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An environmental group won its request to review safety and engineering records of a Department of Energy nuclear reactor 100 miles upwind of Yellowstone National Park, according to federal court records. The Jackson-based Keep Yellowstone Nuclear Free will be able to review 1,400 pages evaluating the safety of the advanced test reactor (ATR) at the Idaho National Laboratory, according to the Sept. 14 order by Chief U.S. District Judge William Downes. The lab is a 890-square-site with three main complexes west of Idaho Falls. "KYNF has been anxiously awaiting this decision because they maintain that the redacted documents contain the DOE's assessment of the safety and consequences of an accident at the controversial ATR, the largest nuclear test reactor in the world, said Mary Woollen, the environmental group's director. However, the environment group did not disagree with a Department of Energy motion granted by Downes to put the order on hold until Nov. 27 because of a possible appeal. The government also needs the time to review the documents and edit certain details.

An environmental group won its request to review safety and engineering records of a Department of Energy nuclear reactor 100 miles upwind of Yellowstone National Park, according to federal court records. The Jackson-based Keep Yellowstone Nuclear Free will be able to review 1,400 pages evaluating the safety of the advanced test reactor (ATR) at the Idaho National Laboratory, according to the Sept. 14 order by Chief U.S. District Judge William Downes. The lab is a 890-square-site with three main complexes west of Idaho Falls. "KYNF has been anxiously awaiting this decision because they maintain that the redacted documents contain the DOE's assessment of the safety and consequences of an accident at the controversial ATR, the largest nuclear test reactor in the world, said Mary Woollen, the environmental group's director. However, the environment group did not disagree with a Department of Energy motion granted by Downes to put the order on hold until Nov. 27 because of a possible appeal. The government also needs the time to review the documents and edit certain details.

Federal regulators gave two green lights to Entergy Nuclear Thursday, saying recent changes Entergy made to the proposed spin-off of its five nuclear reactors, including Vermont Yankee, did not warrant additional review. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission also gave Entergy Nuclear another month next year to complete an important test of its reactor containment system in spring, a test that has already been postponed for five years. In the case of the spin-off, which would create a company called Enexus, changes Entergy made to the deal recently won the support of the Vermont Department of Public Service, which acts as the ratepayer advocate. However, the Vermont Public Service Board still hasn't approved the spin-off. Additionally, New York State regulators also have yet to sign off on the deal.

Federal regulators gave two green lights to Entergy Nuclear Thursday, saying recent changes Entergy made to the proposed spin-off of its five nuclear reactors, including Vermont Yankee, did not warrant additional review. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission also gave Entergy Nuclear another month next year to complete an important test of its reactor containment system in spring, a test that has already been postponed for five years. In the case of the spin-off, which would create a company called Enexus, changes Entergy made to the deal recently won the support of the Vermont Department of Public Service, which acts as the ratepayer advocate. However, the Vermont Public Service Board still hasn't approved the spin-off. Additionally, New York State regulators also have yet to sign off on the deal.

The lawyer acting for Bikini Islanders says there is little hope their case will go to the US Supreme Court as they seek compensation for the 23 US nuclear weapons tests carried on their atoll. The Bikinians filed suit in the US Federal Court of Claims in 2006 after a Nuclear Claims Tribunal issued a 563 million US dollar damage award in their favour but did not have the money to pay it. The Bikinians contend that the US Congress cannot take away their US Constitution Fifth Amendment protections for just compensation payments for damage the nuclear tests did to their islands. But the US Justice Department said in earlier court hearings that the US Congress provided a full and final settlement through a 150 million US dollar compensation fund in a Compact of Free Association approved by the US and Marshall Islands governments in 1986. The Tribunal proved incapable of paying even one percent of the compensation. The atoll is still uninhabited because of radiation contamination.--RNZI

The lawyer acting for Bikini Islanders says there is little hope their case will go to the US Supreme Court as they seek compensation for the 23 US nuclear weapons tests carried on their atoll. The Bikinians filed suit in the US Federal Court of Claims in 2006 after a Nuclear Claims Tribunal issued a 563 million US dollar damage award in their favour but did not have the money to pay it. The Bikinians contend that the US Congress cannot take away their US Constitution Fifth Amendment protections for just compensation payments for damage the nuclear tests did to their islands. But the US Justice Department said in earlier court hearings that the US Congress provided a full and final settlement through a 150 million US dollar compensation fund in a Compact of Free Association approved by the US and Marshall Islands governments in 1986. The Tribunal proved incapable of paying even one percent of the compensation. The atoll is still uninhabited because of radiation contamination.--RNZI

Sen. Harry Reid says the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is changing position to support a key measure for compensating sick former Nevada Test Site workers. Reid, D-Nev., said Wednesday the next step is for the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health to approve the NIOSH "special cohort status" recommendation next month. The designation lets case evaluators attribute illnesses to work at the nation's nuclear proving ground north of Las Vegas without a cumbersome government "dose reconstruction" process. Former workers complain sick colleagues are dying while the government slowly processes claims for medical benefits and $150,000 payments under a program created by Congress in 2001. NIOSH has estimated about 500 of workers from the years of underground nuclear tests, 1963 to 1992, could qualify.

