"'They will have to dump it over my dead body,' says state senator
State Sen. Roy Herron on Friday blasted a proposal under consideration by weapons manufacturer American Ordnance that would convert the Milan Army Ammunition Plant into a storage facility for depleted uranium.
Herron issued a news release Friday saying that he will do whatever he can to fight the proposal.
"If they want nuclear waste in West Tennessee, they will have to dump it over my dead body," Herron stated in the release. "I was born for this fight. My deep roots here, experience as an attorney and work as a state legislator have prepared me for this battle.""
"Greenpeace is collecting signatures to force the government to review the nuclear liability bill which it says allows foreign corporations to get away by paying a meagre compensation in case of a nuclear accident.
With already over 1.8 lakh signatures online, the petition will be forwarded to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, requesting him to stop the bill in its current form and review it.
"The proposed nuclear liability bill appeases foreign corporations by allowing them to get away by paying a meagre compensatory amount in case of a nuclear accident, which is not fair," reads the petition.
It alleged that the government was only considering cosmetic changes in the bill.
Drawing a parallel with the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984, the petition said: "The Bhopal judgment highlights the manner in which an American corporation has been so easily let off after causing the deaths of over 25,000 people and affecting thousands more."
"India must hold a public consultation before changing the liability rules for any nuclear accidents caused by US corporations." A Bhopal court on June 07 sentenced seven former employees of Union Carbide Indian Ltd to two years imprisonment for culpability in the tragedy and quickly bailed them. The ruling has triggered a furore. "
"China and Kazakhstan agreed on Saturday to build and finance a gas pipeline and deepen atomic energy ties, extending Beijing's influence in a region where it has used its financial might to access natural resources.
Chinese President Hu Jintao and Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev presided over the deals between state companies that give Beijing greater access to resources and allow Kazakhstan, Central Asia's biggest economy, to diversify its energy exports. "
"Canada's nuclear watchdog is fast-tracking a request for a hearing to consider reopening the country's aging medical isotope-producing reactor.
Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. made a request Friday for a formal hearing in hopes of restarting medical isotope production at the Ontario plant by mid-summer.
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has not yet scheduled a hearing, which is expected to take one day, but it said the date would be announced quickly and normal hearing rules will be tossed aside to deal with what it calls a priority case. "
"A Toronto businessman accused of sending devices that could be used to build nuclear weapons in Iran was concealing his crime by ripping off their labels, the Crown charged Friday.
Federal prosecutors Bradley Reitz and Jennifer Conroy made their closing arguments against Iranian-born Mahmoud "David" Yadegari, 36, who is the first Canadian to be tried under UN anti-nuclear provisions.
"Why would Yadegari remove the labels (indicating they were pressure transducers) on the equipment that he was shipping to Iran," Reitz said. "
"The United States must cut military spending dramatically to allow the government to fund other necessary programs, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said Friday.
Frank released a report by a panel he created that recommends almost $1 trillion in cuts during the next 10 years, The Hill reported. The Sustainable Defense Task Force includes members from left-liberal groups and from libertarian ones like the Cato Institute.
Frank heads the House Financial Services Committee. He acknowledged many of the task force proposals will have trouble passing Congress, especially weapons systems that provide jobs for constituents."
"Despite scrambling in the aftermath of a real-life tornado, Monroe County emergency response officials reacted well this week to an imaginary earthquake that led to a simulated release of radioactivity from DTE Energy's Fermi 2 nuclear plant, federal observers said.
It was part of a periodic, mandated emergency response drill that was held Tuesday meant to show that state and county officials could respond properly if there was a real disaster at the plant.
"Our findings indicate that the State of Michigan and counties of Monroe and Wayne continue to demonstrate the capabilities to protect the health and safety of their residents living within a 10-mile radius of the plant," said Dwaine Warren, exercise director for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. "
"Residents worried about environmental damage from nuclear waste and those eager for a way to bring jobs to the region spoke Saturday to a commission considering a plan to bury nuclear material from 36 other states in West Texas.
Rose Gardner, who lives just over the state line in Eunice, N.M., told the commission she found the plan "very scary." Gardner lives about 5 miles from where material from nuclear power plants, hospitals, universities and research labs could be buried. She told the commission she worried about her water well and pointed to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as the kind of disaster that could happen.
"We all know it's the human error" that can't be predicted, said Gardner, 52. "I want you to remember, I'm just across the state line.""
"Bulgaria has suspended construction of its Belene nuclear power plant, Bulgarian News Agency BGNES quoted the country's Prime Minister Boiko Borisov as saying on Friday.
Borisov said the construction of the plant, which was being carried out by Russia's Atomstroyexport, had been frozen as investors had not been found.
Atomstroyexport, the export arm of Rosatom, won a tender in 2006 for the construction of the plant. A $4 billion-contract was signed in 2008."
"A new nuclear energy power station must not be built in the Pyhäjoki region in Finland's northern Ostrobothnia because of the rich bird population in the area, according a statement by BirdLife Finland on Friday.
According to BirdLife, the area has a diverse population of birds and is part of an important migratory path for large birds, which would suffer from the construction of a nuclear power plant.
BirdLife is also concerned about the local nature and feels that plans to build the new power station neglect the importance of wildlife.
The government has presented a new nuclear power station construction permit to Finnish utility Fennovoima, but the company has yet to decide whether to build the station in Pyhäjoki or Simo, in northern Finland."
