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New signs will be posted at the South Texas Project nuclear power plant, as a new law takes effect making it a federal crime to carry a gun into a nuclear plant. While security has always been tight, with armed guards manning metal detectors at the heavily fortified main gates, it has never actually been against federal law to pack heat at the nation's 102 nuclear power plants until now. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said plants had to rely on local prosecutors to accept "Carrying a Prohibitied Weapon" charge, which was unlikely since there was such a grey area in the law. The new law now allows the FBI and federal prosecutors to arrest and charge anyone found with a gun at those metal detectors.

New signs will be posted at the South Texas Project nuclear power plant, as a new law takes effect making it a federal crime to carry a gun into a nuclear plant. While security has always been tight, with armed guards manning metal detectors at the heavily fortified main gates, it has never actually been against federal law to pack heat at the nation's 102 nuclear power plants until now. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said plants had to rely on local prosecutors to accept "Carrying a Prohibitied Weapon" charge, which was unlikely since there was such a grey area in the law. The new law now allows the FBI and federal prosecutors to arrest and charge anyone found with a gun at those metal detectors.

Weakening Wisconsin laws regulating new nuclear reactors should not be part of a climate change bill. The Clean Energy Jobs Act, unveiled in the state Legislature recently, is a significant step toward addressing global warming while strengthening our state economy. Although much of the bill is a positive step to addressing global warming, it weakens Wisconsin's current law on building new nuclear reactors. Wisconsin's current law is common sense and protects citizens and the environment from radioactive nuclear waste, which poses considerable risks for tens thousands of years and contains plutonium, which can be used to make nuclear weapons if separated. Available renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies are faster, cheaper, safer and cleaner strategies for reducing greenhouse emissions than nuclear power.

Weakening Wisconsin laws regulating new nuclear reactors should not be part of a climate change bill. The Clean Energy Jobs Act, unveiled in the state Legislature recently, is a significant step toward addressing global warming while strengthening our state economy. Although much of the bill is a positive step to addressing global warming, it weakens Wisconsin's current law on building new nuclear reactors. Wisconsin's current law is common sense and protects citizens and the environment from radioactive nuclear waste, which poses considerable risks for tens thousands of years and contains plutonium, which can be used to make nuclear weapons if separated. Available renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies are faster, cheaper, safer and cleaner strategies for reducing greenhouse emissions than nuclear power.

"The government on Tuesday admitted its helplessness in providing adequate compensation to victims of radiation exposure in Mayapuri market in the absence of a specific law backing compensation to victims of radioactive accidents. Minister of State for Science and Technology Prithviraj Chavan told the Rajya Sabha that such a law needs to be enacted and welcomed suggestions in this regard. "Let us accept that there is no law today, and we need to enact the law for civil compensation for victims of radioactive accidents," Chavan said in response to a call attention motion in which Opposition members repeatedly raised the issue of compensation to victims of Mayapuri incident. "

A group of island residents and members of the Pacific Association for Radiation Survivors met yesterday to discuss legislation that proposes to include Guam in the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. Advertisement The federal RECA law, passed in 1990, compensates people who have been diagnosed with specific cancers and chronic diseases that could have resulted from exposure to agents associated with nuclear weapons testing, according to a 2005 report published by the National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council. The law covers exposure to nuclear tests carried out for more than 20 years during and after World War II. According to the report, both on-site participants of above-ground nuclear tests and "downwinders" in areas designated by RECA are eligible for compensation. Areas of Nevada, Utah and Arizona are covered in the law as "Downwind Counties," the report states.

A group of island residents and members of the Pacific Association for Radiation Survivors met yesterday to discuss legislation that proposes to include Guam in the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. Advertisement The federal RECA law, passed in 1990, compensates people who have been diagnosed with specific cancers and chronic diseases that could have resulted from exposure to agents associated with nuclear weapons testing, according to a 2005 report published by the National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council. The law covers exposure to nuclear tests carried out for more than 20 years during and after World War II. According to the report, both on-site participants of above-ground nuclear tests and "downwinders" in areas designated by RECA are eligible for compensation. Areas of Nevada, Utah and Arizona are covered in the law as "Downwind Counties," the report states.

