Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

More trains filled with depleted uranium are coming to Utah. Even as state regulators consider a moratorium on new shipments of the radioactive material -- which becomes more hazardous over time -- the U.S. Department of Energy plans to ship another 14,800 barrels of it to the EnergySolutions Inc. disposal site in Tooele County. Part of the $1.6 billion in federal stimulus money for the Savannah River cleanup site in South Carolina will pay for rail cars filled with depleted uranium to be buried in Utah during the next 13 months. "This is exactly the situation we were hoping to prevent by asking the state Radiation Control Board to enact a moratorium on depleted uranium," said Christopher Thomas of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah.

More trains filled with depleted uranium are coming to Utah. Even as state regulators consider a moratorium on new shipments of the radioactive material -- which becomes more hazardous over time -- the U.S. Department of Energy plans to ship another 14,800 barrels of it to the EnergySolutions Inc. disposal site in Tooele County. Part of the $1.6 billion in federal stimulus money for the Savannah River cleanup site in South Carolina will pay for rail cars filled with depleted uranium to be buried in Utah during the next 13 months. "This is exactly the situation we were hoping to prevent by asking the state Radiation Control Board to enact a moratorium on depleted uranium," said Christopher Thomas of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah.

More trains filled with depleted uranium are coming to Utah. Even as state regulators consider a moratorium on new shipments of the radioactive material -- which becomes more hazardous over time -- the U.S. Department of Energy plans to ship another 14,800 barrels of it to the EnergySolutions Inc. disposal site in Tooele County. Part of the $1.6 billion in federal stimulus money for the Savannah River cleanup site in South Carolina will pay for rail cars filled with depleted uranium to be buried in Utah during the next 13 months. "This is exactly the situation we were hoping to prevent by asking the state Radiation Control Board to enact a moratorium on depleted uranium," said Christopher Thomas of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah.

Work to remove 16 million tons of radioactive waste away from the tourist town of Moab is about to go a little faster. The U.S. Department of Energy says it plans to double the amount of uranium tailings removed each day from the shores of the Colorado River. Right now, rail cars take about 2,800 tons of tailings a day to a dump site 30 miles away, where they're placed in specially designed cells. The DOE says a second train will be added in mid-August.

Work to remove 16 million tons of radioactive waste away from the tourist town of Moab is about to go a little faster. The U.S. Department of Energy says it plans to double the amount of uranium tailings removed each day from the shores of the Colorado River. Right now, rail cars take about 2,800 tons of tailings a day to a dump site 30 miles away, where they're placed in specially designed cells. The DOE says a second train will be added in mid-August.

Work to remove 16 million tons of radioactive waste away from the tourist town of Moab is about to go a little faster. The U.S. Department of Energy says it plans to double the amount of uranium tailings removed each day from the shores of the Colorado River. Right now, rail cars take about 2,800 tons of tailings a day to a dump site 30 miles away, where they're placed in specially designed cells. The DOE says a second train will be added in mid-August.

Customs officials in far eastern Russia said Thursday they had stopped almost 50 secondhand cars shipped for sale from Japan that showed excessive radiation levels. A sign with the nuclear hazard symbol stands in front of cars from Japan in the eastern Russian city of Vladivostok on April 14. Customs officials in far eastern Russia said they had stopped almost 50 secondhand cars shipped for sale from Japan that showed excessive radiation levels. Customs officials stopped 49 cars with radiation levels up to six times above normal, while some vehicles had traces of the radioactive isotopes caesium-127 and uranium-238, said Roman Famin, who heads the regional customs' radiation monitoring department. The radioactive cars started arriving at the Vladivostok port 10 days ago, but the government consumer watchdog has not made a decision on what to do with the contaminated cars, Famin said at a briefing.

The dream of hydrogen fuel cell cars has just been put back in the garage. U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced yesterday that his department is cutting all funding for hydrogen car research, saying that it won't be a feasible technology anytime soon. "We asked ourselves, 'Is it likely in the next 10 or 15, 20 years that we will covert to a hydrogen car economy?' The answer, we felt, was 'no,'" Chu said [CNET]. While innovative new cars are a high priority, Chu declared that his department will focus on efforts that may pay off sooner, like plug-in electric cars.

A train derailment in central Oklahoma on Friday sent fireballs into the sky but caused no injuries. Eight cars on the 110-car Burlington Northern Santa Fe train derailed, seven of which were carrying either crude oil or ethanol, company spokesman Joe Faust said. He said he didn't know how many of the derailed cars had caught on fire.

