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State inspectors were concerned that an early report last year on a corroded steel radiation barrier at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey "withheld important and significant information from the public," according to a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission e-mail. Advertisement The e-mail said that state inspectors cited standing water in an area that was supposed to be dry and that there was no proof that the barrier was not rusting. State inspectors also expressed concern about the time it would take to issue a public inspection report, which was in effect a "gag order" on them, according to the Nov. 18 e-mail from John Richmond, an NRC inspector. The final report was issued Jan. 21. Opponents of the nuclear plant say the e-mail shows ongoing problems that are being hidden from the public.

'It was anything but 'a man'," that the 28-year-old Japanese medic Shuntaro Hida saw stumbling towards him on the road from Hiroshima on the morning of August 6 1945. "The strange figure came up to me little by little, unsteady on its feet. It surely seemed like a man form but was wholly naked, bloody and covered with mud. The body was completely swollen. Many pieces of ragged cloth hung down from its bare breast and waist. The hands were held before the breasts with palms turned down. Water dripped from all the tips of the rags. Indeed, it was human skin which I thought was ragged cloth, and the water drops were human blood… I stepped backwards in spite of myself."

On Tuesday morning I received a call from my colleagues in Paris inviting me to pop over and see them as they had had some worrying news that they needed to share. So the next day, long before the sun was stirring and the local rooster was warming his vocals, I was on my way to St Pancras heading for a lunchtime appointment in 20th Arrondissement. It turns out that the French state owned energy company Electricité de France (EDF), who have allegedly been spying on Greenpeace since 2004, are more involved in the scandal than it initially appeared. On March 31, Greenpeace France discovered that its former campaign director's computer was hacked in 2006, and that the organisation had been targeted by the private investigation company Kargus Consultants under instruction from EDF. This was followed by quick denials and ambiguous statements claiming that EDF were in fact victims of circumstance, rather than maestros of a carefully orchestrated and deliberate effort to infiltrate and monitor the work of my French colleagues.

Kathy Wolf explained the bureaucratic nightmare she and her late husband experienced trying to get him the medical attention he needed after being diagnosed with brain cancer. Charlie Wolf was given only six months to live after the diagnosis, which doctors said was related to his work at the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons site near Denver. But he fought, surviving six years before he died earlier this year. For the Wolfs, however, brain cancer would not be their only fight. Peace of mind from the government would end up being one of their toughest battles. Kathy said she and Charlie were forced to provide mounds of complicated information in order to be eligible to receive medical compensation from the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program. "They just kept asking for more and more information," said Kathy Wolf during a conference call with reporters yesterday. "Charlie was struggling with brain cancer, he was unable to speak and read, it was just a very arduous and torturous path that they put you on."

"A researcher at the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority STUK has been caught falsifying research findings. The unnamed researcher was investigating the effect of radiation on cells. STUK notes that the work was not related to ongoing research on the possible effects of mobile phones on human health. STUK did not reveal any more details about the falsified results. The guilty party was caught by a colleague who began to suspect last May that some of the findings were doctored. STUK has informed co-operative researchers both in Finland and abroad who might be using the results for their own research. The Authority says that since the fraud was discovered so early, no harm was done to other research. "

"An employee at the EnergySolutions' Bear Creek Facility in Oak Ridge was airlifted to a Knoxville hospital today after he was injured in an accident. Operations at the radioactive-waste processing plant were shut down immediately afterwards, and the accident is under investigation, the company said. According to information released by EnergySolutions, the worker was injured when a crane moving a 10-ton metal block failed, with the block falling and hitting the worker's leg. The worker's name was not immediately released, but EnergySolutions spokesman Mark Walker said the worker -- a 20-year employee at the site -- was in stable condition at the University of Tennessee Medical Center. Walker said the injuries were not life-threatening."

