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Tennessee lawmakers want more information on a state program that allows low-level radioactive waste into regular landfills around the state. State Rep. Brenda Gilmore of Nashville told The Nashville Tennessean that she plans to push a bill to restrict the practice. A similar measure ground to a halt last year. Gilmore says a strong lobbying effort from the industry stopped it. State officials say Tennessee's program was developed because of its proximity to so many nuclear facilities and doesn't handle cases individually. Instead it has a licensing process that makes disposal more economical and quicker here.

Tennessee lawmakers want more information on a state program that allows low-level radioactive waste into regular landfills around the state. State Rep. Brenda Gilmore of Nashville told The Nashville Tennessean that she plans to push a bill to restrict the practice. A similar measure ground to a halt last year. Gilmore says a strong lobbying effort from the industry stopped it. State officials say Tennessee's program was developed because of its proximity to so many nuclear facilities and doesn't handle cases individually. Instead it has a licensing process that makes disposal more economical and quicker here.

The largest tax break given under city policies in effect for several years might have to be revised now that USEC Inc. and its partner and contractors have begun laying off employees, city officials said last week. The property tax break, valued at up to $5 million over a 10-year period, was approved about a year ago -- before USEC ran into trouble getting a big loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy. The $2 billion guarantee would have been used for work on USEC's American Centrifuge Program.

The largest tax break given under city policies in effect for several years might have to be revised now that USEC Inc. and its partner and contractors have begun laying off employees, city officials said last week. The property tax break, valued at up to $5 million over a 10-year period, was approved about a year ago -- before USEC ran into trouble getting a big loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy. The $2 billion guarantee would have been used for work on USEC's American Centrifuge Program.

This link will send you to the ORNL action where 37 people were arrested.

Tuesday was a good day for a landmark demolition to begin. The misting rain helped keep down the dust from the crunching of beams and bricks, and the day's general dreariness seemed to underscore the fact that a piece of history was disappearing - a sad inevitability for many. The milelong K-25 building, a brawny symbol of the nuclear age when it was constructed 65 years ago, never looked worse for wear. With its siding already stripped away, exposing the base structure, K-25 appeared ready to come down, and shortly after 4 p.m. workers got started on a task that will take a couple of years and hundreds of millions of dollars to complete.

An interview with a three DOE workers and their struggle to find out the truth about radiation safety conditions.

It wasn't exactly like the situation last year, when there were a couple of incidents -- barely a week apart -- involving dropped warhead components at Y-12. This one, according to a Feb. 20 report by staff of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, happened while moving drums containing weapons components. "While moving drums containing weapons components in the Assembly/Disassembly Bulding, a drum fell from the second level of a stack of drums to the floor (about four feet)," the report said. "The drum fell as a third-level pallet of drums was being removed by forklift. All personnel were appropriately clear of the drums being moved, and the drum had only minor denting on the top and bottom outer edges." The cause of the drop is under evaluation, and B&W, the Y-12 contractor, did not have any information to add to the report, according to a spokewoman.

EnergySolutions is purchasing a short-line railroad that traverses the former K-25 uranium-enrichment site (now Heritage Center) and joins the main Norfolk Southern rail system at Blair Station a few miles north of the site. The company and Heritage Railroad Corp., a subsidiary of the non-profit Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee, confirmed the execution of an asset purchase agreement. Terms of the sale were not released. Lawrence Young, the president of CROET, said the sale should be closed within 90 days following a number of actions, including a review by the Tennessee Attorney General's Office (which looks at transactions from non-profit entities to for-profit companies).

The U.S. Enrichment Corp. and Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services today announced plans to form a joint venture known as American Centrifuge Manufacturing LLC, which will become the lead organization in production of machines for the new uranium-enrichment plant at Piketon, Ohio. According to Elizabeth Stuckle, the USEC spokeswoman at headquarters in Maryland, the partnership will be a 55/45 pecentage arrangement with USEC holding 55 percent of the newly formed company that will manage the manufacturing program that ultimately will produce 11,500 machines -- and perhaps more if there's an expanded enrichment facility. "This means all manufacturing suppliers who are manufacturing parts for the American Centrifiuge plant will report up through this joint venture," Stuckle said. B&W Technnical Services Clinch River has been a manufacturer of components for the centrifuges under a contract with USEC since 2007. Now the partnership will be managing that work as well as other manufacturing activities for the AC100 machines in West Virginia, etc..

Unlike most fish stories, this isn't about the one that got away. No fish were getting away Thursday. Department of Energy contractors began a project that will eliminate the entire fish population - tens of thousands of fish - in three ponds near the former K-25 uranium-enrichment plant. It's part of an overall plan to restore and "ecologically enhance" the ponds that were historically contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls and other pollutants.