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Spain's government said on Monday it has fined the operators of the 1,000 megawatt Asco I nuclear plant 15.4 million euros ($20.95 million) for six charges of breaching safety rules over a radioactive leak in November 2007. The fine was the highest to be made against a Spanish nuclear plant to date, the government said. The leak at the Endesa (ELE.MC)-owned plant in the north eastern port of Tarragona occurred when radioactive water splashed a ventilation system during refueling. Officials did not inform the nuclear watchdog (CSN) until April 4, which the watchdog said was a serious breach for "not providing the resident inspector with prompt and truthful information."

A special investigation is underway to find the reason behind the failure of a piece of a safety system last month at the Callaway Nuclear Plant. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced Monday that a team of inspectors is looking into a problem that was found with a secondary feedwater pump at the plant May 25 that has raised concern about that backup safety precaution. "In routine testing that pump didn't start automatically, but we did determine that it could have been started manually," Ameren UE spokesman Mike Cleary said. "It was technically inoperable and we don't know when it failed between the previous test on May 4 and May 25.

The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate is recruiting more than a dozen project managers to speed up its review of new reactor designs - even though they work for the companies hoping to build them. The Guardian has learnt that the government has approached companies including the US groups Bechtel and CH2M Hill, as well as the UK's Amec, to fill the senior posts. The companies involved are eager to secure lucrative contracts to help build the UK's first new reactors for decades. Government and industry sources admitted the secondments posed potential conflict of interest problems.

* Faulty reprocessing facility threatens UK atomic plans * Critics call for plug to be pulled on 'white elephant' The company that runs the Thorp nuclear reprocessing plant admitted that it may have to close for a number of years owing to a series of technical problems. The huge £1.8bn plant at Sellafield imports spent nuclear fuel from around the world and returns it to countries as new reactor fuel. But a series of catastrophic technical failures with associated equipment means Thorp could be mothballed at a cost of millions of pounds. Under strict orders from the government's safety watchdog, the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, the plant's operators, Sellafield Ltd, is expected to have little option but to mothball the reprocessing plant for at least four years.

But maintenance-related 2008 incident will trigger additional federal oversight All three reactor units at Oconee Nuclear Station operated safely overall during 2008; however, Unit 1 will be under greater federal scrutiny due to an April 15 incident that raised safety concerns, federal officials said Thursday. Advertisement With one exception, all findings during the year were of "very low safety significance," said Andy Hutto, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission senior resident inspector at the plant. Those were corrected appropriately, he said. Only the April 15 incident rose to a level of concern that triggers additional oversight, Hutto said.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog has failed to use all its powers or to beef them up if inspectors are obstructed, leaving the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in tatters, a former top agency official says. The International Atomic Energy Agency seeks to catch covert diversions of nuclear energy into bomb-making and foster peaceful uses of the atom. Exposure of suspect nuclear activity in North Korea, Libya, Iran and Syria over the past decade has shaken the Vienna-based watchdog.

Well, there he goes again. Newt Gingrich wants us to believe a "sword of Damocles hangs over our heads." Has wanted us to believe that since at least 2004, when he first decided to seek the Presidency, and when the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse [EMP] Attack made its first "final report" to Congress. Who's holding that sword over our heads? For years it was alleged by Newt to be the Iranians, whom the Neo-Crazies and their media sycophants have insisted have a secret - so secret that not even Israeli spies or inspectors for the International Atomic Energy Agency, all of them on the ground in Iran for years, have any idea where it might be - deep underground nuclear weapons program.

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas) -- The ageing Wylfa nuclear power plant in Wales has moved closer to being decommissioned following consent from the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate. The agency's permission is the first of two needed for the Wylfa plant to finally start decommissioning work. For details, view the entire article by subscribing to Industrial Info's Premium Industry News at http://www.industrialinfo.co.uk/showNews.jsp?newsitemID=145612, or browse other breaking industrial news stories at www.industrialinfo.co.uk. Join Industrial Info Resources at POWER-Gen-Europe May 26-28, 2009 in Cologne, Germany and get a hands-on demonstration of our industrial market databases!

Two senior diplomats are running in an election on Thursday to succeed International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who will leave office in November after 12 years of heading the U.N. watchdog. Following is a rundown of issues in the vote and how the new IAEA director-general will be elected. WHAT'S THE POST AT STAKE? The IAEA Director-General oversees a global inspectorate that seeks to detect and deter covert diversions of nuclear energy to bomb-making and to promote peaceful uses of the atom, both in keeping with the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

"One of the two new nuclear reactor designs being considered for use in Britain may not be strong enough to withstand a direct hit from a commercial airliner, which could stop the technology being licensed in Britain, the UK's nuclear safety watchdog said yesterday. The claim from the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) that the design could be vulnerable to terrorist attacks is a blow for the American-Japanese group that is behind the AP1000 reactor type. Toshiba-Westinghouse sees the UK as a significant growth market and hopes that the technology can play a big role in plans to build a new generation of nuclear power stations in Britain. But yesterday the NII raised its concerns in an official letter, which insisted that Toshiba-Westinghouse provide fresh evidence that the design was sufficiently strong to withstand "external shocks" before it could be considered for a UK licence."

"The Department of Energy's Inspector General this week released an audit report critical of the agency's management of the uranium-233 down-blending and disposition project in Oak Ridge. The report cited the project's growing cost and continuing uncertainties. The project, which is still in the design phase, is supposed to process about 1.4 metric tons of uranium stored at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The uranium stockpile contains significant quantities of fissionable U-233 - a strategic nuclear material - with highly radioactive decay products that make the project complex and potentially dangerous. The current cost estimate is about $477 million."

