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The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is conducting a special inspection at the Hatch nuclear plant to assess the failure of one of the emergency diesel generators associated with Hatch Unit 1. The Hatch plant is located near the town of Baxley in south Georgia and is operated by Southern Nuclear Operating Company.

"Several Western senators have introduced a bill seeking to triple the compensation for downwind cancer victims of Cold War atomic testing. The bill would also make it easier to prove claims and would expand eligibility for compensation payments to all of Utah - instead of just 10 counties that now qualify. But opposing the changes is Sen. Orrin Hatch - co-author of the original 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act that created such compensation. "I fear it is overly broad and prohibitively expensive," he said, worrying that high costs might sink the program in budget battles and take current compensation programs with them. Hatch added, "I also believe it is important to continue to base any expansion of the program on sound science" - and add only those changes warranted by new scientific findings."

"U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch is asking a national panel to take a fresh look at the science behind the government's program for compensating people who were injured by exposure to atomic-testing fallout and the uranium industry. Sponsor of the original Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), Hatch put the request in a letter Monday to the Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board of the National Academy of Sciences. His letter comes two weeks after the Utah Republican panned bipartisan legislation in Congress to expand RECA as overbroad and too expensive. "When I worked to enact the original RECA law to help Utahns exposed to radiation, the policy was based on scientific evidence -- an absolute must when you're talking about Hatch RECA letter (pdf) these types of programs," he said Tuesday. "The goal of the letter to the National Academy of Sciences [NAS] is to see whether or not new scientific data exists to justify expanding the RECA program; in the past it did not," he added. "I want NAS to examine the data and talk with Utah radiation victims to see if that is justified before anyone puts more taxpayer dollars on the line." Companion bills in the House and the Senate would expand RECA eligibility to those who suffered from exposure in seven states: New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Nevada. Only those in certain counties in three states are now eligible to apply for payments from the fund of $50,000, $100,000 or $150,000, depending Advertisement on whether they were exposed as millers, miners, ore transporters, atomic program employees or downwinders. The Utah counties now covered include: Beaver, Garfield, Iron, Kane, Millard, Piute, San Juan, Sevier, Washington and Wayne. The federal government's current program has paid nearly $1.5 billion to more than 22,000 people. Some 4,776 of them are Utahns who have received nearly $275 million from the federal program. "

"Orrin Hatch wants federal experts to take another look at the scientific information linking radioactive fallout from nuclear test explosions to illnesses suffered by downwinders. The goal is to establish whether additional Americans should be eligible for federal compensation. Sen. Hatch is right that additional study is warranted, especially now that some members of Congress from Western states are sponsoring legislation that would greatly expand eligibility under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. Sen. Hatch sponsored the original version of that law in 1990 and its expansion in 2000. He reacted with skepticism to the latest proposal to enlarge the geographical area in which Americans would be eligible, saying that it was not justified by the science and would be too expensive. He is correct that any expansion should be made in light of the latest scientific information."

Call it the Sage Brush Rebellion II. Several Republican senators Wednesday launched a new Western Caucus to advocate relaxing government's grasp of resources and lands in the wide-open swaths in the West. The move harks back to 1970s effort by Western officials to turn back federal lands to state and local governments. "As one of the senators who helped initiate and carry the battle on the original Sage Brush Rebellion back in the Carter years, we're there again," Sen. Orrin Hatch said at a news conference at the Capitol. "We have to fight very, very hard to make sure that the West is being treated fairly." Hatch joined Utah colleague Bob Bennett, Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso and Idaho Sen. Jim Risch

"Senators Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) and Harry Reid (D-Nevada) this week introduced the Thorium Energy Security Act of 2010 to accelerate the use of thorium-based nuclear fuel in existing and future reactors. Their legislation establishes a regulatory framework and a development program to facilitate the introduction of thorium-based nuclear fuel in nuclear power plants across the nation. The U.S. relies on foreign sources for approximately 90 percent of its uranium fuel needs. However, the most recent U.S. Geological Survey's (U.S.G.S.) Thorium Mineral Commodity capital summary confirms that the United States has the largest thorium deposits in the world. The well-documented Idaho-Montana Lemhi Pass thorium holdings of U.S. Rare Earths, Inc. (www.usrareearths.com) have officially been recognized by the U.S.G.S. in their Jan. 2010 Mineral Commodity Summary, pushing the U.S. to number one in the world (for the first time ever) with 440,000 metric tons of reserves. "

"People throughout seven Western states --- including anywhere in Utah -- who were exposed to radiation from atomic testing and the uranium industry would be eligible for government compensation, under proposed new congressional legislation. Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico, has lined up support from Republicans and fellow Democrats for his bill to update the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, the measure championed exactly two decades ago by Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch. A House version of the bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, is expected to be introduced later this week. And, while the possible expansion of RECA is being applauded by many of Utah's "downwinders," as the radiation-exposed group calls itself, neither Hatch nor fellow Utah Republican Sen. Bob Bennett are listed as co-sponsors of Udall's bill. "

BAXLEY, Ga., June 6 (UPI) -- A Georgia nuclear power plant had an unexpected emergency 48-hour shutdown after a recent software update, company officials said. The shutdown, blamed on a cyber incident, occurred March 7 at Unit 2 of the Hatch nuclear power plant near Baxley after a Southern Company engineer installed a software update on the plant's business network, the Washington Post said Friday.

