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A Bush administration project aimed at reprocessing nuclear waste in a global sharing arrangement is bringing opposition that's not always from anti-nuclear advocates as public hearings come to Oak Ridge and Paducah next week. Both of those locations are potential receiving sites for what could be domestic and foreign waste. In the case of Oak Ridge, at least part of the highly radioactive materials could travel through Nashville. Advertisement The Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation's largest public power producer, has been working with the U.S. Department of Energy on the feasibility of the long-controversial practice of re-tooling nuclear waste.

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

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. - The U.S. Department of Energy is accepting public comments on a draft environmental assessment to evaluate alternatives to safely dispose of approximately 15,300 tons of radiologically-contaminated nickel scrap recovered from uranium enrichment process equipment at the department's Oak Ridge and Paducah, Ky., facilities.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The U.S. Department of Energy has revived a plan to salvage millions of dollars from radioactive scrap culled from old uranium enrichment operations in Tennessee and Kentucky. The government has 15,300 tons of low-level contaminated nickel left from cleanup of the former K-25 plant in Oak Ridge, near Knoxville, and a still-active sister plant in Paducah, Ky. That's enough to fill 765 tractor-trailers or, if melted down, enough to cover an NFL football field 15 inches deep.

Jun. 22--Tight federal restrictions are discouraging commercial attempts to recycle hundreds of millions of dollars worth of mildly radioactive scrap nickel at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. Once the nickel is cleaned, the Department of Energy will allow its use only in reactors and other nuclear applications, said Mike Hargett, president of Chemical Vapour Metal Refining-USA in Union Mills, N.C.

Kentucky's long-standing ban on nuclear power plants would be lifted, under a proposal that cleared a House panel Thursday. State law currently says that a nuclear power plant may not be built in Kentucky until there is a permanent storage facility to contain the nuclear waste. Sen. Bob Leeper, an independent from Paducah, is sponsoring legislation that would change that. There is no permanent nuclear waste storage facility in the country. Leeper's measure cleared the House Tourism Development and Energy Committee on a 12-6 vote. It heads to the full House for consideration.

The government has paid out more than $1 billion in claims to 9,134 Tennesseans made ill from working in the nuclear weapons facilities at Oak Ridge during the Cold War. The Labor Department announced the latest tally on Tuesday, saying others may still be eligible who haven't filed claims. The Tennesseans worked at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, the former K-25 uranium enrichment plant or the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Since the program began in 2001, about one in five payouts have gone to Tennesseans. The program provides compensation and medical benefits to workers diagnosed with cancer or other illnesses caused by workplace exposure to radiation, beryllium or silica. Another $500 million has been paid to nearly 4,800 workers at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky.

Perma-Fix Environmental last month got approval to burn PCB-contaminated rad waste at its Oak Ridge-area facility, and this month received its first shipments. Larry McNamara, the chief operating officer, confirmed that the company's DSSI (Diversified Scientific Services Inc.) facility near Kingston had received shipments from Paducah, Ky., and Richland, Wash., to be treated at the thermal-boiler system. He also said another shipment had arrived, although he didn't have details, and more are in the works. McNamara said the company is ready to accept waste loads that might otherwise be treated at the Dept. of Energy's TSCA Incinerator in Oak Ridge, which is scheduled to close later this year. Some of the waste streams coming to Oak Ridge may need to be segregated at the company's M&EC facility, with the PCB-tainted liquids sent to DSSI for treatment in the thermal boiler, McNamara said. However, he said there are few limits on the types and amounts of wastes that can be treated.

The U.S. Department of Energy's uranium enrichment plant in Paducah will get money from the federal economic stimulus plan for environmental cleanup. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced $6 billion in funding Tuesday to clean up DOE sites in 12 states. Kentucky's share is about $79 million. The estimated cost to clean up Paducah's gaseous diffusion plant has been increasing. The Department of Energy revised the cost last year from $7.27 billion to $13.8 billion. It's expected to take until 2040 to complete.

"HNN has confirmed through publicly available, unclassified documents that the workers at the formerly 'secret' Huntington Pilot Plant/Reduction Pilot Plant (HPP/RPP) on the INCO campus were exposed to [at least] "trace quantities" of Neptunium and Plutonium. The Huntington facility received nickel from reactors at Hansford and Savannah River, as well as the Paducah and Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plants. The Portsmouth, Ohio, plant is located in Piketon, Ohio. Vina Colley, a compensated Portsmouth (Piketon) Diffusion Plant former atomic worker and activist for compensation of workers, believes that plutonium and other residue on materials sent to Huntington for recycling and decontamination eventually made the Huntington plant contaminated beyond clean up. "

Scanning previous internet "news" reports, two stand out in regard to the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant: A Tornado and suspicions regarding buried Huntington Pilot Plant materials. Scioto and Pike Counties in Ohio often experience more intense wind bursts when summer thunder storms form and occasionally turn to tornadoes. On July 11, 2009, NBC reported that "some damage" had been reported at the plant from a "tornado-like storm," based on word from public information officer Jack Williams the damage did not impact plant operations. In 1993, residents complained about an alleged 2.5 hour "unreported release." They alleged 13 workers were checked for exposure but no sirens sounded. However, after investigation, those responsible for the plant indicated that the 'release' was not a threat to those outside the plant. The Portsmouth facility has sirens for public notification.

Scanning previous internet "news" reports, two stand out in regard to the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant: A Tornado and suspicions regarding buried Huntington Pilot Plant materials. Scioto and Pike Counties in Ohio often experience more intense wind bursts when summer thunder storms form and occasionally turn to tornadoes. On July 11, 2009, NBC reported that "some damage" had been reported at the plant from a "tornado-like storm," based on word from public information officer Jack Williams the damage did not impact plant operations. In 1993, residents complained about an alleged 2.5 hour "unreported release." They alleged 13 workers were checked for exposure but no sirens sounded. However, after investigation, those responsible for the plant indicated that the 'release' was not a threat to those outside the plant. The Portsmouth facility has sirens for public notification.

"State Sen. Bob Leeper, I-Paducah, envisions the potential for a nuclear power plant in his Western Kentucky district, and on Wednesday that possibility moved a small step forward. The Senate's Natural Resources and Energy Committee approved a bill that would effectively end the quarter-century ban on nuclear power in Kentucky. "We must recognize the value of nuclear power," he told fellow committee members. And after one committee member - Sen. Ray Jones, D-Pikeville - said he saw the bill as a direct threat to Kentucky coal, Leeper said nuclear energy could be used to turn coal into liquid fuels."

"Years after the Manhattan Project, the Department of Energy learned that workers exposed to nickel powder at various sites, including those at Oakridge, Pudacha, and Portsmouth Gaseous diffusion Plants, were at high risk. In fact, the data strongly suggested that women and African Americans were most susceptible. What did the DOE do? According to a paper, NUCLEAR POWDER/ NUCLEAR WEAPONS: The Untold Story, the agency in 1976 created a "political" study that falsified the true mortality for workers exposed to nickel power in the workplace. Urine testing had revealed purposefully negligent air monitoring. The nickel levels found in the urine of the K-25 workers were ten to hundreds of times higher than any other nickel workers in this country and around the world. In short, as the global warming emails have accused scientists, two-third (the women and African Americans) were excluded due to the government's need to have an outcome that would show workers unharmed by nickel dust. Waste handling operations at K-25 (Oak Ridge) nuclear waste operations --- and other locations --- reported hazy, smoky and foggy nickel dust conditions. "

"Buried Remains of Huntington Pilot Plant Still Classified Portsmouth, OH (HNN) - Members of the Site Specific Decontamination & Decommissioning Subcommittee heard a proposal for "asset recovery" from various parcels of the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant. "Shall we try to preserve an asset," asked William Murphie, Manager of the Department of Energy's Portsmouth / Paducah Project Office. He referred to possible construction of a melting facility to recover metals such as nickel, copper, steel and aluminum from contaminated buildings and equipment. As explained, the contaminated items would be melted into ingots and stored on site at Piketon until final disposition decisions are made. One option would be a recycling use of the materials --- which would contain traces of radiological metals such as uranium --- for use only at Department of Energy facilities. "

"Having agreed to compensation for Cold War era atomic energy workers who developed cancer and other illnesses, the D.O.E. and other entities of the government have been searching for a solution to nuclear waste. Nuclear power represents an alternative to fossil fuels, but solutions to the lingering radioactive half lives of elements like uranium have not been resolved. For instance, after receiving a report on the severity of the contamination (uranium, nickel and non-uranium) at the Huntington Pilot Plant / Reduction Pilot Plant, a decision was made in 1978-1979 to tear it down. The remains of the production apparatus, ( i.e. hoses), as well as the walls and girders were buried in a classified contaminated location at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio. The Portsmouth, Paducah, Oak Ridge and Huntington facilities worked both on uranium enrichment and recycling nickel from depleted uranium. Site Specific Meetings --- the next Thursday, May 6 at 6 p.m. at the OSU Endeavor Center --- are ongoing. They are part of a decision making process --- what will be placed on the site of the former gaseous diffusion plant, what will be done with waste buried there, what will be done with waste stored there? (Editor's Note: Documents have confirmed that the HPP/RPP processed nickel powder and recycled scrap uranium from barrier materials at the diffusion plants. Some distinctions exist between "enriched" uranium and "depleted" uranium. We're uncertain whether the "depleted" uranium was /is stored at diffusion plants or transported between various plants.) "

Paducah's gaseous diffusion plant could one day be home to a giant radioactive waste dump. It's one of three plans being considered by the Department of Energy (D.O.E.) and local officials in anticipation of the plants closing over the next few years.