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Tri-City residents will get something Monday that some Seattle and Portland residents are clamoring for -- a public hearing on the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership. Last month the Department of Energy released a new draft environmental study on the partnership that favored reprocessing fuel that has been used in nuclear power plants rather than using it only once. DOE has scheduled 13 public hearings on the study around the country, but just two in the Northwest. One is at 7 p.m. Monday in the Pasco Red Lion Hotel, 2525 N. 20th Ave. and the other is in Hood River, Ore., the next evening at the Hood River Inn, 1108 E. Marina Way.

A new draft environmental study for the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership on the impacts of expanding nuclear energy favors reprocessing fuel that has been used in nuclear power plants rather than using it only once. A public hearing on the plan is planned at 7 p.m. Nov. 17 at the Pasco Red Lion, 2525 N. 20th Ave. An Oregon hearing will be held the next evening in Hood River. The draft study, or programmatic environmental impact statement, looked at alternatives to the practice of using nuclear fuel once and then sending it to a deep geological repository, such as Yucca Mountain, Nev.

South Africa was seeking commercial contracts with foreign companies to reprocess spent nuclear fuel, a senior government official said yesterday. The country plans to expand its nuclear industry and diversify its energy mix as it battles a crippling power shortage that has hit key mining, smelting and manufacturing sectors, trimming growth in the economy.

In February of 2007, the U.S. Department of Energy stirred controversy by announcing it was considering recycling nuclear waste and building facilities at Argonne National Laboratory and on a site near Morris to aid in the effort. Now, the Department of Energy is stepping back, announcing it is not considering any sites for the facilities. The department still is examining the feasibility of reprocessing nuclear waste.

The Tennessee Valley Authority and Department of Defense reached an agreement in principle this week to cooperate on the development of new technology for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel DOE officially made the announcement Thursday afternoon. The agencies agreed to collaborate on developing and exchanging information on advanced fuel cycle technologies

RADIOACTIVE discharges into the air from Sellafield appear to have been breached. Source of the discharges is the Magnox reprocessing plant which was shutdown earlier in the year because it was in danger of going over the legal limits. But operators Sellafield Ltd told The Whitehaven News yesterday: "It seems likely that we will have exceeded the limit up to the end of August. We won't get confirmation for another six weeks after all the analysis has been done but we think we have gone through it and have written to the Environment Agency to that effect." Management have decided not to close the Magnox plant for a second time because there is no hazard from the higher levels of discharge.

Article Highlights * Advancements in nuclear power should help the world move beyond fossil fuels. * In particular, spent fuel recycling with fast reactors would solve some of the most vexing problems facing conventional nuclear power. * Other benefits include reducing weapons proliferation risks and excess plutonium and uranium stockpiles. When you combine the country's addiction to oil to its mounting concern over global warming you have a clear-cut case for expanded nuclear power. The issue has been clouded, however, by the recent decision to stop work on the Yucca Mountain permanent spent fuel repository in Nevada, so far the only real solution the United States has for its accumulating spent fuel from its 104 light water reactors (LWR).

Sellafield managers have been told to make improvements after a radioactive leak went undetected for more than a year. In January condensation was found to have been dripping from a pipe at the nuclear reprocessing plant in Cumbria. The Environment Agency has issued an enforcement notice requiring improved equipment and maintenance routines. Sellafield Ltd said no-one was exposed to the "low-level radiation", and that improvements were already being made.

THE future of Sellafield's controversial under-achieving Mox plant which support around 1,000 jobs on the site is still on the line. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority says in its annual report out this week that "on a less positive note the performance of the Sellafield mixed oxide plant (SMP) remains under close scrutiny by the NDA Board. "The NDA is in the process of examining options for the future of the plant in conjunction with Sellafield Ltd," reports acting chief executive Richard Waite. Against a target of eight Mox fuel assemblies, only two had been produced. Both the Thorp and Magnox reprocessing plants also failed to meet targets.

The West Valley Citizen Task Force called for a full cleanup of radioactive waste at the West Valley Demonstration Project and the former Western New York nuclear fuel reprocessing center. But at the same time, the group urged authorities to pursue additional environmental impact studies and continue public involvement if a phased decision-making approach is chosen instead. The task force, made up of representatives from the surrounding community, has been meeting since 1997 to advise the federal and state governments on a preferred cleanup method of the 3,300-acre site. The task force sent the 12-page letter and attachments to the Department of Energy, which announced a three-month extension of the decision deadline, through Sept. 8.

A RISE in radioactive discharges into the air is causing another problem at Sellafield, it was confirmed to The Whitehaven News yesterday. Increased levels have come from the Magnox reprocessing plant. For the last five weeks it has had to close to avoid exceeding the discharge limit. The plant has just started up again but Sellafield Ltd has applied to the Environment Agency for a new authorisation to raise the discharge limit.

Japan's power industry utilities' association said on Friday it has delayed a target of having 16-18 nuclear reactors using mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel by five years to March 2016, denting the resource-poor nation's goal of a "closed" nuclear fuel cycle. Japan is aiming to move towards a closed cycle where it recycles its own spent fuel and then burns recovered uranium and plutonium as MOX fuel. The Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan, made up of 10 utilities, said it would do its best to achieve the target by the year starting in April 2015, when a nuclear reprocessing plant in northern Japan is scheduled to start operations. MOX plutonium-uranium enriched fuel is controversial because critics fear it could be used to build nuclear weapons. Currently, no commercial reactors in Japan use the fuel, but Chubu Electric Power Co (9502.T), Shikoku Electric Power Co (9507.T) and Kyushu Electric Power (9508.T) last month imported MOX fuel from France. (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

With a little more than a week left to be heard in the decades-old debate over how to clean up a western New York nuclear site, supporters of complete decontamination say anything less would jeopardize the health of the Great Lakes and its vital freshwater. State and federal energy officials in November recommended a two-phase plan that would have them spend $1 billion to remove contaminated buildings and soil from the West Valley site over the next several years, while deferring for up to 30 years the larger question of whether to leave some radioactive waste forever buried. The public comment period on the governments' Draft Environmental Impact Statement ends June 8. The 3,300-acre site 30 miles south of Buffalo housed the nation's first commercial nuclear reprocessing facility from 1966 to 1972.

