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The first trainloads of PCB-tainted sludge dredged from the Hudson River will arrive this month and, in the eyes of critics, turn a stretch of West Texas into New York's "pay toilet." They say burying dirt so toxic that General Electric Co. will spend at least six years and an estimated $750 million to dredge it up will create a new mess for future generations to clean up. But for the 15 jobs and bit of money it'll bring local businesses, the folks who live near the site are willing to take the risk, however remote, of tainting the area's groundwater with somebody else's trash.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold two public meetings May 19 in Wilmington, N.C., to seek comments about specific issues that should be addressed in its environmental review of a proposed uranium enrichment facility. The meetings will be held at the Warwick Center, Ballroom 1, at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, from 1 to 4 p.m., and 7 to 10 p.m. NRC staff members will be available for an hour prior to each meeting to speak informally to members of the public. General Electric-Hitachi Global Laser Enrichment, LLC, (GLE) submitted the environmental report Jan. 30, as one part of an application for a 40-year license to construct and operate a laser-based uranium enrichment facility at the existing General Electric/Global Nuclear Fuels-Americas site near Wilmington. GLE has indicated it intends to file the rest of its application - pertaining to safety aspects of the facility - by the end of June.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has accepted for formal review an environmental report submitted by General Electric-Hitachi Global Laser Enrichment LLC (GLE), as part of an application for a license to construct and operate a laser uranium enrichment plant near Wilmington, N.C. GLE submitted the environmental report Jan. 30. The NRC staff has determined that the report is sufficiently complete to begin a formal technical review. The report is one part of an application for a 40-year license to construct and operate a laser-based uranium enrichment facility at the existing General Electric/Global Nuclear Fuels-Americas site near Wilmington. The proposed facility would enrich uranium up to an assay level of 8 percent U-235, the isotope crucial for nuclear fission. The enriched uranium would be used in the production of fuel for commercial nuclear power reactors.

"In 2008, after the opening of 8 brand new nuclear plants in Japan (2 on the Island of Hokkaidō, 3 on Honshū, and 1 each on Kyūshū, Shikoku, and Tanagashima, the last of which hosts the Japanese Aerospace Agency headquarters and uses roughly 2% of all Japan's energy despite only about 21,714 inhabitants) Japan became the second largest nuclear power user in the world with 63 nuclear reactor Nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device in which nuclear chain reactions are initiated, controlled, and sustained at a steady rate.The most significant use of nuclear reactors is as an energy source for the generation of electrical power and for the power in some ships... s. These provide 34.5% of Japan's electricity. Since 1973 nuclear energy has been a national strategic priority because Japan is heavily dependent on imported fuel, with fuel imports accounting for 61% of energy production."

A request for a temporary restraining order against CPS Energy has been denied by Bexar County District Judge John D. Gabriel. Nuclear Innovation North America (NINA) LLC, the joint venture of NRG Energy and Toshiba Corp., had sought the order during a hearing to determine a court date when legal pleadings will be heard concerning CPS Energy's lawsuit against NINA. The legal dispute arose over questions about the cost estimate of two nuclear reactors at the South Texas Project near Bay City, Texas. CPS Energy contends that the estimate came in $4 billion higher than the utility anticipated.

A request for a temporary restraining order against CPS Energy has been denied by Bexar County District Judge John D. Gabriel. Nuclear Innovation North America (NINA) LLC, the joint venture of NRG Energy and Toshiba Corp., had sought the order during a hearing to determine a court date when legal pleadings will be heard concerning CPS Energy's lawsuit against NINA. The legal dispute arose over questions about the cost estimate of two nuclear reactors at the South Texas Project near Bay City, Texas. CPS Energy contends that the estimate came in $4 billion higher than the utility anticipated.

One of the reactors in the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant may have been relying on flawed steel to hold the radiation in its core, according to an engineer who helped build its containment vessel four decades ago. Mitsuhiko Tanaka says he helped conceal a manufacturing defect in the $250 million steel vessel installed at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi No. 4 reactor while working for a unit of Hitachi Ltd. (6501) in 1974. The reactor, which Tanaka has called a "time bomb," was shut for maintenance when the March 11 earthquake triggered a 7-meter (23-foot) tsunami that disabled cooling systems at the plant, leading to explosions and radiation leaks.

Japanese high-tech giant Hitachi Ltd., reeling from massive losses, said Monday that it planned to raise 415.7 billion yen (4.6 billion dollars) from investors to shore up its shaky finances. Hitachi, which makes everything from refrigerators to nuclear power systems, aims to drum up the cash by selling convertible bonds and new shares. The sprawling conglomerate has been hit hard by the global economic downturn. It is restructuring with measures including 7,000 job cuts, after losing 787.3 billion yen in the year to March 2009 -- the biggest ever loss for a Japanese manufacturer. Other cash-strapped Japanese companies are also going cap in hand to investors to bolster their capital, including electronics giant NEC.

Japanese high-tech giant Hitachi Ltd., reeling from massive losses, said Monday that it planned to raise 415.7 billion yen (4.6 billion dollars) from investors to shore up its shaky finances. Hitachi, which makes everything from refrigerators to nuclear power systems, aims to drum up the cash by selling convertible bonds and new shares. The sprawling conglomerate has been hit hard by the global economic downturn. It is restructuring with measures including 7,000 job cuts, after losing 787.3 billion yen in the year to March 2009 -- the biggest ever loss for a Japanese manufacturer. Other cash-strapped Japanese companies are also going cap in hand to investors to bolster their capital, including electronics giant NEC.