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About 30 members of St. Petersburg's ecological organizations protested on Thursday the transportation of nuclear waste from other countries to Russia, the bi-weekly published St. Petersburg Times reported. The picket near the Avtovo metro stop was timed to coincide with the arrival of the MV Schouwenbank ship with 1,250 tons of so called 'uranium tailings.' At the end of the protest, police detained co-chairman of the ECOperestroika environmental organization, Rashid Alimov, for what they called "the violation of fire safety rules and rules on holding public events," representative of ECOperestroika Vera Ponomaryova stated.

A change in classification means depleted uranium could be coming to Utah's west desert in bulk. On Wednesday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted to regulate depleted uranium as Class A low-level waste. Depleted uranium is the by-product, or tails, of the uranium enrichment process, a key point in the production of fuel for nuclear power reactors. It is stable in the short-term. It's used as part of dental porcelain and to make armor-piercing bullets like those used in the Gulf wars. But Vanessa Pierce, executive director of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah says depleted uranium is much more toxic thousands of years down the road.

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman's impending resignation could open the door for a nuclear waste disposal firm to increase the capacity of the country's largest low-level radioactive waste dump by about 78 percent. EnergySolutions Inc. was already on a path to pile up to 9.8 million cubic yards of waste on its mile-square facility in Utah in 2007 when Huntsman threatened to use a regional compact to block its application. Instead, Huntsman and company CEO Steve Creamer signed an agreement in which EnergySolutions withdrew its application and reaffirmed its commitment not to dispose of hotter radioactive waste in the state. In exchange, Huntsman said the company could convert 3.6 million cubic yards of space reserved for uranium mill tailings so it could handle the type of debris that comes from decommissioned nuclear power plants. Huntsman also pledged not to tell the compact to reduce the 5.5 million cubic yards of waste already licensed to the company as long as it didn't seek to expand.

MONTROSE COUNTY - Energy Fuels Inc. has told the Montrose County Planning Commission it wants to process waste and process streams beyond uranium ore at their proposed Paradox Valley Pinon Ridge uranium mill. The announcement came after public testimony was concluded at a second hearing June 10 in Montrose for a special use permit. The proposed location of the new facility would be about 12 miles east of Paradox in the West End off of state Highway 90. In public testimony at the first hearing May 19, Energy Fuels representatives said that they had "no plans to process any material other than uranium ore." This appears to have been the sole public comment on the subject. Advertisement Montrose County Planning Director Steve White issued a memo to the planning commission prior to the June 10 hearing that proposed the specific condition that "only raw uranium ore processed on-site may be stored in the tailings cells."

Energy Fuels is trying to alter its special use permit application. They want to open up the restriction, imposed by the Montrose Planning Commission, that states, "only raw uranium ore processed on-site may be stored in the tailings cells." The Montrose Daily Press reports that Energy Fuels CEO, George Glasier, brought up the proposed change for discussion late at the June 10 meeting, the second public hearing before the Planning Commission, after public comments were closed. By this time, many members of the public had already left. In testimony at the May 19 meeting in Nucla, before a large crowd in the high school gymnasium, Energy Fuels had publicly stated they had "no plans to process any material other than uranium ore," according to the Montrose Daily Press.

The town of Mailuu Suu has been recognized by world experts including Blacksmith Institute as one of the top ten radioactively contaminated areas of the world.There is more than 25 000 residents estimated in Mailuu Suu daily exposed to the dangerous level of radiation from the radioactive waste dumps collected around the town. The first range of the soviet atomic bombs has been developed using Mailuu Suu uranium in 1940-1950's. Jetigen.org requested an interview with one of the Blacksmith Institute coordinators in the former soviet block,Vladimir Kuznetsov who manages field operations in Mailuu Suu. Ryskeldi Satke- What's the history of Blacksmith project "Mailuu Suu" in Kyrgyzstan? Vladimir Kuznetsov - The problem of Mailuu-Suu region has been partially (along with the other regions) raised in our first micro-project in 2007 which identified contamination of water supply source in the Mailuu Suu. The practical result of the previous project in this area contributed to the cessation of illegal excavation of contaminated waste parts for evolving purpose of metal trade business with chinese smugglers (fencing the terraces, implementation of new rules on the metal export for the customs, clarifying activities). The application for this project was submitted in March 2008, processed twice, and approved in June 2008.

The Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment, a coalition of community groups affected by uranium mining and committed to renewable energy development, announces the 30th anniversary commemoration of the Church Rock uranium tailings spill on July 16. The purposes of the event are to remember and honor the Dine communities that were affected by the largest release of radioactive waste in U.S. history, and to reaffirm the Navajo Nation's ban on uranium mining and processing, as set forth in the Dine Natural Resources Protection Act of 2005. A prayer walk will be held on State Route 566 from Red Water Pond Road next to the Northeast Church Rock Mine to the site of the spill across from the United Nuclear Corp. mill site and ending at the King Family Ranch on Old Churchrock Mine Road at SR 566 - a distance of about five miles. Prayers for healing will offered at the start of the walk and at the spill site. The walk will end at the King Ranch with a press conference where Navajo Nation elected officials will reaffirm the Navajo Nation ban on uranium mining.