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Work to remove 16 million tons of radioactive waste away from the tourist town of Moab is about to go a little faster. The U.S. Department of Energy says it plans to double the amount of uranium tailings removed each day from the shores of the Colorado River. Right now, rail cars take about 2,800 tons of tailings a day to a dump site 30 miles away, where they're placed in specially designed cells. The DOE says a second train will be added in mid-August.

Work to remove 16 million tons of radioactive waste away from the tourist town of Moab is about to go a little faster. The U.S. Department of Energy says it plans to double the amount of uranium tailings removed each day from the shores of the Colorado River. Right now, rail cars take about 2,800 tons of tailings a day to a dump site 30 miles away, where they're placed in specially designed cells. The DOE says a second train will be added in mid-August.

Work to remove 16 million tons of radioactive waste away from the tourist town of Moab is about to go a little faster. The U.S. Department of Energy says it plans to double the amount of uranium tailings removed each day from the shores of the Colorado River. Right now, rail cars take about 2,800 tons of tailings a day to a dump site 30 miles away, where they're placed in specially designed cells. The DOE says a second train will be added in mid-August.

The Utah Division of Water Rights has postponed a hearing on a company's plans to build a uranium mill near the Green River, and Moab-based watchdog group Red Rock Forests said Tuesday that the delay is a sign that the company isn't ready to face regulators' concerns. Colorado-based Mancos Resources has applied for water rights on the Green River for use at a proposed uranium mill near the city of Green River. The Utah Division of Water Rights is supposed to hold batches of public hearings twice a year, if needed, in each county to discuss water-rights applications and any related protests. Red Rock Forests issues director Harold Shepherd and other critics protested Mancos' water-rights application earlier this year, saying the state should not grant the rights.

Deceptions about our nuclear weapons have "threatened the survival of the human species." Two Years After Nisour Square Massacre, Blackwater Still Armed and Dangerous In Iraq Jeremy Scahill Holbrooke on Afghanistan: It's Not Whether You Win or Lose, It's How You Play the Game Danielle Kurtzleben The Tragedy of Our 'Disappeared' Veterans Penny Coleman Why Are U.S. Officials Protecting the Pakistan Military on Aid to Taliban? Gareth Porter Honduras: "People Are In The Streets Every Day" Jessica Pupovac A Statement On My Friends, Three U.S. Hikers Reportedly Detained at Iran/Iraq Border Shon Meckfessel More stories by Daniel Ellsberg RSS icon World RSS Feed RSS icon Main AlterNet RSS Feed Advertisement Upcoming AlterNet stories on Digg Digg What is Digg? * 62 diggs Burning Questions for the Authors of 'Marijuana Is Safer' The authors of a new book on misconceptions about marijuana respond to the torrent of comments on an excerpt published on AlterNet. On August 6, AlterNet posted an excerpt from the new book Marijuana Is Safer: So Why Are We Driving Americans to Drink? (Chelsea Green, 2009). Reader response was overwhelming. Within hours, the excerpt was.... * 58 diggs 10 Awesome Things Would Happen If Health Reform Passes Forget the fearmongering scare tactics of the right, here's how your life will actually be better. The truth about health care reform. * 45 diggs Lou Dobbs Tours Single-Payer Systems Abroad and Realizes... Has CNN's government-out-of-my-face bloviator actually had a change of heart when it comes to Obama's health plan? * 34 diggs Right-Wing Militias Haven't Always Been Racist- they are now There are growing signs that militias are on the rise again and now their target isn't just government, but Blacks and Latinos. * 29 diggs 7 Ways We Can Fight Back Against the Rising Fascist Threat | Why the right-wing extremism must be stopped in its tracks or else

