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"Bruce Power is seeking a licence from the Nuclear Safety Commission to transport 1760 tonnes of radioactive steel through the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway, passing Cornwall Ontario, on its way overseas. If this plan is approved the 16 used steam generators are going to be shipped to Sweden going through both Canadian and American waters. The transportation of radioactive materials through Canadian waters has some citizens and politicians concerned. Mike Bradley (the Mayor of Sarnia) and Elizabeth May (leader of the Green Party) are both critical of the plan. If the shipment is approved it would set a precedent for transporting radioactive materials through the Great Lakes, and it could create a rubber stamp for these kinds of shipments in the future without public notice or approval. Although a disaster is unlikely, according to environmentalists, a disaster could be truly devastating. The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River represent 20% of the worlds fresh drinking water, drinking water for more than 40 million people. Supporters of Nuclear Energy claim that even if there was a disaster, the damage would be minimal."

A proposed ban on transporting high-level nuclear waste through Asheville likely wouldn't work and could complicate the safe storage of the deadly radioactive material, a majority of City Council members said Tuesday. Advertisement The council members rejected the idea of a local ordinance making the transport of waste from nuclear power plants on interstates or rail through the city a misdemeanor. A local group, Common Sense at the Nuclear Crossroads, had proposed the ban to protect the city from accidents or acts of sabotage on vehicles transporting the waste. About 60 people came to Tuesday's council meeting in support of the ban.

About 30 members of St. Petersburg's ecological organizations protested on Thursday the transportation of nuclear waste from other countries to Russia. "No to the Import of Nuclear Waste!" read the slogan held by a group of ecologists in front of Avtovo metro station - the area of the city through which trains transporting nuclear waste from Europe usually pass. "We are protesting nuclear transportation through St. Petersburg," said Rashid Alimov, co-chairman of the ECOperestroika ecological organization at a press conference on Thursday. "We also declare the start of a public campaign against the construction of a terminal for receiving radioactive waste cargo in the port of Ust-Luga," he said. The protest was prompted by the arrival of the ship MV Schouwenbank loaded with 1,250 tons of depleted uranium hexafluoride from Germany to St. Petersburg on Thursday. It was the biggest transfer of German radioactive waste to Russia in history, ECOperestroika said.

Wollongong City Council's long-held position that the city is a nuclear-free zone could prove meaningless, as local government has no power to stop nuclear waste being transported along the area's roads. After receiving notification from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation last November of plans to transport waste through the "Sydney-Illawarra" region, the city's general manager David Farmer wrote to ANSTO informing the federal agency of the council's position. "In March 1980 (the) council resolved to declare its area a nuclear-free zone, to the extent that it would prohibit the mining, storing, manufacturing, transporting and shipping of fissionable nuclear materials, by-products and wastes," Mr Farmer wrote. "(The) council became a member of the Australian Nuclear Free Zones Secretariat in 1986 and remained a member until the abolition of the Secretariat in 1995" and "reaffirmed its nuclear-free stance in November 1996 and again in March 2002."

State says material 'doesn't really present that much of a hazard'; plans to truck sulfuric acid into Montrose County site MONTROSE - Opponents of a proposed uranium mill in southwestern Colorado near the Utah state line may be relieved to hear that state officials in charge of overseeing the transport of incoming ore and outgoing yellowcake don't actually consider such things "nuclear materials." Uranium yellowcake and sulfuric acid would be carted along I-70 in Colorado By state statute, uranium ore and processed yellowcake, used to make fuel rods for nuclear reactors, are considered mere hazardous materials and therefore not limited to transportation along the state's designated nuclear materials routes. "When you're dealing with yellowcake shipments, they get carried in pretty much a dump truck," said Capt. Allan Turner of the Colorado State Patrol's Hazardous Materials Transport Safety and Response (HMTSR) team.

