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The International Commission on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament, an international panel co-chaired by former Japanese and Australian foreign ministers Ms. Yoriko Kawaguchi and Mr. Gareth Evans, agreed Oct. 20 on an action plan toward global nuclear disarmament after a three-day meeting in the atomic-bombed city of Hiroshima. The action plan, to be included in a final report issued in January, will call for a drastic reduction of nuclear weapons worldwide by 2025, although the ICNND did not disclose a target figure at this point. Ms. Kawaguchi said the figure, taking into account the capacity of nuclear weapons dismantling facilities, will be "realistic yet ambitious."

The International Commission on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament, an international panel co-chaired by former Japanese and Australian foreign ministers Ms. Yoriko Kawaguchi and Mr. Gareth Evans, agreed Oct. 20 on an action plan toward global nuclear disarmament after a three-day meeting in the atomic-bombed city of Hiroshima. The action plan, to be included in a final report issued in January, will call for a drastic reduction of nuclear weapons worldwide by 2025, although the ICNND did not disclose a target figure at this point. Ms. Kawaguchi said the figure, taking into account the capacity of nuclear weapons dismantling facilities, will be "realistic yet ambitious."

I read your story on Ms. Livingston and the power plant and couldn't resist comment. If Ms. Livingston was so appalled by the power plant, she should have moved somewhere else. A woman as bright as she is must have known the power plant was there. She claims to be able to see the stacks from her windows! The idea of wind generation is great, but that would mean dotting the entire Massachusetts coastline with wind turbines. That won't happen because Ted Kennedy doesn't want them to blight his viewing of the Vineyard! You can't have it both ways.

QUEENSLAND Premier Anna Bligh is facing an untimely revolt within the Labor Party -- including from powerbrokers, regional branches and her backbench -- over her refusal to allow uranium mining in the state. As Queensland was hit yesterday by Anglo Coal's shedding of 650 staff and contractors, Ms Bligh was accused of sacrificing job opportunities and billions of dollars in royalties with an "outdated policy" to block the mining of yellowcake. The Australian has obtained a motion for July's ALP national conference, passed by the Mount Isa regional conference last November, warning Ms Bligh she risks voter revenge in regional Queensland at this election.

New Delhi: As a Congresswoman, Ellen O. Tauscher strongly opposed the U.S.-India nuclear deal. But President Barack Obama's nominee for a key non-proliferation post in the State Department did a U-turn on Tuesday, telling a Senate panel that the new administration supports the agreement and intends to implement it and that she would do her part to further nuclear cooperation with India if confirmed in the job of Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. Ms. Tauscher's views were expressed in a series of answers to written questions posed by Senator Richard Lugar.

- The annual telephone survey to gauge public attitudes about the community's low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) clean-up is set to kick-off once again in Port Hope. The Port Hope Area Initiative's (PHAI) eighth annual public attitude survey will get underway in mid-November, said Sue Stickley, communications officer. Every year, the PHAI surveys local residents to get feedback on issues related to the clean-up and safe long-term management of historic low-level radioactive waste in the community. As in past years, individual survey responses are absolutely confidential, but the overall results will be made public. "If you receive a phone call and are invited to take part in the survey, please take a few moments to answer the interviewer's questions," said Ms. Stickley.

- The annual telephone survey to gauge public attitudes about the community's low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) clean-up is set to kick-off once again in Port Hope. The Port Hope Area Initiative's (PHAI) eighth annual public attitude survey will get underway in mid-November, said Sue Stickley, communications officer. Every year, the PHAI surveys local residents to get feedback on issues related to the clean-up and safe long-term management of historic low-level radioactive waste in the community. As in past years, individual survey responses are absolutely confidential, but the overall results will be made public. "If you receive a phone call and are invited to take part in the survey, please take a few moments to answer the interviewer's questions," said Ms. Stickley.

The Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), has a requirement for a contractor to provide technical assistance to the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health (ABRWH). The purpose of this announcement is to provide a draft statement of work and invite public comments about this requirement. The draft is shown below. Comments should be submitted to Ms. Florence Black at the Contracting Office Address shown above, via email to fpblack@cdc.gov, or via fax at 412-386-6843. Comments are requested by no later than October 31, 2007.

Please be informed. An outstanding book is out by novelist Gwyneth Cravens titled Power to Save the World. In this book the author traces her journey from Nuclear opponent to an understanding that it represents truly the path toward saving the world. Ms Cravens met a scientist Dr Rip Anderson who is an expert in risk assessment and analysis and nuclear energy. He patiently explained the true benefits of nuclear power apparently overcoming every objection posed by the conventional wisdom of nuclear opponents. The two of them decided that the book would detail the authors journey conducted by Dr Anderson toward nuclear understanding.

NEW DELHI: French nuclear power company Areva has offered to sell its next generation European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) of 1600 MWe to India. The company is presently installing this technology for setting up a nuclear reactor in Finland and is also looking at the Chinese market. Union Minister of State for Power Jairam Ramesh said that Areva CEO Anne Louvergeon recently held talks with the Atomic Energy Department and the Power Ministry. "I along with Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar held talks with Ms. Louvergeon in Mumbai and she offered India the next generation EPRs. There will be further talks on the issue and a decision would be taken accordingly," he added.

TWENTY two years on from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, MEP Jill Evans says the anniversary serves as a timely reminder of why nuclear power must be phased out. Ms Evans visited the site of the nuclear power plant two years ago with a group of MEPs and met local people whose lives were shattered by the disaster as well as people who are now working to secure the site.

