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The Federation for a Sustainable Environment (FSE) informs Mining Weekly that two of the three mining companies responsible for cleaning and treating the toxic mine water in the Western Basin have once again stopped pumping and treating the mine void water. The mines were instructed earlier this year by the Depart(ment of Water and Environ-mental Affairs (DWEA) to pump and partially treat the toxic water that rose up to just 0,6 m from the surface. The department further directed that, after October 31, 2009, the water had to be pumped and treated to values with sulphates of less than 600 mg/ℓ, failing which it might take any measures it considered necessary to remedy the situation, which could include taking the measures itself and recovering all reasonable costs for measures taken by the department from the parties to whom the directive was issued as well as taking legal action against the parties.

The public will be left in the dark by a rushed schedule of legislative committee hearings on the province's energy future rammed through by the Saskatchewan Party government, the NDP Opposition said Wednesday. The Crown and Central Agencies committee was asked in the spring to "conduct an inquiry to determine how the province can best meet the growing demand for electricity in a manner that is safe, reliable, environmentally sustainable and affordable." But the NDP's Trent Wotherspoon said the government's plan for nine days of committee hearings to be held after the Sept. 21 byelections and before the start of the legislature session on Oct. 21 is woefully inadequate given the scope of the issue.

A reckless energy proposal to provide the nuclear industry with $700 billion in federal loan guarantees was revealed in a recent article, "In Alternative Energy Plan, GOP Calls for 100 New Nuclear Plants in 20 years" by Mosheh Oinounou. Evidence suggests that would expose U.S. citizens to more financial, environmental, and health harm and wouldn't provide additional energy for eight to 10 years at the earliest. Every dollar directed to dangerous, polluting, and costly nuclear power in the energy bill is a dollar that won't be available for safer, more sustainable solar and wind power, which can be produced far sooner. Removing hundreds of billions in nuclear power giveaways (past and present), solar and wind power would be far cheaper without the risks. In this economy it's time to shift the entire financial burden to the nuclear industry where it belongs. This latest nuclear power money grab for $700 billion must be stopped. Enough unlimited tax incentives, loans, loan guarantees, and grants. Potentially a trillion dollars could be wasted on nuclear power that makes things worse, not better.

Montrose County commissioners delayed a decision on a controversial uranium mill proposal Wednesday after nearly six hours of public testimony that underscored deep divisions between longtime mining families and residents of neighboring Telluride and San Miguel County. The Pinon Ridge Mill would be located on the far western edge of Montrose County, in the Paradox Valley near the Utah border, but the uranium and vanadium processing mill - capable of producing enough fuel rods to power a city one and half times the size of Denver - has been meeting with stiff opposition from residents of Telluride and Ridgway. They argue the mill will re-stigmatize the area once known as the capital of the global uranium industry, irreparably damaging the region's new reputation as an outdoor recreation mecca and international tourism destination. Proponents counter the western end of Montrose County has been severely depressed for decades, struggling for jobs and a sustainable economy since the last big uranium boom tapered off in the 1970s and '80s in the wake of nuclear power-plant disasters at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. They also say technology has changed dramatically since the days when Uravan produced uranium for the first atomic weapons but is now a toxic ghost town.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission manned Incident Response Centers in Atlanta and Rockville, Md., Wednesday night, dispatched its resident inspector and called in criticality safety experts to monitor an alert declared at B&W Nuclear Operations Group in Lynchburg, Va. An alert is the lowest level of NRC emergency classifications for fuel facilities such as B&W. The NRC staff continued to monitor the incident, which began at 7:45 p.m. Wednesday until its successful resolution at 12:35 a.m. Thursday. B&W staff activated the facility's Emergency Operations Center after identifying a potential criticality issue in the Uranium Recovery area. A criticality can occur when highly enriched uranium comes together in sufficient quantity or in a container of correct shape to initiate a chain reaction resulting in either a "burst" or a sustained release of radiation.

Mr Porritt, who steps down as Chairman of the Government's Sustainable Development Commission on Monday, said that years had been wasted in pursuit of the the building of new nuclear power stations. In a parting interview with The Daily Telegraph, he also condemned a succession of transport secretaries for failing to understand the green agenda and singled out a junior minister as a "spoiler" who had been "deeply unhelpful"in a number of posts. "I am deeply disappointed that we have a Government position on nuclear power that is pretty unreconstructed," Mr Porritt said after nine years in his post.

