nuke.news

"Washington Closure Hanford has stopped work at 27 buildings at Hanford as it makes sure they have no beryllium contamination. The 27 buildings are among a couple of hundred under the contractor's control and have not been sampled for beryllium, in some cases because they are new structures. An independent inspection released by the Department of Energy Office of Health, Safety and Security on June 2 found a new sitewide program to prevent chronic beryllium disease at Hanford had shortcomings. As it became clear during the inspection this spring that improvements were needed, DOE Hanford officials instructed the site's environmental cleanup contractors to take actions, such as completing sampling for beryllium at any facility where it is required."

"Hanford's massive vitrification plant is at a pivotal point, Daniel Poneman, deputy secretary of energy, said Monday during his second visit to Hanford. With design 80 percent complete, work is approaching the transition from the design and construction phase to the construction and commissioning phase, he said. Poneman's visit highlights the high priority the Department of Energy has assigned to the $12.2 billion Waste Treatment Plant and the attention being given to the project by DOE all the way up to Energy Secretary Steven Chu. "

"For the past two years, operators at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant have had trouble identifying and resolving low-level safety problems. That is one of the key findings that will be discussed at a town hall-style meeting of the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission on June 29 in San Luis Obispo. The public will have two opportunities that day to learn about and comment on the agency's assessment of the plant's safety performance in 2009.

"Grandey, chief executive of Cameco Corp, admits to being an anti-nuclear activist in his youth. His company is now among the leading foreign investors in Kazakhstan's fast-growing uranium sector. Kazakhstan surpassed Canada last year as the world's largest uranium miner. With more than 15 percent of global reserves, the Central Asian state is poised to become the primary supplier of the metal to a new generation of nuclear reactors worldwide. "The uranium potential of Kazakhstan is remarkable," said Gregory Vojack, an Almaty-based attorney at Bracewell & Giuliani LLP who advised state nuclear firm Kazatomprom on a $500 million Eurobond last month. The issue was eight times oversubscribed. Global uranium consumption is forecast by the World Nuclear Association to reach 91,537 tonnes by 2020 and 106,128 tonnes by 2030, increases of 33 percent and 55 percent respectively from the 68,646 tonnes forecast for this year."

"In the most "Woody Allen esque" protest I've seen in a while, 50 activists dressed as renewable energy sources (sun, wind, water) used a fire truck to get into one of the dodgiest nuclear plants in Sweden. I'm going in! They want their govenment to follow through on a decades old national referendum to phase out nuclear power. The Swedish parliment will vote this week on whether to stick to the nuclear power phase out, or backslide and open the door to new reactors. Our man in Sweden says: "The Swedish parliament is risking the country's reputation and position as a progressive leader in clean and safe energy development. All the evidence shows that nuclear power is a dangerous, expensive and dead-end distraction from the real solutions to climate protection and energy security. Reactors are standing in the way of energy efficiency and renewable energy programs." -- Ludvig Tillman, energy campaigner for Greenpeace Nordic."

"Police in Sweden arrested dozens of Greenpeace activists on Monday after they broke into the Forsmark nuclear power plant ahead of a planned vote this week on whether to replace the country's existing reactors. World The activists entered Forsmark some 115 kilometers north of Stockholm early on Monday and several gained access to a building rooftop, police said. The protestors did not enter any of the operating areas."

"As many as 30 Greenpeace activists broke into a Swedish nuclear plant Monday, demanding that parliament this week vote against allowing new nuclear facilities to be built, the group and police said. "There are now Greenpeace activists on the premises" of the Forsmark nuclear power plant near Uppsala, north of Stockholm, police spokesman Christer Nordstroem told AFP. He said it remained unclear how many Greenpeace activists had managed to get into the plant, but the environmental group itself sent out a statement earlier saying around 30 would enter the facility to conduct a peaceful protest against nuclear power use."

