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A meeting of the Department of Energy's Site Specific Advisory Board for clean up and reuse of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant at Piketon brought forth a tug of war. Much like the Huntington downtown Superblock which lay fallow for nearly 30 years, uses for the contaminated site break down to two camps: Clean up the radioactive waste that still kills former workers versus possibly attracting a so-called new nuclear plant that would allegedly be safe. The latter would bring jobs to an area starving for employment. But, many nearby residents do not trust the statements that a 'new' nuclear plant would not continue the odyssey of cover ups since the former facility opened during the Cold War in the 1950s. However, after an elaborate news conference in the summer of 2009, the project dropped off the radar. Activist and former Piketon employee Vina Colley, referred to past contamination as a reason to avoid nuclear power. "All of their drains and laundry [water] where they washed contaminated clothes and [water from] equipment washed off went into the local creeks, which emptied into the Scioto River, then filtered to the Ohio and down to the Mississippi. We're not the only ones affected. The whole world is affected by what these nuclear facilities are producing and releasing into the environment."

A meeting of the Department of Energy's Site Specific Advisory Board for clean up and reuse of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant at Piketon brought forth a tug of war. Much like the Huntington downtown Superblock which lay fallow for nearly 30 years, uses for the contaminated site break down to two camps: Clean up the radioactive waste that still kills former workers versus possibly attracting a so-called new nuclear plant that would allegedly be safe. The latter would bring jobs to an area starving for employment. But, many nearby residents do not trust the statements that a 'new' nuclear plant would not continue the odyssey of cover ups since the former facility opened during the Cold War in the 1950s. However, after an elaborate news conference in the summer of 2009, the project dropped off the radar. Activist and former Piketon employee Vina Colley, referred to past contamination as a reason to avoid nuclear power. "All of their drains and laundry [water] where they washed contaminated clothes and [water from] equipment washed off went into the local creeks, which emptied into the Scioto River, then filtered to the Ohio and down to the Mississippi. We're not the only ones affected. The whole world is affected by what these nuclear facilities are producing and releasing into the environment."

A meeting of the Department of Energy's Site Specific Advisory Board for clean up and reuse of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant at Piketon brought forth a tug of war. Much like the Huntington downtown Superblock which lay fallow for nearly 30 years, uses for the contaminated site break down to two camps: Clean up the radioactive waste that still kills former workers versus possibly attracting a so-called new nuclear plant that would allegedly be safe. The latter would bring jobs to an area starving for employment. But, many nearby residents do not trust the statements that a 'new' nuclear plant would not continue the odyssey of cover ups since the former facility opened during the Cold War in the 1950s. However, after an elaborate news conference in the summer of 2009, the project dropped off the radar. Activist and former Piketon employee Vina Colley, referred to past contamination as a reason to avoid nuclear power. "All of their drains and laundry [water] where they washed contaminated clothes and [water from] equipment washed off went into the local creeks, which emptied into the Scioto River, then filtered to the Ohio and down to the Mississippi. We're not the only ones affected. The whole world is affected by what these nuclear facilities are producing and releasing into the environment."

The hazardous waste industry, and nuclear waste in particular, have never been simple issues within Tooele County. While some along the Wasatch Front would like to see this genie put back into the bottle, most local residents have long realized our hazardous waste corridor is here to stay - requiring us to take a more pragmatic and nuanced view of the industry. Hazardous waste has created jobs for county residents. It has also contributed millions of dollars to county government coffers in the form of mitigation fees - funds that were used to construct Deseret Peak Complex. Although that contribution has declined drastically in recent years, it remains an important revenue source within county budgets.

The hazardous waste industry, and nuclear waste in particular, have never been simple issues within Tooele County. While some along the Wasatch Front would like to see this genie put back into the bottle, most local residents have long realized our hazardous waste corridor is here to stay - requiring us to take a more pragmatic and nuanced view of the industry. Hazardous waste has created jobs for county residents. It has also contributed millions of dollars to county government coffers in the form of mitigation fees - funds that were used to construct Deseret Peak Complex. Although that contribution has declined drastically in recent years, it remains an important revenue source within county budgets.

The hazardous waste industry, and nuclear waste in particular, have never been simple issues within Tooele County. While some along the Wasatch Front would like to see this genie put back into the bottle, most local residents have long realized our hazardous waste corridor is here to stay - requiring us to take a more pragmatic and nuanced view of the industry. Hazardous waste has created jobs for county residents. It has also contributed millions of dollars to county government coffers in the form of mitigation fees - funds that were used to construct Deseret Peak Complex. Although that contribution has declined drastically in recent years, it remains an important revenue source within county budgets.

