Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

Disc containing personal info for thousands of DOE employees lost; local workers not at risk OAK RIDGE - Free medical screenings for workers at Oak Ridge and other Department of Energy sites have been put on hold while DOE investigates an incident in which personal information could have been compromised. The department also is establishing a new protocol for handling such data. The incident involved a lost disc containing the personal information for thousands of current and former employees at DOE's Idaho National Laboratory. Local officials emphasized Tuesday that no information involving Oak Ridge workers had been placed at risk.

Plant will close its 40-acre secondary impoundment pond Cotter has committed to close its 40-acre secondary impoundment pond with its recent license amendment with the state, plant manager John Hamrick told the Lincoln Park/Cotter Superfund Community Advisory Group on Thursday. About 20 people gathered at Garden Park High School for the monthly CAG meeting. Hamrick said the agreement also calls for Cotter to establish a timeline for certain actions, including a March 31 deadline for a commitment letter. That document will detail Cotter's plans to either close its uranium plant south of Cañon City, the site of a Superfund cleanup, or retool it for continued production.

Four U.S. Representatives from New York are requesting a federal investigation at the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Buchanan. Democratic colleagues John Hall, Maurice Hinchey, Nita Lowey and Eliot Engel called on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission - the industry's oversight body - to scrutinize a recent water leak that contained radioactive material at the plant. The problem was discovered Feb. 16 when the facility's staff detected a leak in an underground pipe connected to the reactor's secondary cooling system. The escaping water contained small amounts of tritium, a radioactive isotope.

A New Jersey nuclear plant has reduced its operating power by about 50 percent while workers repair an underground pipe that's been leaking. Advertisement David Benson, a plant spokesman, says the leak was detected Monday inside Oyster Creek's turbine building. Workers excavated soil immediately outside the building, and samples showed elevated levels of tritium - a weak radioisotope found naturally and produced in somewhat higher concentrations in commercial reactors. Officials say the leak at the Lacey Township plant does not pose a threat to employee or public safety. The excavation is near the area where two other small leaks were found in April and repaired. Oyster Creek opened in December 1969 and produces about 9 percent of New Jersey's electricity.

Panel to consider prohibiting mining Uranium exploration and mining again are on tap for the Fremont County Planning Commission. The panel will meet Tuesday evening in regular session with an agenda that includes a public hearing on a proposed amendment to the Fremont County Master Plan that would prohibit mining in certain areas of the county. The amendment, submitted by the Tallahassee Area Community group, would prohibit mining in the "Mountain District" of Fremont County. That area covers about 500 square miles in the northern part of the county and another 250 square miles in the south-central part of the county. TAC formed last year to protest uranium exploration and possible future mining in the Tallahassee area northwest of Cañon City. Lee Alter, chairman of TAC's government affairs committee, will represent the group in presenting the Master Plan amendment.

Today, U.S. Senator Mark Udall, expressed support for a Senate Resolution that would honor the workers who helped build America's nuclear weapons supply. Senator Udall was a co-sponsor of Senate Resolution 151, which passed Wednesday by unanimous consent. It designates a national day of remembrance for the workers on October 30, 2009.

Cotter is responsible for the 25-year-old Superfund site that engulfs Lincoln Park. A Superfund site is one of the most toxic places on Earth because of radioactive and chemical contamination. It is time for a Superfund meeting, and it is time for informed decisions that protect our future and us. CCAT has asked for one right away so you can get answers about contamination in the Cotter/Lincoln Park Superfund site and about Cotter's future plans. We have just received the news that there will be a meeting from 6 to 9 p.m. June 8 at Harrison School, 920 Field Ave.

The preliminary approval of UniStar's application to build a new nuclear reactor at Calvert Cliffs by state regulators will not be contested, a member of an opposition coalition said Tuesday. "We are not going to appeal the decision," said Michael Mariotte, executive director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Takoma Park, one of the organizations in the intervening group. "We don't think we would prevail," he said. "We don't think it's a good use of limited resources."

Creating about 25 shelf-feet of environmental documentation soon will result in a $28 million cleanup project at Sequoyah Fuels plant site near Gore. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved a plan Monday to eliminate dangerous pollutants there. "We've got a cabinet with documents for the regulators," said John Ellis, Sequoyah Fuels president. "The eight-and-half-by-eleven (inch) ring binders would probably go for about 25 feet. It's everything from feasibility studies, to cell construction plans to site characterization and sampling data with annual groundwater reports - that itself is about 11/2 inches thick." Ellis started work at the facility in 1992, about a year before portions of it were found to be contaminated. After that finding, Sequoyah Fuels completely ceased processing uranium for fuel rods, its central operation there.

