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Energy Northwest must pay an $80,000 fine to the state for waste management violations after a penalty against the Richland-based power supplier was recently upheld. The state Pollution Control Hearings Board upheld the 2007 complaint, filed by the state Department of Ecology after waste management violations were found at the Columbia Generating Center nuclear power plant outside Richland. But the board reduced the amount of the penalties from $120,000 to $80,000. Jane Hedges, Department of Ecology Nuclear Waste Program manager, said the violations were discovered during six weeks of inspections between July and August 2007. According to an administrative order issued to Energy Northwest in early October 2007, the Department of Ecology's findings included the discovery of two 55-gallon drums partially full of unknown liquids and 17 partially full plastic bags containing soil contaminated by petroleum products. Also found were a 10-gallon drum partially full of "dark sludge," and 12 five-gallon pails full of liquid waste, some of which was labeled paint.

Energy Northwest must pay an $80,000 fine to the state for waste management violations after a penalty against the Richland-based power supplier was recently upheld. The state Pollution Control Hearings Board upheld the 2007 complaint, filed by the state Department of Ecology after waste management violations were found at the Columbia Generating Center nuclear power plant outside Richland. But the board reduced the amount of the penalties from $120,000 to $80,000. Jane Hedges, Department of Ecology Nuclear Waste Program manager, said the violations were discovered during six weeks of inspections between July and August 2007. According to an administrative order issued to Energy Northwest in early October 2007, the Department of Ecology's findings included the discovery of two 55-gallon drums partially full of unknown liquids and 17 partially full plastic bags containing soil contaminated by petroleum products. Also found were a 10-gallon drum partially full of "dark sludge," and 12 five-gallon pails full of liquid waste, some of which was labeled paint.

Energy Northwest's proposal to research whether another nuclear reactor should be built in Washington state ignores better and less risky energy alternatives, writes guest columnist Sara Patton, executive director of the NW Energy Coalition. By Sara Patton NOTHING could do more to spotlight the need to draw tomorrow's power from energy efficiency and new renewable resources than the recent news that Energy Northwest wants to build more nuclear-power plants in Washington. Energy Northwest - a consortium of 25 publicly owned Washington electric utilities - is asking its members to pay for additional research for a proposed nuclear plant that it says could be under construction in 2014. The fledgling project ignores the severe financial and radioactive waste-disposal risks still posed by nuclear power. And it disregards extensive documentation of the region's substantial clean-energy potential.

A quarter century after its ambitious plan to build five nuclear plants crumbled into a punch line for government incompetence, a regional power consortium in the Pacific Northwest is quietly shopping the idea of building another reactor. Energy Northwest, which is already expanding its wind, solar and biomass electricity generation, aims to satisfy increasing demand for carbon-free power in one of the country's most environmentally conscious regions. In a May 27 letter obtained by The Associated Press, the consortium asked each of its 25 member public utilities and municipalities to pitch in $25,000 for further research into building one or more small reactors. Those who pay would have first rights to any power produced if a plant is built.

Energy Northwest has taken prompt and aggressive action to address a string of unplanned shutdowns, said Scott Oxenford, chief nuclear officer of the Columbia Generating Station. Tuesday night the Nuclear Regulatory Commission held a meeting in Richland to provide the public with information about the Richland nuclear power reactor's performance last year. About 30 people attended. Because of the unplanned shutdowns, or scrams, the plant has been receiving heightened oversight. As of Tuesday, 29 of the nation's 104 power reactors were receiving heightened oversight because of issues. "

State officials contend in federal-court documents filed Tuesday that the Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management has authority over EnergySolutions Inc.'s Clive facility in Tooele County, where the company wants to store low-level nuclear waste from Italy. In a motion for summary judgment filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City, Utah assistant attorney general Fred Nelson said the Northwest Compact has had authority over the Clive facility since 1991, when Envirocare, which later became EnergySolutions, asked the compact to store low-level radioactive waste. Since that time, the compact has responded to similar requests based on language in a 1985 federal act that created the compact.

MOSCOW, June 16 (RIA Novosti) - Russian nuclear power agency Rosatom dismissed on Monday rumors circulating of a radioactive leak from two plants in northwest and south Russia. Bogus e-mail messages on June 15 said that there had been alleged radioactive leaks at the Leningrad nuclear power station, in northwest Russia, and the Volgodonsk nuclear power plant, in the south of the country, a spokesman for the company said.

Members of Congress are wondering who -- if anyone -- would control EnergySolutions' Utah disposal site should a federal judge rule the company isn't subject to a regional oversight authority. U.S. House energy and environment subcommittee members, all Democrats, wrote to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Tuesday to air their concerns and to ask for the federal agency's assessment of what it will mean if, as the company insists, the Northwest Compact lacks control over EnergySolutions. "Uncertainty about who is in charge of regulating foreign waste could turn into chaos depending on the outcome in this case," said U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, a Utah lawmaker who is co-sponsoring legislation to ban the type of foreign-waste imports EnergySolutions has requested. The letter to NRC comes nearly two weeks after U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart heard oral arguments from the Salt Lake City nuclear-waste company on one side and the state of Utah, the Northwest Compact and the Rocky Mountain Compact on the other. The pending ruling is expected to say whether the site must answer to the compact, of which Utah has been a member for more than two decades.

