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Amsterdam, International - On the eve of the 22nd Chernobyl anniversary the nuclear industry has been rocked by revelations of cover-ups following a major nuclear accident in Spain and ongoing embarrassment over costly delays and deficiencies related to the construction of reactors in France and Finland intended to be flagships of a 'nuclear renaissance'.</la

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A hydrogen bomb that went missing for three months in the Mediterranean Sea is back in the hands of the U.S. military after being found the previous day. The bomb had been lost in January when two U.S. military planes, a KC-135 tanker and a B-52 carrying four thermonuclear weapons collided during midair refueling. Three of the four bombs fell to the ground near Palomares, Spain. While none of them detonated with a nuclear explosion, the high-explosive triggers in two of the bombs went off upon impact and contaminated the area with radioactive material.

Spain's government said on Monday it has fined the operators of the 1,000 megawatt Asco I nuclear plant 15.4 million euros ($20.95 million) for six charges of breaching safety rules over a radioactive leak in November 2007. The fine was the highest to be made against a Spanish nuclear plant to date, the government said. The leak at the Endesa (ELE.MC)-owned plant in the north eastern port of Tarragona occurred when radioactive water splashed a ventilation system during refueling. Officials did not inform the nuclear watchdog (CSN) until April 4, which the watchdog said was a serious breach for "not providing the resident inspector with prompt and truthful information."

Greenpeace and France's Sortir du Nucleaire are seeking to implicate Electricite de France Chairman Pierre Gadonneix in alleged spying by the utility on the anti-nuclear organizations. In a press statement, Greenpeace said it had asked the French government to suspend Gadonneix. It said it had learned through court documents that EDF contractors had been spying on its operations in France, the UK, Spain and Belgium since 2004. Greenpeace said that it asked French environment and energy minister Jean-Louis Borloo to name an "independent commission to evaluate the nuclear industry." Separately, Sortir du Nucleaire said it and its spokesman Stephane Lhomme had simultaneously filed for intervener status in the county court in Nanterre, outside Paris, where an investigative judge is examining evidence in the alleged spying case. SdN said it wants the judge to file charges against Gadonneix and not just against lower-level managers and contractors. EDF said last week that it had suspended two security managers who were implicated in the ongoing investigation.

"The Province of Guadalajara has today passed a measure which unanimously rejects the candidacy of the Municipality of Yebra (Guadalajara) to host a temporary centralised nuclear waste depot to stockpile waste from all of the country's nuclear power plants. The motion prevents all of the municipalities of the Province from standing as candidates to host the plant as well as preventing the central government from taking any such requests stemming from the province's municipalities into consideration, ''in view of the community and political rejection regarding them''. "

"Dr. Helen Caldicott, co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, will speak at St. Michael's College at 6 p.m. March 29 on the medical hazards of the nuclear age. The 71-year-old activist, pediatrician, author and grandmother of seven spoke via telephone from Spain a few days ago, where she had traveled to lecture at an international conference. Caldicott grew up in Australia and spends her free time there in a house in a small fishing village on the coast of New South Wales. She enjoys cooking and puttering in her garden, where kangaroos and exotic birds add to the beauty. She lectures and travels widely, and among her other projects is establishing a new nonprofit that will use social media to spread the anti-nuke message. Here's an account of her conversation with Free Press reporter Molly Walsh."

"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 rest of the world has mostly forgotten, but a brush with nuclear Armageddon more than 40 years ago is still seared in the minds of many residents of a small Spanish fishing town. On the morning of January 17, 1966, a US Air Force B-52 bomber returning from a routine mission collided with a tanker aircraft that was to refuel it.

The arrival of a nuclear-powered submarine at Gibraltar has the same impact as the arrival of a cruise liner, for example. That is, none. However, there are those in the Campo area who like to stir it up for obvious political reasons.

MADRID - The amount of radiation emitted by the Ascó nuclear power station in Tarragona during a leak in 2007 reached 176 becquerels, 750 times more that the plant's managers initially acknowledged, Spain's nuclear watchdog has disclosed in a new report. In responses to questions posed by Greenpeace, the Nuclear Security Council (CSN) said that initial readings at the plant had been based on an "inadequate" measurement model, hence the subsequent revision.

MADRID (AFP) - Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Saturday he would not extend the life of Spain's ageing nuclear plants as he repeated his government's commitment to phasing out nuclear power. "We are committed to respecting the normal life-span of the plants unless there are urgent energy needs, and to not building new nuclear plants," he said in an interview with top-selling daily El Pais.

Madrid - Spain's Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) on Tuesday suggested that a November leak from a Spanish nuclear power plant may be worse than thought after radioactivity was found on a lorry that transported scrap metal from the plant. The discovery could mean that radioactive particles have been carried to a distance of dozens of kilometres outside the Asco I plant, instead of remaining within its confines, as had been believed so far, according to media reports. The lorry took scrap metal from the Asco I plant near the eastern coastal city of Tarragona to a nearby dumping site. The metal itself was not contaminated, the CSN said. The CSN said that some 1,600 people were undergoing health checks, twice as many as had initially been planned.

* Plant's permit expires on July 5 * 40-year lifespan expires in 2011 * Polls favour plant staying open, but no new nuclear plants By Martin Roberts MADRID, June 25 (Reuters) - As Spain's government faces the first test of an electoral pledge to phase out nuclear power, unions and environmentalists expect it will either close an ageing plant or keep it open for another two years. The Garona plant's current operating permit expires on July 5 and the government has the final say on whether it stays open.