ATCHISON, Kan. | A train with cars containing radioactive material derailed in northwest Kansas on Friday evening, but authorities say no one was in danger. Atchison Fire Chief Michael McDermed says about 25 to 30 cars were involved in the incident in Atchison, but no one was injured. The train had three cars with radioactive material, but they did not appear to be damaged.

A recent letter ("The case against storing at Yucca," June 11) shows a lack of understanding of nuclear waste; for example, the writer is worried about hundreds of truck or train loads of spent fuel, and mentioned the Graniteville accident. Sign up to get local news by e-mail Thousands of trucks and train cars of gasoline and other hazardous chemicals are crossing the country every day. They represent a risk thousands of times greater than spent fuel. The Graniteville accident involved tank cars of gaseous chlorine and killed people. After an accident a car load of spent fuel would just lie there until picked up. No terrorist would waste his time on such a target. At Savannah River Site, it was calculated that a truck load of explosives in a fuel storage pool couldn't spread radioactivity past the plant boundary. I hoped that, if a terrorist had a truck load of explosives, he was dumb enough to explode it at the plant rather than where he could kill people.

The train car loaded with radioactive scrap metal will be sent back to Bulgaria, the Bulgarian State Railways announced for FOCUS News Agency. As it was announced earlier, elevated radiation levels were registered in one of the cars of a train, transporting scrap metal for Macedonia. The high radiation was registered at the Dimitrovgrad border control point, at the border between Serbia and Bulgaria.

For 10 years now, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been busily extending the operating license of nuclear power plants ­ designed to run for 40 years ­ another 20 years. Imagine driving down a highway in a 60-year-old car. But safety concerns are minimized by the NRC, a lapdog of the nuclear industry. Just as the NRC has never denied a construction or operating license for a nuclear plant anywhere, anytime in the U.S., it has rubber-stamped every application for a 20-year extension for now 52 nuclear plants. That's half the 104 nuclear plants in the U.S. and, as the 40-year licenses of the rest get set to expire, watch the NRC extend their licenses to run for another 20 years, too. And it may end up to be more than 20 years. The New York Times in a report April 2 on the NRC extending the operating license to 60 years of the oldest nuclear plant in the U.S., Oyster Creek in New Jersey, noted that "some commission officials have even discussed the possibility of a second round of extensions that would allow reactors to operate for up to 80 years." Imagine driving down a highway in an 80-year-old car.

As I shivered outside my car a few weeks ago, waiting on a locksmith in freezing temperatures, I knew it wasn't the first time I had locked my keys in the car. Knowing me, it won't be the last. Advertisement Moments like this reinforce the fact that we live in a world fraught with human error. Thankfully we've found ways to protect ourselves from the daily blunders we all make. As rational people, we assess risks and benefits and then make decisions accordingly. Years ago, most national security experts concluded that maintaining thousands of nuclear weapons during the Cold War was a matter of national survival. But times have changed. The Soviet Union, justification for an oversized U.S. nuclear arsenal, is long gone. The overwhelming U.S. nuclear stockpile has done little to stop Iran and North Korea's suspected efforts to build nuclear weapons. And the risk of nuclear materials falling into the hands of terrorists is greater than ever.

"I am increasingly convinced that in order for us to survive the 21st century, we (individually and collectively) must accept two principles of living: 1) We are all connected to each other and to our environment. 2) All energy for our homes, firms, factories and farms must be clean and renewable. We probably have less than two generations to transition. Right now things are not looking good. We stand at a crossroads concerning how we fuel our vehicles and power our homes. Electric vehicles (EVs) are a good replacement for carbon-fueled cars, but only if we charge them with renewable energy (geothermal, wind, solar, tidal, even biomass). Any other approach will require greater demand for increasingly limited electricity. In fact, if every household in America suddenly bought an electric car averaging 5 kilowatt-hours to top off each day, household electric demand would increase about 20 percent (adding perhaps 10 percent more demand to an already overloaded grid nationally). "

Chancellor Angela Merkel's party ruled out for the first time building nuclear-power plants in Germany and backed plans to develop electric-car technology, aiming to broaden its appeal for Sept. 27 national elections. While Merkel's Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, agreed to stick to a policy of extending the lifespan of existing atomic plants, their joint campaign program presented in Berlin today describes nuclear power as merely a "bridge" to greater use of renewable energy.

Count Egon Lamprecht among the thousands of experts still perplexed and haunted by SL-1. Like other experts, Lamprecht has analyzed every detail of the world's first nuclear accident, which on Jan. 3, 1961, killed three men on what's now the site of Idaho National Laboratory. Like them, he knows the improper removal of a control rod from the infamous Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One, or SL-1, led to a flash heating of water that raised the reactor 9 feet out of its base. In four milliseconds, hundreds of gallons of water were turned into super-heated steam. Perhaps most importantly, Lamprecht also wants to know why the control rod was removed. But Lamprecht, a 74-year-old Idaho Falls man whose favorite hobby is collecting and restoring classic cars, is different from the rest of the experts in one important way: He was there. The day of the SL-1 accident, Lamprecht was working as a firefighter for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, which operated a series of experimental nuclear reactors at the INL site.

