.

The state of Oregon has fined URS, the contractor operating the incinerator at the Umatilla Chemical Depot, $111,000. Most of the fine is for violations of the facility's hazardous waste and air contaminant discharge permits as it began to burn mustard weapons agent and the agent containers. The Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility has not incinerated any chemical weapons agent or containers for 40 days while it addresses the issue. "They are delaying operations to make sure it doesn't happen again," said Rich Duval of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality's Chemical Demilitarization Program in Hermiston. URS's Washington Demilitarization Co. reported the problems to the state, including eight occasions when the plant exceeded its emissions limit for carbon monoxide as it began incinerating mustard agent.

"The Dept. of Energy announced late today that it had issued a series of safety and security violations against Bechtel Jacobs Co., DOE's cleanup manager in Oak Ridge since 1998. The security violations pertain to a 2007 incident in which Roy Lynn Oakley was arrested and later convicted of stealing and attempting to sell classified equipment from the uranium-enrichment operation at K-25. BJC was fined $562,500 for the security violations associated with those events. Even though DOE said it was unlikely any sensitive information or materials ended up in foreign hands, the agency said it was levying the fine "to help prevent future breaches of security.""

Nodding off A U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission decision last week is another blow to efforts to build greater public trust in nuclear power as an alternative to the nation's expensive appetite for foreign oil. The NRC proposed a paltry $65,000 fine against the owner of Peach Bottom nuclear plant, where investigators found that security guards routinely napped on the job. The NRC last year issued a color-coded "white" finding - a low-to-moderate safety violation - for the incident. The agency's actions seem more like a slap on the wrist for Chicago-based Exelon, rather than a strong message about safety and accountability. Exelon says it plans to pay the fine for the NRC's findings, which were confirmed by its internal investigation at the York County nuclear power facility.

Former Davis-Besse engineer Andrew Siemaszko was sentenced Friday to three years probation and ordered to pay $4,500 in fines for his role in the Ottawa County nuclear plant's massive cover-up in the fall of 2001 that government prosecutors have called one of the most significant in the nation's nuclear history. Siemaszko was one of only two individuals convicted. Both could have received five years in prison and been fined $250,000 for each of the three felony deception charges they were convicted on 10 months apart in 2008 and 2007. Ultimately, neither got prison time.

Spain's government said on Monday it has fined the operators of the 1,000 megawatt Asco I nuclear plant 15.4 million euros ($20.95 million) for six charges of breaching safety rules over a radioactive leak in November 2007. The fine was the highest to be made against a Spanish nuclear plant to date, the government said. The leak at the Endesa (ELE.MC)-owned plant in the north eastern port of Tarragona occurred when radioactive water splashed a ventilation system during refueling. Officials did not inform the nuclear watchdog (CSN) until April 4, which the watchdog said was a serious breach for "not providing the resident inspector with prompt and truthful information."

More than two years after a federal investigation found that guards were sleeping on the job at Florida Power & Light's Turkey Point nuclear plant, the utility has paid a six-figure fine to resolve the case. FPL sent the Nuclear Regulatory Commission a check for $130,000 in January, the commission confirmed Monday. FPL spokesman Tom Veenstra confirmed late Monday that the company had paid the fine. Six guards at the Miami-Dade County plant slept or served as lookouts for other guards who were sleeping ''on multiple occasions'' between 2004 and 2006, the commission concluded. All of the guards were contractors with Palm Beach Gardens-based Wackenhut. None remained on the job after the violations were announced last year, officials said.

The U.S. Department of Energy has agreed to resume toxic waste cleanup at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday. The settlement, reached on Tuesday, follows the EPA's demand in January that the Energy Department immediately restart cleanup at the site or face escalating fines. The EPA said the DOE also agreed to pay a $165,000 fine, despite an agency spokesman's earlier assertions that it would appeal the fines as "unjustified." "I'm very, very pleased that we reached this settlement," said Kathy Setian, an EPA remedial project manager assigned to the lab. "But I'm very disappointed that we had to take it to the point that we had to take it."

The operator of Sellafield, Britain's biggest nuclear complex, was today handed a fine and legal costs totalling more than £100,000 following safety lapses which led to the radioactive contamination of staff. The successful prosecution of Sellafield Ltd by the Health and Safety Executive will tarnish the reputation of an industry trying to win public confidence for a new generation of power plants. The business, controlled by state-owned British Nuclear Group when the incident occurred in July 2007, has since been taken over by three private contractors, Amec, Areva and URS Washington, who work under the Nuclear Management Partners banner.

The operator of Sellafield, Britain's biggest nuclear complex, was today handed a fine and legal costs totalling more than £100,000 following safety lapses which led to the radioactive contamination of staff. The successful prosecution of Sellafield Ltd by the Health and Safety Executive will tarnish the reputation of an industry trying to win public confidence for a new generation of power plants. The business, controlled by state-owned British Nuclear Group when the incident occurred in July 2007, has since been taken over by three private contractors, Amec, Areva and URS Washington, who work under the Nuclear Management Partners banner.

The safety record of Britain's nuclear industry will be tarnished tomorrow when managers at the Sellafield complex in Cumbria are fined for exposing staff to radioactive contamination. A substantial penalty is expected to be imposed by Carlisle crown court following a successful criminal prosecution brought by the Health and Safety Executive. Concerns about conditions at the plant come just a week after an eminent group of scientists and military experts described as "ludicrous" the manner in which 100 tonnes of plutonium was stored at Sellafield - and at a time when the wider nuclear industry is trying to build public support for a new generation of reactors.