U.S. Nuclear Waste Law and Policy: Fixing a Bankrupt System Source: New York University Law and Economics Working Papers The current U.S. system of nuclear waste law and policy is bankrupt. Twenty years after the designation by Congress of Yucca Mountain as the only potential site for a deep geologic repository to receive spent nuclear fuel and high level waste from reprocessing, the proposed Yucca repository remains mired in controversy and unremitting opposition by Nevada. There is no prospect for an alternative repository or for the development of a federal consolidated storage facility. The volume of these wastes already exceeds the current maximum storage capacity set by Congress for Yucca and continues to grow. This article first provides a brief overview of nuclear wastes and a summary history of federal nuclear waste law and policy to date. It then diagnoses the major failures in the current design and proposes a suite of new measures to launch a comprehensive new approach, including a reconsideration of the ethical principles underlying the drive for immediate waste burial; the creation of a high-level National Waste Management Commission; the creation of two new federal entities to manage nuclear wastes and to site waste storage facilities and repositories; the elimination of Environmental Protection Agency regulatory authority over these activities; the adoption of a thoroughgoing risk-based approach to waste regulation and management; and the adoption of new, more flexible and adaptable strategies for siting storage and disposal facilities. + Full Paper (PDF; 240 KB)

France's parliament has passed a law to compensate victims of nuclear tests in Algeria and the South Pacific, a response to decades of complaints by people sickened by radiation. The law cleared France's Senate on Tuesday, its final legislative hurdle following approval in the National Assembly in June. France "can at last close a chapter of its history", Defence Minister Herve Morin said in a statement. He called the law "just, rigorous and balanced." The text, hammered out with help from victims' associations, recognises the right for victims of France's more than 200 nuclear tests to receive compensation. Some 150,000 people, including civilian and military personnel, were on site for the 210 tests France carried out, both in the atmosphere and underground, in the Sahara Desert and the South Pacific from 1960-1996.

France's parliament has passed a law to compensate victims of nuclear tests in Algeria and the South Pacific, a response to decades of complaints by people sickened by radiation. The law cleared France's Senate on Tuesday, its final legislative hurdle following approval in the National Assembly in June. France "can at last close a chapter of its history", Defence Minister Herve Morin said in a statement. He called the law "just, rigorous and balanced." The text, hammered out with help from victims' associations, recognises the right for victims of France's more than 200 nuclear tests to receive compensation. Some 150,000 people, including civilian and military personnel, were on site for the 210 tests France carried out, both in the atmosphere and underground, in the Sahara Desert and the South Pacific from 1960-1996.

An internal U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) study details how managers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) shifted costs to understate total spending on the controversial National Ignition Facility (NIF) mega-laser. The previously secret document, released today by the nuclear watchdog group Tri-Valley CAREs, pegs the current hidden costs of NIF at $80 million annually. "Livermore Lab is systematically disguising the true costs of the NIF," charged Tri-Valley CAREs' executive director, Marylia Kelley. "When calculated over the life of the project, these hidden costs total more than $2 billion." Kelley continued, "This illegal scheme circumvents the United States Congress, which sets NIF's budget each year, and violates our nation's most basic federal contracting laws." According to the report by the DOE National Nuclear Security Administration Office of Field Financial Management (OFFM), Livermore Lab's practice of assigning NIF overhead expenses to other Lab programs violates Public Law 100-679 Cost Accounting Standards (CAS). This law is an integral part of the structure set up to regulate government contracts. Some of the NIF fee reductions date back to 2001. The OFFM investigators noted that the misleading cost accounting, "materially misstates the actual costs by LLNL for the NIF/National Ignition Campaign... and may result in an undercapitalization of the NIF/NIC's total project costs."

An internal U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) study details how managers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) shifted costs to understate total spending on the controversial National Ignition Facility (NIF) mega-laser. The previously secret document, released today by the nuclear watchdog group Tri-Valley CAREs, pegs the current hidden costs of NIF at $80 million annually. "Livermore Lab is systematically disguising the true costs of the NIF," charged Tri-Valley CAREs' executive director, Marylia Kelley. "When calculated over the life of the project, these hidden costs total more than $2 billion." Kelley continued, "This illegal scheme circumvents the United States Congress, which sets NIF's budget each year, and violates our nation's most basic federal contracting laws." According to the report by the DOE National Nuclear Security Administration Office of Field Financial Management (OFFM), Livermore Lab's practice of assigning NIF overhead expenses to other Lab programs violates Public Law 100-679 Cost Accounting Standards (CAS). This law is an integral part of the structure set up to regulate government contracts. Some of the NIF fee reductions date back to 2001. The OFFM investigators noted that the misleading cost accounting, "materially misstates the actual costs by LLNL for the NIF/National Ignition Campaign... and may result in an undercapitalization of the NIF/NIC's total project costs."

