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"Some people sickened by beryllium say the toxic metal is finally getting adequate attention at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. The Department of Energy has completed a long-awaited report on workers' exposure to beryllium. But the document has not yet been made public. Beryllium is a light-weight metal that was used to seal radioactive rods. In fine particles it can get into the lungs. Craig Hall worked at Hanford. He was diagnosed with Chronic Beryllium Disease more than 10 years ago. Since then he's been warning of the dangers of beryllium, but says he was ignored. Now a federal investigation has resulted in a 100-page draft report by the Department of Energy's Office of Health Safety and Security. Hall was one of the few people who were allowed to see it this week. Hall says he thinks the findings could have been more critical of Hanford managers. But he says the issue has reached a tipping point."

"Toshiba is still planning to apply this year for federal approval to test its small-scale nuclear power plant in Galena, according to various reports. The Japanese company is planning reactors known as "4S," meaing "super-safe, small and simple," with hopes of starting construction in 2014. "We aim to get 4S orders in remote areas where it is more cost-efficient to generate power on a local basis than use power grids," spokesman Keisuke Ohmori told Business Week. "A great many people are interested." Toshiba and TerraPower, a company controlled by Bill Gates, have been in talks about engineering and research issues related to what is known as a "traveling wave reactor" that would use depleted uranium."

"Prairie Island Nuclear plant operators knew of the potential for flooding in the plant's Unit 1 and Unit 2 turbine buildings, but failed to understand the implications on important safety-related equipment, according to a preliminary finding submitted to the plant Thursday by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The failure to identify and correct the potential safety issues in a timely manner is a significant human performance issue and cause for further review by the agency, according to NRC inspectors. Plant officials have 10 days to respond to the findings before the NRC decides whether to take enforcement action. "We're waiting now for their response," said NRC spokesperson Viktoria Mitlyng."

"Idaho Cleanup Project officials are continuing to investigate the cause of a fire that was confined to the engine compartment of a vehicle called a telehandler, Tuesday at the Radioactive Waste Management Complex of the Department of Energy's Idaho Site. There were no injuries and no release of contamination. The fire was believed to be caused by an electrical short in a telehandler being used to transport radioactive and hazardous waste that was buried in the 1960s in an area of the RWMC's Subsurface Disposal Area called Pit 5. A telehandler is a forklift with an extendable arm (or boom) utilized in the waste exhumation process to transport waste trays. Once the fire ignited, the telehandler operator activated the equipment's fire suppression equipment, which temporarily extinguished the flames in the engine compartment. "

"A month into Japan's nuclear crisis, no robots have been put to work at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. Instead, the plant's operator is relying on a cheaper, expendable resource: humans. According to the latest report, published yesterday in London's Financial Times, Japan has only two robots nominally designed for radiation, and they're sitting idle because neither can do anything useful at Fukushima. How could such a robotically advanced country be so unprepared? The Times echoes Slate's previous report:"

"March 23 (Reuters) - The release of two types of radioactive particles in the first 3-4 days of Japan's nuclear crisis is estimated to have reached 20-50 percent of the amounts from Chernobyl in 10 days, an Austrian expert said on Wednesday. The calculations published by Austria's Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics may add to growing concern in Japan and elsewhere over the contamination of food products such as milk and vegetables in areas near the Japanese reactor site. On Tuesday, France's IRSN radiation protection and nuclear safety institute estimated leaks of radiation from the Fukushima plant crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami represented about 10 percent of those from Chernobyl, the world's worst nuclear disaster, in 1986."

"FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The prospect their elected officials might endorse construction of two nuclear power plants had many county residents upset. Dallas Blanchard of Fresno was one of about 20 people who spoke out at Tuesdays Board of Supervisors meeting. "Anybody who is seriously considering voting for this should look at Japan, radiation is still leaking to this day." Fresno Social Activist Ellie Bluestein said; "It's hard to believe that supervisors who are seriously concerned about our safety and well being would consider a nuclear part of it." But Supervisor Judy Case countered that we shouldn't rule out nuclear because we need more power, and said she doesn't like windmills. "I'm concerned that all those wind generators will be on every hilltop in California. That environmentally is not very attractive to me, I don't like it." "

Part Three in a Series: Nuclear power stops; its poisonous wastes never do "I think the human race is going to wreck itself, and it is important that we get control of this horrible force and try to eliminate it ... I do not believe that nuclear power is worth it if it creates radiation." - Admiral Hyman G. Rickover Father of the Nuclear Navy

Part Three in a Series: Nuclear power stops; its poisonous wastes never do "I think the human race is going to wreck itself, and it is important that we get control of this horrible force and try to eliminate it ... I do not believe that nuclear power is worth it if it creates radiation." - Admiral Hyman G. Rickover Father of the Nuclear Navy

The French Polynesian Nuclear Test Veterans Association says it'll fight for a better package for the victims of the French nuclear test fallout. The French Senate has passed a bill to compensate nuclear test veterans for the consequences of its weapons tests between 1960 and 1996 in French Polynesia and Algeria. France had earlier said its test were safe and clean. Moruroa e Tatou's head, Roland Oldham, says the Loi Morin is unjust.

The French Polynesian Nuclear Test Veterans Association says it'll fight for a better package for the victims of the French nuclear test fallout. The French Senate has passed a bill to compensate nuclear test veterans for the consequences of its weapons tests between 1960 and 1996 in French Polynesia and Algeria. France had earlier said its test were safe and clean. Moruroa e Tatou's head, Roland Oldham, says the Loi Morin is unjust.

Ohio Congresswoman Jean Schmidt (R-2nd District) released a statement Thursday condemning the U.S. Department of Energy, claiming the DOE told her office it would not supply $45 million it promised in August to the American Centrifuge Project at the USEC plant in Piketon. A spokesperson for USEC, however, said the company will continue to work with the DOE to move the project forward. During his 2008 presidential campaign through Ohio, then-Sen. Barack Obama, wrote a letter to Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland pledging his support for the centrifuge project in Piketon. Despite his pledge, the loan guarantee was denied on July 20. A spokesperson from the Obama White House told the Portsmouth Daily Times in July that the project did not appear ready for commercialization. Several weeks later, the DOE agreed to reconsider USEC's application in six months and offered $45 million to help bring it up to DOE standards. Thursday, Schmidt said the DOE was no longer committed to making those funds available to USEC.

Ohio Congresswoman Jean Schmidt (R-2nd District) released a statement Thursday condemning the U.S. Department of Energy, claiming the DOE told her office it would not supply $45 million it promised in August to the American Centrifuge Project at the USEC plant in Piketon. A spokesperson for USEC, however, said the company will continue to work with the DOE to move the project forward. During his 2008 presidential campaign through Ohio, then-Sen. Barack Obama, wrote a letter to Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland pledging his support for the centrifuge project in Piketon. Despite his pledge, the loan guarantee was denied on July 20. A spokesperson from the Obama White House told the Portsmouth Daily Times in July that the project did not appear ready for commercialization. Several weeks later, the DOE agreed to reconsider USEC's application in six months and offered $45 million to help bring it up to DOE standards. Thursday, Schmidt said the DOE was no longer committed to making those funds available to USEC.

Most Texas homes weren't built as if energy mattered. Despite 100-degree summer days, our roofs are still covered in heat-absorbing black-tar shingles. Cheap insulation in the attic, leaky doors, and single-paned windows mean when the air conditioner runs, it runs loads of cooled air right out the house. San Antonio's CPS Energy plans to spend $850 million to eliminate 771 megawatts of wasteful energy consumption through weatherization programs and rebates to help residential and commercial customers replace lights and appliances, and hoist solar panels onto their roofs by 2020. To do that will cost roughly $1,100 per saved kilowatt, according to the utility. However, 80 miles to the northeast, municipally owned Austin Energy has already cut 800 megawatts through energy efficiency over the last 20 years at a cost of roughly $350 per kilowatt, said Scott Jarman, consulting engineer with Austin Energy's efficiency program. But after 20 years of efficiency work, the savings are increasingly hard to find, and accordingly, more costly.

