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"A few weeks ago the New Mexico Environmental Law Center's media director, Juana Colon, suggested I should write a blog post about policymakers' recent embrace of nuclear power as just a way to enrich the world's economic elites while at the same time continuing to subject poor and minority communities to various kinds of radioactive pollution, and therefore continue to encourage wasteful energy consumption. Her words were actually a lot angrier and profanity-laced, largely because the office had been preoccupied with a series of preposterous pro-nuclear pieces of legislation during the state legislative session (Such as declaring nuclear power green energy [PDF] and seeking that it become part of the governor's clean energy efforts [PDF]) Adding to that, President Obama had also just announced his intention to increase the subsidies the public would lavish on the nuclear industry. I've thought a lot about Juana's suggestion and there are a lot of interesting aspects to the nuclear power puzzle that deserve some ink."

"Earlier this month, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals approved a controversial permit for uranium mining operations at sites in Church Rock, New Mexico. The operation includes a site associated with the largest release of liquid radioactive waste in United States History -- a catastrophe which continues, a generation later, to negatively impact the lives and health of Navajo people residing near the spill site. Over a decade after Navajo leaders and community groups first challenged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) issuance of a mining permit to Hydro Resources, Inc. (HRI) for uranium extraction in Church Rock, the appellate court decided on March 8th to uphold the NRC's decision. The court rejected the plaintiffs' argument that since the site already emits more radiation than federal regulations allow, a license for a new operation is impermissible because even the most miniscule amounts of new radiation emitted would exceed regulatory limits. Instead, the court affirmed both the NRC's decision under the Atomic Energy Act to only review an isolated portion of radiation from the site, as well as its corollary finding that the cumulative impacts of radiation emitted from the site are acceptable under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). "

"The State Land Office and Lea County have agreed on a land swap to provide a site in southeastern New Mexico for a plant to process depleted uranium. Land Commissioner Pat Lyons said Wednesday the state gets about 3,900 acres from the county in exchange for 640 acres near Hobbs. The newly acquired land between Eunice and Jal will be leased by the Land Office for agricultural purposes. The land near Hobbs will become the site for a proposed plant by Idaho Falls, Idaho-based International Isotopes Inc. The plant is to extract commercially valuable fluoride compounds from tailings created by the refining of uranium for nuclear power plant fuel. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is reviewing the company's license application."

"The Department of Energy and its regulators have agreed to new legally binding environmental cleanup deadlines for radioactive waste that has been temporarily buried at central Hanford since 1970. The proposed new package of deadlines would allow more time for some work but also add new deadlines DOE must meet. They include the first-ever deadlines for when some of the waste must be shipped to a national repository in New Mexico and a final cleanup deadline for some of the most difficult-to-handle solid waste, which Hanford now lacks the capabilities to prepare for disposal. "We've come up with a change package that satisfies the interest of DOE, Ecology and the public," said Deborah Singleton, project manager for the Washington State Department of Ecology. The state and the Environmental Protection Agency are Hanford regulators. "

"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. "

Legend says curses come in threes. Let's pray that doesn't happen with the unholy trinity of the Corporate Climate Bill. It demands drilling for oil, digging for coal and big money for new nukes. How such a devil's brew could help save the Earth conjures a corporate cynicism beyond the scope of the human mind and soul. It all now bears a special curse. It was meant for Earth Day. Then it slipped to the April 26 Chernobyl anniversary. But co-sponsor Lindsay Graham (R-SC) pitched a fit over immigration and pulled his support. As did Earth herself. Just prior, more than two dozen hill country miners were killed in a veritable Three Mile Island of black carbon. This entirely avoidable accident was built on years of sloppy denial by King Coal and the tacit assent of pliant regulators. With mountains of offal being pitched into rivers and streams, and underground hell holes filled with gas and soot, coal has been slaughtering people and eco-systems here for more than a century. Now, as at TMI, the death has become visible. Meanwhile, the undersea gusher destroying the Gulf of Mexico may soon pour up the east coast. Like Chernobyl, it defies comprehension. "

"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. "

"They've tried nearly everything else to seal the disastrous oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, so why not just nuke it? No, that's not an original idea. In fact, you can read that suggestion on the pages of one of Russia's leading daily newspapers, Komsomoloskaya Pravda, which claims that the Soviets deployed specially-designed nuclear explosions to extinguish well fires on at least five separate occasions. The idea was to harness the impact of the explosions that, among other things, would push tons of rocks into place and seal any leaks. The newspaper reports that authorities used a 30 ton atomic explosion triggered at an underground depth of six kilometers on Sept. 30, 1966, to extinguish burning gas wells in Urt-Bulak, an area about 80 kilometers from Bukhara. "

"Senator John Kerry ratcheted up the fight to pass legislation to combat global warming on Wednesday, unveiling a bill as the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster complicates the measure's already difficult prospects this year. Kerry, a Democrat, and Senator Joseph Lieberman, an independent, took the wraps off their bill as two important deadlines loom. Congressional elections are less than six months away and with Democrats facing losses, June or July could be the last chance for them to pass a climate bill this year, before the political atmosphere gets too overheated. Then there's the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which stands ready to put regulations into effect in January that would reduce carbon dioxide pollution from power plants and factories if Congress fails to act."

