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The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has approved Sequoyah Fuels' plan to dispose of contaminated materials in an on-site cell, a plan opposed by some residents near the Gore-area plant. John Ellis, Sequoyah Fuels president, said the NRC approved the plant's on-site disposal site Monday, "after 16 years and two months." The plant, which at one time processed uranium to use in fuel rods for nuclear power plants, was closed in 1993 after it was found that portions of the plant and groundwater were contaminated.

Creating about 25 shelf-feet of environmental documentation soon will result in a $28 million cleanup project at Sequoyah Fuels plant site near Gore. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved a plan Monday to eliminate dangerous pollutants there. "We've got a cabinet with documents for the regulators," said John Ellis, Sequoyah Fuels president. "The eight-and-half-by-eleven (inch) ring binders would probably go for about 25 feet. It's everything from feasibility studies, to cell construction plans to site characterization and sampling data with annual groundwater reports - that itself is about 11/2 inches thick." Ellis started work at the facility in 1992, about a year before portions of it were found to be contaminated. After that finding, Sequoyah Fuels completely ceased processing uranium for fuel rods, its central operation there.

Following are some facts about zirconium used to clad fuel rods containing uranium for the production of nuclear energy. FROM ZIRCON SAND TO NUCLEAR ENERGY * Silvery-grey zirconium is the 20th most abundant element in the earth's crust. * The separation of zirconium and hafnium is a technology that only a few companies have.

Anuclear plant reactor tries to safely contain more radioactivity than is in the fallout of 1,000 Hiroshima atom bombs. The Oyster Creek spent fuel rod pool contains much more deadly radioactivity. The pool has a flimsy roof that could easily be penetrated to cause a fuming meltdown. Who would have thought that the World Trade Center could be destroyed so easily? As for nuclear power plants, we haven't seen anything yet. There is an official rule. It says that a mere 10-mile evacuation zone is perfectly adequate. This is idiotic.

The amount of radioactive waste and spent fuel rods will continue to grow and be stored at TVA's three nuclear plants now that plans for a permanent storage site in Nevada have been shelved. TVA already stores almost 3,000 metric tons of nuclear waste at the Sequoyah plant in Soddy-Daisy; Watts Bar near Spring City, Tenn.; and Browns Ferry in Athens, Ala., according to utility officials. TVA spokesman Terry Johnson said on-site storage used at nuclear plants is a "proven, safe and secure solution for the foreseeable future." However, securing a permanent storage solution is "key" for the future.

It was thirty years ago this week that the Unit 2 reactor of the Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear power plant began a partial meltdown. As its fuel rods began to burn out of control, a hydrogen bubble formed, causing a small explosion. Christian Parenti: Thirty years after the Three Mile Island partial meltdown, the real nuclear power threat is the relicensing of old plants. During the accident, plant operators were myopically glued to their instruments, which were incorrectly indicating that a crucial pressure valve was closed. In fact, it was open and draining coolant from the plant's core, thus causing it to burn out of control. When the shift changed, someone on the new crew had the presence of mind to check the temperature on the reactor's effluent pipe. It was way too hot. That meant the crucial pressure valve--which read "closed" on the monitors--was actually wide open. The crisis was eventually brought under control. How narrow the margin of error. That accident was bad--43,000 curies of krypton radiation were released--but it could have been catastrophic.

Electric consumers across Missouri are receiving phone calls and fliers suggesting they should be wary of legislation designed to help AmerenUE build a second nuclear power plant. They're coming from former Republican House Speaker Rod Jetton, who left office just three months ago but now is a political consultant helping coordinate the opposition to one of biggest legislative issues of the year.

Is it possible that the salt deposits around Carlsbad could become not only the home to WIPP, but to a far larger and more dangerous facility that would replace Yucca Mountain in Nevada as the nation's principal storage site for very hot nuclear waste? If Carlsbad Mayor Bob Forrest has anything to say about it, trucks and trains from around the country could be carrying used nuclear fuel rods, and other hot radioactive material, on New Mexico interstates and rail lines near major population centers to oil and gas and potash country in the southeast part of the state. Unlike Nevada and its congressional delegation, which has fought Yucca Mountain tooth and nail for years, many in New Mexico seem unperturbed by the thought of the state becoming the nation's nuclear waste dump.