Reactions to Cotter Corp.'s announcement of plans to begin refurbishing the uranium mill south of Cañon City were mixed Friday. "My first reaction was this is not going to happen," said Carol Dunn, co-chair of Colorado Citizens Against Toxic Waste. "I was a little surprised by their decision." Cotter will send a letter Tuesday to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment announcing their intent to apply for a license amendment that would allow them to begin refurbishment of the facility. The company hopes to begin processing uranium again in August 2014. "There is a formal process," said Steve Tarlton, radiation management leader for CDPHE.

As Cotter Corp. begins the process of refurbishing its uranium mill, Lincoln Park residents have varied opinions about the prospect of renewed mill operations. "Why not," Brandie Smith asked. "They ain't hurting nothing." Smith, who has lived in the area for most of her life, said the soil around her home is the "best for gardens" and that she has had no problems with water.

When Coleen Ware walked into Turkey Point, she was shocked to see that the indicators showing control rod positions looked like something out of an early '70s sci-fi movie. On special assignment from the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations to teach managers of the South Dade plant about safety, she was surprised by the aged indicators, which show the position of the rods in the reactor core -- a central measure about how the core is functioning. ``There are the old gauges . . . where . . . a needle that goes around and around,'' Ware testified, saying they were ``not very reliable.'' When operators looked at the indicators daily, ``they'd be stuck.

When Coleen Ware walked into Turkey Point, she was shocked to see that the indicators showing control rod positions looked like something out of an early '70s sci-fi movie. On special assignment from the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations to teach managers of the South Dade plant about safety, she was surprised by the aged indicators, which show the position of the rods in the reactor core -- a central measure about how the core is functioning. ``There are the old gauges . . . where . . . a needle that goes around and around,'' Ware testified, saying they were ``not very reliable.'' When operators looked at the indicators daily, ``they'd be stuck.

"On Tuesday, environmental activists announced legislation that will be proposed in the state House of Representatives soon. The Uranium Processing Accountability Act would require uranium processors to comply with clean-up orders before new applications are processed, strengthen public oversight of bonding requirements; require processors to inform residents about threats to their water if they have registered wells in close proximity to known groundwater contamination; and require processors to amend their operating license before accepting new sources of "alternate feeds." The legislation would affect the Cotter uranium mill south of Cañon City. "

"A new environmental center in southern New Jersey aims to build the case for more nuclear power. New Jersey's largest utility, Public Service Energy Group, unveiled its Energy & Environmental Resource Center in Salem on Monday. The 6,000-square-foot facility features exhibits on climate change and electrical generation. The center is near Artificial Island, which is home to three nuclear plants. The company is seeking to have their licenses renewed and to build a fourth. Officials say one purpose of the education center is to promote nuclear power as an environmentally friendly way to generate electricity. Growth of nuclear power has been stalled in the U.S. since the Three Mile Island partial meltdown in 1979."

"On Thursday, the House Transportation and Energy Committee will hear testimony on House Bill 1348, the Uranium Processing Accountability Act. The bill was developed by Colorado Citizens Against ToxicWaste and Environment Colorado. According to those groups, the bill would "hold the uranium industry accountable for its own mistakes and ensure Colorado does not subsidize those companies through tax dollars or incentive pollution by saying actions do not have consequences." The bill would require uranium processors to comply with clean-up orders before new applications are processed, strengthen public oversight of bonding requirements; require processors to inform residents about threats to their water if they have registered wells in close proximity to known groundwater contamination; and require processors to amend their operating license before accepting new sources of "alternate feeds." "

"Despite pledges of "transparency" and "openness" in its bid to regain the trust and confidence of Vermonters after its radioactive leak at Vermont Yankee, Entergy Nuclear attorneys have taken steps to keep key documents at the Public Service Board under seal and confidential. Entergy Nuclear attorney John Marshall, and three other attorneys from Downs Rachlin Martin, requested the protective order from the board Wednesday, a day before Entergy Nuclear executive Mark Savoff reiterated a pledge Thursday during a press conference for openness and full communication. Entergy specifically is seeking to seal the report from its internal investigation conducted by its law firm, Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, into whether Entergy Nuclear Vermont executives lied to state regulators, state consultants and legislators over the existence of buried underground pipes at Vermont Yankee."