Deceptions about our nuclear weapons have "threatened the survival of the human species." Two Years After Nisour Square Massacre, Blackwater Still Armed and Dangerous In Iraq Jeremy Scahill Holbrooke on Afghanistan: It's Not Whether You Win or Lose, It's How You Play the Game Danielle Kurtzleben The Tragedy of Our 'Disappeared' Veterans Penny Coleman Why Are U.S. Officials Protecting the Pakistan Military on Aid to Taliban? Gareth Porter Honduras: "People Are In The Streets Every Day" Jessica Pupovac A Statement On My Friends, Three U.S. Hikers Reportedly Detained at Iran/Iraq Border Shon Meckfessel More stories by Daniel Ellsberg RSS icon World RSS Feed RSS icon Main AlterNet RSS Feed Advertisement Upcoming AlterNet stories on Digg Digg What is Digg? * 62 diggs Burning Questions for the Authors of 'Marijuana Is Safer' The authors of a new book on misconceptions about marijuana respond to the torrent of comments on an excerpt published on AlterNet. On August 6, AlterNet posted an excerpt from the new book Marijuana Is Safer: So Why Are We Driving Americans to Drink? (Chelsea Green, 2009). Reader response was overwhelming. Within hours, the excerpt was.... * 58 diggs 10 Awesome Things Would Happen If Health Reform Passes Forget the fearmongering scare tactics of the right, here's how your life will actually be better. The truth about health care reform. * 45 diggs Lou Dobbs Tours Single-Payer Systems Abroad and Realizes... Has CNN's government-out-of-my-face bloviator actually had a change of heart when it comes to Obama's health plan? * 34 diggs Right-Wing Militias Haven't Always Been Racist- they are now There are growing signs that militias are on the rise again and now their target isn't just government, but Blacks and Latinos. * 29 diggs 7 Ways We Can Fight Back Against the Rising Fascist Threat | Why the right-wing extremism must be stopped in its tracks or else

State water officials have decided to schedule a public hearing on a proposal that would transfer water rights amounting to billions of gallons from Kane and San Juan counties to a company that wants to build a nuclear power plant at Green River. They're going to get an earful. Hundreds of people and organizations have filed protests on the action, which would transfer 29,600 acre-feet of water from Kane County and 24,000 acre-feet per year from San Juan County to Blue Castle Holdings, a company working to secure a license to build a power plant. An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons. The company would lease the water rights for 70 years.

State water officials have decided to schedule a public hearing on a proposal that would transfer water rights amounting to billions of gallons from Kane and San Juan counties to a company that wants to build a nuclear power plant at Green River. They're going to get an earful. Hundreds of people and organizations have filed protests on the action, which would transfer 29,600 acre-feet of water from Kane County and 24,000 acre-feet per year from San Juan County to Blue Castle Holdings, a company working to secure a license to build a power plant. An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons. The company would lease the water rights for 70 years.

Participating in nuclear power hearing can be a 'learn-as-you-go' process Joseph Wojcicki concedes his last name can twist tongues. "It's Voo-tess-kee," the West Columbia man says with a thick Polish accent. "But you can call me 'Joe the Intervenor.'" A retired Midlands Tech math teacher, Wojcicki took part as a citizen intervenor in the Public Service Commission's almost three-week-long hearing on SCE&G's $9.8 billion plan to add two reactor units to the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station at Jenkinsville. Intervenors, 12/22/08 Intervenors Pamela Greenlaw, bottom left, Meira Warshauer, center, and Joseph Wojcicki, right, listen to attorney Bob Guild, standing left, as he enters an objection to secret building cost amounts during the hearing before the commission. The intervenors sit at the table with lawyers for other groups challenging the nuclear plan. They represent the consumer. - Tim Dominick/tdominick@thestate. /The State Intervenors, 12/22/08 Lay-people known as "intervenors" question witnesses at the Public Service Commission hearing on SCE&G's plan to build two reactors at its plant in Jenkinsville. - Tim Dominick/tdominick@thestate. /The State Intervenors, 12/22/08 About a half-dozen lay-people known as "intervenors" are questioning witnesses at the Public Service Commission hearing on SCE&G's plan to build two reactors at its plant in Jenkinsville. - Tim Dominick/tdominick@thestate. /The State Intervenors, 12/22/08 Intervenors Pamela Greenlaw, bottom left, Meira Warshauer, center, and Joseph Wojcicki, right, listen to attorney Bob Guild, standing left, as he enters an objection to secret building cost amounts during the hearing before the commission. - Tim Dominick/tdominick@thestate. /The State Intervenors, 12/22/08 Intervenor Joseph Wojcicki looks through documents during the hearing before the commission. - Tim Dominick/tdominick@thestate. /The State Intervenors, 12/22/08 Citizen intervenor Meira Warshauer, left, asks a que

A small group of citizens in California are trying to reclaim their rights -- both those rights taken unconstitutionally by the federal government, and those rights relinquished by their own state agencies to the feds.

