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MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Kislyakov) - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in his address to officers at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia that Russia was focused on strengthening its nuclear capabilities rather than building up its regular armed forces, which makes maintaining the U.S. nuclear arsenal increasingly important.

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Tatyana Sinitsina) - The last day of Vladimir Putin's presidency, May 6, was crowned with an impressive achievement - Russia and the United States signed an agreement on civilian uses of nuclear energy. This is an extraordinary event - the two sides waited for it for over 18 years. Experts consider this document very important and believe that it can take bilateral energy relations from the political to the economic sphere.

Despite progress against nuke dump proposal, Nevada should remain vigilant Now that the Obama administration has followed through with a promise to strip federal funding from a proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, many of the project's ardent supporters have begun throwing in the towel. The Washington Post, which has supported burying nuclear waste in Nevada, wrote in an editorial last Sunday that "the Yucca Mountain project is dead." At a Senate Budget Committee hearing Wednesday, ranking Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire said: "I don't want to save Yucca. I accept the fact that may not be viable." The most stunning comment, though, came from Alex Flint, senior vice president for governmental affairs of the Nuclear Energy Institute. Referring to the nuclear waste now stored at reactors, Flint was quoted on National Public Radio Wednesday as saying: "In many ways, we've reduced the urgency of a need to find some other solution for this material. We can definitely deal with this material for decades or hundreds of years. It would be ideal to come up with some eventual disposition proposal in this regard, but we have a lot of time to figure that out."

"The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has prepared an Environmental Assessment for the issuance of an Order as authorized by Section 274f of the Atomic Energy Act that would modify an Order issued to EnergySolutions, LLC (formerly Envirocare of Utah, Inc.) on May 7, 1999 (64 FR 27826; May 21, 1999). In accordance with 10 CFR 51.33, the NRC prepared a draft Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for this amendment, which was published for public review and comment on October 7, 2009 (74 FR 51622). The public comment period closed on November 6, 2009. NRC received 12 comments from 4 commenters. The Order responds to a request by EnergySolutions dated September 26, 2006, to amend the package mass limits contained in Condition 4 of their 2006 Order, and to add or revise other conditions. The May 7, 1999, Order exempted EnergySolutions from certain NRC regulations and permitted EnergySolutions, under specified conditions, to possess waste containing special nuclear material (SNM), in greater quantities than specified in 10 CFR Part 150 at its facility located in Clive, Utah, without obtaining an NRC license under 10 CFR Part 70. As discussed below, the Order has been amended four times since it was issued in 1999. "

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff is seeking public comment on its preliminary conclusion that there are no environmental impacts that would preclude renewal of the operating license for the Beaver Valley Power Station in Shippingport, Pa. The information is contained in a draft supplemental environmental impact statement on the proposed license renewal issued last month. As part of its license renewal application, First Energy submitted an environmental report. The NRC staff reviewed the report and performed an on-site audit. The staff also considered comments made during the environmental scoping process, including comments offered at public meetings held last Nov. 22 in Pittsburgh. Based on its review, the NRC staff has preliminarily determined that the adverse environmental impacts of license renewal for Beaver Valley are not so great that preserving the option of license renewal for energy planning decision-makers would be unreasonable. The draft supplemental environmental impact statement is open for public comment until Dec. 17, and will also be the subject of public meetings on Oct. 30th at the Embassy Suites Pittsburgh-International Airport, 550 Cherrington Parkway, in Pittsburgh. There will be two identical sessions, at 1:30 p.m., and at 7:00 p.m.

Notice of Availability and Solicitation of Public Comments on Documents Under Consideration To Establish the Technical Basis for New Performance-Based Emergency Core Cooling System Requirements AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Notice of availability and request for public comment. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is announcing the availability of Research Information Letter (RIL) 0801, ``Technical Basis for Revision of Embrittlement Criteria in 10 CFR 50.46'' and NUREG/CR-6967, ``Cladding Embrittlement During Postulated Loss-of- Coolant Accidents,'' and is seeking public comment on these documents. The NRC is soliciting comment on the subject documents to confirm that a sufficient technical basis exists to proceed with new performance- based regulations on emergency core cooling system (ECCS) acceptance criteria, and to identify issues that may arise with respect to experimental data development or regulatory costs or impacts of new requirements.

"Vice Speaker B.J. Cruz submitted several comments to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommending that no dredging of Apra Harbor take place and that no dumping of material dredged from Apra Harbor be allowed until adequate radiation testing of the harbor takes place. The Vice Speaker issued his comments in response to the Environmental Impact Statement for the Ocean Dredged Materials Disposal Site Offshore of Guam. In his comments to Mr. Allan Ota of the U.S. EPA, the Vice Speaker recommended No Action be taken on the proposed disposal site. "It is common knowledge," Vice Speaker Cruz wrote in a comment dated April 21, "that the U.S. Navy discharged radioactive material into Apra Harbor on more than one occasion. It is imperative, then, that no dredging of the harbor take place until adequate radiation testing independent from that reported by the U.S. Navy has been conducted on proposed dredge sites.""

