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Uranium Deal Helps Benefactors, but Costs Taxpayers $2.1 Billion IN 1993, Vice President Gore boarded Air Force Two and flew to Moscow for meetings with Russian Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin about the vitally important task of protecting nuclear weapons and nuclear material in the newly decentralized former Soviet Union. It was a natural mission for Gore; during his tenure in the Senate, he had become something of an expert in arms control agreements and, thanks to the patronage from Hammer, had already met with Anatoly Dobrynin, Moscow's longtime ambassador to Washington. Many defense experts consider Russia's nuclear arsenal to pose the greatest immediate threat to U.S. security, of even greater concern than China's alleged acquisition of U.S. nuclear secrets. The Chinese will no doubt develop sophisticated warheads and the missiles to launch them over the next decade or two; the Russians already have them. The fear of loose nukes grew as economic conditions in the old Soviet republics deteriorated in the early 1990s. Gore's mission was to reach an agreement with Russia on a way to manage all those weapons in a post-Cold War world.

Dr Dominique Raynaud is an expert at climatic change issues. Along with other researchers from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Al Gore he received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2007. Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth is partially based namely on the research of Raynaud. Dr. Raynaud was on a visit to Sofia where he delivered a lecture on the preparation of the conference on climate change in Copenhagen. - Mr. Raynaud, how real is the threat of global warming? - Generally the stakes are rather high. Take Africa for example. This continent is already in a very dangerous situation. The sea level will rise by 50 or 80 cm or even more by the end of the century. This means there will be a lot of problems in many coastal countries. In Bangladesh, for instance, thousands of people will have to be evacuated. Millions of people will have to immigrate, increase of conflicts is very possible etc? - You believe the future of the Earth is to an extent in the hands of the people. Do you think that they, though, can really be motivated to change the status quo? - People should be educated, things should be explained to them. This issue should not be abandoned; people should be persuaded without being compelled. We are talking of a threat, of a possibility, not about something that will for sure happen. I also hope we are wrong. But even if we are right, this will happen for good because we will have to change our lifestyle. - What do you think of nuclear energy? A lot of discussions are currently being held in Bulgaria on the necessity of constructing a second NPP?

Dr Dominique Raynaud is an expert at climatic change issues. Along with other researchers from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Al Gore he received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2007. Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth is partially based namely on the research of Raynaud. Dr. Raynaud was on a visit to Sofia where he delivered a lecture on the preparation of the conference on climate change in Copenhagen. - Mr. Raynaud, how real is the threat of global warming? - Generally the stakes are rather high. Take Africa for example. This continent is already in a very dangerous situation. The sea level will rise by 50 or 80 cm or even more by the end of the century. This means there will be a lot of problems in many coastal countries. In Bangladesh, for instance, thousands of people will have to be evacuated. Millions of people will have to immigrate, increase of conflicts is very possible etc? - You believe the future of the Earth is to an extent in the hands of the people. Do you think that they, though, can really be motivated to change the status quo? - People should be educated, things should be explained to them. This issue should not be abandoned; people should be persuaded without being compelled. We are talking of a threat, of a possibility, not about something that will for sure happen. I also hope we are wrong. But even if we are right, this will happen for good because we will have to change our lifestyle. - What do you think of nuclear energy? A lot of discussions are currently being held in Bulgaria on the necessity of constructing a second NPP?

Nuclear facilities have a checkered past in Oklahoma, from Karen Silkwood's mysterious death to environmental issues at a closed plant near Gore to a proposed power plant project near Inola that eventually was abandoned. Oklahoma, long a producer of fossil fuels, traditionally has relied mostly on natural gas and coal - and in recent years wind - to produce power. But more than a quarter-century after the failed Black Fox project near Inola, state legislators including House Speaker Chris Benge are openly discussing the potential use of nuclear power in Oklahoma. This time, nuclear-energy proponents think their ideas will gain some traction as Oklahomans recall last summer's soaring energy prices, which has led to more of a focus on alternative energy sources.

So how is Steven Chu playing as the purported candidate for Department of Energy secretary? Before we look at the developing narrative, let's remember the lesson of John Ford's movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Here's the question: Did Senator Ransom Stoddard begin his sterling Senatorial career and usher in statehood for Arizona by shooting bad man Liberty Valance? After we learn the truth, a newspaper editor sagely concludes, "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." He had in mind the George Washington-cherry tree kind of legend, but it works equally well with, say, the Al Gore-internet kind of legend. Once a legend develops, it can be devilishly hard to shake loose of it. And it can warp the truth rather severely. So let's see what legend is developing around Dr. Chu.

The previous Clinton-Gore administrations - acting at the behest of various well-funded groups of activists in this country and the complicit Best Congress Money Can Buy - attempted to convert various regimes (Muslim and otherwise) in other nation-states to regimes more sympathetic to those activists' beliefs. First, by the imposition of sanctions. And if that didn't work, by bombing them from 20,000 feet.

After being battered by its own missteps, near-calamities, strong opposition and financial overruns, the nuclear power industry is showing increased signs of emerging from a three-decade coma in the U.S. Many are giving a second look to the U.S.. nuke industry, including longtime skeptics on the lookout for alternatives to fossil fuels. Here at SEJ's annual conference, there's a livelier-than-usual discussion about nuclear power as a part of the solution to America's energy woes. One of the most prominent voices here calling for a nuclear power revival was R.K. Pachauri, who as Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore last year.

