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"Vieques is a small island with a big problem. And the Obama administration is fighting to keep it that way. A municipality of Puerto Rico just a few miles east of the main island, Vieques has the lamentable distinction of being the venue of six decades of training exercises and weapons testing by the U.S. Navy. Starting around the outbreak of World War II, our military has tested all manner of munitions there, from napalm to depleted uranium to Agent Orange. It has also released immense quantities of jet fuel, flame retardant, and other toxic substances. The place is contaminated. Not surprisingly, Vieques's 9000 residents -- American citizens by birth -- are a sickly bunch. Cancer rates are 30% higher than they are on Puerto Rico's main island. In the case of diabetes, that figure is 41%; for hypertension, nearly 400%. And roughly 80% of residents test positive for heavy metals like lead, mercury, and arsenic in their hair."

"Vieques is a small island with a big problem. And the Obama administration is fighting to keep it that way. A municipality of Puerto Rico just a few miles east of the main island, Vieques has the lamentable distinction of being the venue of six decades of training exercises and weapons testing by the U.S. Navy. Starting around the outbreak of World War II, our military has tested all manner of munitions there, from napalm to depleted uranium to Agent Orange. It has also released immense quantities of jet fuel, flame retardants, and other toxic substances. The place is contaminated. Not surprisingly, Vieques's 9000 residents - American citizens by birth - are a sickly bunch. Cancer rates are 30 percent higher than they are on Puerto Rico's main island. In the case of diabetes, the figure is 41 percent; for hypertension, nearly 400 percent. And roughly 80 percent of residents test positive for heavy metals like lead, mercury, and arsenic in their hair."

"The government gave Boeing a $15.9 million stimulus contract for environmental monitoring at the same site near Simi Valley, Calif., where the company was fined for polluting a creek with chromium, dioxin, lead and mercury, the investigative journalism group California Watch reported Sunday. The Santa Susana Field Laboratory was operated by divisions of North American Aviation, which eventually became Rockwell International, then Boeing. It was the site of rocket engine testing and nuclear power development that led to toxins leaching into the dirt and groundwater."

"Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a vocal advocate for alternative energy and nuclear power, was in Silicon Valley earlier this week to talk about the role of clean energy in combating global climate change. He also discussed the stiff competition the United States faces from China, which is moving quickly to close down inefficient coal plants as well as nurturing its fast-growing wind and solar industries. His official biography on the Department of Energy Web site spells out the tall order that is his job: "He is charged with helping implement President Obama's ambitious agenda to invest in alternative and renewable energy, end our addiction to foreign oil, address the global climate crisis and create millions of new jobs.""

"In his June 3 letter, Dr. Forrest Remick uses deceptive and even inaccurate statements to suggest I wasn't straight about nuclear power. His many letters to newspapers suggest he is an unabashed cheerleader for nuclear power. While claiming we need an honest discussion, Remick ignores and distorts important facts. Not surprising. Remick worked for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). NRC typically promotes nuclear power at the expense of public interests. I discovered most NRC employees defend the nuclear industry they supposedly regulate, shamefully dismissing serious threats and harms. The Gulf disaster should remind everyone why people like Remick must be challenged and why it's critical to stop funding dangerous, dirty, and costly nuclear power altogether."

With the election over, let's use real numbers when discussing energy. Jim Barksdale, founding CEO of Netscape, preached "you can't manage what you don't measure." I agree. But in today's concerns about energy independence or security, numbers don't seem to matter. Examples abound from this election: 1) We're sending $700 billion abroad to buy imported oil. Fact: Our net cost of imported oil this year will be about $400 billion due to the midyear price spike. 2) We're dependent on the Middle East for our oil. Fact: We import oil from 60 countries; Canada and Mexico are our first and third largest suppliers. Persian Gulf suppliers provide less than 20 percent of imports; thus, we send about $5 billion a month to the gulf.

