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"State considers whether cooling systems that harm environment should be phased out New state rules would require that the cooling system used at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant be phased out within the next 15 years, but would allow plant managers to apply for alternatives that reduce cost. The goal of the rules is to eliminate the method known as once-through cooling, which uses billions of gallons of ocean water daily to cool electrical steam generators. State water officials consider once-through cooling used by 19 coastal power plants to be too damaging to the ocean environment. "Ultimately, once-through cooling has got to go," said Dave Clegern, spokesman for the State Water Resources Control Board. The rules would allow Diablo Canyon, owned by Pacific Gas and Electric Co., and a nuclear plant at San Onofre to apply for less stringent requirements to offset the damage of their cooling systems if eliminating once-through cooling is determined to be "wholly out of proportion to the cost.""

"State water board regulators have released a plan to stop power companies from using ocean water to cool their machinery. Environmentalists say the practice destroys too much sea life, but utility advocates argue the impact is minimal. Screens prevent larger animals from entering the plants, but fish can die while trapped against these barriers. Anything smaller than the openings in the screens, including millions of tiny fish larvae, can enter the power plants and also die. Federal rules discourage new operations from drawing in seawater for such cooling systems. The draft plan released Tuesday proposes that existing plants from Eureka to San Diego reduce the use of ocean water by 93 percent. The board is expected to vote on the new policy on May 4. Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant and the gas-fired power plant in Morro Bay use once-through cooling systems in their operations."

"It must stop using a once-through water system by 2024, but PG&E will not know for several years what will replace it By David Sneed | dsneed@thetribunenews.com Comments (18) | Recommend (0) Bookmark and Share Add to My Yahoo! email this story to a friend E-Mail print story Print Text Size: tool name close tool goes here It's hard to miss Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant when passing it by air or sea. One immediately sees the hulking containment domes that house and protect the plant's two nuclear reactors rising above the squat, brown generator building. Attention is soon drawn to another sight - a massive plume of whitewater cascading from the plant's cooling water system. When operating at full power, Diablo Canyon uses 2.5 billion gallons of seawater a day to condense steam after it has passed through the two electrical generators. On May 4, the state Water Resources Control Board adopted a new policy that declared these once-through cooling systems used at Diablo Canyon and 18 other coastal power plants in California to be antiquated. The board gave the utilities that own those plants deadlines for installing less environmentally damaging cooling systems. "

Entergy Northeast, the company that owns and operates the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Buchanan, may consider cost-benefit analysis with reviewing technology at the plant. The issue at hand was environmentalist organizations' call for the plant to convert to a closed-cycle cooling system, which they maintain would draw far fewer fish into the system and reduce the fish kill by over 95 percent. The Riverkeeper group fought for the closed cooling system. Hudson Riverkeeper and organization President Alex Matthiessen said they are pleased that the court "agreed that EPA is not required to use cost-benefit analysis and left it up to EPA on remand to decide to what extent, if any, cost benefit analysis should be used in regulating cooling water intake structures."

MANATEE COUNTY - Buildings No. 4 and 5 at 1600 Tallevast Road were once a central part of the former American Beryllium Co. plant where local workers built parts that were used to make weapons. One building served as a wood-working shop and inspection room. The other housed a waste-water treatment system and was used to store hazardous materials.

Concerns center on water usage, cost and spent fuel disposal. The future of San Antonio's ever-growing power needs was addressed Aug. 26 in McAllister Fine Arts Center during KSTX's Town Hall forum on energy. While the topic of the forum was all things energy, most of the evening's questions centered on CPS' proposed $10 billion-$13 billion expansion of the South Texas Project nuclear power plant in Bay City, which intends to add two additional nuclear reactors, as well as conversation on use of alternative and renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power. Construction for the new reactors, dubbed STP 3 & 4, is slated to begin in 2012. CPS' use of renewable resources, including solar, wind and natural gas, equals over 11 percent of the city's peak energy demand, according to the company's Web site. The Web site also lists a goal to increase that percentage to 20 percent by 2020.

