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Area residents will have a chance to speak out on Progress Energy Florida electric rates and a controversial electricity charge at public forums to be held this summer. Nine hearings are planned, according to the state's Office of Public Counsel, which represents consumers before the Florida Public Service Commission. The main focus will concern Progress Energy base rates that would go into effect in 2010, a Progress Energy spokesman, Tim Leljedal, said today.

A $75 million bond meant to finance the construction of a low-level radioactive waste site was passed in Andrews County by a 3-vote margin Saturday leaving those in opposition preparing for their next step and those in favor planning for construction they say will start this summer. As county officials wrote the voting totals on a board outside of the Andrews County Courthouse the about 30 gathered both in favor and opposition screamed at the final results - 642 for and 639 against. In early voting, 337 voted for the bond and 381 against it.

France is being forced to import electricity from Britain to cope with a summer heatwave that has helped to put a third of its nuclear power stations out of action. With temperatures across much of France surging above 30C this week, EDF's reactors are generating the lowest level of electricity in six years, forcing the state-owned utility to turn to Britain for additional capacity. Fourteen of France's 19 nuclear power stations are located inland and use river water rather than seawater for cooling. When water temperatures rise, EDF is forced to shut down the reactors to prevent their casings from exceeding 50C.

Poor planning has led to rising costs and huge delays for a nuclear reactor going up in Finland, the country's biggest-ever construction project, officials have said. The plant on the island of Olkiluoto in western Finland, to be run by Finnish nuclear power company TVO, was meant to start production this summer. But it is now not expected to open for another three years and Finnish authorities cannot hide their disappointment with Areva-Siemens, the Franco-German contractor running the building operations.

An area of seabed equivalent in size to more than 10 football pitches is to be checked for radioactive particles during the summer using a remotely operated vehicle, known as Trol. Fathoms, a company based near Dounreay in Caithness, will use the device off to scan 75,000 sq metres of seabed near the old effluent discharge outlet from the nuclear plant, and retrieve particles detected in the sediment. It can work in water up to 30 metres in depth.

For more than a month in the summer of 2006, a metal recycler in Longview, Texas, produced half a million pounds of radioactive material, state and federal documents show. When LeTourneau Inc. workers melted Cesium-137 -- a radioactive material commonly released in nuclear accidents -- the dust containing the radioactive isotope contaminated the workers, along with sections of the facility, according to a July 2006 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission report. No workers suffered direct or immediate harm that could be detected in medical screening. And none of the metal sent to LeTourneau's customers was radioactive, according to the report.

Since last summer, 36 states have had nowhere to dump the radioactively tainted metal, material and products that have come to light within their borders. In July, a waste site in Barnwell, S.C. -- which served two-thirds of the country as the burial place for material contaminated with low-level radioactivity -- shut its doors after battling neighborhood opposition for years. With no disposal site for most states -- including California, Texas, Florida and New York -- castoff radioactive material is piling up at factories and, in turn, increasingly getting lost, said John Williamson, administrator of Florida's Bureau of Radiation Control.

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.

The Department of Energy has narrowed the list of proposed new nuclear power plants it is considering for $18.5 billion in federal loan guarantees down to four from five, a spokeswoman said. "We have proceeded to due diligence with four applications for nuclear loan guarantees that are farthest along in the [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] application process," the spokeswoman said. "We have not made any final decisions and have not eliminated any of the applicants." New reactors at Southern Co.'s (SO) Vogtle plant in Georgia, Scana Corp.'s ( SCG) Summer plant in South Carolina, Constellation Energy Group's (CEG) Calvert Cliffs plant in Maryland and NRG Energy Inc.'s (NRG) South Texas plant are among the projects still in the running for federal loan backing. Under the loan guarantee program, the government promises to assume the companies' debt obligations if they default on loans for the nuclear projects.

Bankruptcy of Tronox Inc. throws West Branch project into limbo A $500 million effort to remove radioactive material along a waterway in western DuPage County will likely be delayed after the company responsible for the cleanup filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, local and federal officials said. On Jan. 12, Tronox Inc. asked a New York bankruptcy court for protection from creditors while it reorganizes financially. The bankruptcy filing means it is unlikely that funding will be available to complete a segment of the cleanup in Warrenville this summer as planned, said Tim Fischer, a remedial project manager for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "We are really just in a holding pattern until the court figures out which creditors get paid in what order," Fischer said.

The Colorado pikeminnow, razorback sucker and humpback and bonytail chubs could be unraveling Western Colorado's second uranium boom. Last week, four conservation groups took on the federal government for opening the floodgates to uranium mining without assessing the impacts on the Dolores and San Miguel rivers. Western Colorado's first uranium boom arrived in the 1950s with the beginning of the Cold War. At that time, prospectors with newly patented mining claims and Geiger counters in hand descended en masse on the canyon country west of Durango. Many walked away with fortunes but left a legacy of mine waste and radioactive tailings in their wake. Three years ago, uranium prices once again spiked, and prospectors and mining companies started eyeing the desert of the Dolores River drainage. Local uranium mining got a big nudge in the summer of 2007 when the Department of Energy announced its Uranium Leasing Program. At that time, the agency opened 27,000 additional acres in San Miguel, Montrose and Mesa counties to prospectors seeking the radioactive ore. With this acreage, the DOE estimated that regional mines would produce 2 million tons of unrefined uranium per year.