Sen. Harry Reid says the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is changing position to support a key measure for compensating sick former Nevada Test Site workers. Reid, D-Nev., said Wednesday the next step is for the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health to approve the NIOSH "special cohort status" recommendation next month. The designation lets case evaluators attribute illnesses to work at the nation's nuclear proving ground north of Las Vegas without a cumbersome government "dose reconstruction" process. Former workers complain sick colleagues are dying while the government slowly processes claims for medical benefits and $150,000 payments under a program created by Congress in 2001. NIOSH has estimated about 500 of workers from the years of underground nuclear tests, 1963 to 1992, could qualify.

U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced the selection of Clemson University to receive up to $45 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for a wind energy test facility that will enhance the performance, durability, and reliability of utility-scale wind turbines. This investment will support jobs and strengthen American leadership in wind energy technology by supporting the testing of next-generation wind turbine designs. "Wind power holds tremendous potential to help create new jobs and reduce carbon pollution," said Secretary Chu. "We are at the beginning of a new Industrial Revolution when it comes to clean energy and projects like these will help us get there faster."

U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced the selection of Clemson University to receive up to $45 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for a wind energy test facility that will enhance the performance, durability, and reliability of utility-scale wind turbines. This investment will support jobs and strengthen American leadership in wind energy technology by supporting the testing of next-generation wind turbine designs. "Wind power holds tremendous potential to help create new jobs and reduce carbon pollution," said Secretary Chu. "We are at the beginning of a new Industrial Revolution when it comes to clean energy and projects like these will help us get there faster."

"Bruce Power has added 40 long-term employees to a growing list of workers being tested for exposure to alpha radiation, company spokesman John Peevers said Monday. "This is just another step based on what we learned from the restart project," Peevers said. "We put a number of measures in place to protect employees, to better monitor alpha, and now we're looking back historically to see if any of our long-term employees in operations have had any exposure to alpha over their career." The company unexpectedly discovered alpha radiation when workers were doing Jprep work -- cutting and grinding down tubes that had carried coolant as part of the Bruce A Unit 1 restart project. Similar work on Unit 2 had been done without incident. The first hint of airborne alpha radiation in the Unit 1 nuclear vault came during a routine air sample test on Nov. 26, 2009. Two days later, a similar radiation spike was found but the company didn't find out it was alpha radiation until Dec. 21. "We have always been looking for alpha but we were using . . . industry standard assumptions" based on ratios of beta-gamma radiation which are quite common in nuclear plants, Peevers said. The company now knows "that the ratios weren't as accurate as we wanted." "

"The right wing revolt in the Utah Republican Party that denied renomination to incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Robert Bennett has now produced an issue affecting Nevada. The two Republicans contending in the primary election to replace Bennett have both talked about reviving nuclear testing in Nevada. "We need to always have our eye on the ball for developing new weapons systems, and that is going to require new testing," candidate Mike Lee told the Salt Lake Tribune. His opponent Tim Bridgewater agreed. "I would support that," he said. "I would prefer that we don't have to move down that road, but … we shouldn't give up our strong position in the world because more nations are becoming nuclear powers, and the greater the deterrent, the less likely we ever have to use them.""

"Every minute, 10,000 gallons of water mysteriously gush out of the desert floor at a place called Ash Meadows, an oasis that is home to 24 plant and animal species found nowhere else in the world. A new Brigham Young University study indicates that the water arriving at Ash Meadows is completing a 15,000-year journey, flowing slowly underground from what is now the Nevada Test Site. The U.S. government tested nuclear bombs there for four decades, and a crack in the Earth's crust known as the "Gravity Fault" connects its aquifer with Ash Meadows."

The chief scientist at Britain's controversial nuclear tests FLED the danger zone... while thousands of troops were left behind to be nuked. Dr William Penney's own RAF batman (personal assistant) says he and top military brass left the area before the biggest bomb exploded in the South Pacific because, scientists admitted, they "didn't have a clue what would happen". "Penney scarpered somewhere safe and only came back in the evening, hours after the bomb," said Ralph Gray, now 73. At the same time several thousand servicemen - not told of the dangers - were ordered to stand and watch the detonation from only a few miles away.