In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal last week regarding the proposed storage of nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain, Nev., author William Tucker makes the claim that there is no such thing as nuclear waste. He was responding to the Obama administration's decision - via Secretary of Energy Steven Chu - to cut all but the most rudimentary funding to Yucca and be content to allow spent fuel rods to sit in storager pools and dry casks at reactor sites. Chu, in announcing the decision, said the storage at Yucca is "no longer an option."

"President Obama has big plans for the future of commercial nuclear energy but the industry still has to deal with the waste it's generated over the past 50 years. The administration has pulled the plug on the Yucca Mountain repository so, today, half a century of radioactive waste remains at power plants. That's costing taxpayers and ratepayers billions of dollars a year. Living on Earth's Bruce Gellerman investigates the flow of federal funds and nuclear waste in the second story in our series. YOUNG: You might call it a money meltdown. For decades the federal government promised to permanently bury that high-level nuclear waste in the Yucca Mountain Repository in Nevada. And utility consumers paid the government billions of dollars to do that. But the Obama administration wants to pull the plug on Yucca Mountain - while at the same time promising 54 billion dollars in federal loan guarantees to build new reactors. That means nuclear utility companies have to continue to store the spent fuel rods on site - often in pools of water and increasingly in special dry casks."

"While progress here has lagged, the Scandinavian country has successfully chosen a site for a geological repository after including citizens and local government in the discussion. If the United States is at a loss over what to do about nuclear waste, it may be time to check out the Swedish model. A symposium at the annual meeting of the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science in San Diego last week highlighted the Swedish power industry in gaining public support for a geological repository for high-level radioactive waste. The Scandinavian success comes in stark contrast to efforts in the U.S., where spent nuclear fuel rods have remained for decades in temporary storage at power plants around the country. Meanwhile, Congress has debated where to bury them, decided on a repository under Yucca Mountain in Nevada, and then changed its mind."

"Beryllium is making too many people sick at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. That's according to a group of stakeholders that advises the Department of Energy (DOE) on how to manage the site. Last Friday, the group asked the federal government for an independent review to find out what's going on with the toxic metal at Hanford. The Department of Energy says it actually has stricter standards than OSHA on exposure to beryllium. But many representatives on the Hanford Advisory Board say they are distressed that workers are still getting sick. Beryllium was used to seal nuclear fuel rods during WWII and the Cold War in many buildings throughout the Hanford site. People get sick when they get tiny particles of the metal in their lungs or absorb it through wounds. More than 30 workers have become sick so far. "

"A senior parliamentarian in Lithuania has launched an investigation into allegations that stolen parts were installed in the country's only nuclear power plant, the Baltic News Service and other local media reported Tuesday. Rokas Zilinskas, chairman of the Baltic state's parliamentary nuclear energy commission, has asked prosecutors to look into claims that equipment stolen from Russia's Leningrad nuclear power plant was later installed in Lithuania's Ignalina facility. A company called Energetikos Tiekimo Baze allegedly shipped equipment stolen from Russia to Lithuania under false papers in 2003- 2004, media reports claimed. The equipment, described as servo drives used to lower graphite rods into the nuclear reactor, was allegedly later installed at Ingnalina. "If it is found out that the law and order institutions failed to take any (necessary) measures ... this will raise serious doubts as to their competence and ability to safeguard the interests of national security," Zilinskas said in a statement."

"An environmental group in Austin is trying to keep the Waste Control Specialists (WCS) site from expanding. Now, both those for and against a low-level radioactive dump in Andrews County are taking the next stage of their fight to the Internet. According to an e-mail from Waste Control Specialists President, Rod Baltzer, extremists against anything nuclear are trying to block their progress. In the e-mail, Baltzer says the Austin-based group, Texans for Public Health and Safety is resorting to what he calls scare tactics and misleading information to keep WCS from handling any radioactive waste. The group has created a web site, asking anyone who is opposed to this waste disposal, to send their comments directly to the Texas Compact Commission (TCC). That's the group that will ultimately have the last word on whether or not low level waste disposal continues at the facility. "