Critics of a proposal to divert nearly 30,000 acre feet of water from the Green River for use at Utah's first nuclear-power plant say it would threaten already endangered fish and rare plants. The protest by the Center for Biological Diversity, filed with the Utah State Engineer's Office, raises concerns over the Kane County Water Conservancy District's application to change the nature of the water's use and its diversion point. Specifically, the center questions "how the water diversion will be consistent with the need to protect river flows and habitat conditions critical for the survival of imperiled plants and animals in the vicinity of the power plant's footprint, including endangered fish," according to a news release from the group.

"MAINS water supplies in east Suffolk could be put under stress if permission is given to build a £6billion Sizewell C nuclear power station, according to critics. Figures revealed to a local watchdog group show that the existing Sizewell B plant uses about 800 cubic metres of mains water a day - estimated to be about 7% of the total demand in the local catchment area. Critics say based on this figure a twin-reactor Sizewell C would demand a further 1,600 cubic metres a day - in one of the driest parts of the country and where householders and businesses have in the past few decades faced restrictions on use."

While state and county health officials said a chemically contaminated site in southeast Richmond poses no dangers to their current users, concerns remain about past users and those to come. They also acknowledge that their findings don't include the possible interactions between the more than 100 toxic metals and chemicals found at the site.

The Obama administration will make reforming the nation's 137-year-old hardrock mining law a top priority despite a full plate of higher profile issues, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Tuesday. Salazar told a Senate committee considering reform legislation that "it is time to ensure a fair return to the public for mining activities that occur on public lands and to address the cleanup of abandoned mines." The General Mining Act of 1872, which gives mining preference over other uses on much of the nation's public lands, has left a legacy of hundreds of thousands of abandoned mines that are polluting rivers and streams throughout the West. Mining companies also don't pay royalties on gold, silver, copper and other hardrock minerals mined on public land. Reform bills have been introduced in the House and Senate, but past attempts at reform have foundered in the face of opposition from industry and many Western lawmakers.

The Obama administration will make reforming the nation's 137-year-old hardrock mining law a top priority despite a full plate of higher profile issues, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Tuesday. Salazar told a Senate committee considering reform legislation that "it is time to ensure a fair return to the public for mining activities that occur on public lands and to address the cleanup of abandoned mines." The General Mining Act of 1872, which gives mining preference over other uses on much of the nation's public lands, has left a legacy of hundreds of thousands of abandoned mines that are polluting rivers and streams throughout the West. Mining companies also don't pay royalties on gold, silver, copper and other hardrock minerals mined on public land. Reform bills have been introduced in the House and Senate, but past attempts at reform have foundered in the face of opposition from industry and many Western lawmakers.

"State water board regulators are mulling a plan to stop power companies from vacuuming the ocean for water to cool their machinery. Environmentalists said the practice destroys too much sea life, while utility advocates said the impact is minimal. Banning the practice would cost too much, jeopardize the reliability of the electricity grid and slow the state's transition to clean energy, supporters of the practice said. Screens prevent larger animals from entering the plants, but fish can die while trapped against these barriers. Anything smaller than the openings in the screens, including millions of tiny fish larvae, can enter the power plants and also die. Federal rules ban new operations from drawing in seawater for so-called "once-through" cooling systems. State regulators now want to apply this rule to the 19 existing plants from Eureka to San Diego. The board's proposal would give owners a dozen years to comply and contains special provisions for nuclear-plant safety issues. In most cases, plants would have to replace seawater pipes with massive cooling towers that recycle water or use air-cooling platforms. "

n seeking to reduce Russia's greenhouse gas emissions, energy saving programs are more important than increased reliance on nuclear power, a World Wildlife Fund Russia official said on Tuesday. Commenting on widespread calls to boost the role of nuclear power, Alexei Kokorin, who heads WWF Russia's Climate and Energy program, said: "This point of view is certainly on the rise." He said that for many countries, including France, Armenia, Finland and Bulgaria, nuclear power may prove the best option for cutting emissions, but that in Russia's case "cheaper options need to be used." "I know that in Russia, the main way to cut emissions is energy saving and energy efficiency", he said, and highlighted the findings of an International Energy Agency World Energy Outlook report published earlier this month.

