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A new report calls for a permanent solution for the nation's safe storage of nuclear waste because the push for clean energy has placed renewed emphasis on nuclear power and the waste that goes with it. "Revisiting America's Nuclear Waste Policy" notes that 2,000 metric tons of nuclear fuel are generated by U.S. reactors each year, to add to the more than 70,000 tons of spent fuel and other high-level waste already being stored at 121 sites in 39 states. Moreover, 20 companies have submitted applications to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build 26 new nuclear reactors in the next decade. "With the needed expansion of nuclear power, the amount of used fuel produced will also increase," the report said. "The time is ripe for a permanent solution." The report, by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for 21st Century Energy, notes that Yucca Mountain in Nevada is not the "only" solution, but asks if not there, where?

New WISPIRG report shows that dollar for dollar, a clean energy portfolio can produce more energy than nuclear power (Madison, WI) - With the state considering solutions to reduce our global warming pollution, a new WISPIRG report finds that renewable energy sources can produce far more electricity than nuclear plants for less money. Unfortunately, the nuclear industry has proposed thirty new reactors across the country at an estimated cost of $300 billion. "Taxpayers should not be subsidizing nuclear power when there are faster, cleaner, cheaper alternatives to meet our energy needs," said WISPIRG Advocate Kara Rumsey. Here in Wisconsin the nuclear industry is pushing to overturn a long-standing law that prevents new nuclear plants from being built unless the proposed plant is economically advantageous to ratepayers and there is safe and adequate disposal for radioactive waste.

Britain's nuclear submarine fleet has been hit by a series of serious safety breaches involving repeated leaks of radioactive waste, broken pipes and waste tanks at its home base in Scotland, according to a confidential report. The 400-page internal report, released under the Freedom of Information Act, admits a catalogue of safety failures at Faslane naval base, the home of Britain's Trident nuclear deterrent, saying they were a "recurring theme" and ingrained in the base's culture. The worst breaches include three leaks of radioactive coolant from nuclear submarines in 2004, 2007 and 2008 into the Firth of Clyde on the west coast of Scotland. Two radioactive waste tanks were found to be a "significant" and "growing" radiation hazard and needed to be taken out of service. The revelations in the report, obtained by Channel Four News, are so serious that it has led to the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) warning that it would consider closing the base down if it had the legal powers to do so. Britain's Ministry of Defence is legally exempt from the civil radioactive safety regulations, but Sepa said it was pressing for powers to inspect and control Faslane's nuclear operations.

The leaders of the provincial and federal Green Party slammed the report compiled by the Uranium Development Partnership on Friday. Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party of Canada, called the report a sham. She said Green Party members from around the world oppose the development of nuclear power. "The industry doesn't make sense. It will never survive without tremendous government subsidies," said May.

The Vermont Yankee Oversight Panel's (VYOP) report was 50 pages long, which makes it difficult to summarize in an opinion piece limited to 600 words, but as the VYOP's first chairman, I believe it is important for all Vermonters to understand the panel's assessment of Yankee's reliability. Our report was a consensus report created by four individuals with many years of broad nuclear power experience. The rumor around the state, that the VYOP gave Entergy's Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant a clean bill of health, is simply not true. With significant reservations, we concluded that Entergy's Vermont Yankee nuclear plant might operate "reliably" for 20 more years if Entergy made all the required repairs and updates, but thus far there is no methodology in place to assure Vermonters that those costly repairs are made. The VYOP uncovered serious and systemwide problems. We concluded that VY has both mechanical and cultural problems that Entergy must address before any license extension to 2032. Entergy's deferred maintenance of VY's mechanical components is troubling and expensive to fix. The VYOP uncovered more than $100 million in deferred maintenance on components that must be replaced to assure VY reliability beyond 2012. VY's condenser is a good example of failing components. Nationally, most nuclear plants replace their condensers between 20 and 30 years of operation. VY's condenser has been operating for 37 years and Entergy has known the condenser had issues prior to its purchase of VY in 2002, yet chose to delay the repairs until at least 2014. The VYOP also found that VY's design could not be licensed today because it does not meet today's modern NRC design criteria.