The safety record of Britain's nuclear industry will be tarnished tomorrow when managers at the Sellafield complex in Cumbria are fined for exposing staff to radioactive contamination. A substantial penalty is expected to be imposed by Carlisle crown court following a successful criminal prosecution brought by the Health and Safety Executive. Concerns about conditions at the plant come just a week after an eminent group of scientists and military experts described as "ludicrous" the manner in which 100 tonnes of plutonium was stored at Sellafield - and at a time when the wider nuclear industry is trying to build public support for a new generation of reactors.

"A court in central Sweden on Thursday handed out fines to 29 Greenpeace activists who broke into a nuclear power plant earlier this month, according to judicial sources. The activists -- 13 Germans, eight Poles, four Danes, a Frenchman, a Finn, a Swede and a Briton -- were given fines ranging from 190 to 1,600 euros (230-2,000 dollars) for trespassing, according to a copy of the judgment by the court in Uppsala obtained by AFP. In a statement, Greenpeace welcomed the fact that activists were found guilty of the lesser charge of trespassing, and not aggravated trespassing as sought by the prosecutor. A Polish activist was also found guilty of a lesser arms law violation for possession of pepper spray, according to the court's decision."

The government has issued a $123,750 fine against B&W Technical Services, the contractor at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, for safety violations related to a uranium chip fire in 2007. More than 100 workers received radiation doses due to inhalation of airborne radioactive material created by the fire, according to the report released today.

OAK RIDGE - The government has levied a $123,750 fine against B&W Technical Services, the contractor at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, for safety violations related to a uranium chip fire in 2007.

SELLAFIELD has been fined £75,000 over a catalogue of safety failures that led to two workers being exposed to a "serious and significant" dose of highly toxic radiation. Two men working for Workington building company Stobbarts were subject to "airborne radioactive contamination" when plutonium escaped from a floor they were drilling at the site in July 2007. The men were carrying out work to remove plutonium from the floor of the site's Central Waste Handling Facility, which was to be converted into offices. One worker was operating the drill, while the other was spraying water on the area to clear dust. They were both wearing PVC suits and respirators and were working inside a protective tent.

SELLAFIELD has been fined £75,000 over a catalogue of safety failures that led to two workers being exposed to a "serious and significant" dose of highly toxic radiation. Two men working for Workington building company Stobbarts were subject to "airborne radioactive contamination" when plutonium escaped from a floor they were drilling at the site in July 2007. The men were carrying out work to remove plutonium from the floor of the site's Central Waste Handling Facility, which was to be converted into offices. One worker was operating the drill, while the other was spraying water on the area to clear dust. They were both wearing PVC suits and respirators and were working inside a protective tent.

"Regional water quality regulators have fined Boeing Co. $500,000 for contaminated stormwater runoff at a former nuclear and rocket engine testing facility in eastern Ventura County. The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board issued a consent judgment Thursday also ordering Boeing to pay $75,000 in attorneys fees and civil penalties for days when contaminants exceeded permitted limits at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory. Boeing spokeswoman Kamara Sams Holden says the judgment covers violations from 2007 through the end of 2009. The lab 30 miles north of downtown Los Angeles was used for nuclear and rocket testing for more than four decades. A nuclear reactor had a partial meltdown at the 2,800 acre site in 1959."

"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff is citing Florida Power & Light Co. for three violations and has proposed a $70,000 civil penalty against the company for an issue with the Unit 3 spent fuel pool racks at the Turkey Point nuclear power plant near Homestead, Fla., about 20 miles south of Miami. In December 2009, the NRC became aware that the neutron-absorbing material called Boraflex in the Unit 3 spent fuel pool had degraded below the levels spelled out in the plant's design basis documents. Although FPL had taken compensatory measures including the addition of soluble boron, the regulatory requirements that ensure the spent fuel pool remains safe were not met. The company's actions ensured the pool's condition did not pose an immediate safety concern, but the NRC found that FPL did not promptly identify and correct the condition. The NRC issued the civil penalty because the agency felt the company did not report the condition in a timely fashion. The NRC has determined that the issue has low to moderate safety significance and may result in additional inspections. The NRC staff held a regulatory and enforcement conference with FPL in April, and the company disagreed with some aspects of the NRC's evaluation. After considering information provided by FPL, the NRC staff issued its final determination including the three violations and $70,000 fine."

State regulators have fined Lockheed Martin Corp. nearly $50,000 for violating Florida environmental laws when an estimated 5,000 gallons of untreated wastewater was released Aug. 3 from the company's on-site pump and treat system in Tallevast. The pump and treat system was cleaning contaminated groundwater from the source of Tallevast's plume. Toxic waste was found 25 feet away from the pumping system. The contamination penetrated the soil to a depth of six feet in the spill area, according to the Department of Environmental Protection.

The Department of Energy plans to fine Bechtel National $41,250 for laying off an engineer after he raised concerns in 2005 related to the safety of Hanford's vitrification plant. The DOE Office of Enforcement later concluded one of the employee's safety concerns, which were related to the software that will control the plant, was valid and issued a notice of violation to Bechtel about the issue in 2007.