Count Egon Lamprecht among the thousands of experts still perplexed and haunted by SL-1. Like other experts, Lamprecht has analyzed every detail of the world's first nuclear accident, which on Jan. 3, 1961, killed three men on what's now the site of Idaho National Laboratory. Like them, he knows the improper removal of a control rod from the infamous Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One, or SL-1, led to a flash heating of water that raised the reactor 9 feet out of its base. In four milliseconds, hundreds of gallons of water were turned into super-heated steam. Perhaps most importantly, Lamprecht also wants to know why the control rod was removed. But Lamprecht, a 74-year-old Idaho Falls man whose favorite hobby is collecting and restoring classic cars, is different from the rest of the experts in one important way: He was there. The day of the SL-1 accident, Lamprecht was working as a firefighter for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, which operated a series of experimental nuclear reactors at the INL site.

A Utah company is defending its decision to truck contaminated soil from Los Alamos National Laboratory into southern Colorado. Last week, EnergySolutions began shipping the soil by truck to Antonito, where it is loaded on to rail cars. The load is then shipped by rail to Walsenburg and then on to a storage facility in Clive, Utah, 74 miles west of Salt Lake City. The soil is from an area where conventional weapons were tested and contains depleted uranium and PCBs. Antonito is about 100 miles from Los Alamos and residents questioned why EnergySolutions didn't truck the soil to a closer railhead. The company says other transfer stations didn't work because they added more rail miles and because of a lack of daily rail service and multiple switching requirements.

A Utah company is defending its decision to truck contaminated soil from Los Alamos National Laboratory into southern Colorado. Last week, EnergySolutions began shipping the soil by truck to Antonito, where it is loaded on to rail cars. The load is then shipped by rail to Walsenburg and then on to a storage facility in Clive, Utah, 74 miles west of Salt Lake City. The soil is from an area where conventional weapons were tested and contains depleted uranium and PCBs. Antonito is about 100 miles from Los Alamos and residents questioned why EnergySolutions didn't truck the soil to a closer railhead. The company says other transfer stations didn't work because they added more rail miles and because of a lack of daily rail service and multiple switching requirements.

Italy has some great imports -- pointy shoes, beautifully designed sports cars, a wide variety of wines and fancy leather products, to name a few. But the United States should draw the line at Italian nuclear waste. Why accept foreign nuclear waste when we can't handle our own? Plans to import 20,000 tons of nuclear waste through either the port of Charleston or New Orleans have properly drawn a congressional challenge. A bill approved by the House this week would halt plans to bring low-level radioactive waste from Italy to Tennessee, where it would be processed for eventual disposal at a desert location in Utah. About 1,600 tons would be buried there.

Italy has some great imports -- pointy shoes, beautifully designed sports cars, a wide variety of wines and fancy leather products, to name a few. But the United States should draw the line at Italian nuclear waste. Why accept foreign nuclear waste when we can't handle our own? Plans to import 20,000 tons of nuclear waste through either the port of Charleston or New Orleans have properly drawn a congressional challenge. A bill approved by the House this week would halt plans to bring low-level radioactive waste from Italy to Tennessee, where it would be processed for eventual disposal at a desert location in Utah. About 1,600 tons would be buried there.

Gov. Gary Herbert and the U.S. Energy Department hammered out a deal Thursday that lets a trainload of depleted uranium come to Utah but only for temporary storage -- for now. Planned additional shipments of the low-level radioactive waste from the government's cleanup of the Savannah River, South Carolina, bomb-making facility are suspended pending a Utah site-safety review that is under way. "We simply will not accept any more depleted uranium for storage in this state until we are convinced that we have addressed all the safety parameters," said Herbert. The governor was unable to convince Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Tuesday to halt the shipment, but he called Thursday's agreement a "reasonable compromise." The 5,408 barrels of DU, as the waste is called, already on the way could only go into the ground for permanent disposal after the state completes its site-safety review. Herbert secured the agreement two days after the first of three shipments began rolling from South Carolina on train cars headed for Utah.

