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"The Obama Administration is attempting to get $9 billion more in loans for new nuclear reactor construction. They're trying to sneak this money on to an emergency supplemental funding bill intended to provide funds for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and to provide additional disaster relief money. But there is no emergency requiring new nuclear loans! The Department of Energy is playing sleazy politics by asking for this money on an emergency basis. To try to appease clean energy advocates, the administration is tying the nuclear loans to an equal amount of loans for renewable energy projects--but renewable energy projects have barely begun to tap their existing loan authority. Unlike for nuclear projects, which are extraordinarily expensive, there is currently plenty of money available for renewables loans. The House Appropriations Committee was scheduled to meet on May 27 to consider this bill but postponed the meeting at the last moment. It now isn't clear when or if the meeting will be rescheduled. One possibility is that the House will simply take up a similar Senate emergency funding bill--one that does not include taxpayer loans for dirty new nuclear reactors. Your actions can stop this unnecessary nuclear bailout: Tell your Representative to pass a "clean" emergency funding bill--one that provides funding only for actual emergencies, not for unnecessary and polluting nuclear reactors."

Jan. 21 -- On Jan. 15, in his second to last full day in office, outgoing EPA Acting Administrator Marcus Peacock signed off on new Protective Action Guides (PAGs) for radioactive releases. They would permit radioactive concentrations in drinking water hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, and even millions of times higher than EPA's longstanding standards. Because it takes a few days after approval for such matters to be published in the Federal Register and be official, publication wasn't achieved before the Inauguration. Unless the Obama acts quickly, however, they will be published in the next few days. The Committee to Bridge the Gap (CBG) and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) today called on the new Obama Administration to pull back the PAGs before they are published in the Federal Register. Read the CBG-PEER news release. A detailed report by Committee to Bridge the Gap reveals, radionuclide by radionuclide, the astronomical concentrations of radioactive contamination in drinking water proposed, which are orders of magnitude higher than EPA's longstanding drinking water limits. Scores of organizations and individuals in October sent a letter to then-EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson strenuously objecting to plans to greatly increase permissible public exposures from a wide range of events resulting in release of radioactivity. The last-minute Bush Administration action would publish for public review and comment only about a third of the actual PAG text (see pre-publication draft here). The full, unexpurgated internal confidential EPA draft can be read here. Both were initially obtained by the trade publication Inside EPA. Previous correspondence criticizing the related Dept. of Homeland Security's "Dirty Bomb" Protective Action Guides - Relaxed Cleanup Standards can be viewed here and here. For more information, contact Dan Hirsch at 831-336-8003 or email: contact.cbg@gmail.com

If you follow the Missouri legislature this year, you're going to hear a lot about Senate Bill 228 . The bill, introduced today by Lowry City Republican Delbert Scott, addresses CWIP - Construction Work in Progress - the law that prevents utilities from charging customers for power not yet being generated. AmerenUE, the utility serving much of eastern Missouri, says the rule must be rolled back for it to build Callaway 2, a new nuclear reactor in Central Missouri.

The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee late on the night of January 27 snuck in a provision to President Obama's economic stimulus package that would allow as much as $50 BILLION of your dollars to be used as loan guarantees for construction of new nuclear reactors. This would be on top of the $18.5 Billion taxpayer dollars already authorized by Congress during the Bush administration. These loan guarantees would mean more nuclear reactors and more radioactive waste piling up in communities across our country. They would also mean less money for safer, cheaper and cleaner energy alternatives like solar and wind power. The provision is vaguely worded. It would authorize $50 Billion in new loan guarantees for "eligible technologies." These technologies include nuclear, "clean coal," renewable energy sources and electric transmission. But the stimulus package is intended to create new jobs and economic activity over the next two years. Not only should new nuclear reactors and the false concept of "clean coal" be excluded from taxpayer support, but the reality is that neither technology is ready to produce any jobs within the next two years.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking public comment on its evaluation of the environmental impacts of issuing a Combined License (COL) for a third nuclear reactor at the North Anna site in Louisa County, Va., about 40 miles northwest of Richmond. The preliminary evaluation is contained in NUREG-1917, "Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Combined License for North Anna Nuclear Power Station Unit 3." The draft report supplements the EIS developed for an Early Site Permit (ESP) at North Anna. The staff issued the North Anna ESP in November 2007, resolving many environmental issues related to the impacts of a potential additional reactor at the site. The latest evaluation focuses on additional environmental impact information contained in Dominion's COL application. The NRC staff also considered public input gathered during an earlier comment period, including at a public meeting on April 16, 2008. The NRC will discuss the latest evaluation in a public meeting Tuesday, Feb. 3 in Mineral, Va., and will accept written comments until March 20.