"The human-caused oil gusher on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico illustrates a point about low-probability, high-cost industrial disasters: The industry will pay some; the public will pay the rest in cash and trauma. The nuclear power industry is a lot like that. On one hand, utility companies assure us that nuclear technology is exceedingly safe. On the other hand, it's clear that they don't think a serious accident is out of the question, since they refuse to build nuclear power plants unless the government limits their liability, as it has done since the 1950s. How safe is nuclear energy? Judging from the actions of those in the industry, it's not safe enough for them to bet their own companies' measly futures on it unless they have government backup (that's us). A major accident is improbable, but a nuclear catastrophe would make BP's spill in the gulf look like a paper cut. "

"Tourists in New Mexico know the art galleries of Santa Fe and the ski slopes of Taos, but not the state's truly unique attraction: the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, is a series of caverns mined out of underground salt beds. The Department of Energy has been burying "transuranic" waste there for 11 years. The waste includes gloves, equipment and chemicals contaminated - probably with plutonium - during the making of nuclear weapons. It's dangerous stuff but fairly easily handled. That's what WIPP was built to take. But the federal government has a lot of other really hot, high-level waste to get rid of - especially spent fuel from reactors. "

"The "American Power Act", the Kerry/Lieberman energy bill, was drafted to offer a lot of encouragement for offshore drilling. But then the Deepwater Horizon oil rig collapsed in the Gulf of Mexico and reminded everybody that, though drilling rig collapses are extraordinarily rare, they make a disastrous mess when they happen. The incentives to drill were kept, but the legislation was quickly amended to give states veto power over offshore drilling within 75 miles of shore. Why is that offered as a compromise? Does it make any less likely offshore oil rigs might collapse? Of course not. And it only marginally reduces the risk of onshore damage should a spill occur, since whether the oil comes ashore is a matter more of tides and currents and wind and rate of release than proximity. So why does giving states veto power somehow make the risk of offshore drilling seem different? "

"Manufacturers of refrigerator-sized nuclear reactors will seek approval from U.S. authorities within a year to help supply the world's growing electricity demand. John Deal, chief executive officer of Hyperion Power Generation Inc., intends to apply for a license "within a year" for plants that would power a small factory or town too remote for traditional utility grid connections. The Santa Fe, New Mexico-based company and Japan's Toshiba Corp. are vying for a head start over reactor makers General Electric Co. and Areva SA in downsizing nuclear technology and aim to submit license applications in the next year to U.S. regulators. They're seeking to tap a market that has generated about $135 billion in pending orders for large nuclear plants. "

"Canadians have watched in horror as BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill has mushroomed week by week into the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. The damage to the Gulf's ecosystem is unknown. Oceanographers report seeing massive columns of oil well below the surface. This is a phenomenon not seen before. Likewise, the chemical dispersants used so far may prove to be a "cure" that rivals the oil itself for toxicity. Economically, the costs are already staggering. BP has spent nearly $1 billion on cleanup and appears to have barely made a dent. Fishing and oceanside tourism anywhere in the Gulf states are crippled. Huge areas of precious wetland may have to be burnt. Here in Canada we can draw some conclusions already about the consequences of this spill, which is now at least twice as serious as theExxon Valdezdisaster in 1989. "

"The U.S. nuclear power industry, when responding to concerns raised by the nuclear disaster in Japan, leaned on lessons learned from the oil industry's response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a top official with the Nuclear Energy Institute said Thursday. The institute, the main trade group for nuclear power companies, crafted emergency plans and developed a communication strategy after analyzing the events surrounding the April 2010 spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Tony Pietrangelo, NEI's chief nuclear officer said. "We were fortunate, I think, as an industry," Pietrangelo said before a panel of nuclear specialists that works with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Following the BP PLC Deepwater Horizon explosion last year, "we kind of did a lessons-learned on that-how we would apply that to our industry if we had an event like that." "

Former Republican Sen. Pete Domenici, who served as New Mexico's senator for decades before retiring due to health problems, has landed a new gig. He is now a senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) according to a press release from the Washington D.C.-based think tank. The BPC was created in 2007 by former Sens. Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, Bob Dole and George Mitchell. The BPC, according to its About Us page, "was formed to develop and promote solutions that would attract the public support and political momentum to achieve real progress." The BPC currently is focused on five issues: national security, health care, energy, agriculture and transportation.

When PowerTech Uranium Corp. began drilling exploration wells in northern Colorado, landowners scrambled to gather baseline water quality information and to learn all they could about the in-situ leach uranium mining process being proposed throughout several western states. Then in March, a Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality internal report revealed several years-long regulatory violations at the nation's largest operational in-situ uranium mine, Cameco Corp.'s Smith Ranch-Highland mine north of Glenrock.

ALBUQUERQUE -- A state committee has approved a proposal from five American Indian tribes to give central New Mexico's Mount Taylor temporary protection as a cultural property at a contentious meeting. The state Cultural Properties Review Committee voted 4-2 Saturday in Grants for an emergency listing of more than 422,000 acres surrounding the mountain's summit on the state Register of Cultural Properties.