"Conscript was part of class-action suit against the state The death last Friday of a former Chilean soldier who was suing the state for health damages after he was overexposed to radiation once again highlights concerns over the future use of nuclear energy in Chile. Manuel Mella Tapia, 41, guarded the La Reina nuclear research facility near Santiago between 1987 and 1989 as part of his compulsory military service. Tapia was diagnosed with leukemia in 2008 and had been waiting for a bone marrow transplant at Santiago's Clinica Alemana. He was one of 64 ex-conscripts petitioning the government for US$85 million in compensation after being exposed to radioactive material while serving at the La Reina facility (ST. Oct 22, 2009). At least half of the men have experienced health problems related to radiation poisoning. "

"The decision facing President Truman in January 1950 over whether to build a hydrogen bomb was, the washington Post said, potentially the gravest and most difficult "that has confronted any chief of the State in war or peace in American history. It may determine the survival of the civilisation that the western world has known for 2,500 years". On January 31, the President announced that he had ordered the Atomic Energy Commission to press ahead. The race to stockpile conventional nuclear weapons would continue, but the priority was to develop workable - and portable - weapons using thermonuclear (fusion) explosions, in which compressed hydrogen was exploded by a primary fission bomb, which then set off a third fission stage of the bomb's outer casing. Hydrogen was a cheap and accessible fuel, and the explosive potential of the fission-fusion-fission chain reaction was vastly greater than that of the atom bomb. "

"A Savannah River National Laboratory technician's failure to adequately monitor her gloved hands was the cause of a January incident in which her clothing and skin were contaminated with radiation. The employee was testing vials of plutonium samples when a radiation control officer detected radiation on a hood where the employee was working, according to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board report. The officer then examined the technician and found alpha contamination on the abdomen, lapel and right arm of her lab coat. "When the technician was sent to the decontamination room, additional contamination was found on her personal clothing and on her skin in the vicinity of the lapel," the report said."

"It's the story of some Arizona residents who believe they have been victimized by the U.S. government not once, but twice. In February, Rep. Trent Franks introduced H.R. 4712, a measure meant to remunerate Mohave residents who were adversely affected by above ground nuclear testing that took place in the 1950s and '60s. The bill would allow those in Mohave County to make claims under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which was designed to proved payment to those who developed serious illnesses, including cancer, as a result of radiation exposure in the wake of those tests. Mohave County was not included as an eligible compensation area when RECA was passed in 1990. It was overlooked again when RECA was amended in 2000 to include more areas."

"Notice of Availability of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Combined License for Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant Unit 3 Notice is hereby given that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) [[Page 20868]] and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District, have published NUREG-1936, ``Environmental Impact Statement for the Combined License (COL) for Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant Unit 3: Draft Report for Comment.'' The site is located in Calvert County, Maryland, along the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. Part 1 of the application for the COL was submitted by letter dated July 7, 2007, pursuant to Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Part 52 and 10 CFR 2.101(a)(5). A notice of acceptance for docketing of Part 1 of the COL application was published in the Federal Register on January 31, 2008 (73 FR 5877). A notice of intent to prepare a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) and to conduct the scoping process was published in the Federal Register on February 14, 2008 (73 FR 8719). Part 2 of the COL application was submitted by letter dated March 14, 2008, and a notice of acceptance for docketing for Part 2 was published in the Federal Register on June 9, 2008 (73 FR 32606). A COL is an authorization to construct and (with specified conditions) operate a nuclear power plant at a specific site, in accordance with established laws and regulations. "

"A big part of Hanford's clean-up effort is taking place right now. That's nine radioactive "hot cells" packed up in custom containers and sealed for disposal. It's work that's years in the making. KEPR was the only station there as workers rolled out another hot cell. Each can weigh up to 200 tons. It's just one reason the work is slow. It also moves slowly because what's inside the containers is very, very dangerous. Gary Snow runs the demolition part of today's project. "The purpose of the building was to do testing on radiating materials. And over the course of the building, there were numerous accidents that spread contaminations," said Snow. The hot cell rolled out Thursday was not rolled out in the morning because it was too windy. But once it is, it will go in a custom brown container and will be filled with a cement grout."

The train with radioactive iron from Bulgaria was sent to Macedonian MAKSteel Company by mistake, Macedonian Nova Makedonija newspaper reports. Company's press center points that they haven't had problems with Bulgarian company Sholls that had send the iron. The train that had traveled to Macedonia was stopped on Wednesday at Bulgarian-Serbian border in the town of Dimitrovgrad. Customs officers found radioactivity, which was 3 000 times higher than the admissible one, the edition reports, citing the announcement of Nove Georgievski from MAKSteel who pointed that it is a mistake and that the iron was sent on purpose.