Most Texas homes weren't built as if energy mattered. Despite 100-degree summer days, our roofs are still covered in heat-absorbing black-tar shingles. Cheap insulation in the attic, leaky doors, and single-paned windows mean when the air conditioner runs, it runs loads of cooled air right out the house. San Antonio's CPS Energy plans to spend $850 million to eliminate 771 megawatts of wasteful energy consumption through weatherization programs and rebates to help residential and commercial customers replace lights and appliances, and hoist solar panels onto their roofs by 2020. To do that will cost roughly $1,100 per saved kilowatt, according to the utility. However, 80 miles to the northeast, municipally owned Austin Energy has already cut 800 megawatts through energy efficiency over the last 20 years at a cost of roughly $350 per kilowatt, said Scott Jarman, consulting engineer with Austin Energy's efficiency program. But after 20 years of efficiency work, the savings are increasingly hard to find, and accordingly, more costly.

The banquet room inside the city's lavishly refurbished Pearl Brewery is filled with solar advocates, coal-power people, city decision makers and bureaucrats, geothermal enthusiasts, and a table of Express-News staffers. They dine on salmon and judge in quiet gestures the performance of the panel at the front of the room. As a tense but generally amenable exchange between the nuclear-energy proponents and the renewable-power disciples winds down, Matagorda County resident Susan Dancer steps from the shadows at the back of the room to steer the conversation, briefly, into dangerous waters. In a rapid-fire indictment of the entire course of the debate, Dancer drops the controversial "C" word. But cancer isn't on the menu at today's forum. In fact, the talk is almost entirely of money. For more than a year, the city has been drifting, in multi-million-dollar installments, into a second helping of nuclear power from the South Texas Project nuclear facility outside Bay City.

The banquet room inside the city's lavishly refurbished Pearl Brewery is filled with solar advocates, coal-power people, city decision makers and bureaucrats, geothermal enthusiasts, and a table of Express-News staffers. They dine on salmon and judge in quiet gestures the performance of the panel at the front of the room. As a tense but generally amenable exchange between the nuclear-energy proponents and the renewable-power disciples winds down, Matagorda County resident Susan Dancer steps from the shadows at the back of the room to steer the conversation, briefly, into dangerous waters. In a rapid-fire indictment of the entire course of the debate, Dancer drops the controversial "C" word. But cancer isn't on the menu at today's forum. In fact, the talk is almost entirely of money. For more than a year, the city has been drifting, in multi-million-dollar installments, into a second helping of nuclear power from the South Texas Project nuclear facility outside Bay City.

The parliamentary Public Finance Oversight Commission decided on Friday to call on the Court of Audit to review operations of the fund established to finance radioactive waste disposal and decommissioning of the Krsko Nuclear Power Plant in the last five years.

The parliamentary Public Finance Oversight Commission decided on Friday to call on the Court of Audit to review operations of the fund established to finance radioactive waste disposal and decommissioning of the Krsko Nuclear Power Plant in the last five years.

Bulgaria's PM, Boyko Borisov, is going to talk to his German counterpart, Angela Merkel, about the potential decision of RWE to withdraw from the Belene Nuclear Plant project. This was announced by Borisov himself on Wednesday. The German media have recently published unconfirmed information about RWE's withdrawal from the project for the second Bulgarian nuclear power plant, and Borisov's statement might be construed as a confirmation of those reports, Bulgarian analysts have remarked. In December 2008, the German energy giant RWE and the Bulgarian National Electric Company NEK sealed their partnership in which RWE was chosen to acquire 49% of the Belene NPP in exchange for a capital payment of EUR 1,275 B, a premium of EUR 550 M for NEK, and a loan of EUR 300 M for the purchase of equipment and other expenditures. According to the German media, RWE is pulling out of the Belene project because of the rising costs of the NPP construction, and because of the intentions of Merkel's new government to revive the nuclear energy in Germany.