"A nuclear power plant operated by The Southern Co. will face more federal inspections because the electronics controlling an emergency power system on one of its reactors failed to work, federal regulators said Friday. The problems affected an automatic control system for one of the diesel generators attached to a nuclear reactor at Plant Hatch near Baxley in southeast Georgia. The commission said the problem was a low-to-moderate safety risk and ordered an additional round of inspections since it previously identified another problem at the plant related to an emergency diesel generator."

Four errors of ``very low safety significance'' were identified by investigators looking into how workers became trapped in a containment area at Palisades Nuclear Power Plant, a government report says. Palisades has been ``taking action to correct'' all of the problems, said Mark Savage, communications manager for the plant, near South Haven. Five workers who were inspecting safety-related piping and components during a plant shutdown were trapped in a high-temperature area for about 90 minutes Aug. 6 when a hatch malfunctioned. They were able to exit when another worker entered.

For a newly hatched striped bass in the Hudson River, a clutch of trout eggs in Lake Michigan or a baby salmon in San Francisco Bay, drifting a little too close to a power plant can mean a quick and turbulent death. Sucked in with enormous volumes of water, battered against the sides of pipes and heated by steam, the small fry of the aquatic world are being sacrificed in large numbers each year to the cooling systems of power plants around the country.

A plan hatched in Washington and New Delhi is faltering because of objections raised in Dublin, Bern and Wellington. The US-India civil nuclear pact - one of the centrepieces of President George W. Bush's foreign policy - goes before 45 nations for approval today and tomorrow.

Oconee Nuclear Station should have responded faster when a control room alarm warning of radiation levels activated for 8-1/2 hours in April, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman said last week. No enforcement action was taken against Duke Energy by the federal agency because the incident was of low safety significance, said NRC spokesman Roger Hannah. The Union of Concerned Scientists had criticized Oconee Nuclear Station last week for exposing workers to "dangerous" radiation levels and not responding to the alarm for 8-1/2 hours during which time a containment hatch was opened and workers were sent into the reactor building.

Oconee Nuclear Station should have responded faster when a control room alarm warning of radiation levels activated for 81/2 hours in April, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman said Wednesday. No enforcement action was taken against Duke Energy by the federal agency because the incident was of low safety significance, said NRC spokesman Roger Hannah. The Union of Concerned Scientists had criticized Oconee Nuclear Station on Tuesday for exposing workers to "dangerous" radiation levels and not responding to the alarm for 81/2 hours, during which time a containment hatch was opened and workers were sent into the reactor building.

Plans to store the majority of our nation's spent nuclear fuel and other highly radioactive waste at a central repository underneath Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert 80 miles from Las Vegas were first hatched in the mid-1980s. But the project has languished primarily due to opposition from Nevadans who don't want to import such dangerous materials into their backyard. Critics of the plan also point out that various natural forces such as erosion and earthquakes could render the site unstable and thus unsuitable to store nuclear isotopes that can remain hazardous to humans for hundreds of thousands of years to come.

Southern Nuclear Operating Company, Inc., Georgia Power Company, Oglethorpe Power Corporation, Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia; City of Dalton, GA [Docket Nos. 50-321 and 50-366 ] Notice of Consideration of Issuance of Amendment To Facility Operating License, Proposed No Significant Hazards Consideration Determination, and Opportunity for a Hearing

Mr. Anthony Fortuna was formerly employed as a contract electrician by General Electric Company at Southern Nuclear Company's Hatch Nuclear Plant from February 16 though March 27, 2006. This Confirmatory Order is the result of an agreement reached during an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) session conducted on June 6, 2008.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued annual assessment letters to the nation's 104 operating commercial nuclear power plants. All the plants continue to operate safely. "Our ongoing assessment of nuclear power plant performance is at the heart of the agency's mission of protecting people and the environment," said Eric Leeds, director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. "The 2008 year-end results show that about 83 percent of the plants are performing strongly enough that we're satisfied with our basic level of inspections at those sites." If a nuclear power plant's performance declines, the NRC increases the level of inspection to ensure the plant operator is taking the steps necessary to correct the situation. The additional amount of inspection is commensurate with the level of plant performance. At the close of last year, only one reactor, Unit 3 at Palo Verde (Ariz.), required the NRC's highest level of attention. Three reactor units, Cooper (Neb.) and Units 1 and 2 at Palo Verde (Ariz.), required significant NRC attention. And another 14 reactor units, Units 1 and 2 at Byron (Ill.), Unit 1 at Comanche Peak (Texas), Unit 1 at Farley (Ala.), Unit 1 at Grand Gulf ( Miss.), Unit 2 at Hatch (Ga.), Kewaunee (Wis.), Units 1 and 2 at McGuire (N.C.), Unit 2 at Nine Mile Point (N.Y.), Unit 1 at Oconee (S.C.), Palisades (Mich.), Unit 1 at Prairie Island (Minn.), and Unit 2 at San Onofre (Calif.), required additional attention beyond the basic level.

""While Utah Slept" may very well be the title of a best-seller when an accident with radioactive waste occurs in our west desert. Several weeks agao, a bill to ban the importation of foreign radioactive waste was introduced in the U.S. House. Rep. Jim Matheson was there to vote for the ban, as was Rep. Jason Chaffetz. But "Radioactive Rob" Bishop, a former lobbyist for Energy Solutions? He was away on a field trip with high school students and didn't vote. The bill passed in the House, but died in the Senate for lack of a sponsor. Our two senators, Hatch and Bennett, sat on their hands."