Hair samples of disabled children contains Uranium and other dangerous heavy metals BATHINDA: The high level of Uranium and other dangerous heavy metals present in water samples from the region is responsible for retarded children, mainly from southern Malwa region. It is crippling children's brain. This was confirmed by Germany's Microtrace Mineral Lab which revealed that hair samples taken from 80% of the neurologically disabled children, and thier drinking water contains high levels of uranium, a radioactive element. The report also confirms the presence of dangerous heavy metals in water, questioning high use of chemicals to support state's green revolution. The possible source of uranium is the depleted uranium used by US nuclear warheads that were deployed in its war against Iraq. There were high level of uranium in the drinking water sources and nearly all kinds of heavy metals in the hair samples of 149 children and a few adults at the Baba Farid Centre for Special Children in Faridkot, confirms the report.

"Nearly half of Japan's 54 commercial nuclear power reactors had problems that needed to be addressed during operations last financial year but none required operations to be suspended, a report said on Monday. World The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency report said 21 reactors had "significant issues" over occurrences or safety, two needed more inspections and 29 had little or no problem. "The report is to identify problems that need to be addressed so we can prioritise inspections and use our limited resources effectively," said an official at the agency, an affiliate of the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry."

"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has accepted for review the Early Site Permit (ESP) application for the Victoria County site near Victoria, Texas. The applicant, Exelon Nuclear Texas Holdings, submitted the application and associated information on March 25. The application, minus proprietary and security-related details, is available on the NRC Web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/esp/victoria.html. Exelon's ESP application seeks resolution of safety and environmental issues for the site, approximately 13 miles south of Victoria. Docketing the Victoria County application does not indicate whether the Commission will approve or reject the request. The NRC has established docket number 52-042 for this application, and the agency will subsequently publish a notice of opportunity to intervene in the required adjudicatory hearing. Petitions to intervene in a hearing may be filed within 60 days of the notice, by anyone whose interest may be affected by the proposed license and who wishes to participate as a party in the proceeding. More information on the hearing process is available on the NRC Web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/regulatory/adjudicatory/hearing.html. "

"A commission overseeing low-level radioactive waste disposal in Texas has withdrawn and will revise proposed rules that could allow 36 other states to send nuclear waste for burial near the New Mexico line. Bob Gregory of the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission said Monday the panel voted unanimously Saturday to pull the proposed rules as initially published and repost them with some amendments and revisions. A representative from the Texas Attorney General's Office told the commission during a Saturday meeting it could not change the rules then because there was nothing on the agenda to allow it, said Chuck McDonald, spokesman for Waste Control Specialists, the company that operates the waste site about 30 miles west of Andrews in West Texas."

"AFTER MORE than 20 years, four administrations and billions of dollars spent, Yucca Mountain is the one place in America that a new Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future cannot look to put this country's nuclear waste. Created by the Obama administration after it jettisoned the Nevada project, the commission, which will meet for the third time in July, is to make its recommendations two years from now -- rendering any action unlikely until after the 2012 elections. We must wait two years -- for what, exactly? "

"China's Daya Bay nuclear power plant had a "very small leakage" from a fuel rod last month that has been contained, CLP Holdings Ltd., Hong Kong's biggest electricity supplier, said in a statement. A "small increase" in radioactive substances were detected in cooling water at the plant's Unit 2 on May 23, according to the statement sent today. "The reactor cooling water is sealed in completely and isolated from the external environment, thus causing no impact to the public," it said."

Obama and the Nuclear Rocket The Obama administration is seeking to renew the use of nuclear power in space. It is calling for revived production by the U.S. of plutonium-238 for use in space devices-despite solar energy having become a substitute for plutonium power in space. And the Obama administration appears to also want to revive the decades-old and long-discredited scheme of nuclear-powered rockets-despite strides made in new ways of propelling spacecraft. Last month, Japan launched what it called its "space yacht" which is now heading to Venus propelled by solar sails utilizing ionized particles emitted by the Sun. "Because of the frictionless environment, such a craft should be able to speed up until it is traveling many times faster than a conventional rocket-powered craft," wrote Agence France-Presse about this spacecraft launched May 21. But the Obama administration would return to using nuclear power in space-despite its enormous dangers.

