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Expansion of the $12.3 billion vitrification plant would be the surest bet for treating radioactive waste that the plant as now designed can't treat in a reasonable amount of time, an expert panel commissioned by the Department of Energy has concluded. Other options include bulk vitrification, improving efficiency of the main vitrification plant and an early start-up of part of the main vitrification plant that would treat low-activity radioactive waste. However, the panel said a decision on how to treat the excess waste could be delayed until 2017. That would give DOE more time to resolve some technical issues.

While public pressure is finally achieving cleaner fossil plant emissions, Sen. John McCain adamantly insists that nuclear energy is safe and efficient. In recent years, the press reveals bit by bit the litany of dangerous nuclear plant vulnerabilities, most importantly those of toxic waste storage and close-call meltdowns. As there is always the risk of possible multiple state catastrophes, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to uphold the ultimate, stringent, no-fail safety standards. But, the NRC has been attacked by congressional lawmakers for its secrecy.

Officials say they are running out of money to build world's most efficient centrifuges at a cost of $3.5 billion. The company building the multi-billion-dollar American Centrifuge uranium enrichment plant in the south central Ohio community of Piketon has applied to the Energy Department for federal loan guarantees amidst spiraling costs. A spokeswoman for USEC Inc. declined to specify the size of the loan guarantee the Bethesda, Md., company is seeking, but the department has been authorized by Congress to issue up to $2 billion in loan guarantees for advanced facilities on the "front end" of the nuclear fuel cycle, including uranium enrichment plants.

A new era has begun at the Savannah River Site, as we face the challenge of safely and aggressively dispositioning radioactive liquid waste. Years from now, we'll remember this as the time SRS aggressively began using state-of-the-art technology to rid the site of its legacy high-level liquid radioactive waste at a pace unimaginable just a few years ago. Time will show how accelerating tank closure produced real progress, to the safety and benefit of local citizens and taxpayers. My company, Savannah River Remediation, officially took over the liquid waste contract at SRS on July 1. The U.S. Department of Energy awarded the contract late last year, replacing Washington Savannah River Company. We know the challenge. Our employees have safely and efficiently dispositioned radioactive waste, setting industry standards. Now, we're going to step that performance up a notch. Here's just a sampling of what we'll be doing:

Florida Power & Light Co. officials defended a $1.3 billion rate increase despite opponents' objections that it will pad the pockets of high-paid executives and reap bigger profits, even as Gov. Charlie Crist rebuked the hike as "excessive." FPL CEO Armando Olivera insisted that the utility needs to raise customers' rates to make its operations more fuel-efficient and that the hike would keep customers' electric bills from climbing even more in the long run. "We're trying to come forward with what we think is a balanced approach. I think that the fact that our rates are the lowest in the state is a reflection of what we are," said Olivera, who spent all day on the witness stand for the Public Service Commission proceedings. It was the second day of the rate hearings scheduled to last two weeks. Juno Beach-based FPL, which serves 4.5 million customer accounts from northeast Florida to Miami, is asking for its first base rate increase since 1985.

The next generation of nuclear reactors is on its way, and supporters say they will be safer, cheaper and more efficient than current plants. Here's a look at what's coming -- and when. If there ever were a time that seemed ripe for nuclear energy, it's now. For the first time in decades, popular opinion is on the industry's side. A majority of Americans thinks nuclear power, which emits virtually no carbon dioxide, is a safe and effective way to battle climate change, according to recent polls. At the same time, legislators are showing renewed interest in nuclear as they hunt for ways to slash greenhouse-gas emissions.

AMory Lovins has a look at various new forms of nuclear power being touted as the next big thing - "New" Nuclear Reactors, Same Old Story. he dominant type of new nuclear power plant, light-water reactors (LWRs), proved unfinanceable in the robust 2005-08 capital market, despite new U.S. subsidies approaching or exceeding their total construction cost. New LWRs are now so costly and slow that they save 2-20x less carbon, 20-40x slower, than micropower and efficient end-use.1 As this becomes evident, other kinds of reactors are being proposed instead-novel designs claimed to solve LWRs' problems of economics, proliferation, and waste.2 Even climate-protection pioneer Jim Hansen says these "Gen IV" reactors merit rapid R&D.3 But on closer examination, the two kinds most often promoted-Integral Fast Reactors (IFRs) and thorium reactors4-reveal no economic, environmental, or security rationale, and the thesis is unsound for any nuclear reactor.

The Department of Energy (DOE) announced Tuesday that the Savannah River Site (SRS) will receive $1.615 billion in stimulus funds to accelerate decommissioning work and create as many as 3,000 jobs. "This is a tremendous opportunity for us to safely and efficiently create jobs," said Helen Belencan, Recovery Act project manager for DOE - Savannah River. "We have been given the public's trust to use the money wisely ... and with transparency." The projects will accelerate decommissioning of nuclear facilities and contaminated areas throughout the Site, including in-place decommissioning of two nuclear materials production reactors. Jobs financed with stimulus dollars are also aimed at early completion of clean-up programs and reducing the Site's protected area by 40 percent, or 79,000 acres, by September 2011.