Bulgaria's PM, Boyko Borisov, is going to talk to his German counterpart, Angela Merkel, about the potential decision of RWE to withdraw from the Belene Nuclear Plant project. This was announced by Borisov himself on Wednesday. The German media have recently published unconfirmed information about RWE's withdrawal from the project for the second Bulgarian nuclear power plant, and Borisov's statement might be construed as a confirmation of those reports, Bulgarian analysts have remarked. In December 2008, the German energy giant RWE and the Bulgarian National Electric Company NEK sealed their partnership in which RWE was chosen to acquire 49% of the Belene NPP in exchange for a capital payment of EUR 1,275 B, a premium of EUR 550 M for NEK, and a loan of EUR 300 M for the purchase of equipment and other expenditures. According to the German media, RWE is pulling out of the Belene project because of the rising costs of the NPP construction, and because of the intentions of Merkel's new government to revive the nuclear energy in Germany.

The anti-nuclear Snake River Alliance got its start on a bench at Boise's Julia Davis Park The Snake River Alliance has brought a lot of good music to Idaho. Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and Carole King gave a benefit concert in 1981 at Boise State. King returned for a benefit at Boise High School in 1984. Browne and Raitt returned in 1996 for a Stop the Shipments benefit concert. Hailey resident Steve Miller performed for the group's 25th anniversary in 2004. When Raitt and Taj Mahal performed this summer at the Idaho Botanical Garden, the Snake River Alliance was invited to set up an information table. Rocky Barker None of its founders can remember the actual date of the Snake River Alliance's first meeting in 1979. It was in the spring, soon after the Three Mile Island Reactor in Pennsylvania partially melted down, raising fears nationwide about nuclear power. A report by U.S. Geological Survey scientist Jack Barraclough had just been made public showing iodine 129 in concentrations more than 25 times the allowable standards for drinking water near a well at the Idaho National Laboratory in eastern Idaho.

The anti-nuclear Snake River Alliance got its start on a bench at Boise's Julia Davis Park The Snake River Alliance has brought a lot of good music to Idaho. Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and Carole King gave a benefit concert in 1981 at Boise State. King returned for a benefit at Boise High School in 1984. Browne and Raitt returned in 1996 for a Stop the Shipments benefit concert. Hailey resident Steve Miller performed for the group's 25th anniversary in 2004. When Raitt and Taj Mahal performed this summer at the Idaho Botanical Garden, the Snake River Alliance was invited to set up an information table. Rocky Barker None of its founders can remember the actual date of the Snake River Alliance's first meeting in 1979. It was in the spring, soon after the Three Mile Island Reactor in Pennsylvania partially melted down, raising fears nationwide about nuclear power. A report by U.S. Geological Survey scientist Jack Barraclough had just been made public showing iodine 129 in concentrations more than 25 times the allowable standards for drinking water near a well at the Idaho National Laboratory in eastern Idaho.

The push for cap-and-trade climate change legislation is giving nuclear power a new half-life. As an air-pollution-free energy source, nuclear could solve a lot of problems - if it can get past the ones that sidelined it decades ago. The accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl in Russia turned many against nuclear. No new plants have been opened in the U.S. in more than two decades. The proposed nuclear waste repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain may have its funding cut off by Washington. But there are signs the opposition is waning thanks to cap-and-trade. The Environmental Protection Agency says that since nuclear creates no carbon emissions, expanding it would make it easier to meet carbon-reduction goals.

The push for cap-and-trade climate change legislation is giving nuclear power a new half-life. As an air-pollution-free energy source, nuclear could solve a lot of problems - if it can get past the ones that sidelined it decades ago. The accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl in Russia turned many against nuclear. No new plants have been opened in the U.S. in more than two decades. The proposed nuclear waste repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain may have its funding cut off by Washington. But there are signs the opposition is waning thanks to cap-and-trade. The Environmental Protection Agency says that since nuclear creates no carbon emissions, expanding it would make it easier to meet carbon-reduction goals.