Opposition mounted this week against a federal court ruling that limits the power of a regional waste compact to restrict radioactive waste going to disposal facilities like the one operated in Tooele County by EnergySolutions Inc. Nothing short of states' rights are at stake in a federal court ruling on the government authority over radioactive waste headed to EnergySolutions Inc.'s Utah disposal site. In filing a friend-of-the-court brief Thursday in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, New Mexico joined a growing line of opponents to a May ruling by U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart. It basically said EnergySolutions no longer has to answer to the Northwest Interstate Compact on low-level radioactive waste. Utah, the Northwest Compact and the Rocky Mountain Compact, which share a low-level waste disposal site in Hanford, Wash., are appealing Stewart's ruling, and they filed papers in the case last week. Six regional compacts, joined by New Mexico and the Council of State Governments, weighed in Thursday. And, with all the papers filed Thursday, eight of the nation's ten congressionally established compacts have weighed in the effort to overturn Stewart's ruling. Compacts represent all but six states. The two remaining compacts, which manage waste within eight states, have through Tuesday to join the fray.

Utah's court fight over who controls the flow of radioactive waste is turning into a national test case, as the state and its allies formally launched their appeal on Thursday and waste agencies representing eight more states prepared to join the fray. Attorneys for Utah, the Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-level Radioactive Wastes and the Rocky Mountain Compact filed their initial arguments Thursday at the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. Representing 11 states, the three want the Denver court to overturn U.S. District Court Judge Ted Stewart's May ruling in favor of the Salt Lake City nuclear waste company EnergySolutions Inc. Rocky Mountain Compact attorneys said Stewart's decision puts the nation's entire waste oversight system at risk. "The District Court's ruling unravels the long-standing solution to the problem of low-level radioactive waste disposal -- which was crafted by the compact states and Congress over 20 years ago," attorneys wrote. Stewart ruled that EnergySolutions is not subject to the authority of the Northwest Compact because it was not created by the compact. The state's appeal says that ruling is an error because it relied heavily on a law that Congress repealed in 1986 and because it undermines Congress' intent in creating compacts to encourage new low-level waste disposal sites.

Utah is joining the fight to stop EnergySolutions Inc. from burying large volumes of foreign radioactive waste in its Tooele County landfill. The paperwork has not been filed yet, but the state's plans to appeal were revealed in papers filed last week in Washington. Last month U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart ruled that the Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-level Radioactive Waste had no authority over EnergySolutions' Utah disposal site. And there has been some question whether the state of Utah, which is a Northwest Compact member, would join an appeal of that ruling. Stewart's ruling, in effect, crimps Utah's power through the compact to control the low-level radioactive waste that goes to EnergySolutions, including the leftovers from cleaning up Italy's dismantled nuclear reactors that the company wants to import. Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. aligned the state with the compact. But Huntsman has been nominated to become U.S. ambassador to China and is expected to be replaced soon by Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, whose views on the lawsuit are unknown.

A regional organization is headed back to court in a fight to reclaim its authority over a Utah company, including whether it can dispose of foreign radioactive waste. The Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-level Radioactive Waste will take the case to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver in hopes of overturning a decision by U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart. In his May 15 ruling, Stewart sided with EnergySolutions Inc., the Salt Lake City-based nuclear waste company that wants to import waste generated in Italy and other foreign countries and bury it at its disposal site in Tooele County. The Northwest Compact, which includes Utah and seven other states, made the decision to push forward with an appeal on Monday.

Five of France's 19 nuclear plants fell behind in terms of safety and management standards in 2008, France's nuclear safety watchdog ASN said. The plants are Belleville in central France, Paluel in the northwest, Cruas in the southeast, Fessenheim in eastern France and Flamanville in the northwest, the ASN said late on Tuesday in its second public yearly report on nuclear safety. Flamanville and Fessenheim were behind for the second year running, it added. Fessenheim's reactor 1, France's oldest nuclear reactor, will undergo its third once-a-decade inspection in the autumn, after which the ASN will determine whether or not the plant can run for another 10 years.

"The Department of Energy no longer will automatically seek bids for management of national laboratories, including Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and may instead renew agreements with current contractors. In a new policy statement, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said that the practice common under the previous presidential administration of routinely opening the lab contracts to competition often did not have the expected benefits of saving money and improving efficiency. Under Chu's leadership, the decision on whether to open management contracts for competition will be decided case by case. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland has been operated by Battelle since 1964, but DOE decided to open the management of the lab to competition in 2007."

Report: Energy Department on verge of abandoning nuke dump application We have cheered the Obama administration's decision to eventually shutter the ill-conceived Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project by starving it of federal funding. Nonetheless, our optimism has been tempered because the Energy Department still has a pending license application before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build a permanent dump for the nation's high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. What we eagerly await is the day when the Energy Department abandons the application so that the idea of forcing a potentially deadly nuke waste dump, on a state that does not want it, is buried for good.

