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Radioactive gas emissions from a nuclear plant in southeast France were higher than normal in June and July but there was no threat to public safety, nuclear authorities said on Wednesday. The gas emissions occurred at a waste reprocessing installation at the Tricastin nuclear site in southeastern France, where a separate uranium leak was reported last month.

Centrica, Britain's biggest gas and electricity supplier, is to sound out institutional shareholders about reviving plans for a £22.5bn all-share merger with British Energy, The Sunday Telegraph has learned. Centrica, which owns British Gas, will gauge the appetite of City investors for a paper deal following the last-minute hitch in British Energy's takeover by EDF, the French government-controlled energy group, last week.

MADRID (AFP) - The Spanish government said Friday it would invest more than 19 billion euros in electricity and gas infrastructure over the next eight years. More than 9.2 billion euros will go on electricity infrastructure and 10.2 billion euros on transporting gas, the industry ministry said after a weekly cabinet meeting where the investment was agreed.

MOSCOW, June 27 (RIA Novosti) - Somalia hopes Russian companies will take part in the development of uranium deposits, and oil and natural gas production, the Somali ambassador to Russia said Friday. "Today we say: let's cooperate. Somalia is a very rich country, this is the main basin of oil and gas on the territory of the Horn of Africa," Mohamed Handule told a RIA Novosti press conference.

Although a dozen years have elapsed since any new nuclear power reactor has come online in the U.S., there are now stirrings of a nuclear renaissance. The incentives are certainly in place: the costs of natural gas and oil have skyrocketed; the public increasingly objects to the greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels; and the federal government has offered up to $8 billion in subsidies and insurance against delays in licensing (with new laws to streamline the process) and $18.5 billion in loan guarantees. What more could the moribund nuclear power industry possibly want?

A surprisingly high concentration of deuterium gas discovered in the cooling system at the Point Lepreau nuclear plant could have harmed personnel and damaged equipment last May had it exploded. Deuterium can explode in air if it reaches a concentration of five per cent, and a sample taken at Lepreau on May 23, 2008 was 6.4 per cent. But the gas was in a closed system of tubes and lacked an ignition source as the reactor was offline.

South Carolina regulators have unanimously approved a request by the state's largest utility, South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G), to join with a state-owned utility to build two nuclear reactors. The South Carolina Public Service Commission vote on Wednesday gave South Carolina Electric & Gas the right to begin raising electricity rates next month to help pay for its portion of the $9.8 billion project. SCE&G, a subsidiary of SCANA Corp (SCG.N: Quote, Profile, Research), and Santee Cooper, known formally as the South Carolina Public Service Authority, plan to build the two reactors at the site of the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station near Jenkinsville, about 30 miles north of the state capitol, Columbia.

No matter what we're led to believe, the world's worst polluter is not your cousin who refuses to recycle or that co-worker who drives a gas guzzler or the guy down the block who simply will not try CFL bulbs. "The U.S. Department of Defense is the largest polluter in the world, producing more hazardous waste than the five largest U.S. chemical companies combined," explains Lucinda Marshall, founder of the Feminist Peace Network. Pesticides, defoliants like Agent Orange, solvents, petroleum, lead, mercury, and depleted uranium are among the many deadly substances used by the military. What does this mean for us? To start with, it can help illustrate how to best foment a green revolution. As Derrick Jensen reminds us: "Even if every single person in the United States were to change all their light-bulbs to fluorescent, cut the amount they drive in half, recycle half of their household waste, inflate their tire pressure to increase gas mileage, use low flow shower heads and wash clothes in lower temperature water, adjusts their thermostats two degrees up or down depending on the season, and plant a tree, it would result in a one time, 21% reduction in carbon emissions."

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission now says two uranium mine proposals in Wyoming are going ahead as planned despite greatly weakened prices for uranium. The NRC told the Casper Star-Tribune this week that the Strathmore Minerals Corp. Reno Creek and Gas Hills proposals in Wyoming no longer were under consideration. The Reno Creek project is near Wright and the Gas Hills project is southwest of Casper. NRC spokesman David McIntyre says the agency "goofed" in reporting the information. Strathmore officials say they're making significant progress on the company's uranium projects in Wyoming. They say the company is working with state regulators to obtain necessary permits.

