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The United States Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a Request For Proposals (RFP) for the Decontamination and Decommissioning (D&D) of the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon. According to DOE officials the project's estimated cost is $2.5 -$3.2 billion over 10 years. "Based on comments received on the draft RFP, DOE has issued the final RFP to emphasize accelerated D&D completion within an increased funding profile assumption, DOE stated in a released statement about the issuance of the RFP.

Technicians in the Idaho National Lab's Advanced Test Reactor work to place an object into the reactor below. Though there is little measurable radiation in the area where they're working, they wear the suits as a precaution. In order to maneuver the object, they use very long-handled tools, which are capable of reaching far down into the reactor. The Idaho National Lab is, among other things, the U.S. Department of Energy's leading nuclear research institution, and its employees are working on developing the technology behind what would be known as the "fourth-generation" nuclear reactors, facilities that many hope will help provide large amounts of energy with little additional carbon footprint.

A statewide SWAT team exercise at a firing range on the secured grounds of a nuclear power plant in Southern Maryland was halted this month after stray bullets shattered glass and struck a command center near the plant's reactors, officials said yesterday. Reactor safety at the Calvert Cliffs plant in Lusby was never compromised, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Constellation Energy Group, which operates the facility.

On Mother's Day in 1969, Stanley Skinger and William Dennison bent to tape the cuffs of their coveralls, pulled on their rubber gloves, adjusted their masks, looked at each other and thought, "Let's go." Then, without knowing anything about how to fight a fire, the pair waded into the worst industrial conflagration the country had ever seen. It wasn't safe, Skinger knew, but the alternative was far worse. Forty years ago, when Building 776-777 on the Rocky Flats campus eight miles south of Boulder caught fire, it contained 7,600 pounds of plutonium, enough for 1,000 nuclear bombs.

A number of residents held a press conference in Downtown Berkeley Tuesday evening to protest the demolition of a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory building known to contain radioactive materials. Concrete shielding blocks in the Bevatron, the lab's 180-foot particle accelerator, became mildly radioactive during the past 40 years of use. Residents voiced concerns in front of Old City Hall that transporting these materials may affect the health of Berkeley residents and cause damage to roads.

The controversial salt-mine nuclear waste storage facility in Asse, Lower Saxony is not only crumbling but also contains unknown amounts of explosive, it has emerged. Officials who confirmed the reports are now scrambling to get them removed. A spokesman for the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) confirmed a DDP report on Friday, saying, there was some there, but only a small amount of old stocks. He said the explosive was stored, "so that obviously there is no danger for the running of the store, or for the waste." The explosives would be rapidly removed, he added.

We often get comments on our posts to the effect that 'if only we were like the French with their successful nuclear power program.' The most ridiculous one I recall asserted 'If it weren't for you anti-nuc liberals, we could have clean nuclear power like France does.' So common is the US myth of French nuclear power as an exemplary model for the US, I can't resist the occasional provocation, like I did in yesterday's post with: 'France is about the size of Texas and has lower total nuclear power output than the US currently does.' After reading a recent article in the Global Journal of Energy Machinery, by Stephen Thomas, of the University of Greenwich, I found some more ''hot rods' to insert in the myth reactor. Read on, for some fissionable quotes from Dr Thomas. French, USA comparison on nuclear power development is delusional: a synopsis.

Nuclear fuel raises concern about future GENKAI, Saga Pref. - Before a two-lane access road was built to connect it with other parts of the prefecture, the village of Genkai, nestled in high hills with deep ravines beside the Sea of Japan, was so remote that even locals called it the "Tibet of Saga Prefecture." But this town of 6,600 residents, almost in sight of the spot where the Mongolian invasion fleet was hit by "divine winds" over 700 years ago, ending Khubla Khan's dreams of conquest and adding the word "kamikaze" to the lexicon, may soon be the site of Japan's first commercial use of mixed uranium-plutonium oxide (MOX) fuel.