Billions of pounds is lost to clean energy sources through investment in nuclear power, First Minister Alex Salmond has said. The Scottish Government announced plans to create 16,000 green energy jobs by 2020 earlier this week. SNP backbencher Joe Fitzpatrick had asked what impact the UK government's "obsession" with nuclear power would have on the renewables industry, during First Minister's Questions.

An additional investment of $6 billion over the next four years at SRS and other DOE cleanup sites could mean 10,000 new jobs. As part of President-elect Barack Obama's stimulus plan, billions of dollars could be funneled into the Department of Energy's cleanup program with a view to significantly accelerate the remaining work, according to an internal DOE document. "These footprint reduction efforts will lower monitoring and maintenance costs enabling (the office of Environmental Management) to focus on critical long-term activities like managing highly radioactive liquid tank waste," documents state. "They will also enable the leveraging of DOE/EM site assets to address national energy and environmental goals through the Energy Parks Initiatives."

The state reported it had completed distribution of $30 million in federal funds to assist economic development in eastern Idaho Oct. 9, as part of a broad-ranging agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy, the state and the U.S. Navy over spent nuclear fuel stored at DOE's Idaho site.

n the arguments against nuclear energy, critics have taken aim at the debt ceiling of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the federal loan guarantee program for support investments in new nuclear power plants. These critics seem to have forgotten something very important. There are some jobs the government must do, and one of the most important is to take on the very large tasks that cannot and do not belong in the realm of the so-called "free market."

GERMANY: With a return to nuclear power set to be a key election topic next year, a leaking waste site has refocused attention on safety, writes Derek Scally . ST BARBARA has learned to be flexible in her job description. For 40 years, a statue of the patron saint of miners has watched from an illuminated shrine in the wall of the Konrad mine shaft, one kilometre underground near the German city of Braunschweig.

The Bruce Power partnership predicts a nuclear plant in the Peace River region of Alberta would contribute $12 billion to the province's economy during the construction period and would generate 2,700 long-term jobs. "While more detailed work needs to be done, this early report paints a good picture of the economic benefits our proposal could bring to the Peace Country," Duncan Hawthorne, president of Bruce Power Alberta, said in releasing the partnership's study Tuesday.

OLYMPIA - Gov. Chris Gregoire was repeatedly pressed to support Areva's $2 billion uranium enrichment plant and told her help was critical to luring its 400 high-paying jobs to the Tri-Cities, according to e-mail and other communications obtained by the Herald.

MORE than 150 jobs have been secured - thanks to the £20 million radioactive waste deal which brings a big boost to two West Cumbrian quarries.

Steam-cleaning technology created by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was used to clean a Superfund site in Visalia, in California's Central Valley - and the job was finished a century earlier than first expected. Utility company Southern California Edison used the site to soak wooden utility poles in creosote and other protective chemicals for some 80 years. Those chemicals contaminated the soil and underground water in the area. By the 1970s, the chemicals had seeped down as much as 100 feet in places. The site, called the Visalia Pole Yard, was one of the first Superfund sites, part of a federal government cleanup program for very toxic places. Superfund sites are on the National Priorities List of the Environmental Protection Agency because they may seriously threaten public health.

Steam-cleaning technology created by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was used to clean a Superfund site in Visalia, in California's Central Valley - and the job was finished a century earlier than first expected. Utility company Southern California Edison used the site to soak wooden utility poles in creosote and other protective chemicals for some 80 years. Those chemicals contaminated the soil and underground water in the area. By the 1970s, the chemicals had seeped down as much as 100 feet in places. The site, called the Visalia Pole Yard, was one of the first Superfund sites, part of a federal government cleanup program for very toxic places. Superfund sites are on the National Priorities List of the Environmental Protection Agency because they may seriously threaten public health.

Are nuclear power plant workers at higher risk to die of cancer? A study conducted by a Canadian researcher concluded the risk is substantially higher to them than to the general public. The document, "Exposure to Radiation and Health Outcomes" was made public last week. It was written by Mark Lemstra, who was formerly a senior research epidemiologist for the Saskatoon, Canada, Health Region. Lemstra left -- or was relieved of, depending on which source you read -- his job last year after a dispute over a report he authored that documented the health disparities between different socioeconomic categories in Saskatoon. In the radiation report, in which Lemstra reviewed 1,725 articles related to radiation studies, he concluded that nuclear power plant workers have a "relative excess risk" of getting cancer. In epidemiology, excess risk is defined as the difference between the proportion of subjects in a population with a particular disease who were exposed to a specific risk factor and the proportion of subjects with that same disease who were not exposed.

