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"The search for the source of the radioactive isotope tritium that seeped into groundwater at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant has led to the discovery of the isotope in a second monitoring well. An e-mail from Rob Williams, spokesman for Entergy Vermont Yankee, said the search team "received sampling results that showed an elevated level of 9,540 picocuries per liter in a second tritium monitoring well adjacent to the first well. A second confirmatory sample has been drawn from that well and is being analyzed." "

"War » But sickened warriors searching for help will have to wait for science and government bureaucracy to link their conditions to their service. Emily Rainwater, a Defense Contract Management Agency employee, served two tours of duty in Iraq.... * « * 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * » Related * Sickened by Service * Jan 15: * Officials just now recognizing Agent Orange exposures * Government waits for proof - sometimes for decades - before caring for sick veterans * Vets say toxic tests sickened them; government says prove it Editor's note: Second in a three-part series Combat had changed him. Yet Andrew Rounds was still the adoring son his mother had sent off to war. He was still the hard worker who had helped her deliver newspapers after school. He was still the amiable soul who knew the names of everyone in the tiny village of Waterloo, Ore., from the mayor to the man who lived under the narrow bridge that crosses the river on the east side of town. "

"In a special issue of Daedalus on the "Global Nuclear Future," published by the American Academy of arts & Sciences, Pierre Goldschmidt posits that further improving the reliability of fuel supply is best achieved by giving priority to fuel leasing contracts coupled with long-term generic export licenses, and last resort multilateral fuel supply arrangements. Regarding the back-end of the fuel cycle, Goldschmidt argues that developing multinational fuel-storage and geological disposal facilities will be relegated to the distant horizon due to the prevailing "Not-In-My-Backyard" syndrome."

"Beneath a moonless sky, terrorists rip through the razor-wire fence ringing a nuclear power plant and quickly overpower guards. Using explosives capable of destroying armored military vehicles, the terrorists blast a hole in the side of a huge concrete canister holding spent nuclear fuel. No one is sure what could happen next. Could the attack cause radiation to leak into the atmosphere? Would the release be enough to endanger the public? Should security, which was beefed up at nuclear plants after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, be bolstered even more? Although experts consider chances of such a nightmare scenario to be remote, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering whether it needs to change safety rules, including those at South Carolina facilities. One possible revision would require operators to evaluate the impact of a bomb attack on dry cask storage units used to hold spent fuel at three of South Carolina's four nuclear power plants."

"While public attention is focused on a new arms-control treaty between Russia and the United States, the slow, dull work of keeping nuclear warheads and weapons-grade uranium and plutonium protected from terrorists goes on almost unnoticed. But two new reports have shed light on the subject. A fascinating study on China's system of securing its nuclear weapons was published last week. Two days earlier, an update on the multiyear U.S. effort to secure Russian nuclear sites, and those of other countries, was presented to the House Appropriations subcommittee on energy and water, which has jurisdiction over funding for the U.S. nuclear weapons complex. "

"Uranium mining, banned on the Navajo Nation, advanced closer to tribal boundaries when the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's licensing of in situ leach uranium mining at four sites near Crownpoint and Church Rock in New Mexico. The split decision by a three-judge panel March 8 also denied a request for review of one of the sites near Church Rock where Hydro Resources, Inc., whose parent company is Uranium Resources Inc., has a joint venture with Itochu, a Tokyo-headquartered transnational, to begin producing an estimated six to nine million pounds of uranium annually from New Mexico. Eastern Navajo Dine Against Uranium Mining, a Navajo community organization; Southwest Research and Information Center, a nonprofit environmental education organization; and two local ranchers were joined by the Navajo Nation in a friend-of-the-court brief asserting that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission violated atomic energy and environmental laws in granting the license."

"Entergy Nuclear said Thursday it is convinced it has found and stopped the source of multiple radioactive leaks at the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor, which has been leaking tritium into the groundwater since last November. The company said it was starting cleanup efforts immediately, by pumping some groundwater out of the immediate contaminated area into holding tanks, with plans to filter and clean it and return it to the reactor for reuse."

"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."

"As radiation poured from 3 Mile Island 31 years ago this weekend, utility executives rested easy. They knew that no matter how many people their errant nuke killed, and no matter how much property it destroyed, they would not be held liable. Today this same class of executives demands untold taxpayer billions to build still more TMIs. No matter how many meltdowns they cause, and how much havoc they visit down on the public, they still believe they're above the law. Fueled with more than $600 million public relations slush money, they demand a risk-free "renaissance" financed by you and yours. "

"The United States and Russia have reached a deal on their most extensive nuclear arms-control agreement in nearly two decades, the Kremlin announced Wednesday. The pact appeared to represent President Obama's first victory in his ambitious agenda to move toward a nuclear-free world. The new Strategic arms Reduction Treaty (STarT) would replace a 1991 pact that expired in December. Experts called the new agreement the most significant arms-control accord since the 1993 signing of STarT II, which the Russians never ratified. "

"A measure intended to block a "back-door" method of dumping radioactive waste in Tennessee is headed for a vote in the state Senate after a key committee approved the bill Tuesday. A Utah-based company, EnergySolutions, said it is requesting only to treat nuclear material at its Oak Ridge facility and then ship it out of state. But state Sen. Andy Berke, D-Chattanooga, who sponsored the bill, said banning the practice of "downblending" nuclear material - which involves diluting radioactive waste with less toxic materials - is the only way to avoid becoming "the world's radioactive dumping grounds." "This is about stopping this process that no one else does and has never been done commercially," Berke said."