An armed vessel with a load of recycled nuclear fuel from France arrived amid heavy security Monday at a Japanese port where it was greeted by dozens of protesters. The Pacific Heron -- carrying a British police team to head off possible hijackers on its secretive two-month voyage -- delivered a load of mixed-oxide or MOX fuel, a blend of plutonium and reprocessed uranium. Several dozen anti-nuclear activists and concerned residents rallied at a pier of the Omaezaki fishing port as the ship docked under heavy police guard and cranes unloaded metal containers of the nuclear fuel.

A VESSEL carrying a major shipment of recycled nuclear fuel is expected to arrive in Japan as soon as Monday after its 70-day trip from France, local media reported. The convoy, which left Cherbourg in March to deliver the MOX fuel - a blend of plutonium and reprocessed uranium - is expected to arrive in the central port of Omaezaki to unload part of the shipment, Kyodo News reported. The business daily Nikkei in a similar report said that the convoy was due to arrive at the port 'as soon as Monday.' The Pacific Heron, a specially adapted ship with a British police team on board to head off possible hijackers, is then expected to unload fuel at two other ports adjacent to nuclear plants in southwestern Japan, the reports said.

Cattaraugus County lawmakers will decide by June 8 whether to pass legislation supporting complete removal of all wastes from the former nuclear fuels reprocessing plant in West Valley. In 2000 and 2004, county lawmakers adopted resolutions supporting the position that the 3,300-acre site should be released from federal control in a condition that will allow unrestricted uses of the land and that all wastes lacking a final repository should be stored in an above-ground retrievable condition until a safe disposal is possible. They supported the conclusions of the West Valley Citizen Task Force, an advisory committee formed by the state that has been meeting since 1997 to develop recommendations for site cleanup.

The U.S. Energy Department made official Monday its plan to scrap a Bush administration initiative that could have brought a major nuclear fuel reprocessing facility to South Carolina. Sign up for breaking news alerts from The Chronicle Economic developers, however, say the cancellation of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership - published in Monday's Federal Register - doesn't mean Barnwell County and Savannah River Site won't win a similar venture in the future. "At this point, GNEP, as a concept, is dead, but the issue of what to do with this material isn't," said Danny Black, the president of Southern Carolina Alliance, a regional economic development consortium based in Barnwell.

U.S nuclear firms said on Monday they were worried land scarcity in India could further delay a joint atomic deal already hobbled by policy holdups over issues such as accident liability protection. A 50-member U.S. business delegation this week is seeking to push the implementation of the deal, which promises to open up India's multi-billion-dollar nuclear market to American firms. U.S. firms already worry over delays such as writing a new Indian law to limit U.S. firms' liability in case of an industrial accident and differences over a fuel reprocessing pact. Recent protests over land acquisition for building reactors has added to their uncertainty. India and the United States signed a civilian nuclear deal last year, ending India's nuclear isolation since it tested a nuclear device in 1974 and opening up its atomic market for firms such as General Electric Co and Westinghouse Electric Co, a subsidiary of Japan's Toshiba Corp.

U.S nuclear firms said on Monday they were worried land scarcity in India could further delay a joint atomic deal already hobbled by policy holdups over issues such as accident liability protection. A 50-member U.S. business delegation this week is seeking to push the implementation of the deal, which promises to open up India's multi-billion-dollar nuclear market to American firms. U.S. firms already worry over delays such as writing a new Indian law to limit U.S. firms' liability in case of an industrial accident and differences over a fuel reprocessing pact. Recent protests over land acquisition for building reactors has added to their uncertainty. India and the United States signed a civilian nuclear deal last year, ending India's nuclear isolation since it tested a nuclear device in 1974 and opening up its atomic market for firms such as General Electric Co and Westinghouse Electric Co, a subsidiary of Japan's Toshiba Corp.

In response to the Nov. 17 editorial in The Minnesota Daily, I strongly disagree with the opinion that further development of nuclear power is in the best interest of the public and future generations. In making their case, the Editorial Board provided several inaccuracies regarding nuclear power. First, nuclear energy is not working effectively in Europe. It is true that France has been very effective in generating approximately 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear reactors, but France has also been effective at producing large quantities of radioactive waste. France's waste reprocessing program makes this problem even worse,

In response to the Nov. 17 editorial in The Minnesota Daily, I strongly disagree with the opinion that further development of nuclear power is in the best interest of the public and future generations. In making their case, the Editorial Board provided several inaccuracies regarding nuclear power. First, nuclear energy is not working effectively in Europe. It is true that France has been very effective in generating approximately 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear reactors, but France has also been effective at producing large quantities of radioactive waste. France's waste reprocessing program makes this problem even worse,

"The Highly Active Waste was last week transported via rail from Sellafield to Barrow. The second shipment headed for Holland whose power stations created the used nuclear fuel which was then reprocessed and stored at Sellafield. Sellafield bosses said the radioactive waste would continue to generate heat for many years to come. But nuclear chiefs say the waste was so well absorbed into glass blocks and so well packed it was no threat to Barrow or to docks, rail and shipping staff. "