"POGO often talks about how not to treat whistleblowers-retaliating against them, ignoring them, and marginalizing them-yet we often do not hear about how government agencies should treat someone who shines the light on significant wrongdoing. This morning's broadcast of Democracy Now! provides an example of how legislators, and inspectors general (IG), can pick up the baton from a whistleblower. Democracy Now's host Amy Goodman interviews Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear engineer and former vice president of his power plant who blew the whistle on inadequate storage of radioactive material at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant 20 years ago. While the Nuclear Regulatory Commission did not confirm his allegations, then-Ohio Senator John Glenn and the IG substantiated his allegations. "

"The weather power hits keep on coming, but this time it's nuclear power at the Calvert Cliffs plant in Lusby, Md. Melting snow may be behind the recent shutdown of the plant. It is believed to have leaked through the plant's roof and onto an electrical breaker, said David Fritz of Constellation Energy Nuclear Group. Federal inspectors started looking at the plant on Monday. The two reactors went down the Thursday after one of two electrical distribution buses failed, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said."

"On Monday, the Department of Energy (DOE) Inspector General (IG) released a report on why it has been taking so long for DOE to secure the stock of Uranium-233 (U-233) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The stock of U-233, a highly radioactive isotope with dangerous properties, still sits in a "deteriorating" ORNL facility even though DOE began planning to dispose of the material back in 2001. As some of you may recall, POGO actually has some pretty direct experience with this material. During a 2005 site visit, POGO investigators were able to park in front of the ORNL building that held the 1,000 cans of U-233 and walk around for about 15 minutes before guards finally approached them and escorted them from the area. We determined that ORNL was the most vulnerable site in the U.S. nuclear weapons complex."

"A local environmental group is rallying its members and supporters to appear at tonight's San Clemente City Council meeting to question whether it is safe to restart the shut-down Unit 2 reactor at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. The City Council has scheduled an appearance by Greg Warwick, senior Nuclear Regulatory Commission resident inspector at San Onofre, to report on safety at the power plant just south of town. Southern California Edison shut off the reactor in September for refueling and to swap out two aging 640-ton steam generators. On Jan. 19, Gary Headrick, founder of San Clemente Green, asked for the city's support in delaying reactivation of Unit 2 until there is assurance it is safe. He cited reports about concerns of some employees at the plant, air pockets in some welds on one of the new steam generators and NRC investigations into safety practices at San Onofre."

"U.S. Sen. Kit Bond on Wednesday called for a new federal investigation of health concerns at a sensitive Kansas City defense plant. In a letter to a federal investigator, Bond noted that he was responding to reports on KSHB-TV that more than 100 former co-workers at the federal complex on Bannister Road fear their illnesses may be linked to toxins at the facility. Bond asked the inspector general for the General Services Administration, which acts as the federal government's landlord, to advise him on "the full extent of the problem and what steps GSA is taking to protect employees deemed at risk.""

"Britain has had seven safety breaches of "actual consequence" at its nuclear power stations in the last decade - one of which was classed as serious. Operators of Britain's nuclear power stations reported 1,343 incidents to the Health and Safety Executive since 2001. The authority's inspectors classified 773 of them as posing no threat, while 563 were safety anomalies. But seven incidents, five of which were related to power plants operated by British Energy, have been listed as harmful. The most recent occurred last year at Dungeness B, after British Energy had been taken over by French nuclear giant EDF, when there was found to be "non-compliance or inadequacy" in its safety arrangements. "

"Air Force officials say two units responsible for the 150 nuclear missiles in Montana have failed recent inspections. Military officials say there is no threat to the public and that the units at Malmstrom Air Force Base are still performing their missions while correcting the problems. The 341st Missile Wing and 16th Munitions Squadron received "unsatisfactory" ratings in February from Air Force inspectors evaluating their ability to carry out their mission."

"On Feb. 16, while President Obama was in Maryland announcing an $8.3 billion taxpayer-backed loan guarantee for Southern Company to build two new nuclear reactors in Georgia, inspectors at the Vermont Yankee reactor were finding dangerously high levels of tritium, a radioactive cancer-causing chemical, in the groundwater near the plant. The next week, the Vermont state Senate voted overwhelmingly to shut down Vermont Yankee when its current license expires in 2012. Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas (R) called the timing of the nuclear loan guarantee announcement and the Vermont Senate's decision "ironic." More than just some coincidence, though, the Vermont Yankee situation demonstrates that from the mining of uranium ore to the storage of radioactive waste, nuclear reactors remain as dirty, risky, and as costly as they ever were. If President Obama's recent enthusiasm for nuclear reactors has led you to believe otherwise, you've bought in to the administration's greenwashing of nuclear."

"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has called a special meeting next week to discuss three apparent violations involving a spent fuel pool at Turkey Point - a critical issue as the long-held plans for storing waste in Nevada have completely collapsed. Technically, the meeting in Atlanta on Wednesday involves the degradation of "a neutron-absorbing material called Boraflex in the Unit 3 spent fuel pool." Used nuclear fuel has been building up at Turkey Point for the 35 years of its operation. The degradation involves systems intended to cram more spent fuel into the pools, according to Lawrence King, a former NRC inspector. More than two million pounds of waste now sit at the South Miami-Dade site in pools of water - although Florida Power & Light Co. spokesman Michael Waldron says it's more accurate to think of the spent rods as occupying a 16-foot cube if bunched together."