Congress was in session Friday at Savannah River Site. All four U.S. senators from South Carolina and Georgia were on hand for a tour of the nuclear power facility. "I think we're making history today," said Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. "This is the first time all four senators from South Carolina and Georgia have been on site at the same time." Graham was joined by Jim DeMint, R-S.C., Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Johnny Isakson, R-Ga. All four senators left the facility impressed by what they saw, each praising the virtues of SRS. "It's a national treasure," Graham said. "It's so well built it can survive the visit of all of these senators."

Meanwhile, DOE has moved a press release with some reported highlights of the DOE budget. Here are those: The proposed budget, DOE said: * Cuts funding for programs that aren't needed or aren't as effective as other investments - like more than $200 million in oil and gas company research that the companies can and do fund on their own. * Substantially expands the use of clean, renewable energy sources while improving energy transmission infrastructure. * Supports the Administration's goal to develop a smart, strong and secure electricity grid. * Helps restore America's leadership in scientific research and innovation - including transformative science that can lead to a new generation of clean energy jobs. * Makes significant investments in low-emissions plug-in and hybrid vehicles, nuclear energy, and clean coal technologies, as part of the Obama Administration's aggressive effort to reduce greenhouse gas production. * Supports the ongoing security of our weapons stockpile, continued efforts at nuclear non-proliferation and ongoing environmental cleanup and legacy management as part of the Department's long-term stewardship responsibilities.

President Barack Obama outlined a budget plan Thursday that would end $26 billion in oil and gas industry tax breaks, point to a new direction for dealing with nuclear waste and shift government aggressively toward helping to develop renewable energy sources. Obama called the tax break to the oil and gas industry "unjustifiable loopholes" in the tax system that in most cases other companies do not get. The proposed budget, details of which were released Thursday, calls for abandoning the decades-old Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project in Nevada and begin the search for another answer to disposing thousands of tons of used reactor fuel now kept at power plants in 31 states. It also would end government subsidies to the nuclear industry to help them certify and plan new nuclear power plants, cutting the program from $178 million to $20 million.

_ 1955: A U.S. government reactor makes Arco, Idaho, the world's first town electrified by nuclear power. _ 1957: The U.S.' first commercial nuclear power plant becomes operational in Shippingport, Pa. (Nuclear reactors were already in service in the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom). It was retired in 1982. _ March 29, 1979: Three Mile Island Unit 2 in Middletown, Pa., melts down. No one was killed or seriously injured that day, but the public relations disaster sets back the industry for decades. _ April 26, 1986: Chernobyl nuclear power plant explodes in Soviet Ukraine, killing thousands. A radioactive cloud floats over much of Europe and large areas of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus are contaminated. _ 1996: The U.S.' last new reactor comes online at Watts Bar nuclear power plant near Spring City, Tenn. It took 22 years to finish Unit 1 and Unit 2 remains unfinished, becoming a poster child of the industry's inefficiency. _ 2001: Worries about terrorist plots against nuclear power plants prompts new security measures. Governors send National Guard troops to watch over plants as public confidence about the safety of the installations drops. _ 2002: Employees discover an acid leak after it nearly ate through a reactor vessel cap at the Davis-Besse plant in Oak Harbor, Ohio. Owner FirstEnergy Corp. pays a record $28 million fine and juries convict two plant employees of hiding the corrosion. _ 2007: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission receives first full power plant application in 28 years. NRG Energy Inc.'s proposal for two reactors near Bay City, Texas, is one of 26 licenses pending at the agency. _ February 2009: President Barack Obama calls for a cap on greenhouse gas emissions. The proposal would almost certainly raise the cost to operate coal- and gas-fired plants and is seen as a boost for nuclear energy.

Worried about global warming? Forget nuclear. Nuclear power creates 25 times as much greenhouse gas as wind power. This occurs primarily during the mining, milling and enrichment of the uranium fuel. It takes a lot of work and a lot of fossil fuel to turn uranium ore into uranium fuel. If you doubt this, or question the numbers, there are several sources to check, including several at ScienceDaily.com. Nuclear power will create more greenhouse gas in the future. This will occur when it becomes necessary to use lower grades of uranium ore for fuel. Higher grades of uranium ore currently used for fuel will be depleted in the not-too-distant future. Lower grades of ore require more fossil fuels for mining, milling and enrichment.