Attempts by the nuclear lobby to end Scottish opposition to new nuclear power stations with spin and advertising have been criticised by SNP MSP Shirley-Anne Somerville. Ms Somerville also condemned scottish Secretary Jim Murphy for joining the nuclear lobby's marketing men. The conference is focussed on how to convince the public that nuclear technology is safe, it includes sessions such as "making the nuclear case - what advertising can teach us" and a session on how to convince voters on nuclear energy. In their own opinion poll it shows that a majority of Scots remain unconvinced over nuclear power.

Premier Anna Bligh says uranium mining would not be much help to the Queensland economy, as one of her MP breaks ranks saying Labor should reconsider its ban. Mount Isa MP Betty Kiernan says Labor should reconsider the ban since hundreds of jobs have been lost in the mining sector. Ms Kiernan says she has long held the view that uranium could help sustain the region in the future.

Philippines-As antinuclear plant activists started marching on Saturday to mark the 24th anniversary of the Welgang Bayan against the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP), Balanga (Bataan) Bishop Socrates Villegas expressed disgust at President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for considering nuclear power as an energy source. The bishop was reacting to a speech of Ms Arroyo at a meeting of the International Friendship Exchange Council of Japan in Tokyo on Friday where the President said the Philippines was in the process of renewing its energy options, including the use of nuclear power.

The Native Community Action Council (NCAC) is prepared to provide oral arguments to support a Petition to Intervene and Contentions before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on the Department of Energy (DOE) License Application to construct a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, NV. The NCAC filed one of twelve petitions along with contentions in response of the NRC's Notice of Hearing October 22, 2008. The twelve parties presented 319 contentions, to which the DOE has responded are all invalid. Licensing hearings begin March 31, 2009 in Las Vegas, NV on the Petitions to Intervene. According to Margene Bullcreek, President of the NCAC, "We are a vulnerable population and need representation of our contentions in licensing." Ms. Bullcreek added, "We fought against the monitored retrievable storage site for nuclear waste on the Skull Valley Indian Reservation to protect the land and people…and, we are doing the same here."

Ever since our organization had Gwyneth Cravens as our Edward Teller Dinner Lecturer I cannot separate the notion that saving the world and nuclear energy are inextricably linked. Ms. Cravens wrote a book called "The Power to Save the World: The Truth about Nuclear Energy." I have been passionate about the proper role that nuclear should play in our energy mix for many decades, but now I have a rallying cry that conjures up all the rational bases for wanting to go full bore on nuclear energy as fast as we can.

A federal court has ruled the Harper government was within its right to fire the country's nuclear safety watchdog without proving misconduct on Linda Keen's part - dismissing her effort to have her 2008 ouster declared unlawful. The federal court of Canada ruled this week that the presidency of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission was not as secure a tenure as Ms. Keen had argued it was, saying the regulator served "at [the] pleasure" of the government and given this designation her removal was conducted fairly.

"AN anti-nuclear group is heading to Westminster to voice its feelings on the future of the nuclear industry. Marianne Birkby, founder of South Lakes anti-nuclear group Radiation Free Lakeland, will speak to the Parliamentary Select Committee Inquiry on January 27. Three new sites in Cumbria have been identified as suitable for new nuclear power stations - Kirksanton, Sellafield and Braystones. Public consultation is currently on-going. Ms Birkby said: "The nuclear juggernaut will only be stopped by people saying no - as people are doing in Germany where 50,000 people of all walks of life, including convoys of farmers on tractors marched in Berlin opposing the proposed extension of the life of existing nuclear plants - no one in Germany is proposing new build and certainly no country in the world is proposing such a blanket nuclear sacrifice zone in such a small area as the UK government"."

"Sara Barczak, program director for high risk energy choices at the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said the lack of storage for nuclear waste is a national problem. But it is especially problematic in the Southeast, where there is a concentration of nuclear plants, she said. She said reactor sites never were intended to be "mini Yucca Mountains." "These were sites that were evaluated in the 1970s and 1980s to be homes for nuclear power plants for about 40 years," Ms. Barczak said. "They were never intended to store what is basically the most toxic waste known to man.""

Union Electric Company d/b/a Amerenue; Acceptance for Docketing of an Application for Combined License for Callaway Plant Unit 2 Nuclear Power Plant By letter dated July 28, 2008, as supplemented by letters dated September 24, 2008, November 14, 2008, and November 25, 2008, Union Electric Company d/b/a AmerenUE (AmerenUE), submitted an application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a combined license (COL) for a single unit of the U.S. Evolutionary Power Reactor (U.S. EPR) in accordance with the requirements contained in 10 CFR Part 52, ``Licenses, Certifications and Approvals for Nuclear Power Plants.'' This reactor will be identified as Callaway Plant Unit 2 and is to be located at the current Callaway County, Missouri site of the Callaway Power Plant. A notice of receipt and availability of this application was previously published in the Federal Register (73 FR 59677) on October 9, 2008, as corrected in Federal Register (73 FR 61444 on October 16, 2008).

The sun didn't set on chances for a new nuclear plant in Mississippi with the election of Barack Obama, but the skies became far more cloudy. As a candidate, Obama set two preconditions for any new approvals that may be impossible for energy companies to meet. One was no federal subsidy for the costs. The other was for an approved facility for storage of nuclear waste to be in operation - and Obama doesn't support a repository at Yucca Mountain, the Nevada site proposed by the U.S. Department of Energy for spent fuel many years ago and a political football since.