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Studsvik and Italy's SOGIN has signed a contract for the treatment and conditioning of organic low-level waste. The order value is estimated at around SEK 73 million. "With the order from SOGIN Studsvik takes a first step into the Italian market. The order shows Studsvik's opportunities in the renaissance that the global nuclear power industry is undergoing," says Studsvik's CEO Magnus Groth. The order concerns the treatment of approximately 270 tonnes of organic low-level waste from the Italian nuclear site Caorso at Studsvik's facility in Sweden.

"The Swedish government Thursday presented a draft bill that would quadruple the sum owners of nuclear reactors should pay in damages in case of an accident. "The reactor owners should take full responsibility for the security and insurance at nuclear plants," Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren said. At present reactor owners are obliged to cover costs of up to 3 billion kronor (415 million dollars), but the sum should be hiked to 12 billion kronor, according to the government's proposal. The government said reactor owners should sign up to a mutual insurance system, noting that this is in place in other countries. Other options included that the company has to show it has sufficient securities. These would be reviewed by the National Debt Office, Carlgren told reporters. Further, the proposal states that "all assets in a company" could be used to cover the damages, he said. The bill also scraps a previous ban against building new nuclear power reactors, revoking a 1980 referendum decision to phase out nuclear power, Carlgren said but "at most 10 reactors are allowed". "

"One nation may have found a better way to store high-level nuclear waste We were stunned when we came across this headline on a story in Tuesday's New York Times about a mystifying occurrence in Sweden: "A Town Says 'Yes, In Our Backyard' to Nuclear Site." In fact, the Times reported, 18 Swedish communities located near proposed sites were intrigued by hosting a permanent nuclear waste dump. Ultimately, the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co. narrowed the list to two towns, both of which have nuclear power plants. The company recently recommended that the government build the dump in Osthammar, 80 percent of whose 21,000 residents are in favor of it being built there. "In most countries," the Times drolly noted, "people would sooner allow a factory hog farm or garbage incinerator in their backyards than a nuclear waste dump." Nevadans can attest to this, having vigorously fought our federal government's efforts to bury nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas."

Article Highlights * Last October, despite opposition from the arms control community, the United States and India entered into an agreement that allowed for nuclear commerce between the two countries. * The early returns seem to indicate that the agreement is here to stay, as already many Indian and U.S. companies are experiencing a financial windfall from it. * With the relaxed trading guidelines, other countries such as Russia, Sweden, and France also are looking to conduct nuclear business with New Delhi. October 8 marks the one-year anniversary of former President George W. Bush signing into law the so-called U.S.-India nuclear deal. The deal proved controversial from its inception because it ended a 34-year U.S. ban on nuclear trade with India, a non-signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). And yet despite heavy criticism of the deal--especially from arms control and disarmament advocates--one year later, it appears solidly entrenched as long-term policy.

Article Highlights * Last October, despite opposition from the arms control community, the United States and India entered into an agreement that allowed for nuclear commerce between the two countries. * The early returns seem to indicate that the agreement is here to stay, as already many Indian and U.S. companies are experiencing a financial windfall from it. * With the relaxed trading guidelines, other countries such as Russia, Sweden, and France also are looking to conduct nuclear business with New Delhi. October 8 marks the one-year anniversary of former President George W. Bush signing into law the so-called U.S.-India nuclear deal. The deal proved controversial from its inception because it ended a 34-year U.S. ban on nuclear trade with India, a non-signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). And yet despite heavy criticism of the deal--especially from arms control and disarmament advocates--one year later, it appears solidly entrenched as long-term policy.

The Swedish government plans to overturn a nearly 30-year-old decision to phase out nuclear power and lift a ban on building new reactors. The centre-right government says it wants to allow for new reactors to replace 10 still in operation. The decision still needs to be approved by parliament. The plan will not receive state funding.

Russia is well underway to improve the situation in the Andreeva Bay, an official from Rosatom confirmed in a seminar yesterday. Sweden, Norway and the UK pledge continued support to the clean-up of the site, one of the world's biggest and worst protected storages for spent nuclear fuel. However, the most important question still remains to be solved: how to remove thousands of tons of spent nuclear fuel assemblies, the Bellona Foundation underlines. This week, the environmental organisation organised a seminar on the issue in Murmansk. Spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste storage facilities at Andreyeva Bay were hastily built during the Soviet era. They were meant to be used on a temporary basis to house nuclear materials, which are still being stored there at enormous risk to the environment and local community. The facilities store more than 20,000 spent nuclear fuel assemblies, Bellona.org reports.