The federal agency that regulates the transport of explosives, toxic chemicals, fireworks and other hazardous materials has for years quietly waived safety regulations because of its cozy relationship with industry, according to a congressional report. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which regulates shipment of potentially dangerous cargo by land, sea and air, also has ignored whether shippers have been involved in accidents or cited for violating regulations before granting or renewing the waivers, the report said. The report was based on an investigation by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which has scheduled a hearing for Thursday on whether PHMSA is doing its job. The chief witness scheduled to testify at the hearing is Transportation Department Inspector General Calvin Scovel, who warned administration officials in late July that a separate investigation by his office had uncovered significant concerns.

A bakkie carrying radioactive material rolled on the N1 near Bellville, shutting down traffic in both directions for more than two hours yesterday. Two men in the bakkie were taken to Louis Leipoldt Medi-Clinic for treatment after the accident at about 11.30am between Durban and Old Oak roads. The bakkie allegedly swerved to avoid another car and rolled on to the centre island, said Tristan Wadeley, a spokesman for ER24. He said the driver told paramedics who were first on the scene that the bakkie was transporting hazardous material. "It is radioactive, but the container was not broken and it did not spill," said Anzelle Smit, spokeswoman for the Western Cape Health Department EMS.

A bakkie carrying radioactive material rolled on the N1 near Bellville, shutting down traffic in both directions for more than two hours yesterday. Two men in the bakkie were taken to Louis Leipoldt Medi-Clinic for treatment after the accident at about 11.30am between Durban and Old Oak roads. The bakkie allegedly swerved to avoid another car and rolled on to the centre island, said Tristan Wadeley, a spokesman for ER24. He said the driver told paramedics who were first on the scene that the bakkie was transporting hazardous material. "It is radioactive, but the container was not broken and it did not spill," said Anzelle Smit, spokeswoman for the Western Cape Health Department EMS.

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.

Members of a local group opposing high-level nuclear waste traveling on local roads and rail lines think the city should ban moving the material through the city. The group, Common Sense at the Nuclear Crossroads, plans to ask the City Council today to make it a misdemeanor to transport nuclear power plant waste through the city. Advertisement The federal government does not now transport the waste through Asheville, said Mary Olson, who volunteers with the local group and works for a nonprofit opposed to nuclear power. But if nuclear power use is increased, waste from current reactors could be moved from the north through Asheville to South Carolina to be reprocessed for fuel or weapons, she said.

"Fees and regulations on the shipment of radioactive materials within Indiana have been beefed up. Truck loads and rail shipments are affected. Gov. Mitch Daniels has signed a bill into law to make the Indiana Department of Homeland Security responsible for issuing permits for the transportation of radioactive materials on the state's roadways. As of July 1, shippers of affected loads will be required to obtain a permit to transfer high-level radioactive materials. Permits would also carry an expiration date. Indiana now charges $1,000 for the transportation of each cask of nuclear waste. Previously SB186, the new law implements permit fees of $2,500 per truck or, for rail shipments, $4,500 for the first cask and $3,000 for each additional cask. Failure to obtain the proper permit could result in a maximum $1,000 fine."

The 1000 Islands could be at risk when radioactive nuclear waste is shipped through the region in September, says Senator Bob Runciman. In an interview Friday, Runciman said radioactive metal from the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station will be transported on aging ships on a river that this year has very low water levels. The shipment could be especially dangerous in the narrow passages of the 1000 Islands region west of Brockville, he added. "My main concern is essentially that we have had two groundings (of ships) in the past two weeks, one in our area and one in the Quebec area, and the lake fleet is an aging fleet, with an average age of 40," the senator explained. "Both of the breakdowns in the last couple of weeks have been attributed to mechanical failure." He also said St. Lawrence River water levels remain low, which creates a greater danger when the 1,800 tonnes of nuclear material from radioactive steam generators is transported through the "

Thousands of protesters held up a truck convoy carrying nuclear waste in Germany Monday, repeatedly invading a 20-kilometre road leading to a secure storage warehouse. Police said the protests, the biggest since 2001 during the waste transport operations, which take place every few months, were also more violent than usual. Protesters had tried to undermine a railway, seize a truck and shot signalling flares at a police helicopter. Federal police commander Thomas Osterroth said, "A few of them are willing to be very violent." The 10,000 police at the scene were ordered to clear the road before the trucks departed from a railway freight yard carrying the 11 containers. They were bound for the storage site at Gorleben where tons of similar waste are already guarded round the clock.