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 President intends to appoint the following individuals to be Members of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, for the remainder of four-year terms expiring 04/19/12: B. John Garrick, of California, and upon approval designate Chair; William Howard Arnold, of Michigan; George Milton Hornberger, of Virginia; Andrew C. Kadak, of Rhode Island; Ali Mosleh, of Maryland; Henry Petroski, of North Carolina.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff is seeking public comments on its preliminary conclusion that there are no environmental impacts that would preclude renewal of the operating license for the Three Mile Island Nuclear Station, Unit 1 (TMI-1) in Middletown. As part of TMI-1's license renewal application, dated Jan. 8, AmerGen Energy Company, LLC, 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 May 1, 2007. Based on its review, the NRC staff has preliminarily determined that the environmental impacts of the license renewal for TMI-1 are not so great that they preclude license renewal. The draft supplemental environmental impact statement (EIS) is open for public comment until March 4, 2009, and will be the subject of two public meetings to be held on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2009.

TWENTY thousand families living near Devonport Dockyard will be called or sent a text message to warn them in the event of nuclear leaks or other emergencies, under council plans to be announced next year. The ground-breaking emergency notification system, called Informer, is being brought in because the dockyard's siren is not seen as an adequate 21st-century way of warning people living in what has been described as one of the most dangerous areas in Britain. In addition to the dockyard's nuclear facilities, Britain's 14th largest city has a Royal Navy weapons depot, a petrol terminal at Cattedown, a fuel depot at Torpoint and a gas pipeline.

The United States Department of Energy wants nuclear power to be a part of our country's strategy, when it comes to supplying Americans with energy. There have been public hearings all over the country about the D.O.E.'s latest draft proposal. Thursday night there was a meeting in Idaho Falls.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will hold public meetings Thursday, Dec. 4, in Crystal River, Fla., to discuss the environmental issues the agency should consider in reviewing a Combined License (COL) application for two new reactors proposed for the Levy County site near Crystal River. The NRC will meet with the public from 1 - 4 p.m. and 6 - 9 p.m. at the Florida National Guard Armory, 8551 W. Venable St. in Crystal River. The application's environmental report is available on the agency's Web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/col/levy.html. Copies of the report are also available at the Citrus County Coastal Region Library, 8619 W. Crystal St. in Crystal River; the Bronson Public Library at 600 Gilbert St. in Bronson, Fla.; and the Dunnellon Branch Library at 20351 Robinson Rd. in Dunnellon, Fla.

URGENT ACTION ALERT! Condemned by health and environmental groups across the country, GNEP means foreign nuclear waste imported and "reprocessed" in the USA. This is a national issue! We need a big national outcry!!! Washington, Oregon, Idaho, New Mexico, Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, South Carolina, and all our sister states! Cold War nuclear sites are thirty years behind on clean-up! NO foreign waste! Global Nuclear Energy Partnership In the dying throes of the Bush administration, one last environmental disaster is being foisted on the public. With GNEP, the Pacific Northwest, Hanford Nuclear Reservation and Idaho Falls, the Southwest and sites in the Eastern USA could all get a lot more nuclear waste (both from within and outside the country) and dirty nuclear waste 'reprocessing' plants, "recycling" reactors, and "advanced fuel cycle research facilities"-all verbal green-washings of very dirty processes. The Department of Energy (DOE) is holding public hearings on GNEP in November through early December, 2008, final hearing on December 9 in Washington DC in a rush to push this awful idea in under the wire. Thursday, November 20, 7:00 p.m. Hilton Garden Inn 700 Lindsay Boulevard Idaho Falls, IDAHO 83402 Tuesday, November 18, 7:00 p.m. Best Western Hood River Inn - Gorge Room 1108 East Marina Way Hood River, OREGON 97031 Monday, November 17, 7:00 p.m. Red Lion Hotel 2525 North 20th Avenue Pasco, WASHINGTON 99301 Monday, November 17, 7:00 p.m. Lea County Event Center 5101 North Lovington-Hobbs Hwy Hobbs, NEW MEXICO 88240 Tuesday, November 18, 9:00 a.m. Pecos River Village Conference Center Carousel House 711 Muscatel Avenue Carlsbad, NEW MEXICO 88220 Tuesday, November 18, 7:00 p.m. Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell Occupational Technology Center Seminar Room 124 20 West Mathis Roswell, NEW MEXICO 88130 Thursday, November 20, 7:00 p.m. Hilltop House Best Western 400 Trinity Drive (at Central) Los Alamos, NEW MEXICO 87544 Mon

