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The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) gives notice as required by 42 CFR 83.12(e) of a decision to evaluate a petition to designate a class of employees for the Standard Oil Development Company, Linden, New Jersey, to be included in the Special Exposure Cohort under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000. The initial proposed definition for the class being evaluated, subject to revision as warranted by the evaluation, is as follows: Facility: Standard Oil Development Company. Location: Linden, New Jersey. Job Titles and/or Job Duties: All employees. Period of Employment: August 1, 1942 through December 31, 1963.

An environmental group is challenging claims that a rebirth of the uranium mining industry in western New Mexico would return thousands of jobs and billions of dollars to a region still hurting from the collapse of the last uranium boom. A study commissioned by the New Mexico Environmental Law Center contends estimates that the industry would bring $30 billion and more than a quarter of a million jobs to the state are "a gross exaggeration." Eric Jantz, the center's staff attorney, said the impetus for doing the report was to get a realistic perspective on whether the economic benefits of renewed uranium mining in New Mexico would outweigh environmental and health concerns.

An environmental group is challenging claims that a rebirth of the uranium mining industry in western New Mexico would return thousands of jobs and billions of dollars to a region still hurting from the collapse of the last uranium boom. A study commissioned by the New Mexico Environmental Law Center contends estimates that the industry would bring $30 billion and more than a quarter of a million jobs to the state are "a gross exaggeration." Eric Jantz, the center's staff attorney, said the impetus for doing the report was to get a realistic perspective on whether the economic benefits of renewed uranium mining in New Mexico would outweigh environmental and health concerns.

An environmental group challenges the idea a rebirth of the uranium mining industry in western New Mexico would return thousands of jobs and billions of dollars. A study commissioned by the New Mexico Environmental Law Center calls estimates that the industry would bring $30 billion and more than a quarter of a million jobs to New Mexico "a gross exaggeration."

A $1 billion job to build a uranium enrichment plant in Ohio is helping to swell Fluor Corp.'s work force in Greenville. Advertisement Fluor spokesman Brian Mershon said more than 250 of the company's employees in Greenville are working on the contract with USEC Inc. though he couldn't say how many of them are new hires. Fluor expects to have more than 300 Greenville employees working on the job next year, he said.

USEC Inc. ( said Thursday it had awarded a $1 billion contract to Fluor Corp. for the construction of USEC's American centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio. The contract will run until 2012. "This contract is expected to create approximately 1,000 new jobs, including 800 jobs at the Ohio site," said USEC Senior Vice President Philip Sewell. The plant will provide nuclear fuel for power plants

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission violated its own rules when it asked the owner of the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station to investigate a 2007 complaint that security guards were sleeping on the job. That was the conclusion in a report by the NRC's internal Office of Inspector General, which reviewed the agency's handling of security officer Kerry Beal's allegation that members of his security team routinely slept on the job. Among the findings in the report, companies that operate the plants should not be asked to investigate themselves when the allegations concern management.

Remember Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, the Bush nuclear wonder-program supposed to bring us "6,000 local jobs?" A jobs bonanza was promised at Piketon, so worthwhile as to warrant the postponement of public oversight and major site cleanup. Now the GNEP dinosaur is dead. In October, the National Academy of Sciences slammed the program as a hugely expensive exercise in sci-fi fantasy. In June, the House Appropriations Subcommittee provided "no funding for the Administration's counterproductive, poorly designed, and poorly executed Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP)" in its markup of the 2009 budget. In July, the Department of Energy canceled the siting process for GNEP "facilities," and tossed away the "candidate list" on which Piketon was included.

HHS gives notice as required by 42 CFR 83.12(e) of a decision to evaluate a petition to designate a class of employees for the Bliss & Laughlin Steel facility, in Buffalo, NY, to be included in the Special Exposure Cohort under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000. The initial proposed definition for the class being evaluated, subject to revision as warranted by the evaluation, is as follows: Facility: Bliss & Laughlin Steel facility. Location: Buffalo, NY. Job Titles and/or Job Duties: All employees. Period of Employment: January 1, 1948 through December 31, 1998.

Lawmakers aim to improve a federal program designed to provide workers' compensation benefits for nuclear facility employees who become ill as a result of their jobs. Sponsors of the Charlie Wolf Nuclear Workers' Compensation Act, named for an employee who developed brain cancer as a result of working at the Rocky Flats Plant nuclear weapons site near Denver, said the bill would make important changes to reduce the bureaucracy in the program and expand the list of cancers for which individuals are eligible to receive compensation. Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., one of the sponsors of the bill, said that while the compensation program was set up to help workers who develop illnesses from exposure to radiation or other toxins on the job, employees have instead found their cases delayed for years by bureaucratic red tape.

Oleksi Ananenko hops out of the bus at the Boulevard of Peace and Friendship, and hurries to what used to be his home in Pripjat, near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The visit is his first since the spring of 1986, when there was an explosion and fire at Ananenko's workplace, the fourth reactor of the plant. Even brief visits to the abandoned city require a number of permits.

In a triumph for President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled House narrowly passed sweeping legislation Friday that calls for the nation's first limits on pollution linked to global warming and aims to usher in a new era of cleaner, yet more costly energy. The vote was 219-212, capping months of negotiations and days of intense bargaining among Democrats. Republicans were overwhelmingly against the measure, arguing it would destroy jobs in the midst of a recession while burdening consumers with a new tax in the form of higher energy costs. At the White House, Obama said the bill would create jobs, and added that with its vote, the House had put America on a path toward leading the way toward "creating a 21st century global economy."