Are nuclear power plant workers at higher risk to die of cancer? A study conducted by a Canadian researcher concluded the risk is substantially higher to them than to the general public. The document, "Exposure to Radiation and Health Outcomes" was made public last week. It was written by Mark Lemstra, who was formerly a senior research epidemiologist for the Saskatoon, Canada, Health Region. Lemstra left -- or was relieved of, depending on which source you read -- his job last year after a dispute over a report he authored that documented the health disparities between different socioeconomic categories in Saskatoon. In the radiation report, in which Lemstra reviewed 1,725 articles related to radiation studies, he concluded that nuclear power plant workers have a "relative excess risk" of getting cancer. In epidemiology, excess risk is defined as the difference between the proportion of subjects in a population with a particular disease who were exposed to a specific risk factor and the proportion of subjects with that same disease who were not exposed.

Oak Ridge will receive $755 million in stimulus money to jump-start environmental cleanup projects and create about 1,500 new jobs, the Department of Energy announced today. Gerald Boyd, the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge manager, said the money will be spent over the next two and a half years for dozens of projects at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Y-12 National Security Complex, and the East Tennessee Technology Park.

"Would a truly "clean energy" source produce "one of the nation's most hazardous substances"? Of course not. So why include provisions on nuclear reactors in the state's Clean Energy Jobs Act, recently introduced in the state Legislature? Nuclear reactors generate high-level radioactive waste, which is "one of the nation's most hazardous substances," according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. In a November 2009 report, the respected nonpartisan agency found there were no good options for dealing with the radioactive waste. As the federal government continues its decades-long struggle to find a solution to this public safety, environmental and political problem, the costs to taxpayers and ratepayers will skyrocket. In the meantime, radioactive waste is piling up at 80 sites in 35 states, including three sites in Wisconsin."

The Project On Government Oversight has obtained hundreds of pages of internal NRC documents from an NRC Inspector General investigation into then-Commissioner Jeffrey Merrifield. The documents outline, among other things, how he disregarded advice from NRC's General Counsel and voted on two matters that "could have potentially" financially benefitted three companies-Shaw Group, Westinghouse, and General Electric-during the time he was directly involved in employment negotiations with those companies. The IG investigation found that in the two months before accepting a job created for him at the Shaw Group, Commissioner Merrifield voted both to approve China's purchase of AP 1000 reactors (in which the Shaw Group had a financial interest) and to change criteria of emergency cooling systems that would directly benefit Westinghouse (of which the Shaw Group owned a 20 percent interest). The IG referred the case to the Department of Justice.

The Project On Government Oversight has obtained hundreds of pages of internal NRC documents from an NRC Inspector General investigation into then-Commissioner Jeffrey Merrifield. The documents outline, among other things, how he disregarded advice from NRC's General Counsel and voted on two matters that "could have potentially" financially benefitted three companies-Shaw Group, Westinghouse, and General Electric-during the time he was directly involved in employment negotiations with those companies. The IG investigation found that in the two months before accepting a job created for him at the Shaw Group, Commissioner Merrifield voted both to approve China's purchase of AP 1000 reactors (in which the Shaw Group had a financial interest) and to change criteria of emergency cooling systems that would directly benefit Westinghouse (of which the Shaw Group owned a 20 percent interest). The IG referred the case to the Department of Justice.

U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and EnergySolutions Inc. are going public with their complaints about one another, with dueling press conferences Wednesday and mailers. EnergySolutions also aired an ad last weekend on four television stations to attack what the Salt Lake City radioactive waste company calls the congressman's "playing politics with Utah jobs" and "catering to left-wing fringe groups." The company accused the congressman of inciting fear and misleading the public about the safety of their operations. "Everything we put into our ad is factual," said EnergySolutions President Val Christensen. The company operates a specialized landfill in Tooele County that serves as the sole disposal site for low-level radioactive waste from 36 states.

U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and EnergySolutions Inc. are going public with their complaints about one another, with dueling press conferences Wednesday and mailers. EnergySolutions also aired an ad last weekend on four television stations to attack what the Salt Lake City radioactive waste company calls the congressman's "playing politics with Utah jobs" and "catering to left-wing fringe groups." The company accused the congressman of inciting fear and misleading the public about the safety of their operations. "Everything we put into our ad is factual," said EnergySolutions President Val Christensen. The company operates a specialized landfill in Tooele County that serves as the sole disposal site for low-level radioactive waste from 36 states.

They want to find out why a group of workers were subjected to a higher than expected dose while moving a flask containing intermediate-level waste (ILW) on November 25. Checks are ongoing to determine the exposure levels of between six and nine workers, though it has been established they do not breach legal or site-imposed limits. The probe follows an incident in the summer when two workers had to have low-level contamination removed from their hands while working on a clean-up job in the site's sphere-shaped reactor. The two problems come in the wake of a steady improvement in both the nuclear and industrial safety record of operators, Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd. It is understood management are keen to tighten up standards in the site's Fuel Cycle Area - which houses the complex of reactor and waste stores - to maintain the recent progress. DSRL spokesman Colin Punler yesterday gave details of the latest incident.