If you want to snap a photo of two of the largest objects ever to move across the Lancaster County landscape later this summer, don't worry, they will be creeping by at a tortoise-like 2 or 3 miles per hour. Two steam generators, each weighing about the same as two locomotives, will be pulled by the same kind of self-propelled transport that moves the space shuttle to the blastoff pad. As they navigate the length of the county in August or September en route to the Three Mile Island nuclear plant, there will be a whole lot of commotion in front of the oversized loads.

It's not on the front pages of what is left of U.S. newspapers. The headlines are dominated by violence in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq, by Miss America's semi-nude photo scandal, and by the Chrysler fiasco. But just about everyone who is anyone is talking about nuclear weapons this week. At the United Nations, representatives from the world's 190 or so nations are meeting (in typical fashion) to prepare to meet. The preparatory meeting of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) is taking place the first two weeks of May to get ready for the Review Conference of the Treaty, which will happen next year. Closer to home this week, Congress heard from its Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States. And the Department of Energy released its budget for 2010 requesting $6.4 billion for nuclear weapons programs out of an overall budget of $26.4 billion.

While the US has never admitted that its ally Israel has nuclear weapons, the last Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert admitted last year to the existence of the arsenal. Anti-nuclear whistle blower Mordechai Vanunu spent eighteen years in Israeli prison for exposing the Israeli nuclear program with photos and testimony. As a condition for his release he was denied the right to speak to foreigners and reporters. But the U.S. and Israel have both continued to maintain a 'don't ask, don't tell' stance toward Israel's nuclear arsenal of approximately thirty warheads. Now, assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller may be breaking that taboo. She gave a speech in New York listing the countries that must adhere to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty - India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea. By including Israel in that list, she broke a thirty year silence by U.S. officials on the existence of an Israeli nuclear arsenal.

Premier Shawn Graham, Energy Minister Jack Keir and every other politician of whatever stripe in New Brunswick need to be told and to clearly understand that New Brunswickers do not want and will not accept a national nuclear waste dump in this province no matter how deep underground, how many jobs it creates or how many glib assurances are given about its safety. Enlarge Photo Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge Premier Graham has refused to just say "no" to the idea, and as the Nuclear Waste Management Organization prepares to hold public "information" meetings in New Brunswick to find out if the public thinks the "process" proposed for determining a permanent nuclear waste dump site is "fair" and "appropriate," Minister Keir has said "Whatever they do, I want to make sure they do it right and that it's in the interest of Canadians, not just New Brunswickers."

* Whitehaven News * News Sellafield admits hot tanks error but denies plant was 'hours from disaster' By Alan Irving Last updated 15:54, Wednesday, 15 April 2009 SELLAFIELD'S operators have denied the area was only hours away from a nuclear disaster due to failure in tanks containing highly radioactive liquid. * Title Author Copyright Description David Moore: 'Reassured that all the safety systems kicked in' 1 of 2 Photos Toggle Thumbnails Staff worked against the clock to supply cooling water to four of the 21 tanks, said to hold around 1,000 cubic metres of highly radioactive liquid waste. Details of the alert are given in the latest Sellafield site newsletter which says: "Cooling water was reinstated to the high-heat highly active storage tanks within two hours of the initial loss and to the remainder of the plant within eight hours... this is within the bounds of the plant safety case." But Cumbrian anti-nuclear group Core has made the startling claim that "this is perilously close to the timescale of 10.5 hours catered for in the Sellafield site emergency plan".