"Not Wales, or Scotland….they want renewables The Welsh Assembly Government's new Energy Policy Statement 'A Low Carbon Revolution', sets out an approach to accelerating the transition to a low carbon energy economy in Wales, focusing on efficiency measures and the use of indigenous renewable forms of energy such as marine, wind, solar and biomass. It claims that by 2025 around 40% of electricity in Wales could come from marine sources and a third from wind. In addition to local community-level micro-generation projects, it proposes the use of offshore wind around the coast of Wales in order to deliver a 15 kWh/d/p (per day per person) of capacity by 2015/16 and to capture at least 10% (8 kWh/d/p) of the potential tidal stream and wave energy off the Welsh coastline by 2025, and it wants onshore wind to deliver 4.5 kWh/d/p of installed onshore wind generation capacity by 2015/2017. It will back small-scale hydro and geothermal schemes, where they are environmentally acceptable, in order to generate at least 1 kWh/d/p, and wants bioenergy/waste to deliver up to 6 kWh/d/p of electricity by 2020- 50% indigenous/50% imported- also offering an additional heat potential of 2-2.5 kWh/d/p."

"Confirming Punjab's worst fears and TOI reports, a document from Germany's Microtrace Mineral Lab has revealed that hair samples of 80% of 149 neurologically-disabled children, mainly from Punjab's Malwa region, have high levels of uranium. The report also establishes the presence of dangerous heavy metals in water. The presence of the radioactive element has strengthened doubts that depleted uranium used by US tanks in Iraq and Afghanistan was travelling through air, reaching not just Punjab but Delhi as well. TOI was first to report the suspected presence of uranium traces in the hair of kids undergoing treatment at Baba Farid Centre for Special Children. "

"The government has no plans to bring forward the commercial operations of the fourth nuclear power plant as safety remains its top priority, Executive Yuan spokesman Johnny Chiang said. Chiang dismissed local media reports that Premier Wu Den-yih had asked the plant's builders to move its scheduled opening from the end of next year to Oct. 10 to coincide with the country's 100th founding anniversary next year. Chiang said the premier was briefed by officials from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Atomic Energy Council and Taiwan Power Company earlier on Friday on the plant's construction progress, and Wu instructed them to monitor its building to ensure its safety."

"Far more sewage has been spilled in Canadian urban centres over the last six years than any other harmful contaminant, newly released figures show. An analysis by The Canadian Press reveals hundreds of millions of litres of sewage, as well as many other dangerous liquids, have been dumped right under Canadians' noses."

"Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown and GOP Sen. George V. Voinovich are locking arms politically to go after federal cash to help fund the cleanup of the site of a closed uranium-enrichment plant in southern Ohio. Ohio's U.S. senators asked key members of the Senate Appropriations Committee last week to come up with all the money President Barack Obama asked for in his proposed 2011 budget for cleanup and related efforts at the Piketon site: $479million total, including $416million for direct decontamination and cleanup efforts. Voinovich is a member of the appropriations committee. This is separate from ongoing work by USEC, a private company, to try to build a commercial enrichment plant on the site. Commercial uranium-enrichment plants produce fuel for nuclear-power plants. The old Piketon plant produced fuel for nuclear-power plants before it closed in 2001, but in the Cold War, it also made weapons-grade uranium for the country's atomic-weapons program. Congress allocated $303million for the cleanup in the 2010 budget, and the Piketon cleanup got an additional $118 million from the stimulus package."

"At first, the Fernald Preserve inspires jokes. "Let's come back and go hiking -- in 500 years," I say, checking out trails marked with radiation monitors. My mom and stepdad make cracks about fish with three eyes and birds with six wings, ha ha. Still, we're a little nervous. Fernald Preserve used to be the site of the factory where uranium was processed for nuclear bombs. From 1951 to 1989, it was known as the Fernald Feed Materials Production Center, a secretive facility in the middle of farm country in southwest Ohio. It produced nearly 70% of all uranium used in America's nuclear weapons"