nuke.news

"Approval of the design for the Westinghouse AP 1000 reactor is slowly moving forward at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as are financial arrangements for building the nation's first one, near Augusta, Ga. Yet the argument about whether its design is safer than past models is advancing, too. On June 18, the Southern Company, the utility holding company that is building it, and the Department of Energy announced that they had come to final terms on a federal loan guarantee that would allow the project to go forward. The guarantee is for 70 percent of the company's costs, not to exceed $3.4 billion. (Georgia Power, the Southern subsidiary building the plant, owns 45.7 percent of it; other partners also got loan guarantees.) Lots of details have yet to be agreed upon, though. One is that the reactor is surrounded by a shield building meant to protect it from hazards like crashing airplanes, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is not convinced that the shield building would survive earthquakes and other natural hazards. Westinghouse, a subsidiary of Toshiba, is doing new analytical work to try to convince the commission staff of its safety."

"In his June 3 letter, Dr. Forrest Remick uses deceptive and even inaccurate statements to suggest I wasn't straight about nuclear power. His many letters to newspapers suggest he is an unabashed cheerleader for nuclear power. While claiming we need an honest discussion, Remick ignores and distorts important facts. Not surprising. Remick worked for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). NRC typically promotes nuclear power at the expense of public interests. I discovered most NRC employees defend the nuclear industry they supposedly regulate, shamefully dismissing serious threats and harms. The Gulf disaster should remind everyone why people like Remick must be challenged and why it's critical to stop funding dangerous, dirty, and costly nuclear power altogether."

"Removal of radioactive thorium along the West Branch of the DuPage River has resumed after a year's hiatus. Tronox Inc., the chemical manufacturing company responsible for the cleanup efforts, filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2009. After months of legal and political wrangling, a bankruptcy judge approved a plan to create a trust fund that will hold money needed to pay for the cleanup efforts in the portion of the river that runs through Warrenville. That move paved the way for cleanup work to resume. The trust fund contains $25 million, which is expected to be enough to cover the cost of thorium removal from a nearly milelong stretch that runs from Butterfield Road to the Warrenville Grove dam, said Tony Charlton, DuPage County's stormwater management chief. Workers are already on site and are expected to be done with the second-to-last phase of the river cleanup by the end of this year."

"A plan to potentially let 36 states ship radioactive waste to West Texas -- loads that likely would pass through North Texas on major highways and railroads -- is being revamped by state officials. This month, members of the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission took down proposed rules that could have allowed dozens of states to send low-level waste to a site in Andrews County. Environmentalists and state lawmakers were among those expressing concerns about leakage, contamination and the safety of communities along shipping routes. "The rules were withdrawn," said Margaret Henderson, interim executive director of the commission. "There had been a number of public comments. [Commissioners] will be going through them and considering" what to include in a new version of proposed rules, she said."

"Rising greenhouse gases. Climate change. Rising energy costs. Declining fossil fuel reserves. Now the BP disaster. With the arguments against fossil fuels continuing to pile up it's no wonder people have latched onto nuclear power as an attractive solution. Here are eight questions that we should answer before, not after, we head down the nuclear path: 1. Are nuclear hazards any different from other hazards we accept every day?"

"A Nuclear Regulatory Commission legal panel says the federal Department of Energy can't withdraw its application to build a national nuclear waste dump in Nevada. The NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ruled Tuesday that Congress directed the DOE to file an application for the Yucca Mountain repository, and directed the NRC to consider it. It says letting the department "single-handedly derail" the process would be "contrary to congressional intent." The NRC legal panel held hearings on the issue earlier this month in Las Vegas."

"ENVIRONMENTAL campaigners have accused the government of preparing to allow multi-million pound "handouts" to firms building nuclear reactors. Greenpeace said the move went against assurances given by ministers that the nuclear industry would not receive any handouts to help build new nuclear power stations. The government has denied the accusation. Business leaders in Cumbria hope a new generation of reactors will cement the county's position as a key player in the global atomic energy industry. Three locations in West Cumbria have been put forward as potential reactor sites - in Kirksanton, Braystones and Sellafield. Nuclear is a cornerstone of the multi-billion pound Energy Coast Masterplan vision for the area."