It is only logical that safety, security and the management of radioactive waste would concern local residents as we learn of Bruce Power's plans for our region. These are issues which are of concern to people around the world, particularly those living in close proximity to nuclear facilities. With regard to potential terrorist attacks, Monte Sonnenberg noted in Friday's article, "Bruce Power takes the occasion of these meetings to boast of its readiness in the face of all threats." Bruce Power's informational literature includes a photo of a security team and vehicle deployed at their Tiverton plant. While the swat team and armoured vehicle may inspire confidence today, let's remember that these paramilitary commandos must keep this radioactive material secure for thousands of years. Bruce Power's own Fact Sheet #5 informs us that "The required isolation period may be for tens, hundreds or even thousands of years depending upon the radioisotopes present in the waste and their concentration." Last week, Britain's Oxford Research Group think tank released a paper for the Institute for Public Policy Research warning that the new generation reactors, like the three models short-listed for Nanticoke, risk proliferation that could lead to "nuclear anarchy." The report notes that the new type of reactor produces large amounts of plutonium as a by-product. Plutonium is used to make the most efficient nuclear weapons.

The nuclear powered icebreaker "Yamal" collided with the tanker "Indiga" during ice escort in the Kara Sea last week. The accident occurred in the Gulf of Yenisey on the 16th of March, the Ministry of Transport's Coordination Centre for Salvation Operations at Sea told news agency Sea News. The tanker got a 9.5 meter long crack on the main deck from the impact. The tanker was only carrying ballast at the time, and there was no pollution of the environment in the accident. The 16 168 tons dead weight tanker "Indiga" belongs to Murmansk Shipping Company. It shuttles between the oil terminal in the Gulf of Ob and the floating oil storage vessel "Belokamenka" in the Kola Bay.

The Charlie Wolf Act would smooth the way for ailing nuclear-weapons workers. Charlie Wolf of Highlands Ranch, shown with his wife, Kathy, in 2008, died this year after years of fighting the U.S. government over his brain cancer, which he blamed on his work at Rocky Flats. (Photo courtesy of Wolf family ) The nuclear bombs Charlie Wolf built helped win the Cold War. But his toughest battles came afterward, when he applied to a troubled federal compensation program intended for those whose top-secret work made them sick. Wolf, who worked for a time overseeing the dismantling of the Rocky Flats nuclear-weapons facility northwest of Denver, wound up battling a bureaucratic morass for more than six years while fighting brain cancer that was supposed to have killed him in six months, trying to prove that he qualified for financial and medical aid.

Friends of the Earth says it has known about a radioactive leak at Olympic Dam for three months, but only released the information to the media yesterday. The group found out about the leak after a worker passed on photos showing the radioactive liquid collecting in unlined trenches. Dr Jim Green, from Friends of the Earth, says the State Government has known about the problem since last April, but did not make the information public. "We only became aware of the problem in December and we hear that BHP reported the problem to the State Government last April, as to why that was not made public earlier, you'd really have to put that to the State Government representative," he said.

Sen. Greg Ryberg, R-Aiken, has introduced a resolution urging Congress to continue with plans to use the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada as a repository for high-level radioactive material. Rainier Ehrhardt/Staff Greg Ryberg: State senator says the federal government needs to fulfill an obligation it made decades ago. Click photo for options The Savannah River National Laboratory needs a place to send its spent nuclear fuel, he said in a statement.

Stacey Hamburg remembers the day in the fall of 2007 when she was cruising up Arizona's Route 64 toward the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and saw a helicopter flying low and slow, back and forth just above the tops of pinon trees. "This helicopter was not out tracking antelope, but was scouting for uranium," she told me. Stacey is the conservation organizer for the Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Protection Campaign. There's a Uranium Rush going on and it's threatening one of this country's greatest treasures. In 2003 there were just 10 uranium-mining claims within five miles of the Grand Canyon; now there are 1,100 and thousands more beyond the five-mile mark. I think this map tells the story pretty well.

BHP Billiton says it has cleaned up the site of a radioactive waste leak at its Olympic Dam uranium mine in South Australia. Green groups have released photos they say were taken by a mine worker in December 2008, showing a clean-up operation outside a tailings dam. The mining company says it notified the State Government and the Environment Protection Authority at the time.