"When tritium was found leaking from Vermont Yankee in January, the nuclear power plant violated state law that makes groundwater a public trust, an environmental group has charged in a filing with the state Public Service Board. The Vermont Natural Resources Council hopes to augment pending arguments from others that the Vernon nuclear power plant should be shut down as a result of the leak, said Jon Groveman, VNRC's general counsel. The Public Service Board agreed in February to consider the arguments of the Conservation Law Foundation and New England Coalition that Vermont Yankee should be shut down either temporarily or permanently because of the tritium leak. The case is pending before the board. Vermont Yankee has argued that only the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission can regulate the plant's release of radioactive material. Groveman said he hopes VNRC's argument will show that the state does have jurisdiction in protecting its groundwater. The Legislature passed a law in 2008 declaring groundwater as a public-trust resource. By allowing tritium to leak into the groundwater, Vermont Yankee violated that law, he said."

The number of storage sites for radioactive wastes number thousands, and they are difficult to monitor, deputy head of Russia's nuclear energy company Rosatom told journalists in Sankt Petersburg. Now, a new law will help reduce the number of sites. -We expect a new law on the handling of radioactive wastes to be adopted by the end of the year, deputy head of Rosatom Yevgenii Yevstratov confirmed. The law will help significantly limit the number of waste storage sites.

The parliament's committee for constitutional matters and legislation has concluded that there are no legal obstacles to the adoption of a law banning the building of nuclear power stations in Montenegro. The committee has backed the amendments to the law on the budget, a package of laws on agriculture and the draft law on national parks. Milutin Tomasevic has the report: [Reporter Tomasevic] If at its next session the parliament votes the same as the committee for constitutional matters and legislation, no nuclear plants will be built in Montenegro, and this will be Montenegro's official position in relation to its environment. Deputy of New Serb Democracy Emilo Labudovic defended an opposing view during the debate, declaring himself against such a ban. He maintains that nuclear energy is clean and safe.

"The Murmansk regional parliament last week approved the federal law on radioactive wastes. That could turn the region into a nuclear dump, environmentalists say. The law opens up for the underground storage of radioactive waste materials in the regions and leaves the regional and municipal administrations with a major responsibility for financing the storage facilities. The regional parliament - the Duma - approved the law amid massive protests from environmental organizations in the region. The new legislation is believed to have potentially serious consequences for people in the far northern region. Murmansk Oblast has a number of nuclear installations, both nuclear submarines, icebreakers and the Kola NPP, all of which leaves behind lethal waste materials."

Tampa Bay legislators plan on taking a whack at a two-year-old law that allows Progress Energy to charge customers for its $17-billion nuclear project years before it starts producing electricity. The law paved the way for the average Progress Energy bill to rise by about $13 a month, contributing to the 25 percent increase customers will see starting in January. Customers just can't afford it, said state Sen. Mike Fasano, who voted for the law in 2006. Fasano now says his vote was a "mistake." He did not realize just how high bills would go, he said.

Big firms drop support for US climate bill * BP America, Caterpillar and Conoco end support * Opponents claim climate law is dead in the water Barack Obama suffered a setback to his green energy agenda as three firms drop out of a coalition that had been pressing for climate change laws. Photograph: Brian Kersey/Getty Images Barack Obama suffered a setback to his green energy agendatoday when three major corporations - including BP America - dropped out of a coalition of business groups and environmental organisations that had been pressing Congress to pass climate change legislation. The defections by ConocoPhillips, America's third largest oil company, Caterpillar, which makes heavy equipment, and BP rob the US Climate Action Partnership of three powerful voices for lobbying Congress to pass climate change law. They also undercut Obama's efforts to cast his climate and energy agenda as a pro-business, job-creation plan."

An estimated 3,000 people have joined a march in French Polynesia to demonstrate against the new French law to compensate nuclear weapons test victims, saying it doesn't go far enough. The march in Papeete had been organised by test veterans, the Maohi Protestant church and the pro-independence Tavini Huiraatira Party of Oscar Temaru. The demonstration coincided with a visit to the territory of a French defence ministry delegation, which excluded the minister after he decided to pull out the day before he was due to leave Paris. The marchers claim that the compensation law, which is to be voted on in Paris this week, is too restrictive as it only considers the fallout in parts of the territory and excludes a reference to the environment.

An estimated 3,000 people have joined a march in French Polynesia to demonstrate against the new French law to compensate nuclear weapons test victims, saying it doesn't go far enough. The march in Papeete had been organised by test veterans, the Maohi Protestant church and the pro-independence Tavini Huiraatira Party of Oscar Temaru. The demonstration coincided with a visit to the territory of a French defence ministry delegation, which excluded the minister after he decided to pull out the day before he was due to leave Paris. The marchers claim that the compensation law, which is to be voted on in Paris this week, is too restrictive as it only considers the fallout in parts of the territory and excludes a reference to the environment.