President Barack Obama needs to back up a campaign pledge to ratify a worldwide nuclear test ban or risks seeing an atomic-bomb "bubble," international security experts say. "There is a problem and regulation is needed," Tibor Toth, 54, director of the Vienna-based United Nations treaty organization that is seeking to outlaw atomic weapons testing, said yesterday in an interview. "The arrangements in place to address the threat posed by nuclear weapons are showing cracks in the facade."

The first court hearing is due to start in London later today in a multi-million dollar compensation case brought by veterans of British nuclear weapons tests, including those in the Pacific. The case includes hundreds of British, New Zealand and Fiji veterans who took part in the tests on Malden and Christmas Island in Kiribati in 1957 and 1958. Ben Lowings reports from London. "It's being billed as the veterans' day in court - and one former serviceman is flying in from Fiji for the occasion. Pita Rokovada and the other veterans are suing the British defence ministry for millions in compensation. The veterans believe they were used as guinea pigs to study the effects of radiation."

Samples tested near the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in Fairfield County show the plant has had no adverse effects to the quality of the groundwater or surface water in the area, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control said Monday. "Tests show no radioactive materials in the groundwater coming from the plant," said Chris Staton, director of the agency's Division of Waste Assessment and Emergency Response. "The results did show Tritium in small amounts in two of the surface water samples. The levels that were found were well below any federal requirements, including the federal drinking water standard, for Tritium in surface

For the third consecutive year, US nuclear test victims in the Marshall Islands have been denied compensation, with a claims tribunal saying Saturday that funds were too low to make even a token payment. More than two billion dollars is owed in approved payments for personal injury and other claims arising from the 67 nuclear weapons tests conducted by the United States at Bikini and Enewetak atolls from 1946 to 1958. The funding provided by Washington was "manifestly inadequate", said Nuclear Claims Tribunal chairman Gregory Danz.

Serviceman's blood showed 'hallmarks of radiation THE MINISTRY of Defence (MoD) has been accused of "a cover-up of a cock-up" in the wake of new evidence that it failed to investigate genetic damage among the veterans of Britain's nuclear weapons tests in the 1950s. Confidential correspondence from 1984 reveals that the Medical Research Council (MRC) discovered DNA defects in a test veteran that were characteristic of radiation damage. But the council was never asked to look for similar problems in other veterans. The revelation is seen as the "smoking gun" that could bring justice for the veterans, who have been campaigning for compensation for illnesses they blame on radiation for decades. They recently launched legal action against the MoD, which has promised an inquiry.

Treating radioactive wastes lingering from the Cold War era when the United States experimented with nuclear weapons at the Nevada Test Site is in its final chapter, the National Nuclear Security Administration said today. Since completing 48 shipments involving 1,860 55-gallon drums of what's known as "transuranic," or TRU, wastes from the Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. In November 2005, Nevada is preparing another 58 oversized boxes for disposal.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is all for a resumption of nuclear tests. In a key speech at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, he said the United States could not maintain deterrence, reduce arms or modernize them without tests. Gates pledged to set up a special group under James Schlesinger, a former U.S. defense and energy secretary, to draft measures for the direction and supervision of nuclear facilities in the country.

Here in Arkansas with way above normal cancer rates, the survivors linked to radiation induced cancers ask me to find the source of radiation that caused their cancers. Radioactive fallout from the 1950's nuclear weapons tests in Nevada spread throughout most of the nation, but the hottest spots were in the Midwest and Northwest, according to government projections. Data, was compiled by the National Cancer Institute as part federal study over a decade ago. It was the first to show high exposure rates outside Nevada and Utah. Some of the highest doses of fallout were received by milk drinking children here in Arkansas. From earlier studies, exposure rates were highest in 12 states east and north of the Nevada desert: ARKANSAS, Missouri,Nevada,Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Idaho, Montana, and Colorado.

Albany County legislators told exam for articles is expensive, pioneering ALBANY - More than a half dozen speakers urged Albany County legislators Tuesday night to fund the continued testing of former employees and neighbors of the now-defunct NL Industries plant in Colonie for radiation contamination. Calling themselves Community Concerned About NL Industries, the speakers asked legislators to consider putting up $14,000 to test 16 former NL workers and Albany and Colonie residents who lived near the Central Avenue plant.

Burundi has ratified a global ban on nuclear test explosions and has become the 145th nation to fully endorse the accord. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization says the Central African country ratified the treaty earlier this week. But the Vienna-based organization is still urging key holdout nations to ratify the pact. Forty-four states that possess nuclear technology need to both sign and ratify it before it can take effect - and only 35 have done so.

Hundreds of former Canadian soldiers will receive compensation for being assigned to participate in atomic bomb test explosions by the U.S. and British militaries in the 1960s, the Defense Ministry said Tuesday. Defense Minister Peter MacKay said the soldiers were involved in operations in the United States, Australia and the South Pacific from the end of World War II until the international treaty banning atmospheric test explosions was signed in 1963.