"At 1:23 in the morning on April26, 1986, there was a disastrous chain reaction in the core of reactor No.4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. A power surge ruptured the uranium fuel rods, while a steam explosion created a huge fireball that blew the roof off the reactor. The resulting radioactive plume blanketed the nearby city of Pripyat. The cloud moved on to the north and west, contaminating land in neighboring Belarus, then moved across Eastern Europe and over Scandinavia. From the Soviets: utter silence. There was no word from the Kremlin that the worst nuclear accident in history was under way. Then monitoring stations in Scandinavia began reporting abnormally high levels of radioactivity. Finally, nearly three days after the explosion, the Soviet news agency TASS issued a brief statement acknowledging that an accident had occurred." -- National Public Radio, April 2006 That was then, this is now. On Friday, April 30, at the Unitarian Universalist Meetinghouse at 108 School St., there will be a public reading of Voices From Chernobyl, which recounts the human toll of a 1986 nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, Ukraine. The nuclear power industry has made some strides in safety over the past 24 years, but we should not kid ourselves. History has proven that whatever man makes can, and in all probability will, break. The question is not so much will the world ever see a nuclear catastrophe on the "

"A 30-year failure to develop a permanent site for storing nuclear waste has cost the federal government billions of dollars in fines paid to power companies. After putting all of its hopes in the Yucca Mountain repository, Washington now is starting over with finding a location following the Obama administration's rejection of the Nevada underground site. In the meantime, the Department of Energy is not living up to its legal obligation to take nuclear waste off the hands of utilities that have been forced to temporarily store spent fuel rods and other radioactive material. As of 2008, the government had already paid $565 million in damages stemming from industry lawsuits, with nearly $800 million more pending on appeal. And to make matters even worse, the Bush administration promised that the government would take the waste from 21 reactors that haven't been built yet, bringing the total anticipated amount stored waste to the size of two Yucca Mountain repositories."

"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has called a special meeting next week to discuss three apparent violations involving a spent fuel pool at Turkey Point - a critical issue as the long-held plans for storing waste in Nevada have completely collapsed. Technically, the meeting in Atlanta on Wednesday involves the degradation of "a neutron-absorbing material called Boraflex in the Unit 3 spent fuel pool." Used nuclear fuel has been building up at Turkey Point for the 35 years of its operation. The degradation involves systems intended to cram more spent fuel into the pools, according to Lawrence King, a former NRC inspector. More than two million pounds of waste now sit at the South Miami-Dade site in pools of water - although Florida Power & Light Co. spokesman Michael Waldron says it's more accurate to think of the spent rods as occupying a 16-foot cube if bunched together."

"Until FirstEnergy Corp. implements measures to ensure Davis-Besse nuclear plant's reactor does not violate federal health and safety regulations, the Oak Harbor nuclear plant should not be allowed to restart, the Union of Concerned Scientists said. The science group Monday asked the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to keep Davis-Besse idle until it solves problems with leaking cracks in its reactor. Federal regulations require reactors be shut down immediately whenever such leakage occurs, it noted. FirstEnergy does not yet have a time line for when Davis-Besse - which was idled Feb. 28 for normal refueling and maintenance - is expected to be repaired and restarted, spokesman Todd Schneider said. Several of Davis-Besse's 69 control-rod drive mechanism nozzles were found to be cracked or otherwise damaged, and some had leaked. A repair plan is to be submitted to the NRC."

"President Obama promised to eliminate 34 tons of plutonium from the U.S. nuclear weapons program as part of this week's nuclear security summit. But how does one actually get rid of bomb-making material that has a half-life of more than 20,000 years? One way is to burn it in nuclear reactors. Already, roughly half of the electricity generated from nuclear power plants in the U.S. comes from the fissile materials out of Russian warheads, albeit highly enriched uranium, the other fissile material used in bombs. Such reprocessing might also help cope with nuclear waste. In fact, Obama's recently appointed Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future has specifically chosen to investigate the possibility of reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods."

Chalk River supply headed back to U.S. By Sheldon Alberts, Canwest News ServiceApril 13, 2010 Canada has agreed to ship an 11-year stockpile of highly enriched uranium back to the United States out of concern the spent fuel could fall into the hands of terrorists and be used to produce a nuclear weapon, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Monday. Seeking to burnish Canada's reputation with President Barack Obama on the opening day of a global summit on arms control, Harper said the world faced an "immediate threat" from nuclear terrorism unless nations moved to secure supplies of bomb-grade uranium. The deal will result in supplies of spent inventories of uranium at the Chalk River Laboratories being shipped to the U.S. over an eight-year period, starting this year."