Groups from Maryland Ally with 3 other States with Reactors Up for Loan Guarantees to Speak Out in Opposition; DOE Liberalization of Rules Would Expose Taxpayers to Billions of Dollars in New Defaults Taxpayers will be put at significant new risk for billions of dollars if the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) moves ahead in the coming days and weeks to issue its first set of controversial taxpayer-backed, conditional loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors, according to 18 national and state-level public interest groups from Maryland, Georgia, Texas and South Carolina. In a joint statement issued today, the groups called on DOE to put the issuance of loan guarantees on hold given the unacceptable financial risks placed on the taxpayer, the poor track record of the DOE with past loan guarantees and the lack of transparency in the loan guarantee decision-making process.

Groups from Maryland Ally with 3 other States with Reactors Up for Loan Guarantees to Speak Out in Opposition; DOE Liberalization of Rules Would Expose Taxpayers to Billions of Dollars in New Defaults Taxpayers will be put at significant new risk for billions of dollars if the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) moves ahead in the coming days and weeks to issue its first set of controversial taxpayer-backed, conditional loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors, according to 18 national and state-level public interest groups from Maryland, Georgia, Texas and South Carolina. In a joint statement issued today, the groups called on DOE to put the issuance of loan guarantees on hold given the unacceptable financial risks placed on the taxpayer, the poor track record of the DOE with past loan guarantees and the lack of transparency in the loan guarantee decision-making process.

As in the past, the Snake River Alliance opposes Alternate Energy Holdings' latest proposal. Nomad nuclear reactor developer Don Gillispie, chairman and CEO of Eagle-based Alternate Energy Holdings Inc., said Tuesday that he has submitted a comprehensive plan amendment application for development of a nuclear power plant on 5,100 acres in Payette County. "This is a key step to developing an additional nuclear site in Idaho," Gillispie said in a statement. He still has a rezoning application in process in Elmore County. Previously he sought to get approval to site that plant in Owyhee County. He said Idahoans are just learning about the economic benefits a nuclear plant could bring to rural communities.

As in the past, the Snake River Alliance opposes Alternate Energy Holdings' latest proposal. Nomad nuclear reactor developer Don Gillispie, chairman and CEO of Eagle-based Alternate Energy Holdings Inc., said Tuesday that he has submitted a comprehensive plan amendment application for development of a nuclear power plant on 5,100 acres in Payette County. "This is a key step to developing an additional nuclear site in Idaho," Gillispie said in a statement. He still has a rezoning application in process in Elmore County. Previously he sought to get approval to site that plant in Owyhee County. He said Idahoans are just learning about the economic benefits a nuclear plant could bring to rural communities.

As a Thursday vote on two new nuclear reactors looms, cities around the state that purchase power from San Antonio's municipal utility, City Public Services (CPS), are balking at the prospect of buying pricey nuclear power from the reactors. Three problems exist with the planned expansion at the South Texas Nuclear Project (STP) facility. First, nuclear power creates dangerous radioactive waste that no one has figured out how to dispose of safely. Second, nuclear power is expensive - the nuclear industry requires taxpayer subsidies to prop it up. Third, no one knows for certain just how much the construction of the two reactors will cost ratepayers.

As a Thursday vote on two new nuclear reactors looms, cities around the state that purchase power from San Antonio's municipal utility, City Public Services (CPS), are balking at the prospect of buying pricey nuclear power from the reactors. Three problems exist with the planned expansion at the South Texas Nuclear Project (STP) facility. First, nuclear power creates dangerous radioactive waste that no one has figured out how to dispose of safely. Second, nuclear power is expensive - the nuclear industry requires taxpayer subsidies to prop it up. Third, no one knows for certain just how much the construction of the two reactors will cost ratepayers.

PDF file: Testimony on HR 515

PDF file: Testimony on HR 515