Does it matter-in military, political, or economic terms-how much the United States has spent, and continues to spend, to develop and sustain its nuclear arsenal? Many observers would say no. The Cold War is long over, the United States won without having to use its nuclear weapons, they argue, so whatever the cost was, it was "worth it." But for those interested in accountability and reexamining history in light of new evidence, what the United States spent on nuclear weapons along with the justifications for that spending can shed light on the pace and scale of the U.S. effort and offer important lessons for the United States and for other countries that have or seek to have nuclear weapons. This issue brief, based on the 1998 book Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Since 1940, examines how and why key decisions were made, what factors influenced those decisions, and whether alternatives were considered.[1]

Opponents to a proposed uranium mill in Paradox Valley plan a protest before a public meeting Wednesday in Montrose. Marie Moore of the Paradox Valley Sustainability Association said protesters will meet at 5 p.m. Wednesday outside Friendship Hall on the Montrose County fairgrounds to oppose the mill. The Montrose County Planning Commission will hold its second public hearing in the hall at 6 p.m. on whether to recommend a special use permit to Energy Fuels Corp. The final decision on the permit will be up to the county's board of commissioners. At the first public meeting on the permit, on May 19, in Nucla, more than 200 people showed up, both for and against the mill, and feelings were strong on both sides. The West End Planning Advisory Committee, which makes recommendations to the county planning commission, voted in favor of the bill, 4-1.

- Montrose County Planning Director Steve White said Thursday that he would not postpone a May 19 Montrose County Planning Commission public hearing on the Energy Fuels Pinon Ridge uranium mill special use permit. White received a request for hearing postponement and permit denial from the Durango-based Energy Mineral Law Center (EMLC). EMLC attorney Travis Stills, on behalf of mill-opponents Paradox Valley Sustainability Association, e-mailed White a letter on May 13 requesting the action and stated that,"in addition to the milling facility, the special use permit under consideration could allow a series of specially designed byproduct disposal impoundments for purposes of perpetual disposal and storage of hazardous radioactive wastes, a use which is explicitly prohibited in the Agricultural Zone."

The Minnesota Senate voted 50-16 today to pass a compromise energy policy package that declines to lift a moratorium on new nuclear power in Minnesota. The Senate had adopted that position, but the House took the opposite view, and a conference committee opted to maintain the 15-year-old ban. Several Republican senators, however, registered their disappointment that the Senate position didn't prevail. The bill also contains a host of measures aimed at strengthening the state's commitment to renewable and sustainable energy development.

Green Inc. caught up with Mr. Nader recently to ask him about some of the most pressing environmental questions of the day - from carbon taxes and cap-and-trade programs to renewable energy and nuclear power - as well as his impressions of the Obama administration's approach to these issues in its first 100 days. Excerpts from that conversation follow:

That's the cover headline on the lastest issue of the ORNL Review, which identifies those challenges as: Carbon Reduction; Conservation; Bioenergy; Electric Vehicles, Nuclear; Battery Storage; Interactive Grid; Sequestration; Fusion; and Non-Proliferation. "As the nation's largest energy research facility, Oak Ridge National Laboratory is playing a leading role in addressing of energy's '10 Big Problems.' Our strategy is grounded in the belief that no single technology and no single energy source can alone provide the volume of energy capable of sustaining both the quality of our lives and the viability of our planet," ORNL's Billy Stair said in the R&D magazine's intro. It's an interesting read.

CPS Energy announced its cost estimate for two more nuclear reactors at the South Texas Project near Bay City last week. The $13-billion price tag is the latest estimate in a sustained and systemic low-balling by utilities wishing to receive government subsidies. CPS' partner, NRG Energy, recently pegged the cost of units 3 and 4 at $10 billion, a figure that has jumped nearly 50 percent from its original estimate of $5.4 billion. Other analyses, however, have estimated the cost of two new reactors to be nearly 100 percent higher than the CPS estimate. Former Texas Office of Public Utility Counsel official Clarence Johnson recently estimated the cost of STP expansion to be $20 billion to $22 billion, while nuclear engineer and president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Dr. Arjun Makhijani estimated a cost of up to $17.5 billion in 2008.