HHS gives notice as required by 42 CFR 83.12(e) of a decision to evaluate a petition to designate a class of employees for the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York, to be included in the Special Exposure Cohort under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000. The initial proposed definition for the class being evaluated, subject to revision as warranted by the evaluation, is as follows: Facility: University of Rochester. Location: Rochester, New York. Job Titles and/or Job Duties: Laboratory Technicians who worked in the University of Rochester Atomic Energy Project laboratory building. Period of Employment: September 1, 1943 through June 19, 1945.

To expand the use of clean and renewable energy sources and reduce America's dependence on foreign oil, Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced $41.9 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding for fuel cell technology. These efforts will accelerate the commercialization and deployment of fuel cells and will create jobs in fuel cell manufacturing, installation, maintenance, and support services. The new funding will improve the potential of fuel cells to provide power in stationary, portable and specialty vehicle applications, while cutting carbon emissions and broadening our nation's clean energy technology portfolio. "The investments we're making today will help us build a robust fuel cell manufacturing industry in the United States," said Secretary Chu. "Developing and deploying the next generation of fuel cells will not only create jobs - it will help our businesses become more energy efficient and productive. We are laying the foundation for a green energy economy."

"The president's pants were smoldering during his State of the Union address. One fib in particular that he offered was deviously cloaked beneath a thin veneer of truth. In order to create clean energy jobs, Mr. Obama said that America needs to be "...building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country." In an apparent move to make good on his promise, two days after the address, Bloomberg reported: "President Barack Obama, acting on a pledge to support nuclear power, will propose tripling guarantees for new reactors to more than $45 billion ..." Received as a standalone promise, it's a pretty sweet proposition. Nuclear power plants are safe, clean, reliable sources of inexpensive energy, and building such facilities will provide thousands of permanent jobs. Offering utilities a cheap source of financing to afford construction costs makes the deal appear even sweeter. However, once again, half-white man speaks with forked tongue."

"Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a vocal advocate for alternative energy and nuclear power, was in Silicon Valley earlier this week to talk about the role of clean energy in combating global climate change. He also discussed the stiff competition the United States faces from China, which is moving quickly to close down inefficient coal plants as well as nurturing its fast-growing wind and solar industries. His official biography on the Department of Energy Web site spells out the tall order that is his job: "He is charged with helping implement President Obama's ambitious agenda to invest in alternative and renewable energy, end our addiction to foreign oil, address the global climate crisis and create millions of new jobs.""

"Reform of troubled federal program awaits another in a long line of GAO studies On Oct. 30, 2009, the nation observed the first Cold War Patriots National Day of Remembrance, dedicated to those who served their country working in jobs relating to the nuclear weapons program. While the U.S. Senate resolution for the National Day of Remembrance was approved by unanimous consent, a bill addressing problems in the federal program designed to help nuclear workers with what they say they need most - medical benefits and compensation for illnesses that were caused by on-the-job exposures to radiation and toxic substances - remains stuck in a Senate committee awaiting another in a long list of studies from the Government Accountability Office detailing its shortcomings."

"Wisconsin's Clean Energy Jobs Act could be a Job killer -- but not from energy efficiency or renewable energy, as some are claiming, against all evidence. The nuclear portion of the bill is far more likely to raise electric rates by opening the door to building expensive new nuclear reactors and allowing for prepayment schemes to fund them. I was born and raised in Wisconsin but have spent the past decade in Savannah, Ga., working with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. I've seen firsthand how the push for risky new nuclear reactors has impacted Southeastern states. It's not an experience that Wisconsinites would want to replicate. In recent years Georgia, Florida and South Carolina have all passed legislation to encourage building new nuclear reactors. What's happened next -- particularly in Florida and South Carolina -- is that ratepayers already dealing with tough economic times have seen their electricity bills increase."

"The U.S. Department of Energy Thursday approved a $2 billion loan guarantee for the French company Areva to build a nuclear power facility near Idaho Falls. The proposed $3.3 billion facility, called the Eagle Rock Uranium Enrichment Plant, could lead to 400 permanent jobs and up to 1,000 jobs to build the plant, and bolster the state's nuclear energy efforts. Gov. Butch Otter applauded the move. "The loan guarantee confirms that Idaho continues to lead the nuclear renaissance in America," he said in a news release. "

One of two accidents at the Savannah River Site made public last week "had potential criticality safety implications" when a 200-pound bundle of highly enriched uranium fell 15 feet from a crane into a pit of acid. Fuel bundles loaded with highly enriched uranium metal being transported by crane are lowered into a "dissolver" containing acid. The process converts the uranium into fuel for commercial nuclear reactors. Twice in August there were problems with the process, problems that caused two SRS employees to lose their jobs. "Two recent events illustrate the challenges management faces in changing the behavior of some workers," a report on the incidents read. The incidents were described in the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board report that was made public last week. Having potential criticality safety implications mean that a nuclear chain reaction could have occurred.

One of two accidents at the Savannah River Site made public last week "had potential criticality safety implications" when a 200-pound bundle of highly enriched uranium fell 15 feet from a crane into a pit of acid. Fuel bundles loaded with highly enriched uranium metal being transported by crane are lowered into a "dissolver" containing acid. The process converts the uranium into fuel for commercial nuclear reactors. Twice in August there were problems with the process, problems that caused two SRS employees to lose their jobs. "Two recent events illustrate the challenges management faces in changing the behavior of some workers," a report on the incidents read. The incidents were described in the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board report that was made public last week. Having potential criticality safety implications mean that a nuclear chain reaction could have occurred.