Environmentalists are calling an Alberta government document aimed at giving people an unbiased look at the possibility of nuclear power in the province "fraudulent." The report, released Thursday, doesn't make any recommendations on the hotly contested question but is a "factual report" that allows a fully informed discussion, said Energy Minister Mel Knight. Not so, said Gordon Edwards, president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility.

The provincial government is expected to release a report today on nuclear power, officially launching a public debate on whether Alberta should allow Bruce Power to build a reactor near Peace River. "There's nothing in it that indicates what the province should do, one way or another," Energy Minister Mel Knight said Wednesday. The report, written by a panel of experts assigned to the task last April, sets out a framework for discussion. Next month, the province will start to survey people online and in groups of interested parties to gauge public reaction.

State inspectors were concerned that an early report last year on a corroded steel radiation barrier at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey "withheld important and significant information from the public," according to a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission e-mail. Advertisement The e-mail said that state inspectors cited standing water in an area that was supposed to be dry and that there was no proof that the barrier was not rusting. State inspectors also expressed concern about the time it would take to issue a public inspection report, which was in effect a "gag order" on them, according to the Nov. 18 e-mail from John Richmond, an NRC inspector. The final report was issued Jan. 21. Opponents of the nuclear plant say the e-mail shows ongoing problems that are being hidden from the public.

Utilities that want to build new nuclear reactors should have to prove they are a better investment than energy efficiency, a new report says. The Arizona Public Interest Research Group Education Fund this week released its 40-page report, titled "The High Cost of Nuclear Power: Why America Should Choose a Clean Energy Future Over New Nuclear Power." According to the report, utilities can cut the amount of energy they need to supply customers by offering them incentives to install low-power appliances or insulate their homes better.

"France used soldiers as guinea pigs in nuclear tests in the 1960s, deliberately exposing them to radiation from atomic blasts to test the effects, according to a report revealed Tuesday. A secret military report, obtained by AFP, said that between 1960 and 1966 France sent troops onto Algerian desert test sites "to study the physiological and psychological effects caused on humans by an atomic weapon." One operation in 1961 involved military personnel advancing on foot and in trucks to within a few hundred metres (yards) of the epicentre of a nuclear blast less than an hour after detonation, according to the report. The conscripts were given 45 minutes to dig foxholes in the contaminated desert earth, protected only by the military-issue boots, capes, gloves and simple face masks."

"The Department of Energy's Inspector General this week released an audit report critical of the agency's management of the uranium-233 down-blending and disposition project in Oak Ridge. The report cited the project's growing cost and continuing uncertainties. The project, which is still in the design phase, is supposed to process about 1.4 metric tons of uranium stored at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The uranium stockpile contains significant quantities of fissionable U-233 - a strategic nuclear material - with highly radioactive decay products that make the project complex and potentially dangerous. The current cost estimate is about $477 million."

The federal Bureau of Land Management has agreed to Noble Energy's plan to drill 79 natural-gas wells in western Colorado near the site of an underground nuclear blast 40 years ago, according to a news report Monday. The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reported that Noble Energy will drill the wells over the next three to five years, and that gas produced by the wells will be tested for radioactivity. In 1969, a federal test called Project Rulison was conducted to determine if nuclear blasts could be used to retrieve natural gas deep underground. A nuclear device was set off about 8,400 feet underground near Rulison, Colo.

The federal Bureau of Land Management has agreed to Noble Energy's plan to drill 79 natural-gas wells in western Colorado near the site of an underground nuclear blast 40 years ago, according to a news report Monday. The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reported that Noble Energy will drill the wells over the next three to five years, and that gas produced by the wells will be tested for radioactivity. In 1969, a federal test called Project Rulison was conducted to determine if nuclear blasts could be used to retrieve natural gas deep underground. A nuclear device was set off about 8,400 feet underground near Rulison, Colo.