They want to find out why a group of workers were subjected to a higher than expected dose while moving a flask containing intermediate-level waste (ILW) on November 25. Checks are ongoing to determine the exposure levels of between six and nine workers, though it has been established they do not breach legal or site-imposed limits. The probe follows an incident in the summer when two workers had to have low-level contamination removed from their hands while working on a clean-up job in the site's sphere-shaped reactor. The two problems come in the wake of a steady improvement in both the nuclear and industrial safety record of operators, Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd. It is understood management are keen to tighten up standards in the site's Fuel Cycle Area - which houses the complex of reactor and waste stores - to maintain the recent progress. DSRL spokesman Colin Punler yesterday gave details of the latest incident.

EnergySolutions Inc. has started airing commercials critical of a U.S. congressman who wants to prevent the company from importing Italian nuclear waste for disposal in Utah's west desert. The company is fighting a bill in Congress sponsored by U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, that would ban the importation of foreign low-level radioactive waste unless it originated in the U.S. or served a strategic national purpose. EnergySolutions contends jobs will be put at risk if it isn't allowed to dispose of the waste at its facility, about miles west of Salt Lake City. Meanwhile, Matheson said that any country that creates nuclear waste should dispose of it itself.

EnergySolutions Inc. has started airing commercials critical of a U.S. congressman who wants to prevent the company from importing Italian nuclear waste for disposal in Utah's west desert. The company is fighting a bill in Congress sponsored by U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, that would ban the importation of foreign low-level radioactive waste unless it originated in the U.S. or served a strategic national purpose. EnergySolutions contends jobs will be put at risk if it isn't allowed to dispose of the waste at its facility, about miles west of Salt Lake City. Meanwhile, Matheson said that any country that creates nuclear waste should dispose of it itself.

Today, Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the issue of a final rule amending the Department of Energy's regulations for its Loan Guarantee Program. The revised rule will allow for increased participation in the program by financial institutions and other investors and enable the support of more innovative energy technologies in the United States. "This much needed change will provide greater flexibility to the Loan Guarantee Program and help us to support more projects at a better value to taxpayers," said Secretary Chu. "This is part of our commitment to ensuring businesses are able to access the support they need to create jobs and contribute to a clean energy economy." Under the rule change, the Loan Guarantee Program will be able to consider financing projects together with other lenders and will be able to provide loan guarantees to projects with multiple participants (who may hold undivided interests in a project). As an example, export credit agencies and other financial institutions will now be able to provide financing to complement Title XVII loans and loan guarantees. This approach will result in lowered risk and potential costs to taxpayers.

Today, Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the issue of a final rule amending the Department of Energy's regulations for its Loan Guarantee Program. The revised rule will allow for increased participation in the program by financial institutions and other investors and enable the support of more innovative energy technologies in the United States. "This much needed change will provide greater flexibility to the Loan Guarantee Program and help us to support more projects at a better value to taxpayers," said Secretary Chu. "This is part of our commitment to ensuring businesses are able to access the support they need to create jobs and contribute to a clean energy economy." Under the rule change, the Loan Guarantee Program will be able to consider financing projects together with other lenders and will be able to provide loan guarantees to projects with multiple participants (who may hold undivided interests in a project). As an example, export credit agencies and other financial institutions will now be able to provide financing to complement Title XVII loans and loan guarantees. This approach will result in lowered risk and potential costs to taxpayers.

Twenty-one years after TVA halted work on Alabama's biggest construction project, Jackson County officials say they want the federal utility to restart the nuclear plant work to help power the local economy and the Tennessee Valley electricity grid. Ron Bailey, 61 and a former mayor of Scottsboro, said community leaders continue to support plans for a new reactor at Bellefonte - either by finishing the old or building new. "As a taxpayer and ratepayer, I can't help think what a waste of money it is to see that plant sitting there idle," Mr. Bailey said of the unfinished $4 billion complex in Hollywood, Ala. "But as an elected official and Chamber of Commerce supporter, I also see the plant as a tremendous opportunity for our future for both jobs and energy."

Twenty-one years after TVA halted work on Alabama's biggest construction project, Jackson County officials say they want the federal utility to restart the nuclear plant work to help power the local economy and the Tennessee Valley electricity grid. Ron Bailey, 61 and a former mayor of Scottsboro, said community leaders continue to support plans for a new reactor at Bellefonte - either by finishing the old or building new. "As a taxpayer and ratepayer, I can't help think what a waste of money it is to see that plant sitting there idle," Mr. Bailey said of the unfinished $4 billion complex in Hollywood, Ala. "But as an elected official and Chamber of Commerce supporter, I also see the plant as a tremendous opportunity for our future for both jobs and energy."