"The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has prepared an Environmental Assessment for the issuance of an Order as authorized by Section 274f of the Atomic Energy Act that would modify an Order issued to EnergySolutions, LLC (formerly Envirocare of Utah, Inc.) on May 7, 1999 (64 FR 27826; May 21, 1999). In accordance with 10 CFR 51.33, the NRC prepared a draft Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for this amendment, which was published for public review and comment on October 7, 2009 (74 FR 51622). The public comment period closed on November 6, 2009. NRC received 12 comments from 4 commenters. The Order responds to a request by EnergySolutions dated September 26, 2006, to amend the package mass limits contained in Condition 4 of their 2006 Order, and to add or revise other conditions. The May 7, 1999, Order exempted EnergySolutions from certain NRC regulations and permitted EnergySolutions, under specified conditions, to possess waste containing special nuclear material (SNM), in greater quantities than specified in 10 CFR Part 150 at its facility located in Clive, Utah, without obtaining an NRC license under 10 CFR Part 70. As discussed below, the Order has been amended four times since it was issued in 1999. "

"Scientists, researchers and other experts warn that the United States is entering an era of water scarcity. Back in 2003, the US General Accounting Office (now known as the US Government Accountability Office or GAO) projected that 36 states, under normal conditions, could face water shortages by 2013. However, those shortages were realized in 2008 -- five years sooner than predicted. Current forecasts suggest that climate change will only exacerbate the challenges of managing and protecting water resources. Water scarcity has widespread implications for our nation. As a recent New York Times (Global Edition) article notes, water scarcity is increasingly a major constraint for the production of electricity. But what, in particular, does this mean for the nation's fleet of nuclear power plants? Generating electricity with nuclear power is extremely water intensive, which is why nuclear plants are typically built on the shores of rivers, lakes and oceans. Many plants rely on submerged intake pipes to draw water -- hundreds of millions to a few billion gallons per day -- for use in cooling and condensing steam after it has turned the plants' turbines."

"Entergy Nuclear said Sunday it is getting ready to ship about 10 tractor trailer containers full of soil that has been contaminated with radioactivity, saying that only a small portion of the dirt comes from the tritium leak earlier this year at the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor. Larry Smith, spokesman for Entergy Nuclear said that "two or three" containers, measuring 3 feet by 4 feet by 4 feet, were needed to hold the contaminated soil excavated near the tritium leaks. Smith said that a total of 240 cubic feet of soil had been excavated near the tritium leaks near the advanced off-gas system. The soil, which is considered low-level radioactive waste, will be shipped to a facility in Clive, Utah, since the state's joint facility with Texas has yet to be built."

"Most people would agree with Harvey Hughey's proposal to go nuclear ["Follow the Navy -- Go Nuclear"] if they considered only the short term, 50-year design life of nuclear power plants. In that 50-year period, barring accidents, nuclear power is relatively clean. The picture changes dramatically, however, when the long-term, multi-million-year half-life of uranium and many of its derivatives are taken into account. We still have not solved the storage problems associated with highly radioactive materials, including spent fuel rods, and the Yucca Mountain storage project seems to be a no-go. Those materials are now stored in temporary holding tanks at nuclear plants across the country -- which is a major accident waiting to happen. Neither have we solved the problems associated with decommissioning 50-year old nuclear power plants, all of which are so radioactively contaminated they cannot be recycled or bulldozed into a hole in the ground. The costly protocol is to encapsulate each site under a great dome of concrete that naturally fractures and allows water to penetrate and contaminate streams and aquifers."

"New nuclear reactor designs on the horizon have won the favor of the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but don't expect to see them in Southern California anytime soon. Nuclear scientists and engineers gathered for a conference in San Diego earlier this month to talk about advances in the field. Although the new designs are billed as safer and more efficient, it is unlikely that Southern California Edison will spend the billions necessary to upgrade the two aging reactors at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, which sits on the coast about 18 miles north of Oceanside, observers and officials said last week. Those reactors started operating in 1982 and are licensed to continue until 2022."

"The head of the nation's nuclear-regulation agency said Monday that long-term public health and safety - not the nuclear industry's agenda - are driving decisions on the radioactive waste allowed in Utah. "Our staff's focus is 100 percent on safety," said Gregory B. Jaczko, who was in Salt Lake City to address the Health Physics Society annual meeting. The NRC must look at the technical questions, the science and the law as it determines if the EnergySolutions site is the right place to bury forever unusual forms of low-level radioactive waste, including depleted uranium and blended waste being generated by the tons."