"What usually comes to mind when one hears about radiation is nuclear energy or anything that is radioactive. But few realize that radiation has numerous benefits, and agriculture is one of the areas that largely gain from it.
The Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI) of the Department of Science and Technology which is the sole agency of the government that advances and regulates the safe and peaceful applications of nuclear science and technology in the country, identifies agriculture and natural resources as among its priority areas.
Researchers from PNRI have been developing improved crop varieties through mutation, a non-conventional method of plant breeding which uses mutational agents (mutagens) such as radiation or chemicals e.g. ethyl methyl sulfonate (EMS)"
"By most accounts, Brad Duguid is more committed to nuclear power than his predecessor as Ontario's energy minister. But, because of circumstances that mostly predate his time on the job, Mr. Duguid may wind up presiding over the continued decline of the nuclear industry in his province.
That industry revolves around Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., the troubled Crown corporation that the federal government is desperately trying to unload. Under the right circumstances, the sale of its Candu division could mean the revitalization of a sector with room for growth and job creation - particularly in Mississauga, Ont., where much of its operations are centred. But by most insider accounts, the circumstances really couldn't be much worse. "
"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will consider whether to allow for the first time nuclear waste processors to "blend" higher level radioactive waste with the lowest level radioactive waste at a hearing on June 17. Low-level radioactive waste is generated by universities, hospitals, and commercial nuclear power plants, and is classified as Class A, B. or C depending on the concentration of the waste's radioactivity (with Class A having the lowest concentration). The proposal before the Commission would allow Class A waste to be mixed with more radioactive Class B and C waste and still be classified as Class A. If the proposal goes through, "blending" would allow utilities, processors, and waste disposal sites to avoid existing environmental and safety requirements for how they dispose of the hotter waste."
"Conservation Law Foundation officials called for the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant to shut down, citing the recent leaks in the site's underground piping and within its main reactor building.
Calling nuclear power "last century's technology," a panel of CLF delegates criticized the Vernon plant for its recent safety record and advocated for a more sustainable energy future in New England during a Thursday evening public forum in downtown Brattleboro.
Nearly 50 people from Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts attended the event.
CLF Senior Attorney Sandy Levine said Vermont Yankee should shut down the plant because of the continuing contamination at the site and into the Connecticut River.
"The plant should not be operating while this is ongoing," she said. "And we wanted to put this in a more regional context, it's not just Vermont. What happens to Vermont Yankee matters throughout the region." "
"The Oswego County Legislature has approved a one-year tax agreement with Constellation Energy Nuclear Group for the Nine Mile Point Unit I plant.
The tax agreement nearly triples the amount of taxes the company would pay Oswego County, the town of Scriba and the Oswego school district. The company this year paid $4 million through its payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, and would pay $11 million in 2011 with the tax agreement.
The county receives $1,489,000 this year and would receive $4,096,400 under the tax agreement."
"The cleanup isn't finished yet at the former Velsicol Chemical radioactive waste dump site in Bethany Township, but the project has uncovered no surprises.
And no surprises is what everyone wants.
When it comes to the contamination in St. Louis, the news is almost always of the worst case kind, but not this time.
There is not a speck of any other type of contamination - only the low-level radiation, said Scott Cornelius, representative of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment"
"Forty miles north of Chicago, along the shore of Lake Michigan, gun-toting guards still warily prowl the grounds of the Zion Nuclear Power Station.
Inside, the control room remains staffed by engineers who check radiation levels throughout the plant. But their numbers are far fewer than before 1998, when the two reactors went permanently dark.
"A lot of people are surprised, because they think they're going to find tumbleweeds and the place just falling apart," plant manager Ron Schuster said.
Schuster stood in the shadow of the 10-story building, its outer wall made of reinforced concrete 3 feet thick, that houses one of the dormant reactors. Workers venture inside only about twice a month now, for inspections and maintenance."
"The owners of a closed uranium mine near Golden have been ordered by the state health department to stop discharging polluted water into a creek that flows into a Denver-area reservoir.
The state health department is taking action because Cotter Corp. has been discharging pollution without a permit and uranium levels in the water are significantly exceeding the safety standard, Steve Gunderson, director of the state water quality control division, said Thursday.
The agency sent the notice earlier this month. The Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety has sent a separate notice to Cotter saying it believes the company is violation of several state laws.
Cotter could face fines of up to $10,000 if found in violation. The Denver-based company didn't immediately return a call seeking comment."
"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has authorized startup of a $3 billion uranium enrichment plant in New Mexico, the first major nuclear facility to be licensed in the US in the past three decades.
NRC officials said in a news release Thursday they are satisfied the facility can begin operations.
The Louisiana Energy Services facility near Eunice will use an enrichment process that employs centrifuges to separate uranium isotopes. The enriched uranium will supply fuel for nuclear power plants in the US and overseas.
LES president and chief executive Gregory Smith calls the NRC approval "a turning point" for the nation's nuclear industry.
The technology used at the New Mexico plant has been in place in Europe for more than 30 years."
"The company leading the decommissioning of Dounreay has awarded contracts totalling more than £12m to three firms for the next stage of the project.
NDSL, Nuvia and Morson International will supply 70 staff to dismantle plant and machinery in some of the most hazardous areas of the Caithness site.
They will wear special suits as protection against radiation.
Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL) said the contracts should help it save millions of pounds. "