The president of the energy-hungry United Arab Emirates has signed a law regulating the development of a civilian nuclear program, clearing the way for construction of a nuclear power plant with help from the United States. Washington has promoted its plan to help the Emirates' develop peaceful nuclear power as a model of the kind of cooperation it would like to achieve with Iran, which the U.S. and its allies suspect is using a civilian program as a cover to develop an atomic weapons capability. The United Arab Emirates, which is just across the Persian Gulf from Iran, is among those Arab nations wary of Iran's nuclear work. UAE President Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan signed into law the regulatory framework for building "a peaceful nuclear energy sector," the country's official news agency reported Sunday.

The president of the energy-hungry United Arab Emirates has signed a law regulating the development of a civilian nuclear program, clearing the way for construction of a nuclear power plant with help from the United States. Washington has promoted its plan to help the Emirates' develop peaceful nuclear power as a model of the kind of cooperation it would like to achieve with Iran, which the U.S. and its allies suspect is using a civilian program as a cover to develop an atomic weapons capability. The United Arab Emirates, which is just across the Persian Gulf from Iran, is among those Arab nations wary of Iran's nuclear work. UAE President Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan signed into law the regulatory framework for building "a peaceful nuclear energy sector," the country's official news agency reported Sunday.

Radiation levels were higher than normal at the homes of as many as 10 Acreage families with brain tumors or brain cancer, according to a New York City law firm affiliated with the nationally known environmental activist Erin Brockovich. The radiation appears to be coming from well water, said Lemuel Srolovic, an attorney with the law firm Weitz & Luxenberg, which is investigating a suspected cancer cluster in the semi-rural community. A Stuart engineering company hired by the firm measured the radiation in mid-September using a Geiger counter. "Generally, it showed there appeared to be radioactive material in ground water being drawn up," Srolovic said. A report issued last week by the state Department of Environmental Protection similarly found elevated levels of radioactive particles in four wells in The Acreage. But the DEP stressed that the radiation can occur naturally, and the report said the problem is "simple" for homeowners to address by installing water-treatment systems.

Radiation levels were higher than normal at the homes of as many as 10 Acreage families with brain tumors or brain cancer, according to a New York City law firm affiliated with the nationally known environmental activist Erin Brockovich. The radiation appears to be coming from well water, said Lemuel Srolovic, an attorney with the law firm Weitz & Luxenberg, which is investigating a suspected cancer cluster in the semi-rural community. A Stuart engineering company hired by the firm measured the radiation in mid-September using a Geiger counter. "Generally, it showed there appeared to be radioactive material in ground water being drawn up," Srolovic said. A report issued last week by the state Department of Environmental Protection similarly found elevated levels of radioactive particles in four wells in The Acreage. But the DEP stressed that the radiation can occur naturally, and the report said the problem is "simple" for homeowners to address by installing water-treatment systems.

"On Friday two more groups, the Department of Public Service and the Conservation Law Foundation each filed testimonials regarding the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. The two testimonies filed with the Vermont Public Service Board come a day after the Vermont Natural Resources Council filed its own testimony with the board claiming the nuclear plant violated the state's groundwater public trust law and should be shut down immediately. While Conservation Law Foundation echoed the suggestions made by VNRC, the Department of Public Service, by contrast, stated VY had taken an appropriate course of action in response to the discovery of a tritium leak in January. Since the leak was discovered, "Vermont Yankee assembled an effective team to locate and stop the source of the leak to the environment," according to testimony by Uldis Vanags, the state nuclear engineer with the DPS. Vanags continued, "I witnessed Vermont Yankee following all its procedures to assure there was a thorough engineering review prior to the drilling of sample wells and any excavation work." "

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday threw out a Washington state law barring the federal government from adding radioactive waste to the Hanford nuclear disposal site until existing contamination is cleaned up. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that federal law pre-empts the state from halting waste disposal at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, a 586-square-mile (1,520-square-km) site along the Columbia River in southeastern Washington.

The recent ruling of the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond was short and to the point: "Virginia law requires regulation of Dominion's thermal pollution discharge because the exception for waste treatment simply doesn't apply here." With this ruling, a decades-old viola tion of the law was ended. The impact of the decision could benefit the many thousands of people who use Lake Anna annually. Dominion's permit violated the law. In 2007 the Virginia Water Control Board approved a permit for Dominion Virginia Power to discharge hot water from its North Anna nuclear power plant into Lake Anna. The permit was illegal for several reasons.

Wisconsin law sets two conditions that must be met before new nuclear power plants can be built in the state. One is that there must be "a federally licensed facility" for high-level nuclear waste. In addition, the proposed nuclear plant "must be economically advantageous to ratepayers." It's a law that the nuclear power industry doesn't like. Given the near-death of the planned waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain, and the estimated $6 to $12 billion cost (pdf) of building one nuclear reactor -- not to mention the lack of interest from private investors and the tanking economy -- Wisconsin's law effectively bans new nuclear plants in the state, for the foreseeable future.