"A former commissioner of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said loan guarantees for new nuclear power plants are too much of a risk to put on taxpayers. Peter Bradford, who lives in Peru and was an NRC commissioner from 1977 to 1982, said nuclear loan guarantees are "a very counterproductive approach to fighting climate change." "There are a number of other alternatives that lead to greater greenhouse gas reductions much sooner and much less expensively," he told the Reformer. Specifically, said Bradford, energy efficiencies that can be implemented immediately rather than the eight or 10 years it might take to get a license for and to build a new reactor. Loan guarantees "will undermine the fight against climate change by diverting money and attention from the resources that offer much larger atmospheric pollution reductions much sooner and less expensively," said Bradford in testimony before the U.S. House's Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee on April 20. "

Chubu Electric Power Co.'s plan to decommission two long-suspended nuclear reactors and build a new reactor in their place at its Hamaoka power station is mainly due to the old reactors' deteriorating economic efficiency and the heavy cost expected for retrofitting the current facilities to meet the latest quake-resistance standards. The Hamaoka nuclear plant covers about 1.6 million square meters in Omaezaki, Shizuoka Prefecture, and is located near the potential epicenter for a major earthquake expected to strike the Tokai region someday. The power company completed retrofits of the station's Nos. 3, 4 and 5 reactors in March.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued its FY 2008 Citizens' Report that provides a summary of the agency's fiscal year (FY) 2008 Performance and Accountability Report, which was released in November 2008. The Citizens' Report highlights the agency's achievements in promoting nuclear safety and security while adhering to the principles of regulatory independence, transparency, and reliability. "With the U.S. commercial nuclear industry poised for significant growth, it is more important than ever that the NRC provide effective and efficient regulatory oversight of nuclear materials and facilities, while prudently managing the resources entrusted to it by the American people," said Chairman Dale Klein.

An international consortium is signing a multi-billion pound contract to clean up the Sellafield nuclear plant. Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) is taking over the shares in Sellafield Ltd formerly held by BNFL. The £22bn contract, which promises improved performance and efficiency, is expected to last up to 17 years. The deal is being struck on Monday.

The nation's only provider of enriched uranium for nuclear power plants says it will go ahead with development of a southern Ohio project even though it has been unable to attract financing in the $3.5 billion venture. USEC Inc., based in Bethesda, Md., is developing the American Centrifuge project on the site of a former gaseous diffusion plant in Piketon, about 80 miles east of Cincinnati. The centrifuge technology is considered more efficient for concentrating the fissionable uranium isotope U235.

To reverse the current outdated policy, we need to set up four regional used-fuel storage facilities to act as transfer stations. These would provide geographic equity and allow relocation of the backlog of used fuel to locations where it can be stored safely, securely, and efficiently for up to 90 years before reprocessing or permanent disposal. This can be done with existing revenue and provides the time to implement the second part of the plan: developing and demonstrating an acceptable approach for permanent geologic disposal.

AREVA and the University of Idaho signed an agreement on Aug. 20 to share technologies to process nuclear waste in Richland, Wash., according to a recent press release. A new recycling plant soon will be constructed to recover uranium from the ashes of radioactive garbage for recycling into nuclear fuel using an efficient, environmentally friendly technology inspired by decaffeinated coffee.

A new recycling plant will soon recover uranium from the ashes of radioactive garbage to be recycled back into nuclear fuel using an efficient, environmentally friendly technology inspired by decaffeinated coffee. The technique's future may even hold the key to recycling the most dangerous forms of radioactive waste.

SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), with the cooperation of the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, Land Quality Division, is issuing for public comment a Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement (Draft GEIS) that identifies and evaluates on a programmatic basis, the potential environmental impacts from the construction, operation, aquifer restoration, and decommissioning at in-situ leach (ISL) uranium milling facilities located in particular regions of the western United States. The Draft GEIS addresses environmental issues common to ISL milling facilities to aid in making more efficient environmental reviews of individual site-specific ISL license applications.

High-level nuclear waste, the detritus of a half-century of civilian nuclear power in the United States, was supposed to have someplace to go by now. It was supposed to have a designated hole in the ground to contain it, according to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, with infrastructure to transport and store it, staff to secure and protect it. In 2008, we were not supposed to still be debating where to put the fuel rods from nuclear reactors once they could no longer fission efficiently.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has extended its deadline for public comment on a proposed twin-reactor nuclear power plant at TVA's Bellefonte site near Scottsboro until June 6, 2008. The 60-day extension, announced in the Federal Register, comes in response to a request by Bellefonte Efficiency and Sustainability Team (BEST), a local group associated with BREDL (Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League). Both groups oppose the use of nuclear power and BEST had complained that TVA's application for a COL (Combined Operating License) was incomplete