Today, October 17, 2008, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) is announcing the availability of its Draft Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS). The document provides an analysis of the potential environmental consequences of alternatives to the present U.S. open fuel cycle, in which nuclear fuel is used one time and eventually sent to geologic disposal.

Lawmakers: Rail line will affect many WASHINGTON -- Federal lawmakers are calling for public hearings and a broader review of the government application to build a rail line across rural Nevada for nuclear waste shipments to Yucca Mountain. DOE plans for the 330-mile route "will have impacts far beyond Nevada's borders," the state's five members of Congress said in a letter to the chairman of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board, which is weighing the application. The board "has both a statutory and moral duty to comprehensively examine the full effects of the proposed nuclear waste line on the entire national rail transportation system before making any decision," they said.

the Department of the Navy (Navy) announces its intent to prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) to evaluate the potential environmental consequences of the proposed disposal and reuse of the surplus portion of Hunters Point Shipyard, San Francisco, California. DATES AND ADDRESSES: A public scoping meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 23, 2008, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Southeast Community Facility, Alex L. Pitcher Community Room, 1800 Oakdale Avenue, San Francisco, California 94124. The purpose of the meeting will be to receive oral and written comments on environmental concerns that should be addressed in the SEIS.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with Southern California Edison Co. officials on Sept. 23 to discuss the status of performance improvements and other issues at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. SCE operates the plant, located near San Clemente, Calif. The meeting, which will be open to public observation, will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Holiday Inn San Clemente Resort, 111 S. De La Estrella, San Clemente.

Among the details to emerge from the meeting was acknowledgment by the NRC that, although ISL mine permits call for returning groundwater to its original condition when mining is done, some of the "baseline parameters" have proved unachievable by mining companies.

The Gang of 10 (now Gang of 20) offshore oil drilling bill, as it has been characterized, appears headed for a Senate vote late next week. While the bill apparently isn't damaging enough to our environment and future for the "Drill, Baby, Drill" crowd, who are going to try to expand areas allowed for drilling, I won't go into the oil drilling issues here-they've been covered extensively on DK-except perhaps to borrow a phrase about how you can put lipstick on an offshore oil pig and, well, you get the idea.... But what most people-and certainly the mainstream media-haven't yet realized is that the Gang of 20 bill would do much more than open up some of America's coastlines to oil drilling. In fact, it is a major energy bill-the draft runs 233 pages-and delves into energy efficiency and conservation, renewables, coal-to-liquid, and so forth. And 18 of these pages would provide the most significant taxpayer-backed boost to nuclear power ever.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will conduct a public meeting in Nye County, Nev., on Tuesday, Sept. 23, to discuss how the agency will review the Department of Energy's application to build and operate the proposed high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. DOE submitted its application June 3, and the NRC accepted the application for review on Sept 8. The meeting will provide an opportunity for residents of Nye County, where Yucca Mountain is located, to obtain information about how the NRC will decide whether to authorize construction of the proposed repository.

Reprocessing too dangerous, too expensive, too polluting, groups say Additional Download(s): Letter to Senator Akaka on Nuclear Reprocessing WASHINGTON (September 17, 2008)-Thirty science, nuclear security and environmental organizations today urged the Senate to reject a provision in pending energy legislation that would fund the construction of a nuclear waste reprocessing facility.