Federal regulators recently approved the final environmental impact statement submitted by Sequoyah Fuels Corp., which operated the plant until it shut down in 1993. Located about 75 miles southeast of Tulsa, the facility sits along the Arkansas River.

Ever since Al Gore won an Oscar and a Nobel Prize for his fight against expanding climate change, there have been claims that nuclear power plants are the easy solution. They give phenomenal amounts of energy, after all, without much carbon production.

Ever since former Vice President Albert Gore won an Oscar and a Nobel Prize for his fight against expanding climate change, there have been claims that nuclear power plants are the easy solution. They give phenomenal amounts energy, after all, without much carbon production. Some who seek facile solutions say it's about time to dump the safeguards first proposed in the 1976 Proposition 15, then signed into law by ex-Gov. Jerry Brown, which essentially put a stop to atomic power construction in this state after completion of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant on the central coast.

EVER since former Vice President Al Gore won an Oscar and a Nobel Prize for his fight against expanding climate change, there have been claims that nuclear power plants are the easy solution. They give phenomenal amounts of energy, after all, without much carbon production. Some who seek facile solutions say it's about time to dump the safeguards of 1976's Proposition 15, which essentially put a stop to atomic-power facility construction in California after completion of the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant on the central coast.

La Sal Junction » Manuel Davis built his dream home over a year's worth of weekends and pre-retirement vacations from his job as a Boston hospital consultant. He and his wife, E. J. Gore, now live on Bridger Jack Mesa full time, and they call their place "Journey's End." But "Struggle's Start" might be a better name. A revival of uranium mining, they have discovered, threatens havoc in their redrock heaven. Last spring, South American Minerals Inc. began staking out test drill sites in the heart of their community, about 12 miles south of Moab.

This week several thousand delegates to the 2009 Policy Conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee will descend upon The Best Congress Money Can Buy, to conduct more than 500 separate meetings with congresspersons and key aides, to urge them "to deal with Iran's nuclear threat against the Jewish state." Or else. Of course, Secretary of State Clinton has already testified under oath that "The Non Proliferation Treaty is the cornerstone of the nonproliferation regime, and the United States must exercise the leadership needed to shore up the [associated nuclear-weapons proliferation prevention] regime." The nuclear-weapons proliferation prevention regime which Obama-Biden-Hillary just declared we must "shore up" - as a consequence of the largely successful attempt by Bush-Cheney-Bolton to tear it down - is based upon what the IAEA Secretariat is required to do in the event it discovers that some nuclear materials subject to one of its Safeguards Agreements is "diverted to a military purpose."

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has approved Sequoyah Fuels' plan to dispose of contaminated materials in an on-site cell, a plan opposed by some residents near the Gore-area plant. John Ellis, Sequoyah Fuels president, said the NRC approved the plant's on-site disposal site Monday, "after 16 years and two months." The plant, which at one time processed uranium to use in fuel rods for nuclear power plants, was closed in 1993 after it was found that portions of the plant and groundwater were contaminated.

Creating about 25 shelf-feet of environmental documentation soon will result in a $28 million cleanup project at Sequoyah Fuels plant site near Gore. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved a plan Monday to eliminate dangerous pollutants there. "We've got a cabinet with documents for the regulators," said John Ellis, Sequoyah Fuels president. "The eight-and-half-by-eleven (inch) ring binders would probably go for about 25 feet. It's everything from feasibility studies, to cell construction plans to site characterization and sampling data with annual groundwater reports - that itself is about 11/2 inches thick." Ellis started work at the facility in 1992, about a year before portions of it were found to be contaminated. After that finding, Sequoyah Fuels completely ceased processing uranium for fuel rods, its central operation there.

"The U.S. and Russian governments have reached a breakthrough in a long-stalled agreement to dispose of huge amounts of their plutonium from nuclear weapons, officials said Thursday. This Story * Obama's policies leave Czechs still hoping * Russia backs Iran sanctions -- with limits * Obama, Medvedev sign treaty to reduce nuclear weapons * In Russia, unease over arms deal * Special report: Obama's trips abroad * For deterrent, U.S. looks to conventional warheads * Obama signs arms pact in Prague: 2010 photos * Obama in Prague: Photos from his 2009 trip * U.S., Russia reach deal on disposing of plutonium View All Items in This Story View Only Top Items in This Story The new protocol will be signed Monday, shortly before President Obama opens a summit in Washington on keeping nuclear material out of the hands of terrorists, officials said. More than 40 heads of state are expected at the summit. The new protocol amends an agreement signed by then-Vice President Al Gore and the Russian leadership in 2000 under which the two countries pledged to get rid of 34 tons of plutonium each. The material came from weapons that had been decommissioned. The total 68 tons would be enough for 17,000 nuclear bombs, officials said. "

The Nuclear Industry Embraces Junk Science [Henry Payne] Global warming makes strange bedfellows. Thirty years ago, the U.S. nuclear industry was a victim of junk science. Media and green fear-mongering in the wake of Three Mile Island led Americans to believe nuclear energy was unsafe, could cause a "China syndrome," and even a nuclear holocaust (a cartoon by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Herblock of the Washington Post in 1979 showed a mushroom cloud emerging from a TMI cooling tower). As a result, nuclear energy was shunned and not a single power plant has been built in the U.S. since. But now, as the same media and green fear-mongers attempt to destroy the coal industry for causing global warming, killer hurricanes, and coastal flooding, the nuclear industry has jumped aboard the junk-science bandwagon.