"OAK RIDGE - U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu was in town Monday to help celebrate a new $549 million storehouse for the nation's supply of bomb-grade uranium - a high-security facility so stout it reportedly could withstand the impact of a commercial aircraft. While Chu had words of praise for the massive structure - known officially as the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility - and those who designed and built it, the secretary's most welcome words at the ceremony were those supporting an even bigger project at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant."

"Launching the Tories' energy policy in July 2006, David Cameron, gave a convincing and well-reasoned argument explaining why nuclear power must be a "last resort". Later that year he described Labour's enthusiasm for nuclear power as "irresponsible". As Cameron rightly pointed out: "The problems of nuclear waste haven't been dealt with. They have got to be dealt with in order to make any new investment possible." Four years on, we're no closer to finding out how to deal with highly toxic nuclear waste and the Tory leader's point stands as strong as ever. But unfortunately, the Tories no longer seem to care. Indeed, the Tories' new green paper on energy security shows remarkable dexterity in rewriting history, now criticising the Labour government for dragging its feet before finally coming round to support new nuclear."

"A year after his groundbreaking pledge to move toward a "world without nuclear weapons," President Obama on Tuesday will unveil a policy that constrains the weapons' role but appears more cautious than what many supporters had hoped, with the president opting for a middle course in many key areas. Under the new policy, the administration will foreswear the use of the deadly weapons against nonnuclear countries, officials said, in contrast to previous administrations, which indicated they might use nuclear arms against nonnuclear states in retaliation for a biological or chemical attack."

"A contract employee who failed to disclose a prior arrest has caused the owners of the Oyster Creek Generating Station to receive a violation from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The employee's arrest constitutes a violation of the plant's license conditions. An NRC investigation completed on Jan. 14 concerned a contract employee working for Bartlett Nuclear Inc. at the Forked River-based power plant. The worker failed to report a prior arrest in accordance with Oyster Creek security plan requirements. The NRC confirmed the employee, who had unescorted access to vital areas of the plant, deliberately failed to report an arrest. Regulations require individuals with unescorted access to the facility to report any arrest or criminal charges."

"When the shaking began just after 3:34 a.m. on Feb. 27, Andrew Bieniawski woke up with a start in his room on the 15th floor of the Sheraton Hotel in Santiago, Chile. A picture fell off the wall. He raced to the lobby. He had arrived from the United States just the day before to oversee a delicate operation that the U.S. government and Chile had been quietly setting up for more than a month, and now an earthquake was tearing apart the center of the country. The magnitude-8.8 quake killed 486 people, set off a tsunami, cracked buildings and roads, cut off electricity and phone lines, and spawned dozens of aftershocks. While the disaster unfolded, Bieniawski and his team from the Energy Department had another worry: They had packed 39.6 pounds of highly enriched uranium, enough to make a nuclear bomb, into a shipping container, ready for a secret evacuation by road to a port and then by sea to the United States. "

"President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a sweeping new arms reduction pact Thursday that pledges to reduce the stockpile of deployed, strategic nuclear weapons in both countries and commits the old Cold War adversaries to new procedures to verify which weapons each country possesses. "

"The Obama administration is likely to reveal a closely guarded secret -- the size of the U.S. nuclear stockpile -- during a critical meeting starting Monday at which Washington will try to strengthen the global treaty that curbs the spread of nuclear weapons, several officials said. Various factions in the administration have debated for months whether to declassify the numbers, and they were left out of President Obama's recent Nuclear Posture Review because of objections from intelligence officials. Now, the administration is seeking a dramatic announcement that will further enhance its nuclear credentials as it tries to shore up the fraying nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). "

"It is time to put a little reality into the discussions about nuclear weapons and missile defense in the wake of the new Strategic arms Reduction Treaty, signed April 8 by President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Republicans immediately raised questions about whether the treaty could "constrain improvements to U.S. missile defenses, if objected to by the Russians," as Sens. Jon Kyl and John McCain, both of arizona, put it the day the pact was signed. Last week, at a hearing of the House armed Services strategic forces subcommittee, Rep. Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio) mentioned his concern that the United States will be "self-constrained" by the treaty. "

"Shattering a taboo dating from the Cold War, the Obama administration revealed Monday the size of the American nuclear arsenal -- 5,113 weapons -- as it embarked on a campaign for tougher measures against countries with hidden nuclear programs. The figure was in line with previous estimates by arms-control groups. But Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton emphasized that it was the very disclosure of the long-held secret that was important. "We think it is in our national security interest to be as transparent as we can about the nuclear program of the United States," she told reporters at a high-level nuclear conference in New York, where she announced the change in policy. "We think that builds confidence." "