Gov. Gary Herbert and the U.S. Energy Department hammered out a deal Thursday that lets a trainload of depleted uranium come to Utah but only for temporary storage -- for now. Planned additional shipments of the low-level radioactive waste from the government's cleanup of the Savannah River, South Carolina, bomb-making facility are suspended pending a Utah site-safety review that is under way. "We simply will not accept any more depleted uranium for storage in this state until we are convinced that we have addressed all the safety parameters," said Herbert. The governor was unable to convince Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Tuesday to halt the shipment, but he called Thursday's agreement a "reasonable compromise." The 5,408 barrels of DU, as the waste is called, already on the way could only go into the ground for permanent disposal after the state completes its site-safety review. Herbert secured the agreement two days after the first of three shipments began rolling from South Carolina on train cars headed for Utah.

A U.S. Department of Energy spokeswoman says an agreement has been reached with Utah Gov. Gary Herbert to temporarily store low-level radioactive waste from South Carolina before permanently disposing of it. State regulators say they need more time to determine whether depleted uranium can safely be disposed of at a private facility in Utah's west desert. Depleted uranium is different from other waste because it becomes more radioactive over time for up to one million years. Herbert and the federal agency reached the agreement on Thursday, days after the first rail car of depleted uranium left the Savannah River Site bound for the Utah site.

A U.S. Department of Energy spokeswoman says an agreement has been reached with Utah Gov. Gary Herbert to temporarily store low-level radioactive waste from South Carolina before permanently disposing of it. State regulators say they need more time to determine whether depleted uranium can safely be disposed of at a private facility in Utah's west desert. Depleted uranium is different from other waste because it becomes more radioactive over time for up to one million years. Herbert and the federal agency reached the agreement on Thursday, days after the first rail car of depleted uranium left the Savannah River Site bound for the Utah site.

U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson is applauding reports that a South Carolina cleanup site is delaying its shipment of depleted uranium by at least two months. On Tuesday, a Department of Energy official in South Carolina said 15,000 drums of depleted uranium (DU) from the Savannah River Cleanup site won't start shipping to the EnergySolutions site in Utah until December. Savannah River Site spokesman Jim Giusti told The Associated Press Tuesday that crews are preparing 11,000 tons of waste to load onto rail cars bound for the disposal facility 80 miles west of Salt Lake City through next summer. The delay buys the Utah Democratic congressman time to try to persuade the U.S. Energy Department to suspend shipments until the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission completes its pending review of disposing depleted uranium (DU) safely.

U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson is applauding reports that a South Carolina cleanup site is delaying its shipment of depleted uranium by at least two months. On Tuesday, a Department of Energy official in South Carolina said 15,000 drums of depleted uranium (DU) from the Savannah River Cleanup site won't start shipping to the EnergySolutions site in Utah until December. Savannah River Site spokesman Jim Giusti told The Associated Press Tuesday that crews are preparing 11,000 tons of waste to load onto rail cars bound for the disposal facility 80 miles west of Salt Lake City through next summer. The delay buys the Utah Democratic congressman time to try to persuade the U.S. Energy Department to suspend shipments until the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission completes its pending review of disposing depleted uranium (DU) safely.

Drums of radioactive cleanup waste in South Carolina are ready for loading onto rail cars for the journey to a Tooele County disposal site. But now those plans could be delayed more than a year, after the state Radiation Control Board voted Tuesday to allow more depleted uranium (DU) only after EnergySolutions Inc. submits a report confirming its extra steps to safeguard the waste will work. The move was a victory for the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL) which has sought at least a temporary moratorium on DU, as the uranium-enrichment waste is called.

Drums of radioactive cleanup waste in South Carolina are ready for loading onto rail cars for the journey to a Tooele County disposal site. But now those plans could be delayed more than a year, after the state Radiation Control Board voted Tuesday to allow more depleted uranium (DU) only after EnergySolutions Inc. submits a report confirming its extra steps to safeguard the waste will work. The move was a victory for the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL) which has sought at least a temporary moratorium on DU, as the uranium-enrichment waste is called.

Powerful Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., praises many Italian imports: Ferrari cars, Armani suits and delicious prosciutto ham. But when it comes to importing Italian low-level radioactive waste to Utah, he winced and exclaimed Friday, "It makes me say, 'Mama mia!' " Markey chaired a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on a bill co-sponsored by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, to ban shipment of such foreign waste to America. Witnesses from all sides of the issue said action by Congress may be the only way to stop it, if recent court rulings hold.

Powerful Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., praises many Italian imports: Ferrari cars, Armani suits and delicious prosciutto ham. But when it comes to importing Italian low-level radioactive waste to Utah, he winced and exclaimed Friday, "It makes me say, 'Mama mia!' " Markey chaired a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on a bill co-sponsored by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, to ban shipment of such foreign waste to America. Witnesses from all sides of the issue said action by Congress may be the only way to stop it, if recent court rulings hold.