"If you start out with one teapot and a bag of Earl Grey blend, no matter how long you let the bag steep, you still end up with tea. That analogy, offered by the chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, was touched on with reporters Monday while Gregory Jaczko was in Salt Lake City for a meeting of the Health Physics Society. Processed low-level radioactive waste or so-called "blended waste" - if it remains Class A material - "it is Class A material," Jaczko said. EnergySolutions' efforts to store the processed waste at its Clive facility have been met with criticism from some environmental advocacy groups and elicited a public policy statement of opposition to the practice by state regulators and Gov. Gary Herbert. The board, however, was careful to note that it recognized down-blended waste does not pose any unique health and safety issues, but emphasized it was opposed if the intent of blending is to alter the waste's classification."

"The Vermont Public Service Board has set a hearing for the evening of July 8 at Brattleboro Union High School to take public testimony on whether it should order the shutdown of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. The board is considering a petition by groups critical of nuclear power that Vermont Yankee be shut down until repairs can be completed to ensure any leaks of radioactive substances have stopped. Critics of the plant also are calling for it to be penalized for misleading state officials. Plant personnel said in sworn testimony before the board and elsewhere that the Vernon reactor did not have underground pipes carrying radioactive substances. Such underground pipes were found to be leaking earlier this year."

"A troubled site for disposing some of the nation's low-level radioactive waste has two more problems to deal with. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality says it'll issue a "notice of violation" within two weeks. It says Waste Control Specialists has stored a concrete canister of the hottest low-level radioactivity material at its West Texas site for more than the 365 days allowed by its waste processing license. An agency spokeswoman says the commission's drafting what it will require of the company to deal with the violation. She adds, however, that the TCEQ will let the waste remain on site as long as WCS complies with the commission's corrective demands. She also says there will be no fines."

"Senators want uranium compensation on fast track Colorado's two U.S. senators are seeking a hearing on a bill that would expand the compensation program for the nation's nuclear-weapons industry workers. Sens. Michael Bennet and Mark Udall, both Democrats, wrote to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-N.J., urging a quick hearing on the measure, S. 3224, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Amendments of 2010. The measure "would address key deficiencies in RECA, and extend compensation to a number of currently unqualified but suffering uranium workers and downwinders," the senators wrote. The amendments would expand the qualifications for compensation for radiation exposure to include post-1971 uranium workers for compensation; equalize compensation for all claimants to $150,000; expand the downwind exposure area to include seven states; and fund an epidemiological study of the health impacts on families of uranium workers and residents of uranium-development communities. "

"Washington's senators are calling for improvements in a program to compensate ill Hanford workers or their survivors. They continue to hear from workers and their families that getting a claim approved is slow and difficult. "Since the average length of time to process a claim takes between one and three years, one of the biggest concerns of Hanford workers is fully understanding upfront the requirements to qualify, rather than investing months and even years of time and resources to ultimately be denied," said the staff of Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both D-Wash., in a statement. The senators sent a letter to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Friday urging them to fix inefficiencies that can slow down claims processing in the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program for Hanford workers and those at other sites that have contributed to the Department of Energy nuclear program."

"Hanford workers have resumed digging up temporarily buried transuranic waste in central Hanford with improved technology that should take some of the surprises out of the work. Retrieval of the transuranic waste -- typically debris contaminated with plutonium -- was stopped in February by CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. when it ran into problems. Since then the Department of Energy contractor has been working on improvements to its processes. In 1970 Congress ordered transuranic waste sent to a national repository. But until the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico opened, Hanford workers have been storing waste suspected of being transuranic, often by temporarily burying it. Much of the waste that Hanford workers have dug up so far to ship to New Mexico was buried in tidy rows and information about what's underground has been available. But within the last year CH2M Hill has been progressing to more difficult burial trenches, and that's contributed to problems."

"HINKLEY Point A nuclear power station near Bridgwater has achieved a major milestone in its decommissioning programme - by using technology similar to an industrial car wash. The site has decontaminated the last of its huge inventory of nearly 1800 'skips' that were used during generation to store spent fuel elements prior to their despatch to Sellafield. "