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will solicit public comments at two meetings on Wednesday, Jan. 28, regarding its preliminary conclusion that there are no environmental impacts that would preclude a 20-year extension of the operating license for the Three Mile Island 1 nuclear power plant. A draft environmental impact statement on the proposed license renewal contains the information. The report, which was issued in December, will be discussed first at a meeting to be held at 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 28 at the Sheraton Harrisburg Hershey Hotel, 4650 Lindle Road, Harrisburg, Pa. A second session will get under way at 7 p.m. on the same day at the same location. The two meetings will begin with identical overviews, including a discussion of the contents of the report, then be opened for public comment.

U.S. Department of Energy Seeks Public Comment on National Transportation Plan for the Proposed Repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada Washington, D.C. -- The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) is seeking public comment on a National Transportation Plan (Plan) that outlines DOE's current strategy and planning for developing and implementing a system to ship spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW) safely and securely from where the material is generated or stored to the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.

The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (Deat) has extended the deadline for public comment on the environmental impact report (EIR) for the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) by two weeks. Environmental consultants Acer Africa said that a number of interested and affected parties had submitted requests for an extension of this deadline, which was originally expected to close on October 24. All interested and affected parties would now have until November 7 to review the EIR and submit their comments.

The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission has announced an open house and public comment meeting to be held in Grants this week. On Tuesday the commission will conduct the session to accept comments on the Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement for In-Situ Leach Uranium Milling Facilities. In-situ is one of the uranium extraction methods being considered for use in the Grants area.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects to receive more than 4,000 comments from individuals and organizations regarding a company's proposal to import 20,000 tons of nuclear waste from Italy, process and incinerate the material in Tennessee and dispose the remainder in Utah. "The sheer volume of comments indicates there is serious concern about this proposal," said U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon, who opposes the plan. "When we accept foreign waste, we limit space for our domestic waste, and we also accept the responsibility of monitoring it for generations to come.

GOLIAD - Residents can still comment on the ongoing uranium mining project in Goliad County. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality prepared the draft permit which is now available for public comment until July 25. Uranium Energy Corp. has not yet submitted its affidavit that it has printed a public notice, TCEQ spokeswoman Andrea Morrow said.

The NRC has extended the public comment period for a proposed rule on emergency preparedness requirements from 75 to 150 days. The proposed rule, including associated guidance documents, would change emergency preparedness requirements for currently operating nuclear power plants, for those that might be licensed and built in the future, and for operating research and test reactors. Several stakeholders had requested that the comment period be extended based on the extensive nature of the proposed rule and guidance changes, and the need for additional time to evaluate the impact of these changes on their emergency preparedness programs. The proposed rule would limit the duties of a plant's onsite emergency responders to ensure they are not overburdened during an emergency event, and require specific provisions to protect them and other plant personnel during a hostile-action event. In addition, the proposed rule would require all nuclear power plants to incorporate hostile-action scenarios in their drills and exercises, which currently primarily focus on nuclear-related scenarios. New requirements for back-up measures for alerting and notification systems are also included in the proposed rule.

"The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) announces that, at the request of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), the date of the one-day public hearing to consider AECL's application for the restart of the National Research Universal (NRU) Reactor is being rescheduled. The hearing was initially scheduled to take place on June 28, 2010. Date: July 5, 2010 Place: CNSC Public Hearing Room 14th floor, 280 Slater Street Ottawa, Ontario Time: as set by the agenda published prior to the hearing date The public hearing will be webcasted live on the Internet via the CNSC Web site and archived for a period of 90 days. The public was invited to submit comments on AECL's request until June 23, 2010. This time limit is not being extended. All submissions are available to the public upon request to the Secretariat."

Officials at the U.S. Department of Labor say recent stories in the Rocky Mountain News "paint an inaccurate picture" of the program to compensate Cold War-era workers who became sick while building the nation's nuclear arsenal and "indict the entire program based on a small number of individual claimants' experiences." The comments came in letters to three U.S. congressmen who had asked the Labor Department why it failed to respond to the findings of a Rocky investigation published last month in a special report called "Deadly Denial."

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will conduct public meetings on Wednesday, July 30, to solicit public comments on possible environmental impacts of 20 additional years of operation at the Prairie Island nuclear power plant, Units 1 and 2. The Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Station has two pressurized water reactors, located 28 miles southeast of Minneapolis. The plant's operator, Nuclear Management Co., submitted its license renewal application April 15.

The myriad arguments against Ontario's excessive reliance on nuclear energy aside, let's examine Premier Dalton McGuinty's $26 billion nuclear plan from a purely economic point of view. The project will create some 3,500 construction jobs over 10 years, with another 1,000 permanent jobs that will presumably last for the 35-year life of the reactors. That's the equivalent of 2,142 full-time jobs lasting 35 years each.