The state Senate is likely to consider legislation that restores elements of Initiative 297, which dealt with Hanford nuclear reservation cleanup but was ruled unconstitutional in the federal courts. In 2004, washington voters passed Initiative 297 with the highest vote total of any initiative in state history, more than 70 percent. Its key goal was to stop the dumping of mixed hazardous and radioactive waste in unlined dirt trenches at Hanford. Aware that a plume of over a million gallons of radioactive and other hazardous chemical waste is entering the groundwater and is headed for the Columbia River, voters adopted a common-sense standard: Quit dumping until the stuff already there is cleaned up. Soon after the Bush administration took power, it proposed a budget for the Department of Energy that showed a marked slowdown in cleanup activities, even while it proposed adding more to the unlined trenches. The long-term solution, a vitrification plant that would encase the waste in glass for storage, was far behind schedule. It was this threat that prompted I-297.

Areva, a French nuclear construction company, said this week that its project to build the world's most powerful reactor remained mired in delays and was over-budget by 2.3 billion euros, or about $3.3 billion. The price tag of the plant in Olkiluoto, Finland - the first of a fleet of so-called evolutionary power reactors that Areva foresees building in coming years - was about $4.3 billion in 2003 and costs have steadily increased. The reactor was meant to have gone online early this summer but Areva no longer is committing to any dates for its completion. Patrice Lambert de Diesbach, an energy analyst with CM-CIC Securities in Paris, said the latest developments were "bad news" for Areva and "should be sanctioned by the market."

Areva, a French nuclear construction company, said this week that its project to build the world's most powerful reactor remained mired in delays and was over-budget by 2.3 billion euros, or about $3.3 billion. The price tag of the plant in Olkiluoto, Finland - the first of a fleet of so-called evolutionary power reactors that Areva foresees building in coming years - was about $4.3 billion in 2003 and costs have steadily increased. The reactor was meant to have gone online early this summer but Areva no longer is committing to any dates for its completion. Patrice Lambert de Diesbach, an energy analyst with CM-CIC Securities in Paris, said the latest developments were "bad news" for Areva and "should be sanctioned by the market."

A new study of older construction workers at four U.S. Department of Energy nuclear weapons sites found the workers have a higher risk of having asbestos-related disease. The study, conducted by researchers at Duke University, the University of Cincinnati and other institutions, found that trades workers at Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington, Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee, Savannah River Site in South Carolina or the Amchitka site in Alaska had significantly elevated asbestos-related cancers. The study Was published in the current issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, a medical publication. The research Was funded by the Department of Energy. The study tracked the mortality of 8,976 construction workers at nuclear weapons facilities who had participated in voluntary medical screening programs from 1998 through 2004. The workers were predominantly white and nearly all male. Researchers identified 674 deaths among the overall group -slightly less than expected-but noted a significantly higher death rate among those identified as asbestos workers and insulators. The incidence of cancer Was elevated at all four sites with the highest rates at Savannah River.

A new study of older construction workers at four U.S. Department of Energy nuclear weapons sites found the workers have a higher risk of having asbestos-related disease. The study, conducted by researchers at Duke University, the University of Cincinnati and other institutions, found that trades workers at Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington, Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee, Savannah River Site in South Carolina or the Amchitka site in Alaska had significantly elevated asbestos-related cancers. The study Was published in the current issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, a medical publication. The research Was funded by the Department of Energy. The study tracked the mortality of 8,976 construction workers at nuclear weapons facilities who had participated in voluntary medical screening programs from 1998 through 2004. The workers were predominantly white and nearly all male. Researchers identified 674 deaths among the overall group -slightly less than expected-but noted a significantly higher death rate among those identified as asbestos workers and insulators. The incidence of cancer Was elevated at all four sites with the highest rates at Savannah River.

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.

Nearly 15,000 drums of depleted uranium oxide will be shipped from South Carolina for disposal in Utah under a contract awarded by the Department of Energy. The 14,800 drums of Savannah River Site waste will be disposed of at EnergySolutions Inc.'s facility about 70 miles west of Salt Lake City. The shipments will take place over 14 months, although it was unclear Wednesday when they would start. The announcement, made by the Energy Department in mid-July, comes as EnergySolutions fights an effort to place a moratorium on the disposal of depleted uranium in Utah.