This study of bone density compares BMD development in 2854 women affected by the Chernobyl nuclear accident with two non-contaminated control groups using the DXL Calscan portable bone densitometer device. By Prof. S.S. Rodionova, CITO (Moscow). A new study has been published in the international journal "Annals of Traumatology and Orthopedics" by a research team led by Prof. S.S. Rodionova, founder of the Russian Osteoporosis Society and Professor of Traumatology at the Central Institute of Traumatology & Orthopedics (CITO). Random bone mineral density testing was performed using the portable DXL Calscan device (Demetech, Sweden) on 2854 women who are now between the ages of 15 and 80 years. The device uses a patented technology of dual energy x-ray and laser (DXL) to better eliminate errors caused by lean soft tissue and fat in DXA devices. The Chernobyl accident of April 1986 caused radioactive contamination to the environment in many communities in the Brjansk region of western Russia, near the Ukraine and Belarus borders. While some specific communities within this region were spared from this contamination, other communities were greatly affected. The effects of the environmental damage caused in the affected communities continue to be seen in the form of health problems for their inhabitants. This study examines the increased risk of osteoporosis and future fragility fractures in affected areas compared to control groups.

A year after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, amid panic worldwide about the safety of nuclear energy, Sweden voted to ban construction of new nuclear power plants and phase out its existing ones. Now, like many countries across Europe, it is changing its mind. Last month, the government proposed allowing the construction of new reactors to replace the country's aging ones, which provide nearly half the nation's electricity. Swedes have made their peace with nuclear plants, not only because memories have faded and safety records improved after 30 years, but also because reactors are seen as one of the few options available to nations wanting to rapidly slash greenhouse gas emissions.

Twenty-three years have passed since The Day of April 26 divided human fates into "before" and "after" the disaster at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Until this day it is the world's worst anthropogenic catastrophe unmatched for its environmental impact. For Ukraine Chornobyl is an everyday reality and a host of global-scale problems. Unfortunately, the problems caused by the catastrophe are as acute today as they were 23 years ago. Can one get used to devastated villages and abandoned fertile land? Today nothing prevents us from learning in detail what was happening on the banks of the Prypiat in late April-November 1986. In May 1986 foreigners were the first to learn the truth: on April 30 a Geiger counter on a Swedish nuclear power plant detected an unacceptably high level of radiation. After the Swedish government ascertained that the discharge did not take place in Sweden, it made an official inquiry. Mikhail Gorbachev addressed the people only 18 days after the disaster, on May 14. And three years passed before the information on the radioactivity conditions was declassified and publicized. After the explosion at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the scientists at the Institute for Nuclear Research (National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine) identified two groups of radionuclides emitted from the damaged reactor. One of them included volatile radioactive substances carried up high in aerosols with the streams of warm air (iodine-131, iodine-135, cesium-134, cesium-137, and strontium-90). Nearly 30 percent of cesium accumulated in the reactor core was emitted.

On April 26, 1986, Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station reactor number 4 exploded at 1:24 a.m. "Tons of radioactive dust was" unleashed "into the air…transported by winds, [and] it contaminated both hemispheres of our planet, settling wherever it rained. The emissions of radioactivity lasted [short-term] for 10 days."(1) On 29 April, "fatal levels of radioactivity were recorded…in Poland, Austria, Romania, Finland, and Sweden."(2) The day after (30 April), it hit Switzerland and Italy. By 2 May, it reached France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Great Britain, and Greece. The next day, Israel, Kuwait, and Turkey were contaminated. Then, over the next few days, "radioactive substances" were recorded in Japan (3 May), China (4 May), India (5 May), and the US and Canada (6 May). The radioactive spew from this explosion was "200 times greater than the atomic bomb at Hiroshima."(3) Not one person was safe from this catastrophic nuclear explosion; and "65-million people were contaminated...more than 400,000 people were forced to evacuate the area [around Chernobyl], losing their homes, possessions and jobs, as well as their economic, social, and family ties."(4) The long-term and hidden costs of radioactive contamination have never been adequately reported by mainstream news. According to the authors (including the distinguished Dr. Rosalie Bertell) of a new book, "Chernobyl: The Hidden Legacy" "[i]t will take millennia to recover…[before an area] as large as Italy, will return to normal radioactive levels in about 100,000 years time."(5)

"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."

"The Russian military allegedly dumped nuclear waste into the Baltic Sea in the early 1990s, according to a report on Swedish television. Radioactive material from a military base in Latvia is thought to have been thrown into Swedish waters. For many the biggest shock is that the Swedish government may have known at the time and done nothing about it. The partly enclosed Baltic Sea is known as one of the most polluted seas in the world. But now it seems it was also used as a dumping ground for Russian nuclear waste and chemical weapons. "

"A company's plan to ship radioactive steam generators on the Great Lakes is drawing crticism from Mayor Mike Bradley. Bradley said he's seen no evidence Bruce Power has consulted with communities along the shipping route. The comapny plans to transport 16 generators this fall from its nuclear plant near Kincardine, Ontario, to Owen Sound, Ontario. From there, the generators will be loaded on a ship that will travel the Great Lakes and the St. Clair River en route to a recycler in Sweden. Removing the generators is part of a refurbishment project at the plant near Kincardine, company officials have said. "

"Groups opposed to a Bruce Power plan to ship 16 steam generators, considered intermediate-level waste, through Owen Sound and the Great Lakes en route to Sweden for recycling are circulating a resolution to municipalities and other organizations calling for an end to the proposal. A Bruce Power spokesman said the company sees moving the 100-tonne generators more as a traffic issue than one of nuclear safety. "Everyone has the right to express their opinions, but we don't see any risk in this," said Peevers. The resolution being circulated by groups such as Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes, Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination, Beyond Nuclear and the Nuclear Information and Resource Centre (NIRC) has collected signatures from a few hundred anti-nuclear, First Nations, environmental, and physicians groups from across Canada, the United States and countries around the world. In Bruce County, Citizens for Renewable Energy out of Lion's Head is opposed to the shipment of steam generators off the site. Hundreds of individuals have also signed, including Inverhuron's Eugene Bourgeois, Dr. Paul J. Eisenbarth of Hanover and Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley. "

"If Illinois were a country, it would have the world's 12th-largest number of nuclear power reactors, behind China and ahead of Sweden. No other U.S. state generates more energy through fission. Exelon Corp. (EXC), which operates all 11 of the state's reactors, is no stranger to President Barack Obama. The Chicago- based company has served as a source of campaign contributions and also created environmental and political challenges to navigate. Even as his administration reviews all U.S. reactors following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that triggered radiation leaks from a crippled Japanese plant, Obama last week called nuclear power an "important part" of his energy agenda. That mirrors the balancing act he displayed in his adopted home state, which generates more than a tenth of U.S. nuclear power."

The plan to use copper for sealing nuclear waste underground has being thrown into disarray by corrosion in artefacts from the Vasa Plans for nuclear waste disposal could be thrown into confusion tomorrow at a summit because of new evidence of corrosion in materials traditionally used for burial procedures. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) says it will keep careful watch on a meeting organised by the Swedish National Council for Nuclear Waste, which will look at potential problems with copper, designated for an important role in sealing radioactive waste underground.

The plan to use copper for sealing nuclear waste underground has being thrown into disarray by corrosion in artefacts from the Vasa Plans for nuclear waste disposal could be thrown into confusion tomorrow at a summit because of new evidence of corrosion in materials traditionally used for burial procedures. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) says it will keep careful watch on a meeting organised by the Swedish National Council for Nuclear Waste, which will look at potential problems with copper, designated for an important role in sealing radioactive waste underground.

"THE POLITICIANS responsible for deciding on nuclear power have been tricked, according to one policy analyst. With the help of Finland's Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK), nuclear power companies have propagated a misleading image of emission-free, or at least low-emission, nuclear power. "Nuclear power companies employ a strategy familiar from the tobacco industry. There is always some argument against damaging claims, problems are downplayed and critics demonised. A sort of Finlandisation prevails with regard to the nuclear sector," argues Mika Flöjt, an environmental and energy policy analyst at the University of Lapland. Flöjt works in a unit linked to the university's Arctic Centre. According to Flöjt, the claim of emission-free power has been touted by nuclear power companies, STUK and the Ministry of Employment and the Economy, and accepted without scrutiny."