Climate change legislation that narrowly passed the House of Representatives late Friday must be strengthened. The legislation will not solve our climate crisis but will enrich already powerful oil, coal and nuclear power companies. President Obama got it right when he announced in February his plan to impose strict new limits on greenhouse gas emissions and require polluters to pay. But HR 2454 enshrines a new legal right to pollute and gives away 85 percent of the credits to that right to polluters. The Senate should do the following:

In the dark past of the Fernald School for the disabled, the nation's oldest publicly funded facility for those with developmental disabilities, some children were subject to Cold War experiments including being fed radioactive cereal while other patients allegedly were tagged as "morons" even as tests showed them to be normal. Now two Massachusetts lawmakers want the state to do right by the former residents of the controversial Fernald School, which opened in 1848 and is slated to closed next year. State Rep. Thomas Sannicandro, D-Ashland, has filed a bill that would require the state to apologize for alleged civil rights violations among patients at the Waltham facility. And state Rep. Thomas Stanley, D-Waltham, has filed a bill calling for a formal investigation of the misclassification of patients there. Both bills will be heard during a hearing Tuesday before the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities.

In the dark past of the Fernald School for the disabled, the nation's oldest publicly funded facility for those with developmental disabilities, some children were subject to Cold War experiments including being fed radioactive cereal while other patients allegedly were tagged as "morons" even as tests showed them to be normal. Now two Massachusetts lawmakers want the state to do right by the former residents of the controversial Fernald School, which opened in 1848 and is slated to closed next year. State Rep. Thomas Sannicandro, D-Ashland, has filed a bill that would require the state to apologize for alleged civil rights violations among patients at the Waltham facility. And state Rep. Thomas Stanley, D-Waltham, has filed a bill calling for a formal investigation of the misclassification of patients there. Both bills will be heard during a hearing Tuesday before the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities.

Faced with the challenges of delivering the right training to the right people, the IAEA´s International Decommissioning Network (IDN) has begun using popular social networking tools to connect with more than 400 nuclear professionals in 60 countries all year round. Described as a network of networks, the IDN brings together experts in the decommissioning of nuclear facilities so they can share ideas and learn from each other. It has proven difficult for some young nuclear professionals who are actually involved in day-to-day decommissioning to attend workshops, seminars and global site visits. So the IDN´s coordinators at the IAEA are using non-traditional approaches to engage them.

Faced with the challenges of delivering the right training to the right people, the IAEA´s International Decommissioning Network (IDN) has begun using popular social networking tools to connect with more than 400 nuclear professionals in 60 countries all year round. Described as a network of networks, the IDN brings together experts in the decommissioning of nuclear facilities so they can share ideas and learn from each other. It has proven difficult for some young nuclear professionals who are actually involved in day-to-day decommissioning to attend workshops, seminars and global site visits. So the IDN´s coordinators at the IAEA are using non-traditional approaches to engage them.

Groups that use the Green River for personal and commercial recreation, educational activities and scientific research have filed a formal protest with the state over an application for water rights that would benefit a proposed nuclear power plant. Deputy state engineer Boyd Clayton said Monday that the next step will be to decide if two separate sets of protesters have legal standing to intervene and then to hold a public hearing, which he said could be months away. Clayton said Green River resident Bill Adams is a Green River water-rights holder, which by statute permits him to file a protest. Adams has aligned himself with the advocacy group Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL).

Today the Center for Biological Diversity submitted to the Nevada State Engineer 11 protests of water-right applications filed by the Department of Energy for groundwater in the Oasis Valley Basin northeast of the town of Beatty, Nevada. The purpose of the protests is to protect spring and stream flow required for the survival of the Amargosa toad, a rare desert amphibian and a species the Center for Biological Diversity and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility petitioned the Interior Department to list under the Endangered Species Act on February 26, 2008. The water-right applications, filed by the Department of Energy in January 2009, are in support of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository and associated proposed rail line. Each of the 11 applications sought 345 acre feet of water per year from a groundwater basin that is already at an annual deficit, according to a report by the U.S. Geological Service.

Almost every vision of a world with much less greenhouse gas includes nuclear power. And no wonder: Nuclear power has the lowest carbon footprint of any stable and substantial energy source. True, nuclear technology presents challenges of its own, but as the world focuses on climate change, nuclear technology becomes more and more appealing. So this might seem like a strange time for the federal government to be selling off the nuclear-reactor branch of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. But, in fact, the long-expected pasting of a "For Sale" sign onto the reactor side of AECL is just the right thing for Ottawa to be doing.

Almost every vision of a world with much less greenhouse gas includes nuclear power. And no wonder: Nuclear power has the lowest carbon footprint of any stable and substantial energy source. True, nuclear technology presents challenges of its own, but as the world focuses on climate change, nuclear technology becomes more and more appealing. So this might seem like a strange time for the federal government to be selling off the nuclear-reactor branch of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. But, in fact, the long-expected pasting of a "For Sale" sign onto the reactor side of AECL is just the right thing for Ottawa to be doing.

