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Nuclear power generates approximately 20 percent of all U.S. electricity. And because it is a low-carbon source of around-the-clock power, it has received renewed interest as concern grows over the effect of greenhouse gas emissions on our climate. Yet nuclear power's own myriad limitations will constrain its growth and make it an infeasible solution for making energy more affordable as well as more sustainable.

The Bush administration on Friday rejected regulating greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, saying it would cause too many job losses. In a 588-page federal notice, the Environmental Protection Agency made no finding on whether global warming poses a threat to people's health, reversing an earlier conclusion at the insistence of the White House and officially kicking any decision on a solution to the next president and Congress.

The nation's biggest polluter isn't a corporation. It's the Pentagon. Every year the Department of Defense churns out more than 750,000 tons of hazardous waste -- more than the top three chemical companies combined. Yet the military remains largely exempt from compliance with most federal and state environmental laws, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Pentagon's partner in crime, is working hard to keep it that way.

Railcars loaded with 6,700 tons of radioactive waste will roll across the Treasure Valley this week, the cargo destined for a remote site south of Boise on a sagebrush-dotted plateau near the Snake River. And it won't be the first time. This scenario has occurred regularly over the past several years. The site Idaho's only public hazardous waste dump has received more than 1 million tons of radioactive materials from the federal government during the past five years.

The Federation for a Sustainable Environment (FSE) informs Mining Weekly that two of the three mining companies responsible for cleaning and treating the toxic mine water in the Western Basin have once again stopped pumping and treating the mine void water. The mines were instructed earlier this year by the Depart(ment of Water and Environ-mental Affairs (DWEA) to pump and partially treat the toxic water that rose up to just 0,6 m from the surface. The department further directed that, after October 31, 2009, the water had to be pumped and treated to values with sulphates of less than 600 mg/ℓ, failing which it might take any measures it considered necessary to remedy the situation, which could include taking the measures itself and recovering all reasonable costs for measures taken by the department from the parties to whom the directive was issued as well as taking legal action against the parties.