The climate change legislation that will be debated this week is a huge disappointment. Not only will it prove a boon to energy industries, but it won't protect consumers and may very well not even curb global warming. The first draft, penned months ago, was on track to accomplish these goals, and we applauded it as a great start. Since then, however, lawmakers have met in secret with representatives of the coal and oil industries and facilitated industry efforts to gut the bill. The Obama administration got it right when officials released a budget that would auction 100 percent of pollution allowances. As long as pollution allowances are auctioned, the government will have the revenue necessary to mitigate energy price increases through rebates while having money to invest in the sustainable energy infrastructure we need to end our reliance on fossil fuels.

# Despite Monday's nuclear test, the latest North Korean nuclear crisis really began last June, when the Bush administration began unilaterally rewriting an agreement with North Korea. # During her February trip to the region, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton went out of her way to antagonize North Korea in order to reassure Japan and South Korea. # Sustained diplomatic give-and-take that holds out a new political, economic, and strategic relationship between Washington and Pyongyang would be a more productive strategy.

Alberta's anti-nuclear movement is touting a recent resolution by Lethbridge city council as a model for other communities to follow in asking the province to take a closer look at green energy options. Members of GREENSENCE - Green Sustainable Nonnuclear Chinook Enterprise - joined other environmental advocates at a meeting in Edmonton Friday to draw attention to their concerns with the Alberta Energy Ministry's current consultations on nuclear power generation. According to Lethbridge delegates, most participants in the meeting were from the Peace River region, which tops the list of potential sites for a nuclear power plant. "They feel the government has certainly misled them and biased the whole process," said Mark Sandilands, part of the local GREENSENCE delegation. "Everybody up there is pleased with what Lethbridge has done and they're looking for our materials so they can get their city councils and town councils to do the same thing," he said. "We're looking for a movement across this province to have the government look at renewable energy rather than tinkering with something that is dangerous and not even economic."

"Shot Heard Round the World" Echoes in Strong Local, State Opposition Across U.S. to New Nuclear Reactors SACRAMENTO, Calif., June 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Ahead of the 20th anniversary on Saturday of Sacramento voters going to the polls to shut down Rancho Seco, a nuclear reactor operated by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) about 25 miles southeast of the city, organizers held a news conference today to mark the event. In his remarks at the news conference, Scott Denman, former executive director of the national Safe Energy Communication Council, emphasized that votes against nuclear power continue to this day. Since the historic Rancho Seco shutdown vote, more than two dozen states have legislated or passed referenda requiring that utilities meet a specific target - usually ranging 10-30 percent of the electricity supply - for sustainable energy resources by a specific date, Denman said. Power that will be available from these "renewable portfolio standards" (RPS) sources is now routinely cited as a reason not to pursue more nuclear reactors.

The US Department of Energy on Wednesday said it would use $44 million to fund 71 nuclear energy research and development projects. The funding will go to 31 universities and fund projects for the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative, the Next Generation Nuclear Plant, Light Water Reactor Sustainability, as well as Investigator-Initiated Research, according to DOE. "As a zero-carbon energy source, nuclear power must be part of our energy mix as we work toward energy independence and meeting the challenge of global warming," Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement. "The next generation of nuclear power plants -- with the highest standards of safety, efficiency and environmental protection -- will require the latest advancements in nuclear science and technology." Chu has voiced his support for nuclear energy since becoming energy secretary in January, but the administration's decision to stop pursuing a national nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain has led some to charge that DOE no longer supports nuclear power. The $44 million in funding announced Wednesday will be provided over three years and the project contracts will be awarded by Idaho National Laboratory contractor Battelle at the end of September.

The Oyster Creek nuclear power plant was originally built to last 20 years, then they extended it to 40 years and now they want to extend it to 60 years. There is a preponderance of evidence showing there are great risks at stake in keeping this facility going. Advertisement A rally will be held in Huddy Park in Toms River from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday to protest the relicensing of the plant. It has been proven it is hazardous to the environment and is an accident waiting to happen. In this day and age when we are seeking more efficient and sustainable alternatives to energy, it is unconscionable that this plant be allowed to continue.

The United Nations announced on Friday its disposition to cooperate with Bolivia on the exploration and exploitation of uranium mines. The official in charge of the UN atomic energy program, Mohamed El-Baradei, said after a meeting with Bolivian President Evo Morales that apart from the exploration of uranium mines, the Bolivian government is also evaluating the UN aid programs of health, animals diseases, improvements of the agriculture production, sustainable use of the water resources. El-Baradei said the meeting was positive and that the UN seeks to carry out projects of nuclear development in Bolivia, adding that they are programs of science and technology transfer. Bolivia has uranium bed, but the government has classified the information as "reserved."