n seeking to reduce Russia's greenhouse gas emissions, energy saving programs are more important than increased reliance on nuclear power, a World Wildlife Fund Russia official said on Tuesday. Commenting on widespread calls to boost the role of nuclear power, Alexei Kokorin, who heads WWF Russia's Climate and Energy program, said: "This point of view is certainly on the rise." He said that for many countries, including France, Armenia, Finland and Bulgaria, nuclear power may prove the best option for cutting emissions, but that in Russia's case "cheaper options need to be used." "I know that in Russia, the main way to cut emissions is energy saving and energy efficiency", he said, and highlighted the findings of an International Energy Agency World Energy Outlook report published earlier this month.

"The Pickering nuclear power plant is killing fish by the millions. Close to one million fish and 62 million fish eggs and larvae die each year when they're sucked into the water intake channel in Lake Ontario, which the plant uses to cool steam condensers. The fish, which include alewife, northern pike, Chinook salmon and rainbow smelt, are killed when they're trapped on intake screens or suffer cold water shock after leaving warmer water that's discharged into the lake."

"Unwittingly and without prior consent or vote of acceptance by the people ... we have become the outhouse of the Eastern Seaboard for dumping ... tons of ... wastes. State law should not have allowed this to happen to us, and it shouldn't ever again allow it to happen to anyone." THE LETTER COULD have been written by someone from Lee, Union or Anderson County. If we don't do something to change our burgeoning status as the solid-waste destination, it could be written soon by someone from Williamsburg, Cherokee or Marlboro County - all eyed by out-of-state waste-hauling companies looking to expand the growing list of rural S.C. homes to megadumps designed with the nation in mind.

Washington » A 137-year-old exemption that allows companies to extract hard-rock minerals from public lands without paying royalties could cost the nation $1.6 billion during the next decade, says a new report by the Pew Campaign for Responsible Mining. To reverse that exemption, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., introduced legislation Tuesday that would treat the mineral-extraction companies the same as coal, oil and gas industries, which pay a percentage royalty for using public lands. "Given our current economic crisis and the empty state of our national treasury, it is ludicrous to be allowing this outmoded law to continue to exempt these lucrative mining activities from paying a fair return to the American people," Rahall said in a statement.

Exelon Nuclear can continue with dumping as usual for another year, according to Clarke Ruppert, Delaware River Basin Commission spokesman. "The commission did approve the resolution. It was approved by a 4-0 vote," Ruppert said in a telephone interview Friday afternoon. "It is a rather complex issue. We want to give ample time for the public" to participate in the discussion. Exelon, which operates the Limerick Generating Station, has been dumping water from an abandoned Wadesville coal mine into the Schuylkill River and sending it back downstream for the past six years. The nuclear power plant in Montgomery County uses the water as part of its cooling process.

The Nuclear Waste Disposal System known surreptitiously as Patent# US 6846967 provides a means for disposing of nuclear waste which includes filling steel containers with nuclear waste and then dropping the containers into the sea in the path of an undersea volcano. The volcano in turn pours lava onto the sea bed with the toxic substances, which the inventor swears are safe to put in the ocean and will not harm the environment. The question is: What if he is wrong?

A radioactive device stuck down an oil bore off the Taranaki coast had to be sealed under 60 metres of concrete to stop radiation leaking out. The incident, in March, was one of four potentially hazardous situations last year requiring emergency responses by the Health Ministry's National Radiation Laboratory. Manager Jim Turnbull said none caused harm to humans. There were two accidents involving nuclear density meters, which use a radioactive isotope source to measure soil density and moisture content.

Groups that use the Green River for personal and commercial recreation, educational activities and scientific research have filed a formal protest with the state over an application for water rights that would benefit a proposed nuclear power plant. Deputy state engineer Boyd Clayton said Monday that the next step will be to decide if two separate sets of protesters have legal standing to intervene and then to hold a public hearing, which he said could be months away. Clayton said Green River resident Bill Adams is a Green River water-rights holder, which by statute permits him to file a protest. Adams has aligned himself with the advocacy group Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL).