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The presidentially appointed commission that oversees the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has rejected an appeal by the groups and a state assemblyman challenging the Indian Point license renewal application under the umbrella of WestCAN. The groups include the Westchester Citizens Awareness Network (WestCAN), Rockland County Conservation Association, Public Health and Sustainable Energy (PHASE), Sierra Club -- Atlantic Chapter and state Assemblyman Richard Brodsky. On July 31, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board panel handling the Indian Point license renewal hearing expelled WestCAN from the proceeding. It did so because the counsel for WestCAN repeatedly disregarded agency regulations and instructions from the panel. In its ruling Tuesday, the commission upheld the expulsion, noting that the actions by WestCAN's counsel have "seriously disrupted the Board's efforts to meet its responsibility to conduct a fair, orderly and efficient hearing, has interfered with the other participants' efforts to use their own litigation resources efficiently, and has made our own review of the appellate documents and the underlying record far more time-consuming than necessary."

France's vast nuclear power network has largely shielded it from the Russian gas crisis, handing the country's atomic energy sector an unexpected public relations coup. With 80 percent of its electricity generated by nuclear power stations, the highest proportion in the world, France was able to reassure nervous households and industry after the Russia-Ukraine dispute cut off gas supplies to Europe. The gas crisis coincided with exceptionally cold weather in France, testing its power system to the limit as households turned up their heaters to maximum.

In a corner of Wiltshire - deep underneath the Cotswolds - is a network of tunnels and rooms that would have housed the British government in the 1960s in the event of a nuclear attack. The dark and dusty underground complex near Corsham has remained relatively untouched since the height of the Cold War. But if the crucial moment had come - would ministers have pressed the UK's nuclear button? Here, historian Professor Peter Hennessy tours the Corsham bunker for Radio 4 - and finds out if the former Labour Defence Secretary Denis Healey, and the late Prime Minister Sir James Callaghan, would have retaliated in the event of a Soviet nuclear attack.

California is urging federal regulators to turn down the Energy Department's bid to build a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, charging analysts did not fully study how the plan would affect Death Valley groundwater and the state's transportation networks. "Proceeding with the project in the manner described by DOE poses a threat to the people, natural resources and environment of California," attorneys said at the outset of a 400-page document filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Share & Save Newsvine Digg Fark Technorati reddit StumbleUpon del.icio.us Slashdot Propeller Mixx Furl Twitter MySpace Facebook Google Bookmarks Yahoo! Bookmarks Windows Live Favorites Ask MyStuff myAOL Favorites What is this? Most Popular Stories # WYNN RESORTS: Enter the Encore # NORM: Fredericks bidding KVBC-TV farewell # HAPPY NEW YEAR: Rates for rooms at discounts # SILENT NIGHT: Workers outnumber stocked racks at soon-to-be-closed stores # NORM: Deadbeat leaves his mark on Strip # F Street closing called biased # NORM: Record numbers of strippers seen # LAS VEGAS LAWYER: Justices chide 'heavy hitter' # North Las Vegas police officer arrested on misconduct, other charges # Station Casinos to use its remaining credit The commission "may not approve DOE's license application unless DOE provides an adequate environmental analysis that analyzes threats to California and how to mitigate them," said the lawyers from the state's Energy Commission and its Department of Justice.

An Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, or ASLB, panel accepted one contention for a hearing on Progress Energy's combined construction permit-operating license, or COL, application for a new unit at its Harris plant in North Carolina. The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board panel said in an October 30 order that the North Carolina Waste Awareness and Reduction Network, or NC WARN, has standing to intervene and accepted a contention the group filed in August. NC WARN contends that the Harris COL application is incomplete because the NRC is still reviewing proposed amendments to its certification of the Westinghouse AP1000 design that Progress Energy plans to use. The ASLB panel said a hearing on the contention will be "held in abeyance" pending further review by the NRC staff and resolution of the issues in the ongoing design certification amendment rulemaking.

Informal communication among British veterans of the first Iraq war may have shaped the vets' characterization of Gulf War Syndrome. After the bullets stopped flying, the rumors took off among British veterans of the 1991 Gulf War. Early accounts of physical and emotional reactions to wartime experiences spread from one person to another through networks of veterans. Within a few years, these former soldiers had decided among themselves that many of them suffered from the controversial illness known as Gulf War Syndrome, a new study concludes.

The nuclear smuggling ring headed by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan possessed a broader range of secret nuclear designs than was previously known and shared them electronically among members of the network, a U.N. watchdog group said yesterday. A report by the International Atomic Energy Agency also acknowledged large gaps in investigators' understanding of the smuggling ring, raising concerns that Khan's nuclear black market may have had additional customers whose identities remain unknown.

Information Network for Responsible Mining ("INFORM") is a nonprofit organization with the mission of educating the public about the dangers that exist when unsafe and irresponsible mining practices are permitted. Through the dissemination of information and education, INFORM helps organize residents in local communities most threatened by these practices to protect water quality, quality of life and the local economy.

