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The government has removed 2/3 of the plutonium and highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Livermore Lab, according to a recent Dept. of Energy press release. Tom D'Agostino, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, called it "real progress." We give it a more mixed review. For starters, the DOE does not plan to complete the removal of these bomb-making materials from Livermore Lab until the end of 2012, three years from now. We have called for their removal by 2010. Livermore Lab is vulnerable every day to a catastrophic release of these materials in the event of an earthquake or terrorist attack. The nearest fault zone lies less than 200 feet from the Lab.

The government has removed 2/3 of the plutonium and highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Livermore Lab, according to a recent Dept. of Energy press release. Tom D'Agostino, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, called it "real progress." We give it a more mixed review. For starters, the DOE does not plan to complete the removal of these bomb-making materials from Livermore Lab until the end of 2012, three years from now. We have called for their removal by 2010. Livermore Lab is vulnerable every day to a catastrophic release of these materials in the event of an earthquake or terrorist attack. The nearest fault zone lies less than 200 feet from the Lab.

"The disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March released far more radiation than the Japanese government has claimed. So concludes a study1 that combines radioactivity data from across the globe to estimate the scale and fate of emissions from the shattered plant. The study also suggests that, contrary to government claims, pools used to store spent nuclear fuel played a significant part in the release of the long-lived environmental contaminant caesium-137, which could have been prevented by prompt action. The analysis has been posted online for open peer review by the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. "

Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. will slowly release into the Ottawa River some treated radioactive water collected from an early December leak at its Chalk River Laboratory. But in a report tabled Thursday in the House of Commons, the federal nuclear-safety regulator promises a controlled safe release of 47 kilograms of treated radioactive water, and says it will pose no threat to human or environmental health.

But what was to be the Government message to the British population in the event of a nuclear apocalypse was not exactly Churchillian: don't forget to turn off the gas and please do not flush the toilet. The chilling BBC script for an announcement to be broadcast if the country came under nuclear attack in the early 1970s has been released from files in the National Archives in Kew, west London.

ERWIN - As Nuclear Fuel Services proceeds with plans to improve safety, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has released previously withheld documents detailing incidents at the plant over a three-year period. Earlier this month, the NRC released 58 event notification reports between 2004 and 2007. Twenty-four of the documents pertain to NFS, and 34 were associated with BWXT in Lynchburg, Va.

This database is currently being developed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research to track annual aqueous and atmospheric effluent release data and offsite doses calculated for each nuclear power plant in the United States. Effluent release data and calculated doses to individuals offsite are submitted annually to the NRC in accordance with requirements outlined in 10 CFR 50.36(a)(2). Further discussion of these reports can be found in Regulatory Guide 1.21, which can be accessed through the NRC's website. Effluent and dose data are entered directly from the annual reports submitted by each licensee. Questions related to a specific plant should be directed to the NRC Project Manager for that particular plant. General questions about the database should be directed to the Office of Public Affairs.

Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact for License Amendment to Byproduct Materials License No. 47-00260-02, for Termination of the License and Unrestricted Release of Two Union Carbide Corporation Facilities Located in South Charleston, WV AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Issuance of Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact for License Amendment. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Steve Hammann, Health Physicist, Commercial and R&D Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, Region I, 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania; telephone 610- 337-5399; fax number 610-337-5269; or by e-mail: stephen.hammann@nrc.gov. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. Introduction The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering the issuance of a license amendment to Byproduct Materials License No. 47- 00260-02. This license is held by Union Carbide Corporation (the Licensee) for its South Charleston Technology Park and South Charleston Plant located, respectively, at 3200 Kanawha Turnpike in South Charleston, West Virginia, and at 437 MacCorkle Avenue in South Charleston, West Virginia (the Facilities). Issuance of the amendment would authorize release of the Facilities for unrestricted use and termination of the NRC license.

Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. will slowly release into the Ottawa River some treated radioactive water collected from an early December leak at its Chalk River Laboratory. But in a report tabled Thursday in the House of Commons, the federal nuclear-safety regulator promises a controlled safe release of 47 kilograms of treated radioactive water, and says it will pose no threat to human or environmental health. The regulator, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, was ordered to prepare the report by Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt. She wanted more information about two leaks in early December at the National Research Universal reactor at Chalk River.

" Workers at the Grand Gulf Nuclear Plant in Port Gibson, Miss., last Thursday released a large amount of radioactive tritium directly into the Mississippi River, according to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and experts are currently trying to sort out the situation. An investigation is currently underway to determine why the tritium was even present in standing water found in an abandoned unit of the plant, as well as how much of this dangerous nuclear byproduct ended up getting dumped into the river. Many also want to know why workers released the toxic tritium before conducting proper tests. The Mississippi Natchez Democrat reports that crews first discovered the radioactive water in the plant's Unit 2 turbine building after heavy rains began hitting the area last week. Unit 2 was a partially-constructed, abandoned structure that should not have contained any radioactive materials, let alone tritium, which is commonly used to manufacture nuclear weapons and test atomic bombs (http://www.nirs.org/radiation/triti...)."

"The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) will lead the first international, multidisciplinary assessment of the levels and dispersion of radioactive substances in the Pacific Ocean off the Fukushima nuclear power plant-a research effort funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. "This project will address fundamental questions about the impact of this release of radiation to the ocean, and in the process enhance international collaboration and sharing of scientific data," said Vicki Chandler, Chief Program Officer, Science at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. "It is our hope that through this adverse event, we can increase our current knowledge about various natural and man-made sources of radioactivity in the ocean, and how they might ultimately impact ocean life and health around the world." The shipboard research team includes scientists from WHOI, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Oregon State University, Univ. of California, Santa Cruz/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Univ. of Hawaii, Univ. Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain), and the Univ. of Tokyo (Japan). They will collect water and biological samples and take ocean current measurements in an area 200 km x 200 km offshore of the plant and further offshore along the Kuroshio Current. Their work will build on efforts by Japanese scientists and lay the foundation for expanded international collaboration and long-term research of questions related to releases from the Fukushima plant."

"The Danville Regional Foundation (DRF) announced Friday it has received proposals from two nationally-known groups, Resources for the Future and RTI International, to conduct an independent socioeconomic study on the regional impact of uranium mining. Abstracts of these proposals can be found online (http://danvilleregionalfoundation.org/Uranium/uranium-proposal-abstracts) and available for public comments for 30 days through DRF's Uranium Blog (http://danvilleregionalfoundation.org/Uranium/). Registered public comments submitted online will be reviewed and used in selecting the organization to conduct the study. Selection is expected to be announced in August with the final study due by year-end 2011, according to a DRF news release. The proposed study will examine the potential effects of uranium mining and milling, and long-term waste management on people, institutions and economies within 50 miles of the proposed site. Specific means of determining the socio-economic benefits and risks, such as impact on property values, taxes and institutions, are outlined in the abstracts, the release stated. In the state of Virginia, there are currently four uranium mining, milling and tailings storage studies currently under way or planned. Each has different purposes, it continued. A brief summary is online (http://danvilleregionalfoundation.org/news/documents/Uranium-Studies-FINAL.pdf) "

"Throughout the Senate debate on the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) one of the central issues has been funding for nuclear weapons. Earlier this year, President Obama asked Congress for the largest nuclear weapons budget in history. However, Republicans, led by Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ), continually question whether the nuclear weapons stockpile and its supporting industrial infrastructure are adequately funded. With the release of a new government report, it appears that both Senate Republicans and the administration may lack sufficient information for either side to determine how much money is actually needed for long term maintenance of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Last week, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report titled "Actions Needed to Identify Total Costs of Weapons Complex Infrastructure and Production Capabilities" detailing the federal government's loose budgeting and accounting practices for nuclear weapons programs. According to GAO, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which is responsible for maintaining the U.S. nuclear stockpile, determines its future budgets by simply looking at each of its program's prior year budget and then adds or subtracts money based on programmatic changes. This means, rather than looking at what programs actually cost in any given year, NNSA simply assumes that it is working with the right numbers. "

"Elevated levels of the radioactive isotope tritium have been detected in one of the new groundwater monitoring wells at Pilgrim Station Nuclear Power Plant. The release, issued Thursday by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of test results taken from a sample of one of the 12 monitoring wells by Pilgrim staff June 21, states that the level falls within federal drinking water limits and does not require public notification but the information is being released because it's an issue of public interest. Six of the 12 monitoring wells were added in May. The monitoring well where the tritium was detected at 11,072 picocuries per liter is located near the condensate storage tank that stores water for use in the nuclear reactor. The Environmental Protection Agency's safe drinking water limit for tritium is 20,000 picocuries per liter."

"'They will have to dump it over my dead body,' says state senator State Sen. Roy Herron on Friday blasted a proposal under consideration by weapons manufacturer American Ordnance that would convert the Milan Army Ammunition Plant into a storage facility for depleted uranium. Herron issued a news release Friday saying that he will do whatever he can to fight the proposal. "If they want nuclear waste in West Tennessee, they will have to dump it over my dead body," Herron stated in the release. "I was born for this fight. My deep roots here, experience as an attorney and work as a state legislator have prepared me for this battle.""

A fire in a Wyoming missile silo last spring exposed more problems in the oversight of the nation's nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile arsenal, but posed no threat of nuclear detonation or radiation release, Air Force Space Command said Thursday. The command, headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base, released an accident investigation report Thursday on the silo, which caused more than $1 million in damage. It had made no previous announcement of the incident.

A gas explosion rocked an outbuilding near Exelon Corp's 1,734-megawatt Quad Cities nuclear power plant in Illinois early Monday, the company said in a release. There were no injuries to plant personnel, no damage to equipment and at no time was there any concern for the health and safety of the public, the company said, adding there was no radiological release.

However, in nuclear reactors such as the one inside HMS Trafalgar it is simply an unwanted by-product of the reaction. As cooling water passes through the core it becomes contaminated with tritium. It is this contaminated water that was mistakenly released. In normal circumstances that water would have been stored and treated until the radioactivity of the tritium had been sufficiently reduced. Then the Royal Navy would have legally released it into the estuary.

On 28 August at 23:31 the European Commission received an ECURIE alert notification from Belgium concerning a radiological incident in the Institut National de Radio-éléments (IRE) in Fleurus, Belgium. There had been a release of gaseous Iodine-131 from this facility. The incident had been classified Level 3 on the international INES scale (comprising 7 steps) on 26 August.

Vermont Yankee nuclear plant is releasing 30 percent more radiation into the environment since it boosted power production by 20 percent two years ago, according to a study from the Department of Health released Friday.\n\nThe increase in radiation is larger than what was expected, according to William Irwin, radiological health safety chief for the health department, but is still within state limits.

U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, along with the Utah and Nevada Congressional delegations, has introduced a bill -HR 4062-that amends the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, according to a press release from Matheson's office today. Advertisement Matheson's bill requires commercial nuclear utilities to transfer nuclear waste from spent nuclear fuel pools into dry storage casks; requires the Department of Energy (DOE) to take title of all spent nuclear fuel stored in dry casks on-site and requires such storage to comply the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's safety regulations, the release said.