"Britain's lights will stay on even without new nuclear power plants replacing the ageing reactors which are set to close in the next few years, energy secretary Chris Huhne said on Thursday. UK Reiterating that the government will not block new nuclear builds, Huhne said that nuclear's contribution to power generation could fall below the current 20 percent level with no risk of an energy gap if there was sufficient investment in other sources. "If we set the right framework for low carbon generation, then the market will deliver enough with the right mix. If that includes nuclear, that's envisaged in the coalition agreement, then that will be up to investors," Huhne added at the sidelines of the UK Energy Summit conference."

"A Public Consultation on the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill 2010 on Wednesday held it unconstitutional and violative of the right to life and demanded that it be scrapped. The Bill is currently with the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, which in an advertisement on June 24 had called for wider consultations to include public opinion on the Bill. Organised by the University of Mumbai's Law Department, Greenpeace India and Human Rights Law Network (HRLN), the consultation is an attempt to put forward a strong people's mandate against the Bill by the time it comes up for discussion before the Standing Committee between July 13 to 17. "

"There were demands last night for the release from prison of the man known as the Israeli nuclear whistleblower after it emerged he was being held in solitary confinement in the same section of prison as some of Israel's most notorious criminals. Mordechai Vanunu, who spent 18 years in jail for revealing details of Israel's nuclear arsenal in 1986, was sent back to prison for three months in May after being found guilty of unauthorised meetings with foreign nationals. Vanunu, who became a cause celebre for human rights activists around the world and was elected rector of the University of Glasgow in absentia, is being held in Ayalon Prison in central Israel. Amnesty International is calling for Vanunu's immediate release and his brother, Meir, contacted the Sunday Herald to express fears over Vanunu's wellbeing after being the first person to visit him in seven weeks. In an email, Meir Vanunu said: "I found him to be all right in general, but it was a depressing experience. The disturbing main fact is he is held in the hardest prison section there is in all Israeli prisons. It has the most notorious criminals in the country, well known hard murder cases and so on. Of course, there is no justification for doing this to Mordechai and it is only a continuous vindictiveness and harassment by the secret services and not serving any so-called 'security' interests.""

Astravets regional executive committee denied public activists Mikalay Ulasevich and Ivan Kruk a right to hold informational pickets at the territory of Astravets district Hrodna region. They applied to hold 5 informational pickets 9n November (two in Astravets, others in Mikhalishki, Varanyany and Hervyaty) against construction of a nuclear power station in the region, the human rights centre "Viasna" informs. Public and political activists intended to tell the local dwellers the truth about danger and aftermaths of a nuclear power station construction at the territory of the district which is one of the ecologically cleanest in Belarus and one of the most promising regions for tourism development.

Energy security, alternative fuels, independence, politics, technology transfers, energy contracts and money...these are the issues that need to be assessed before arriving at a decision in the Indo-US Nuclear Deal. It is by no means simple!. AS A re-growing and a re-emerging economy, India must and is rightly thinking about ways to ensure, the continued availability of energy in the years to come. However, it is possible to do the right thing in a wrong way. Considering options other than oil is the right thing to do. Moving to nuclear power as one of the principal sources of future energy is surely not.

A Finnish government working group tasked with proposing amendments to the Mining Act said in a report Wednesday that local councils should have the right to veto uranium mines. Mauri Pekkarinen, the economic affairs minister, said as he was handed the report that the veto right was justified.

IT'S the hulk on the horizon that dominates views from Mersea. The decommissioned nuclear power station at Bradwell stands across the Blackwater estuary from the island, and could be in line for a fresh lease of life. Working with owners EDF Energy, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has nominated the site as a possible location for one of a new generation of nuclear plants. But opinion is divided as to whether nuclear is the right choice to meet the country's need for environmentally-friendly power, and if Bradwell would be the right place.

This might not seem like the best moment to put Canada's nuclear-reactor business up for sale. Headlines around the world are highlighting the fact that our research reactor, responsible for supplying as much as 40 per cent of the world's isotopes, is on the fritz. But there is no point worrying about the context. Selling some or all of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. is the right decision. A major restructuring is what it needs. The Conservative plan would see AECL divided in two: The Candu reactor business would be sold as a commercial enterprise and the Chalk River facility would remain a research facility, possibly under private-sector management.