Southern California's largest water agency moved forward with a groundwater extraction project without disclosing that the water is contaminated with uranium and other toxic chemicals, a newspaper reported Sunday. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California knew eight years ago about a "major stumbling block" with the proposed Hayfield Groundwater Storage Program but failed to inform key officials or the public, according to an Orange County Register investigation. Water tests in 2000 found that uranium contamination at Hayfield averaged roughly 16 picocuries per liter, with a high of 35 picocuries per liter. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's limit for uranium in drinking water is 20 picocuries per liter. The five largest community water agencies in Orange County report average uranium levels of 1.9 to 9.4 picocuries per liter.

About a year after a security guard at Exelon's Limerick Nuclear Generating Station was fired for sleeping on the job, another was fired for altering his driver's license to hide the fact that he had been charged by police with three separate offenses.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will study radiological levels at a contaminated nuclear testing facility in the hills north of the San Fernando Valley, officials announced Monday. The $1.5 million study comes ahead of a planned cleanup of the 2,850-acre Santa Susana field lab. The Department of Energy conducted nuclear research at the site 25 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles from the 1950s through 1998.

Hikers now have access to three miles of coastline north of Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. Pacific Gas and Electric Co., which owns the plant and surrounding property, opened the entire length of the Point Buchon Trail to the public June 28. The trail goes from the southern boundary of Montana de Oro State Park to Crowbar Canyon, a point just north of Diablo Canyon Power Plant.

Ed Sayre doesn't like to look at things as "waste." He prefers to look at possibility instead. Sayre is a Los Gatos resident with 40-plus years of developing and building jet engines, space propulsion systems and nuclear power plants for General Electric. He offered his thoughts on the California Nuclear Green Farm as the May 20 speaker at the Campbell Rotary Club.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.-A hazardous materials response team was called to a freight facility near Los Angeles International Airport Saturday after an air cargo container holding low-grade radioactive material was exposed, authorities said.

An international shipping website is publishing co-ordinates of the nuclear shipment after its departure from Port Kembla harbour. Despite a veil of secrecy and extensive anti-terrorism measures for the transfer of the spent nuclear rods over land through Wollongong, the website is carrying up-to-date information about the vessel, MV Lynx, including its location at sea and its expected arrival time in the United States. Even those who do not know the ship's name can find its path, simply by searching for ships which have recently left the country.

Wollongong City Council's long-held position that the city is a nuclear-free zone could prove meaningless, as local government has no power to stop nuclear waste being transported along the area's roads. After receiving notification from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation last November of plans to transport waste through the "Sydney-Illawarra" region, the city's general manager David Farmer wrote to ANSTO informing the federal agency of the council's position. "In March 1980 (the) council resolved to declare its area a nuclear-free zone, to the extent that it would prohibit the mining, storing, manufacturing, transporting and shipping of fissionable nuclear materials, by-products and wastes," Mr Farmer wrote. "(The) council became a member of the Australian Nuclear Free Zones Secretariat in 1986 and remained a member until the abolition of the Secretariat in 1995" and "reaffirmed its nuclear-free stance in November 1996 and again in March 2002."

A reckless energy proposal to provide the nuclear industry with $700 billion in federal loan guarantees was revealed in a recent article, "In Alternative Energy Plan, GOP Calls for 100 New Nuclear Plants in 20 years" by Mosheh Oinounou. Evidence suggests that would expose U.S. citizens to more financial, environmental, and health harm and wouldn't provide additional energy for eight to 10 years at the earliest. Every dollar directed to dangerous, polluting, and costly nuclear power in the energy bill is a dollar that won't be available for safer, more sustainable solar and wind power, which can be produced far sooner. Removing hundreds of billions in nuclear power giveaways (past and present), solar and wind power would be far cheaper without the risks. In this economy it's time to shift the entire financial burden to the nuclear industry where it belongs. This latest nuclear power money grab for $700 billion must be stopped. Enough unlimited tax incentives, loans, loan guarantees, and grants. Potentially a trillion dollars could be wasted on nuclear power that makes things worse, not better.

Spent nuclear fuel is being moved from a storage pool at the twin-reactor Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant to a new above-ground storage facility at the Central Coast facility. Pacific Gas and Electric, operator of the coastal San Luis Obispo County plant, says loading of the used nuclear fuel began Monday night. Eight containers of fuel in a storage pool will be moved during several months to the new interim facility, where they will be anchored to a 7 1/2-foot-thick concrete pad.