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"Here's the staff memo today from ORNL Director Thom Mason, explaining the separation of benefits between ORNL and Y-12. It is followed by a Q&A on the separation, which includes the split up of the pension fund. The change is supposed to take place sometime later this summer, according to the lab. Y-12 has not responded to multiple requests for info. SEPARATION OF BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION"

"Work could begin this summer to start building a cover over closed portions of private company US Ecology's waste disposal trenches at Hanford. The Washington State Department of Ecology plans a public meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesdayto provide information about the plan and hear comments. It will be at the state office at 3100 Port of Benton Blvd., Richland. US Ecology and its predecessors have been disposing of commercial waste since 1965 on 100 acres of land leased to the state of Washington and subleased to US Ecology. During those 45 years, environmental regulations have changed significantly, said Larry Goldstein, contract manager for closure of the commercial low-level radioactive waste disposal site."

"Finland's fifth nuclear reactor preparing for installation of the reactor and turbine machinery Construction work on Olkiluoto III nuclear reactor to experience further major delays Construction work on Olkiluoto III nuclear reactor to experience further major delays Construction work on Olkiluoto III nuclear reactor to experience further major delays print this The construction of Finland's fifth commercial nuclear reactor, which is being built in Olkiluoto on the west coast of Finland, has been delayed once again. Even so, the French installation company Areva stands its ground, maintaining that the new reactor will generate electricity from the summer of 2012. "It does not look likely. The construction and the starting of installation on the reactor have progressed somewhat slower than scheduled", says Jouni Silvennoinen, a project manager at the Finnish nuclear power company Teollisuuden Voima (TVO)."

"Environmentalists and local politicians Friday cheered a Colorado Division of Reclamation Mining and Safety order late Thursday directing Denver-based Cotter Corp. to begin curtailing drinking water contamination from an inactive Jefferson County uranium mine this summer. Uranium pollution revealed to be more than 13 times state standards was contaminating Ralston Creek, and the state rejected a cleanup plan proposed by Cotter, which owns the Cotter Mill uranium processing facility near Canon City and several uranium mines around the state. The mining division required Cotter to begin water treatment at its Schwartzwalder uranium mine west of Arvada by July 31. "The mining division took bold and decisive action to protect our drinking water," Jefferson County Commissioner Kathy Hartman said in a release. "I am pleased to see immediate action to protect Ralston Reservoir.""

"USEC Inc. reported a net loss of $9.7 million in the first quarter, due largely to a decline in enrichment services compared to the same quarter in 2009, but the company is maintaining a positive front - at least in its public statements - on the American Centrifuge Project. The new enrichment facility is based at Piketon, Ohio, but the project has a significant impact on Oak Ridge, where much of the advanced centrifuge equipment is being manufactured. Hundreds lost their jobs last year when the project was scaled back, but about 300 people are still employed in Oak Ridge, either directly for USEC or its manufacturing contractor, B&W. USEC is still hoping to get about $2 billion in loan guarantees from the U.S. Department of Energy, which initially rejected the company's application and then agreed to work with USEC cooperatively to resolve some technology issues. In a prepared statement, USEC CEO John K. Welch said the plan is to update the application this summer after gaining data from operation of the new AC100 machines, which are running in a commercial configuration at Piketon."

"Thirty-six states could start shipping loads of radioactive waste through Texas for more than a decade _ likely crisscrossing the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex on major highways and train tracks _ if they get approval this summer to send their contaminated materials to a West Texas disposal site. The proposal to allow the states to send low-level waste to a site in Andrews County has prompted concern from some state lawmakers, who worry about the safety of communities along travel routes _ including the Interstate 20 corridor through North Texas _ and from environmentalists, who worry about radioactive leakage and contamination at the site. An eight-member commission is expected to take up the issue in coming weeks, considering rules that would govern what materials are accepted and whether dozens of states should be allowed to send radioactive waste to the Waste Control Specialists' Texas site owned by Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons. "

FUKUSHIMA--Strong horizontal jolts dislodged ceiling pipes and massive amounts of water started flooding out--this was the frightening scene experienced by a worker who was in the building housing the No. 1 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant when the earthquake hit Friday. His tale told to The Yomiuri Shimbun sheds light on the heavy initial damage the quake caused inside the building. The man works for a company contracted by Tokyo Electric Power Co. to handle inspections and maintenance of the reactor in Fukushima Prefecture. He had occasionally worked at the plant since last summer.

FUKUSHIMA--Strong horizontal jolts dislodged ceiling pipes and massive amounts of water started flooding out--this was the frightening scene experienced by a worker who was in the building housing the No. 1 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant when the earthquake hit Friday. His tale told to The Yomiuri Shimbun sheds light on the heavy initial damage the quake caused inside the building. The man works for a company contracted by Tokyo Electric Power Co. to handle inspections and maintenance of the reactor in Fukushima Prefecture. He had occasionally worked at the plant since last summer.

"A Japanese antinuclear group announced Wednesday it will convene the first of its annual meetings on nuclear weapons elimination this summer in Fukushima Prefecture, home to the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, on July 31. At the meeting in Fukushima city, the Japan Congress Against A- and H-Bombs, or Gensuikin, will also call for early containment of the nuclear crisis and a halt to all nuclear plants in Japan. The group has been calling for a nuclear-free world based on the country's experience of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

"The sun has only just risen in Iwaki-Yumoto when groups of men in white T-shirts and light blue cargo pants emerge blinking into the sunlight, swapping the comfort of their air-conditioned rooms for the fierce humidity of a Japanese summer. Four months on from the start of the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl, this hot-spring resort in north-east Japan has been transformed into a dormitory for 2,000 men who have travelled from across the country to take part in the clean-up effort 30 miles away at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. Iwaki-Yumoto has come to resemble corporate Japan in microcosm. Among its newest residents are technicians and engineers with years of experience and, underpinning them all, hundreds of labourers lured from across Japan by the prospect of higher wages. They include Ariyoshi Rune, a tall, wiry 47-year-old truck driver whose slicked-back hair and sideburns are inspired by his idol, Joe Strummer. For five days a week, Rune is in thrall to the drudgery of life as a "nuclear gypsy", the name writer Kunio Horie gave to contract workers who have traditionally performed the dirtiest, most dangerous jobs for Japan's power utilities."

The Hibakusha keep telling their stories. As Hiroshima and Nagasaki prepare for the upcoming 64th anniversary of the atomic bombing, Hibakusha all over the country continue to talk about that day, and to press for a nuclear ban. It was good news when the leader of the one nation in the world that has used the atomic bomb spoke of America's moral obligation and declared that he "seeks a world where there are no nuclear weapons." But the Hibakusha are wary of lapsing into an easy optimism. After all, nuclear weapons continue to spread to all corners of the world.