Nearly 15,000 drums of depleted uranium oxide will be shipped from South Carolina for disposal in Utah under a contract awarded by the Department of Energy. The 14,800 drums of Savannah River Site waste will be disposed of at EnergySolutions Inc.'s facility about 70 miles west of Salt Lake City. The shipments will take place over 14 months, although it was unclear Wednesday when they would start. The announcement, made by the Energy Department in mid-July, comes as EnergySolutions fights an effort to place a moratorium on the disposal of depleted uranium in Utah.

Nearly 15,000 drums of depleted uranium oxide will be shipped from South Carolina for disposal in Utah under a contract awarded by the Department of Energy. The 14,800 drums of Savannah River Site waste will be disposed of at EnergySolutions Inc.'s facility about 70 miles west of Salt Lake City. The shipments will take place over 14 months, although it was unclear Wednesday when they would start. The announcement, made by the Energy Department in mid-July, comes as EnergySolutions fights an effort to place a moratorium on the disposal of depleted uranium in Utah.

In 2009, the local political sleeper was - drumroll, please - District 8 Councilman Reed Williams. Williams was anything but a brand name when he was elected. He'd worked 35 years in the oil industry but wasn't part of the small clique of local business leaders who regularly influence City Hall. At 62, Williams has an unassuming demeanor and zero political ambitions. Yet when it came to the debate over expansion of the South Texas Project, he played a critical behind-the-scenes role. He offered expertise and common sense that has made him a key voice in charting the city's energy future. He started out inclined to support the nuclear expansion. When he had an interview with the Sierra Club during the campaign, one of the leaders asked where he and the organization would differ.

In 2009, the local political sleeper was - drumroll, please - District 8 Councilman Reed Williams. Williams was anything but a brand name when he was elected. He'd worked 35 years in the oil industry but wasn't part of the small clique of local business leaders who regularly influence City Hall. At 62, Williams has an unassuming demeanor and zero political ambitions. Yet when it came to the debate over expansion of the South Texas Project, he played a critical behind-the-scenes role. He offered expertise and common sense that has made him a key voice in charting the city's energy future. He started out inclined to support the nuclear expansion. When he had an interview with the Sierra Club during the campaign, one of the leaders asked where he and the organization would differ.

)I have lost a lot of sleep lately thinking about the nuclear train that is headed to Utah. During that time I have tried to think of something that I could do to help reverse the path that we are now on. The only thing that I could think of is to tell you my story and hopefully it will only be one of many, many Utahans putting a voice this issue. I know the effects of past radiation policies. I lost my father to leukemia after the nuclear testing in the 1950's and early 1960's that blanketed Utah. This has affected my entire life since I was 12 years old. I also fought my own battle with cancer in 1995. Ironically, it was radiation that saved me then BUT oh what a price I have paid! I was never really afraid of hell until I faced the effects of going through that treatment. The effects still linger even after 14 years. If I had known the true short-term and long-term effects of radiation treatment then, I would not have gone through with having the treatment. We should be asking what Utah gets out of the Energy Solutions deal to become the nuclear dumping ground for the world. How can we place short term gains and profits by gambling the entire future of Utah?

)I have lost a lot of sleep lately thinking about the nuclear train that is headed to Utah. During that time I have tried to think of something that I could do to help reverse the path that we are now on. The only thing that I could think of is to tell you my story and hopefully it will only be one of many, many Utahans putting a voice this issue. I know the effects of past radiation policies. I lost my father to leukemia after the nuclear testing in the 1950's and early 1960's that blanketed Utah. This has affected my entire life since I was 12 years old. I also fought my own battle with cancer in 1995. Ironically, it was radiation that saved me then BUT oh what a price I have paid! I was never really afraid of hell until I faced the effects of going through that treatment. The effects still linger even after 14 years. If I had known the true short-term and long-term effects of radiation treatment then, I would not have gone through with having the treatment. We should be asking what Utah gets out of the Energy Solutions deal to become the nuclear dumping ground for the world. How can we place short term gains and profits by gambling the entire future of Utah?