"The United Steelworkers union has complained that a government-backed plan to build two nuclear reactors in Georgia will create jobs overseas that should go to American workers. Skip to next paragraph Enlarge This Image Erik S. Lesser/European Pressphoto Agency The Vogtle nuclear power plant in Waynesboro, Ga. A new project would create construction jobs at the plant. Construction vehicles at the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Waynesboro, Ga. Southern Company hopes to operate new reactors. President Obama announced the government's approval of an $8.3 billion loan guarantee for the construction of the reactors on Tuesday, saying that one benefit of the project would be to create jobs. But in a letter sent to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the international president of the union, Leo W. Gerard, said that he was concerned about "the potential foreign sourcing of components for these reactors," which he said "limits our nation's ability to address our unacceptably high unemployment rate.""

"CPS Energy has a potentially difficult week ahead of it as it prepares to tackle rate hikes and the future of its controversial nuclear project. The utility has proposed a 7.5 percent rate increase for electricity and 8.5 percent for gas. The hikes, which would raise consumers' total power bills a little more than 4 percent, would bring in $99 million for the remainder of fiscal 2010 and $110 million next year. The money would help pay for the new Spruce 2 coal plant, two natural gas units and other programs. Residents will have a chance to weigh in at a public forum Monday evening. The utility's board is expected to vote on the rate increases Wednesday, and the City Council will vote Feb. 18. The increases would take effect March 1."

"Pacific Gas & Electric Company; Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement and Conduct the Scoping Process for Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, Units 1 and 2 Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) has submitted an application for renewal of facility Operating License Nos. DPR-80 and DPR-82, for an additional 20 years of operation at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant (DCPP), Units 1 and 2. DCPP Units 1 and 2 are located in San Luis Obispo County, California, approximately 12 miles west-southwest of the San Luis Obispo city limits. The current operating licenses for DCPP, Units 1 and 2, expire on November 2, 2024 and August 26, 2025. The application for renewal, dated November 23, 2009, was submitted pursuant to Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) part 54, which included the environmental report (ER). A separate notice of receipt and availability of the application was published in the Federal Register on December 11, 2009 (74 FR 65811)."

"Contaminated groundwater at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon is making its way into the Connecticut River, stated the Vermont Department of Health in its daily update posted on its Web site on Wednesday. However, stated the DOH, the tritium in the contaminated groundwater is being diluted by the water in the river "below the lower level of detection." "The major source of tritium contamination of groundwater -- if not the only source -- was identified at the advanced off gas pipe tunnel, and the leak stopped on the weekend of Feb. 14," stated the DOH's daily update. Since that time, water samples taken from the groundwater monitoring well nearest to the off gas tunnel have shown decreasing tritium concentrations and water samples taken from wells further east have shown increasing tritium concentrations, it stated. "

"Nuclear power is more competitive than coal-fired power stations without carbon capture and gas-fired power stations when the cost of borrowing is low and carbon prices are around $30 a metric ton, the International Energy Agency said Thursday. However, with the same carbon price, if the finance costs are higher, then coal without carbon capture equipment, coal with carbon capture and gas power plants are the cheapest forms of electricity, the IEA said in a report on the projected costs of generating electricity."

"Bats are unlikely to find abandoned uranium mines as desirable places to roost, but if they do, two state agencies have established a procedure for dealing with them. The state Division of Wildlife Resources, which is charged with managing bats in Utah, and the Division of Oil, Gas and Mining (DOGM), which is responsible for reclaiming abandoned mines, have signed an agreement that lays out ways in which DOGM can seal old mines dangerous to people without hurting any bat populations found inside. In cases where surveys find bats living in an abandoned uranium mine, the agreement specifies that the divisions will confer on an acceptable approach, with Wildlife Resources' officials having the final say. In many cases, the agreement will allow Oil, Gas and Mining officials to use grates to keep people out but let bats enter and exit. "