The US Central Intelligence Agency recruited a family of Swiss engineers to help it thwart the Libyan and Iranian nuclear programs as well as an underground supply network of Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, The New York Times reported on its website late Sunday. The newspaper said the operation involved Friedrich Tinner and his two sons, who have been accused in Switzerland of dealing with rogue nations seeking nuclear equipment and expertise.

Under pressure from the public, the Vermont Legislature can close the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. The Vermont Legislature will make history in a vote expected as early as January on whether to allow the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant to continue operating after 2012. Never before has a state taken such a vote. "This is a tremendous opportunity for us," said Deb Katz of the Citizens Awareness Network, an antinuclear group based in Shelburne Falls. "But it's not going to be easy."

Turkey seeks to finalize the tender process, which is expected to attract many foreign investors, for its first nuclear power plant without any delays in a bid to close the gap between energy demand and supply. Turkey resorts to nuclear energy to meet its increasing demand Turkey needs to make a total $70 billion investment in energy production and distribution network by 2020 to meet its increasing demand, a government body said this week. It also said net energy import in 2008 is expected to hit $46-47 billion. Energy Minister Hilmi Guler admitted the urgent need of increasing energy production and ruled out any delay or postponement in Turkey's first nuclear power plant tender, saying, "We have no time to lose."

At present, Ignalina nuclear power plant buys the nuclear fuel for about 80% higher price than over the previous year. Network distribution companies are also preparing plans for raising prices. Ignalina nuclear power plant intends to present the request to the State Control Commission for Prices and Energy until October 2008 on the increase of the sale price for the produced electricity.

Nuclear technology and service providers later this month will get a chance to jointly hustle their wares to the federal government, which is planning a conference where industry representatives can set up shop, free of charge, in order to network with Dept. of Energy (DoE) officials in Denver.

BAXLEY, Ga., June 6 (UPI) -- A Georgia nuclear power plant had an unexpected emergency 48-hour shutdown after a recent software update, company officials said. The shutdown, blamed on a cyber incident, occurred March 7 at Unit 2 of the Hatch nuclear power plant near Baxley after a Southern Company engineer installed a software update on the plant's business network, the Washington Post said Friday.

BRATTLEBORO - The recent spate of advertisements promoting the electric power generated at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant as "clean and green" doesn't tell the true story, said two Native Americans whose native lands are severely affected by the nuclear power industry. Lorraine Rekmans, of the Northern Ojibwa people from Elliot Lake, Ontario, and Ian Zabarte, from Mercury, Nev., secretary of state of the Western Shoshone National Council, spoke in Brattleboro Monday night, their last stop in a weeklong visit to Vermont organized by the Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance and Citizens Awareness Network.

Two nuclear watchdog groups called for the immediate shutdown of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant on Friday, saying the latest failure at the Vernon facility is one too many. Members of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group and the Citizens Action Network said at a Statehouse press conference that they have lost all faith in the ability of state and federal regulators to monitor the nuclear plant.

The Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling coalition insists Japan should remain under the U.S. nuclear umbrella, while opposition parties' policies vary on the issue, a survey by a nongovernmental organization opposed to atomic weapons found. The LDP and New Komeito say the U.S. nuclear shield is an "appropriate" deterrent, but the Democratic Party of Japan said there should be more debate, according to the survey conducted by the International Commission on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament Japan NGO Network.

Residents living close to uranium mines, especially large mines, are more likely to have kidney disease, hypertension, diabetes, and autoimmune disease, according to a University of New Mexico health researcher. Johnnye Lewis, Ph.D., principal investigator for the DiNEH Network for Environmental Health Project and director of the Community Environmental Health Program at the UNM Health Sciences Center, briefed a joint state Indian Affairs/Radiation and Hazardous Materials Committee Thursday at UNM on results of an ongoing study.

No matter what we're led to believe, the world's worst polluter is not your cousin who refuses to recycle or that co-worker who drives a gas guzzler or the guy down the block who simply will not try CFL bulbs. "The U.S. Department of Defense is the largest polluter in the world, producing more hazardous waste than the five largest U.S. chemical companies combined," explains Lucinda Marshall, founder of the Feminist Peace Network. Pesticides, defoliants like Agent Orange, solvents, petroleum, lead, mercury, and depleted uranium are among the many deadly substances used by the military. What does this mean for us? To start with, it can help illustrate how to best foment a green revolution. As Derrick Jensen reminds us: "Even if every single person in the United States were to change all their light-bulbs to fluorescent, cut the amount they drive in half, recycle half of their household waste, inflate their tire pressure to increase gas mileage, use low flow shower heads and wash clothes in lower temperature water, adjusts their thermostats two degrees up or down depending on the season, and plant a tree, it would result in a one time, 21% reduction in carbon emissions."