On 7th November hundreds of protesters took to the streets of the town of Lüchow, Germany today to protest the transport of nuclear waste into the Wendland region. Their march was also in memorial of Sebastian Briaut, the French man who died while protesting the Castor transport in 2004. After the hour-long march, tensions rose as the crowd approached the road leading to the local police barracks. As student organizers encouraged those attending the 'official demonstration' to return to it, around 150 people left the official march, which organizers had planned to have turn back at the roundabout at the Saaßer Chaussee towards the center of Lüchow. This 150 instead decided to continue on, walking down Salzwedeler Landstraße, toward the police barracks.

German riot police confronted activists along the route of the nuclear waste transport.

Yesterday, the Department of Energy (DOE) reaffirmed its prior decision to relocate the uranium mill tailings predominantly by rail from Moab, Utah. The tailings will be trained from the banks of the Colorado River 30 miles north to Crescent Junction, Utah. DOE may still consider using truck transport under certain circumstances, but it won't be the primary mode of transportation for the contaminated pile.

The Russian state company on nuclear energy Rosatom this week signed an agreement with the Italian Ministry of Economic Development over the construction of a vessel for transports of spent nuclear fuel from bases on the Kola Peninsula.

Regardless of whether Canada's nuclear waste gets sent to New Brunswick for long-term storage, the radioactive material would never-the-less be transported through the province by way of truck, train or boat to such a facility, says the group responsible for finding a storage site. The Nuclear Waste Management Organization says the issue of transporting used nuclear fuel from reactors across the country to one main underground storage facility is a major part of their site selection process, and they want to hear from the public about their methods and procedure. The organization held a public information meeting yesterday in Fredericton, the first in a series of provincial meetings about the process of selecting a site. Similar public meetings will take place today in Edmundston and Saint John, with another scheduled June 18 in Bathurst.

"Greenpeace activists said Monday they were blocking a train transporting nuclear waste to the French port of Cherbourg from where it was to be shipped to Russia. Four activists who had chained themselves to the railway line near the harbour were removed early Monday morning by police but more activists were blocking the line at a different location, they said. "We were dislodged in Cherbourg, but we are continuing our action some 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the city, where we are physically blocking the passage of the train transporting nuclear waste," Greenpeace representative Yannick Rousselet told AFP. Two Greenpeace activists were chained to the rails just metres from the train, which had stopped, he said."

"The Indiana Senate has passed legislation that would boost the state's regulations for radioactive materials being shipped within the state. The Senate voted unanimously Tuesday to send the bill sponsored by state Sen. Jim Arnold to the Indiana House for consideration. The LaPorte Democrat says his bill is needed to keep Indiana safe from dangerous materials that require delicate handling because of their radiation threat. His bill would require the state's Homeland Security agency to issue a permit for the transportation of radioactive materials within Indiana. Shippers of radioactive material would have to tell the state how much material they plan to transport, when it will be shipped and what route the shipments will take through the state."

"THE first return shipment of foreign nuclear waste from Britain is due to occur in the next few days with the shipment of highly radioactive waste from the Sellafield Plant to customers in Japan. These nuclear shipments raise critical security, safety and environmental concerns and subject coastal communities to unnecessary risks. The NDA's commercial transport subsidiary, International Nuclear Services (INS), will be responsible for the shipment, which will leave from Barrow, northwest England. The vessels will be carrying 28 stainless steel containers of vitrified radioactive waste and are expected to arrive in Japan by the end of March. This is the first in a series of nuclear waste transports to Japan, which are expected to involve between 850 and 1000 containers and take up to 10 years to complete."