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Three nuclear power plants in southern New Jersey have begun their relicensing process. The Salem 1 and 2 and Hope Creek plants share an island on the Delaware River. The permit for Salem 2 is good until 2020 and Hope Creek is licensed to operate until 2026. But plant co-owner PSEG Nuclear says it is submitting relicensing materials for them along with Salem 1 because all the plants share operations. The Salem 1 license expires in 2016. Plant officials met with officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday to outline relicensing plans.

"Power has been reduced at the Salem 2 nuclear reactor here because of problems with vegetation clogging the cooling water intakes on the Delaware river, officials said today. Salem 2 was operating at about 82 percent power because of "grassing," the collection of dead phragmites and other plants that have been dislodged from the river shoreline collecting on the screens protecting the water intakes, according to Joe Delmar, spokesman for the plant's operator, PSEG Nuclear. The grassing problem occurs each spring as old vegetation floats downriver. The neighboring Salem 1 nuclear reactor was still operating at full power early this afternoon. "

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced today that applications for a 20-year renewal of the operating licenses for Salem Nuclear Generating Station Units 1 and 2, and Hope Creek Generating Station are available for public review. Both plants are located in Hancock Bridge, N.J., about 18 miles south of Wilmington, Del. The current operating licenses for Salem Nuclear Generating Station Units 1 and 2 expire on Aug. 13, 2016 and April 18, 2020; and the Hope Creek license expires on April 11, 2026. The licensee, PSEG Nuclear LLC, submitted the renewal applications on August 18 for Salem and Hope Creek, respectively. The applications are available on the NRC Web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/applications.html. The NRC staff is currently conducting an initial review of the applications to determine whether they contain enough information for the required formal review. If the applications have sufficient information, the NRC will formally "docket," or file, the applications and will announce an opportunity to request a public hearing. For further information, contact Donnie Ashley, project manager, in the Division of License Renewal, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Mail Stop O11-F1, Washington, D.C. 20555; telephone (301) 415-3191 or email at Donnie.Ashley@nrc.gov.

One New Jersey nuclear power plant has been shut down and another put on reduced power because of ice in the Delaware River. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission says Salem Unit 2 was shut down around 8 a.m. Sunday because it was taking ice into its cooling mechanism. Salem Unit 1 was also reduced to 80 percent power for the same reason. It's not clear when the two plants will return to full power. Hope Creek, a third nuclear power plant in the same complex, was not powered down because of the ice.

One New Jersey nuclear power plant has been shut down and another put on reduced power because of ice in the Delaware River. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission says Salem Unit 2 was shut down around 8 a.m. Sunday because it was taking ice into its cooling mechanism. Salem Unit 1 was also reduced to 80 percent power for the same reason. It's not clear when the two plants will return to full power. Hope Creek, a third nuclear power plant in the same complex, was not powered down because of the ice.

"Traces of radioactive tritium have been found in a storm drain system at the Salem 2 nuclear reactor on Artificial Island here, federal and utility officials said Thursday. The tritium was found in water samples taken from the drain catch basin located north of the Salem 2 reactor. The amount of tritium found in two samples closest to the plant structure registered 1.1 million picocuries per liter, according to Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Other samples taken farther away from the plant structure in the drain registered at 260,000 picocuries per liter and at 3,000 picocuries per liter."

Federal nuclear investigators are examining a Salem County nuclear reactor to determine why it took eight hours for operators to determine they had drained 84 percent of the reactor's water coolant. PSEG shut down its Salem 1 reactor for a routine refueling outage earlier this month. On Oct. 15, operators there accidentally drew water coolent levels down to 16 percent, but thought they were at 80 percent, according to Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan.

South and central New Jersey are Ground Zero, so to speak, concerning the future of aging U.S. nuclear electricity plants. The nation's oldest operating commercial plant, Oyster Creek in Lacy Township, awaits its fate, with its initial 40-year license set to expire this year. Meanwhile, PSEG Nuclear took official steps this month to extend the licenses of its three Salem County plants. And, Saturday was the 30th anniversary of the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania. While it resulted in the meltdown of a reactor core, the containment walls worked. The U.S. nuclear industry still can point to a safety record that traces no deaths directly to a plant release. At Salem, the original license for Unit 1 expires in 2016, the Unit 2 license expires in 2020, and Hope Creek is licensed until 2026. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires considerable lead time for relicensing, and there should be sufficient time to answer questions from citizens, experts and the NRC itself.