Conservation groups say they may add endangered species claims to a lawsuit seeking to stop uranium mining in western Colorado. The groups are suing the U.S. Department of Energy over a leasing program for more uranium mining on 42 square miles near Dolores River Canyon in southwest Colorado. The lawsuit has been pending since last summer in federal court in Denver. The environmentalists said Wednesday that more uranium mining would release poisons that could hurt protected fish and waterfowl living on the Dolores and San Miguel rivers.

Weld County residents opposed to the proposed uranium mine near Nunn are still not convinced their groundwater will be protected from contamination. Two weeks ago, Gov. Ritter signed legislation to protect groundwater from contamination as a result of leach uranium mining. House Bill 1161 requires that companies using leach uranium mines restore all affected groundwater to the condition it was in before mining. A new study, however, shows that these types of regulations may not prevent all groundwater contamination. Weld residents now are using this information as their primary argument against the uranium mine. Powertech Uranium Corp., a Canadian firm, is continuing to collect samples and apply for permits. President and CEO Richard Clement said all the work applications should be completed by mid-summer. The applications take about a year and a half to process.

Weld County residents opposed to the proposed uranium mine near Nunn are still not convinced their groundwater will be protected from contamination. Two weeks ago, Gov. Ritter signed legislation to protect groundwater from contamination as a result of leach uranium mining. House Bill 1161 requires that companies using leach uranium mines restore all affected groundwater to the condition it was in before mining. A new study, however, shows that these types of regulations may not prevent all groundwater contamination. Weld residents now are using this information as their primary argument against the uranium mine. Powertech Uranium Corp., a Canadian firm, is continuing to collect samples and apply for permits. President and CEO Richard Clement said all the work applications should be completed by mid-summer. The applications take about a year and a half to process.

"A study to determine whether uranium can be mined and milled safely in Virginia is moving forward. Officials say Virginia Tech's Center for Coal and Energy Research has signed a contract with the National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council for the study. The first phase of the study will focuses on the technical and public-safety aspects of mining. The study's fieldwork will begin this summer and last through the fall of 2011. Virginia Uranium Inc. seeks to mine and mill a 119-million-pound uranium ore deposit in Pittsylvania County. The company will pay for the first phase of the study through Virginia Tech. Before uranium could be mined in Virginia, the General Assembly would have to lift a ban that has been in place since 1982. The study is a first step to lifting that ban. "

"It's a great pleasure to be back in the Bay Area, and be once again in the company of George Shultz, as he continues to lead us to address the most difficult questions before our nation. We are grateful for your interest, your hard work, and your patriotism on the issues of energy and nonproliferation that threaten our economic future, our national security, and international stability. The Obama administration is working on many fronts to solve some of our toughest problems, including health care, the economy, climate change, and terrorism. I was actually pleased not to be a member of Congress last summer, when I would have had to host a town hall meeting or two. Let me say how honored - and relieved - I am to be here today."

"One of the rationales frequently trotted out in support of a proposed uranium mill in western Montrose County is that it won't impact outdoor recreation in the area, contrary to the contention of opponents who say an industry resurgence would have a chilling effect on tourism. After all, proponents argued at county hearing last summer and fall, look at nearby Telluride and Moab, Utah - both places with extensive mining histories that recovered to become meccas of alpine skiing and mountain biking. uranium True, bikers flock to the slick rock around Moab and happily pedal past tailings piles heaped along the Colorado River without giving their content much thought. Still, the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency were concerned enough to launch the massive and very expensive Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project."

"DTE Energy is preparing to load highly radioactive bundles of used fuel from its Fermi 2 nuclear reactor into giant outside storage casks near the power plant. Six of the 20-foot-tall casks have been set up on a concrete pad in the plant's high-security "protected area," all part of a new $62.5 million spent-fuel storage facility. "We're in the testing and inspection phase right now," said Guy Cerullo, a DTE spokesman at the plant. "We're testing the process. They're doing sort of a dry run. Plans are to begin loading the first containers sometime this spring or early summer.""

"Some toiled in uranium mines, transported the extracted ore and carried it home on their clothes. Others participated in nuclear weapons testing or lived downwind from test sites. Not all have been compensated, let alone know about a federal program that does so. Larry Martinez knows of thousands of them who live on the Navajo Nation, and this summer he hopes to get some help finding more in the towns that dot the 27,000-square-mile reservation. A new U.S. Department of Justice program will select 30 students to travel the vast reservation and other communities in the Four Corners region to identify potential participants in the federal compensation program."

"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has enlisted the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a study of cancer rates in areas surrounding nuclear facilities across the country, including Beaver County. The study, which is expected to begin this summer and take up to three years, will examine cancer occurrence and mortality rates in residential populations living near nuclear facilities. Shippingport was the site of the nation's first commercial nuclear power plant, which was replaced by the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station owned by Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp. A previous study released in 1990 found no increased risk of cancer death for people living near nuclear facilities. The study conducted by the National Cancer Institute looked at 107 counties near 62 nuclear facilities, including Beaver County. "