Improper accounting practices have hidden the true cost of the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory to the tune of $80 million in this fiscal year alone, according to a leaked report. Critics say this fiscal sleight of hand means the facility's already-huge cost - $3.5 billion to $4 billion overall, already three times its original estimated cost, and almost a half-billion dollars this fiscal year - has been significantly lowballed. Construction began in 1997 on the NIF, which uses powerful lasers to heat and compress a small amount of hydrogen fuel to the point of nuclear fusion; scientists hope it will be the first in the world to achieve "ignition," producing more energy than was put in to start the reaction, ultimately providing a new source of clean, renewable energy. After years of delays and rampant cost overruns, it was finished in March and dedicated in May to great fanfare. The NIF already eats up about a quarter of the Livermore Lab's budget. But a report prepared in October by the National Nuclear Security Administration's Office of Field Financial Management - leaked to Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment), which in turn provided it to this newspaper - says managers have hidden the NIF's true costs by making other parts of the Livermore Lab pick up the tab. Besides weapons research, the lab's many programs include research in environmental science,

Improper accounting practices have hidden the true cost of the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory to the tune of $80 million in this fiscal year alone, according to a leaked report. Critics say this fiscal sleight of hand means the facility's already-huge cost - $3.5 billion to $4 billion overall, already three times its original estimated cost, and almost a half-billion dollars this fiscal year - has been significantly lowballed. Construction began in 1997 on the NIF, which uses powerful lasers to heat and compress a small amount of hydrogen fuel to the point of nuclear fusion; scientists hope it will be the first in the world to achieve "ignition," producing more energy than was put in to start the reaction, ultimately providing a new source of clean, renewable energy. After years of delays and rampant cost overruns, it was finished in March and dedicated in May to great fanfare. The NIF already eats up about a quarter of the Livermore Lab's budget. But a report prepared in October by the National Nuclear Security Administration's Office of Field Financial Management - leaked to Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment), which in turn provided it to this newspaper - says managers have hidden the NIF's true costs by making other parts of the Livermore Lab pick up the tab. Besides weapons research, the lab's many programs include research in environmental science,

An expert panel is recommending that the federal government build a new nuclear reactor to produce medical isotopes and guarantee an adequate supply for the country. The Expert Review Panel On Medical Isotope Production says the best way to keep isotopes stocked is to build a new research reactor to replace the downed unit at Chalk River, Ont. It makes the recommendation in a report to Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt, which the government received Monday and released Thursday. "We recommend that the government expeditiously engage in the replacement of the (National Research Universal) reactor as we believe a multipurpose research reactor represents the best primary option to create a sustainable source of (the isotope molybdenum 99), recognizing that the reactor's other missions would also play a role in justifying the costs," the report says.

An expert panel is recommending that the federal government build a new nuclear reactor to produce medical isotopes and guarantee an adequate supply for the country. The Expert Review Panel On Medical Isotope Production says the best way to keep isotopes stocked is to build a new research reactor to replace the downed unit at Chalk River, Ont. It makes the recommendation in a report to Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt, which the government received Monday and released Thursday. "We recommend that the government expeditiously engage in the replacement of the (National Research Universal) reactor as we believe a multipurpose research reactor represents the best primary option to create a sustainable source of (the isotope molybdenum 99), recognizing that the reactor's other missions would also play a role in justifying the costs," the report says.

The Yucca Mountain waste repository could turn out to be less expensive in the long run than other options for the management of the USA's high-level nuclear waste, a government report has found. The report, Nuclear Waste Management: Key Attributes, Challenges, and Costs for the Yucca Mountain Repository and Two Potential Alternatives, was prepared by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) at the request of Nevada senators Harry Reid and John Ensign and California senator Barbara Boxer. Reid and Ensign are both vocal in their opposition to the proposed Yucca Mountain waste repository, while Boxer was instrumental in blocking plans for a nuclear waste site at Ward Valley, California.

The Yucca Mountain waste repository could turn out to be less expensive in the long run than other options for the management of the USA's high-level nuclear waste, a government report has found. The report, Nuclear Waste Management: Key Attributes, Challenges, and Costs for the Yucca Mountain Repository and Two Potential Alternatives, was prepared by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) at the request of Nevada senators Harry Reid and John Ensign and California senator Barbara Boxer. Reid and Ensign are both vocal in their opposition to the proposed Yucca Mountain waste repository, while Boxer was instrumental in blocking plans for a nuclear waste site at Ward Valley, California.

"Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) commented today on the findings of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report he requested on the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (EEOICPA). The EEOICPA provides compensation to workers and their survivors for occupational diseases arising from toxic and radiation exposure in the government's nuclear weapons program. Several Iowans who worked on the Department of Energy's Line 1 are currently pursuing claims with the Department of Labor (DOL) through the EEOICPA. "I requested an audit of this program after constituents reported delayed compensation, difficulty navigating the program and inconsistencies with the adjudication process," Senator Harkin said. "Some claimants had to wait three years just for the government to rule on their case, and that's unacceptable. The recommendations the GAO makes in this report will help the DOL be more responsive to affected workers, and I am currently looking at the best way to implement these fixes." "

Nuclear waste from France has been sent to Siberia for storage. According to news reports, over 100 tons of uranium were transported to Seversk. France's ecology minister has called for an investigation into the case. According to the French daily newspaper Liberation and Franco-German television broadcaster Arte, France's electricity company EDF has sent 108 tons of uranium to Siberia since the mid-1990s. About 13 percent of France's nuclear waste is stored in open-air parking lots near a nuclear plant in Seversk, said reports on Monday. EDF said it sends uranium left over from nuclear plant production in France to Russia to be treated so that it can be used again.

Nuclear waste from France has been sent to Siberia for storage. According to news reports, over 100 tons of uranium were transported to Seversk. France's ecology minister has called for an investigation into the case. According to the French daily newspaper Liberation and Franco-German television broadcaster Arte, France's electricity company EDF has sent 108 tons of uranium to Siberia since the mid-1990s. About 13 percent of France's nuclear waste is stored in open-air parking lots near a nuclear plant in Seversk, said reports on Monday. EDF said it sends uranium left over from nuclear plant production in France to Russia to be treated so that it can be used again.

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.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's most recent round of inspections at the U.S. Energy Department's mixed oxide fuel facility yielded four notices of violation for mostly minor infractions, according to a copy of the report made public today. Inspectors who conducted extensive reviews at the construction site from July 1 to Sept. 30 also noted that many programs-including the placement of concrete and steel-were adequate and in complete compliance. The $4.8 million MOX facility, scheduled to open at Savannah River Site in 2016, is designed to dispose of 34 metric tons of surplus, weapons-grade plutonium by using small amounts to make fuel for commercial reactors. The inspections involved evaluation of construction of principle structures and included quality assurance activities related to design verification and documentation control; problem identification, resolution, and corrective actions; structural steel and support activities; structural concrete activities; and geotechnical foundation activities, the report said.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's most recent round of inspections at the U.S. Energy Department's mixed oxide fuel facility yielded four notices of violation for mostly minor infractions, according to a copy of the report made public today. Inspectors who conducted extensive reviews at the construction site from July 1 to Sept. 30 also noted that many programs-including the placement of concrete and steel-were adequate and in complete compliance. The $4.8 million MOX facility, scheduled to open at Savannah River Site in 2016, is designed to dispose of 34 metric tons of surplus, weapons-grade plutonium by using small amounts to make fuel for commercial reactors. The inspections involved evaluation of construction of principle structures and included quality assurance activities related to design verification and documentation control; problem identification, resolution, and corrective actions; structural steel and support activities; structural concrete activities; and geotechnical foundation activities, the report said.

To nuke or not to nuke: whether it's kinder to the environment to suffer nuclear plant start-up delays and potential cleanup headaches or to take arms against (rising) seas of trouble through other, likely costlier, alternatives (think solar)? That is the question that's been haunting environmental circles for the past few years. Environment California Research & Policy Center, an environmental advocacy group, weighed in yesterday with a new report arguing that nuclear power would actually set back efforts to fight climate change. Nuclear power plants are too costly and slow to bring on-line, the group says, to effectively contribute toward cutting greenhouse gas emissions. (View the entire report below)

To nuke or not to nuke: whether it's kinder to the environment to suffer nuclear plant start-up delays and potential cleanup headaches or to take arms against (rising) seas of trouble through other, likely costlier, alternatives (think solar)? That is the question that's been haunting environmental circles for the past few years. Environment California Research & Policy Center, an environmental advocacy group, weighed in yesterday with a new report arguing that nuclear power would actually set back efforts to fight climate change. Nuclear power plants are too costly and slow to bring on-line, the group says, to effectively contribute toward cutting greenhouse gas emissions. (View the entire report below)