"The state misidentified a town in a public announcement during a drill at the Salem nuclear power plant, the Office of Emergency Management said Thursday. The mistake and a delay in getting instructions out to the public mean the state will have to conduct a second drill in July. The drill tested the state's response to a nuclear disaster May 18. In a mock public notice, the state misidentified a town that was subject to a fish advisory, officials said. The state also took 62 minutes to make all the necessary preparations to direct the public to evacuate, take shelter or consume potassium iodide pills in response to the nuclear accident. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said the directions should have been issued within 45 to 50 minutes. Everything else in the biannual drill went smoothly, state officials said."

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission plans a public meeting on Jan. 21 to review backup power problems at the Salem 1 nuclear plant in New Jersey along the Delaware River in 2005 and 2007. Under NRC rules, the agency briefly gave plant owner PSEG Nuclear it's second-worst "yellow" performance rating for reliability and availability of emergency power, a classification that was returned to normal status during the first quarter of 2008. Inspectors designated a portion of Salem's multi-part rating as "degraded" after diesel generators failed to start during three times during testing over 12 consecutive quarters.

Memo to NRC reveals the new practices at Salem Twp. plant in response to allegations. The PPL Corp. sent a letter Friday to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission assuring the agency that it has implemented new practices in response to an NRC letter in January that warned of a "chilling effect" on workers' willingness to report safety concerns at the Salem Township nuclear power plant. Related Document PPL response letter to NRC's request The response includes a few new measures and a description of efforts that were implemented at the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station before the NRC's letter, such as better recognizing workers for achievements and installing an ombudsman.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is investigating the Salem nuclear power plant to find out why there was an apparent loss of reactor coolant during a routine maintenance procedure. Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan says there was no danger to the public, but the Oct. 15 incident has raised concerns about procedures at the plant. Sheehan says investigators are looking into why the level of pressurized water in the reactor coolant system of Unit 1 at the plant was improperly measured. He said the level in the pressurizer could not be determined for more than eight hours.

Agency will explain how it will review PPL's expected application for a third reactor. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a public meeting on Aug. 19 on PPL Corp.'s expected application for a new reactor in Salem Township. The purpose is to discuss how the NRC will review the application, which will include safety and environmental reviews and a mandatory hearing, NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said in an e-mail. Because it's been decades since the NRC reviewed new-reactor applications, Sheehan said it's a good idea to explain to the public how the process works.

TRENTON Stakeholders are gearing up for the public debate over whether an additional nuclear power plant should be built in New Jersey most likely, in Salem County to meet future energy demand. The possibility of another reactor was floated last year by Public Service Electric & Gas, the parent company to PSEG Nuclear, which operates three plants on Artificial Island in Lower Alloways Creek.

A huge maintenance hangar at former MCAS El Toro remains "radiological restricted" over California Department of Public Health concerns about a Navy radiological survey. The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has not approved an MCAS El Toro hangar contaminated with Radium-226, despite a July 2002 Navy report recommending unrestricted use.

"Fast Breeder Reactor/ - Major Implications Seen for Obama Blue-Ribbon Waste Panel, New Interest in "Generation IV" Reactors; U.S., Russia, UK, France, India and Japan Programs are Evaluated in the Study. (PRINCETON, N.J.) - Do concerns about inadequate options for long-term nuclear reactor waste disposal now mean that it is time to make a new commitment to the development of fast reactors? What of the related concerns about the cost, reliability, safety and proliferation issues associated with fast reactors? These questions are addressed in a major new report from the International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM) to be released during a live phone-based news conference set for 1:30 p.m. EST/1830 GMT on February 17, 2010. In assessing the potential for fast reactors, the IPFM report looks at the historical experience and current status of fast breeder reactor programs in France, India, Japan, the Soviet Union/Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The possibility of a plutonium-fueled nuclear reactor that could produce more fuel than it consumed (hence the term "breeder reactor") was first raised during World War II in the United States by scientists in the atomic bomb program. Programs in the United States and elsewhere around the globe were driven by the hope of solving the long-term energy supply problem using the large-scale deployment of nuclear energy for electric power."

"Uniontown Industrial Excess Landfill Superfund site for sale (AKRON, Ohio) - Why is the Uniontown Industrial Excess Landfill Superfund site for sale, when there has never been a cleanup of the hundreds of thousands of tons of toxins, only the continued flushing into our groundwater? Residents aren't getting straight answers. They are only being told that a buyer would receive liability protections through a "covenant not to sue." Would this mean the new owner couldn't be sued if people got sick, or just that they couldn't be held liable for cleanup costs? Are the Lake Township trustees still considering buying the dump? Don't the taxpayers have the right to know if in fact this is still being planned before the public could be saddled with this toxic nightmare? Or, as seen elsewhere around the country, is a deep-pockets brownfields developer going to take over the IEL?"