Report: Energy Department on verge of abandoning nuke dump application We have cheered the Obama administration's decision to eventually shutter the ill-conceived Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project by starving it of federal funding. Nonetheless, our optimism has been tempered because the Energy Department still has a pending license application before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build a permanent dump for the nation's high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. What we eagerly await is the day when the Energy Department abandons the application so that the idea of forcing a potentially deadly nuke waste dump, on a state that does not want it, is buried for good.

Report: Energy Department on verge of abandoning nuke dump application We have cheered the Obama administration's decision to eventually shutter the ill-conceived Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project by starving it of federal funding. Nonetheless, our optimism has been tempered because the Energy Department still has a pending license application before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build a permanent dump for the nation's high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. What we eagerly await is the day when the Energy Department abandons the application so that the idea of forcing a potentially deadly nuke waste dump, on a state that does not want it, is buried for good.

A new nuclear facility in the Northwest? Residents of southwest Idaho appear sharply divided over a proposed new nuclear power plant near the Oregon-Idaho border. Thursday night, around 250 people filled a high school auditorium for an initial public hearing on the project. KPLU's Tom Banse reports from Payette, Idaho. Full story A small Idaho company called Alternate Energy Holdings is proposing a large commercial nuclear power plant on private ranchland in rural Payette County. Payette resident Kent Porter was one of dozens of locals who testified they'd welcome a nuke plant. Kent Porter: "Someday if we don't get cheap power to keep our farmers going, we're all going to pay dearly when our food prices go up."

A new nuclear facility in the Northwest? Residents of southwest Idaho appear sharply divided over a proposed new nuclear power plant near the Oregon-Idaho border. Thursday night, around 250 people filled a high school auditorium for an initial public hearing on the project. KPLU's Tom Banse reports from Payette, Idaho. Full story A small Idaho company called Alternate Energy Holdings is proposing a large commercial nuclear power plant on private ranchland in rural Payette County. Payette resident Kent Porter was one of dozens of locals who testified they'd welcome a nuke plant. Kent Porter: "Someday if we don't get cheap power to keep our farmers going, we're all going to pay dearly when our food prices go up."

Twenty-five years ago this summer, prospects for a nuclear-powered Northwest imploded. In what was then the nation's largest municipal bond default, the Washington Public Power Supply System told creditors it could not make payment on a $2.25 billion debt it incurred to build two large nuclear plants. Today, as we contemplate regional energy options, the Supply System's abandoned projects still cast a shadow.

I've long marveled at the inanity of "realists" like Seattle Times editorial page editor Jim Vesely, who foolishly believe we should turn to nuclear power to extract ourselves from dependence on foreign oil: Bringing back nuclear power to the Pacific Northwest has been such a taboo subject in political circles that you would think the rivers would have to run dust-dry before the topic is accepted at wine parties in Magnolia.

A grassroots group called Save Our Saskatchewan has formed in northwest Saskatchewan with a goal to bring information about a potential nuclear power plant to the community. "We're working on trying to get the information out," said Meggan Hougham, secretary of the recently formed group, which she describes as citizens "very concerned" about nuclear power. A meeting and question and answer period with Jim Harding, a former professor at the University of Regina, will be held at 7:30 p.m. today at the community hall in Paradise Hill, located northeast of Lloydminster. Bruce Power, the company proposing to build a nuclear reactor in Saskatchewan, has spoken with landowners near the small community about locating the reactor in the area.

For more than 20 years, the government's plan to dispose of highly radioactive spent fuel piling up at U.S. nuclear power reactors has been to haul it to Yucca Mountain and entomb it in a maze of tunnels. But this year, more than a decade before the first shipment was ever expected to arrive at the mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, and years before a license could have been approved for the project, the Obama administration halted funding, saying the Nevada site was "not an option." That prompted a group of university experts on nuclear waste policy to explore another plan. That plan, they hope, will chart the course for a soon-to-be-chosen Department of Energy blue ribbon panel to follow as it sets out to develop a new national nuclear waste strategy.

The Columbia Generating Station in Richland remained off-line Monday after a "brief, minor fire" forced operators to shut down the nuclear energy plant manually Friday, an Energy Northwest official said Monday. Rochelle Olson, Energy Northwest's corporate communications officer, said dripping oil sparked a fire in insulation around the plant's turbine system around 7:50 p.m. Friday. Operators used water and fire extinguishers to put out the flames, which Olson estimated at 1 to 2 inches tall. "This was more like combustion material," she said.

The Columbia Generating Station in Richland remained off-line Monday after a "brief, minor fire" forced operators to shut down the nuclear energy plant manually Friday, an Energy Northwest official said Monday. Rochelle Olson, Energy Northwest's corporate communications officer, said dripping oil sparked a fire in insulation around the plant's turbine system around 7:50 p.m. Friday. Operators used water and fire extinguishers to put out the flames, which Olson estimated at 1 to 2 inches tall. "This was more like combustion material," she said. No hazardous materials were released and no injuries occurred. The fire was extinguished at 8:06 p.m. Friday, Olson said. She described the oil as "typical oil," saying it "lubricates bearings and things."