Last week, PSEG Nuclear officially asked federal regulators to extend the licenses of the three nuclear reactors at the Salem/Hope Creek site for 20 more years. The reactors, which are just 15 miles from downtown Wilmington, are aging, and their original licenses will soon expire. Advertisement Regulators will take several years to make an official decision. But in reality, they have already made up their minds to approve it. In this decade, the government has granted 52 of 52 requests for license extension -- half of the 104 nuclear reactors in the U.S. -- with more likely to follow. Companies like PSEG Nuclear claim that nuclear reactors produce "safe, reliable, economic, and green energy." But for years, there have been major concerns about the health threat posed by nuclear reactors.

Last week, PSEG Nuclear officially asked federal regulators to extend the licenses of the three nuclear reactors at the Salem/Hope Creek site for 20 more years. The reactors, which are just 15 miles from downtown Wilmington, are aging, and their original licenses will soon expire. Advertisement Regulators will take several years to make an official decision. But in reality, they have already made up their minds to approve it. In this decade, the government has granted 52 of 52 requests for license extension -- half of the 104 nuclear reactors in the U.S. -- with more likely to follow. Companies like PSEG Nuclear claim that nuclear reactors produce "safe, reliable, economic, and green energy." But for years, there have been major concerns about the health threat posed by nuclear reactors.

Republican lawmakers work to decrease carbon footprint via new energy source Three Republican legislators proposed ideas for new legislation Monday to repeal the state's ban on construction of new nuclear power plants. Rep. Michael Huebsch, R-West Salem, Rep. Phil Montgomery, R-Green Bay, and Sen. Joe Liebham, R-Sheboygan, said in a statement Monday they are crafting the bill as a way to prevent energy shortages, unsustainable price increases and utility taxes.

Republican lawmakers work to decrease carbon footprint via new energy source Three Republican legislators proposed ideas for new legislation Monday to repeal the state's ban on construction of new nuclear power plants. Rep. Michael Huebsch, R-West Salem, Rep. Phil Montgomery, R-Green Bay, and Sen. Joe Liebham, R-Sheboygan, said in a statement Monday they are crafting the bill as a way to prevent energy shortages, unsustainable price increases and utility taxes.

PPL Corp.'s Susquehanna nuclear station in Salem Township failed to ensure two staff members met medical requirements, an inspection of the power plant found. The company could be cited for the "apparent violations" and receive additional future scrutiny, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced on Friday. The NRC, which performed the inspection, found that two senior reactor operators failed to meet the medical prerequisites for their individual licenses. One operator worked after failing an eye examination, PPL spokesman Joe Scopelliti said. The other worked for about three months after the deadline for a biennial medical exam had expired.

PPL Corp.'s Susquehanna nuclear station in Salem Township failed to ensure two staff members met medical requirements, an inspection of the power plant found. The company could be cited for the "apparent violations" and receive additional future scrutiny, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced on Friday. The NRC, which performed the inspection, found that two senior reactor operators failed to meet the medical prerequisites for their individual licenses. One operator worked after failing an eye examination, PPL spokesman Joe Scopelliti said. The other worked for about three months after the deadline for a biennial medical exam had expired.

A new report says nuclear power plants would take too long to build and are too expensive to make any impact on global warming. The report, released by Wisconsin Environment, an environmental advocacy organization, notes scientists believe developed nations must reduce emissions dramatically by 2020 to limit global warming. The report says the first new nuclear reactor in the United States probably won't be completed until at least 2016. Money that would go to new plants would be better spent on renewable sources. State Rep. Mike Huebsch, a West Salem Republican, has pushed to repeal Wisconsin's moratorium on nuclear power. He says groups like Wisconsin Environment are still living off the hysteria of 1970s meltdowns and will do anything to delay nuclear plant construction.

A new report says nuclear power plants would take too long to build and are too expensive to make any impact on global warming. The report, released by Wisconsin Environment, an environmental advocacy organization, notes scientists believe developed nations must reduce emissions dramatically by 2020 to limit global warming. The report says the first new nuclear reactor in the United States probably won't be completed until at least 2016. Money that would go to new plants would be better spent on renewable sources. State Rep. Mike Huebsch, a West Salem Republican, has pushed to repeal Wisconsin's moratorium on nuclear power. He says groups like Wisconsin Environment are still living off the hysteria of 1970s meltdowns and will do anything to delay nuclear plant construction.