nuke.news

"Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the Proposed International Isotopes Uranium Processing Facility AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Notice of Intent. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: International Isotopes Fluorine Products, Inc. (IIFP), a wholly owned subsidiary of International Isotopes, Inc. (INIS), submitted a license application, which included an Environmental Report (ER) on December 30, 2009, that proposes the construction, operation, and decommissioning of a fluorine extraction and depleted uranium de- conversion facility to be located near Hobbs in Lea County, New Mexico. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and its regulations in 10 Code of Federal Regulations Part 51, announces its intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) evaluating this proposed action. The EIS will examine the potential environmental impacts of the proposed INIS facility. DATES: NRC invites public comments on the appropriate scope of issues to be considered in the EIS. The public scoping process required by NEPA begins with publication of this Notice of Intent. Written comments submitted by mail should be postmarked by no later than August 30, 2010 to ensure consideration. Comments mailed after that date will be considered to the extent practical. "

"While most people trace the dawn of the nuclear era to August 6, 1945, and the dropping of the atomic bomb over the center of Hiroshima, it really began three weeks earlier, in the desert near Alamogordo, New Mexico, with the top-secret Trinity test. Its sixty-fifth anniversary will be marked -- or mourned, if you will -- tomorrow, July 16. Entire books have been written about the test, so I'll just touch on one key issue here briefly (there's much more in my book with Robert Jay Lifton, Hiroshima in America). It's related to a hallmark of the age that would follow: a new government obsession with secrecy, which soon spread from the nuclear program to all military and foreign affairs in the cold war era."

"Today, the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee included a $25 billion preemptive bailout of the nuclear industry, in the form of loan guarantees for new reactors, in the Energy and Water Appropriations bill. Members of the subcommittee delayed markup of the appropriations bill until the bailout was included in the legislation, with Democratic Congressman Chet Edwards being particularly vocal. Since May, Congressman Edwards has been using nuclear bailouts as an election issue against his opponent in Texas's 17th District, attacking him for suggesting that federal money should not be used to construct nuclear reactors. Edwards wants a preemptive bailout for an expansion of the Comanche Peak reactor in his district. With Edwards in a tightly contested race, it appears that House leadership has caved to his demands and Edwards is declaring a victory. "

"Members of an environmental coalition who opposed the relicensing of the Oyster Creek Generating Station have accused its owner, Exelon Nuclear, of violating state law. The coalition's attorney Richard Webster, who is the legal director of the Eastern Environmental Law Center, said Tuesday that "Exelon covered up tritium discharges that occurred in July 2007 and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission failed to follow up to ensure a violation that was to be corrected 10 years ago had been." Tritium contamination was found in the ground at the facility in May. Exelon attributed the contamination to a July 17, 2007 tritium release. Tritium is a weak, naturally occurring radioactive form of hydrogen. Webster maintains that a freedom of information request revealed that Exelon illegally failed to report a major discharge of tritium to the ground in 2007. "As the Department of Environmental Protection has noted, Exelon is required to report tritium discharges," he said."

"A federal appeals court has upheld the convictions of two former nuclear plant workers in Ohio who were found guilty of helping to cover up the worst corrosion ever found at a U.S. reactor. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati found no reason to overturn the convictions of Andrew Siemaszko and David Geisen. Both were sentenced to probation and fined for misleading regulators in 2001 to delay a safety inspection at the Davis-Besse plant along Lake Erie. Inspectors later found an acid leak that nearly ate through the reactor's 6-inch-thick steel cap. The plant operated by FirstEnergy Corp. was shut down from early 2002 until 2004."

"This is the third and final installment of a series of stories about the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium and the possible effects the Trinity Site test may have had on residents of the area developing cancer. "I hate the fact that we have been treated as insignificant scientists have been compensated but our community has been ignored," cancer survivor Tina Cordova said. "We have to fight for the recognition that our environment was damaged and, in the process, we were also damaged. It is a shame that they did not come back and tell us our food supply is compromised." Cordova, who grew up in Tularosa, was a medical student for two years before creating her own business in Albuquerque. After much discussion, she and Tularosa resident Fred Tyler formed the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium to collect data and see what they could do to help survivors in the wake of the 1945 Trinity atomic bomb explosion that shook the Tularosa Basin. In July 2005, they worked with several volunteers to collect cancer histories from local residents ending up with well over 100 documents of a cancer culture that had festered quietly among generations of families."

"U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced the formation of a Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future to provide recommendations for developing a safe, long-term solution to managing the nation's used nuclear fuel and nuclear waste. The 15 person commission is being co-chaired by former Congressman Lee Hamilton and former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft. They, along with officials and members of the public, toured five Hanford waste sites on Wednesday. The commission will provide advice and make recommendations on issues including alternatives for the storage, processing, and disposal of civilian and defense spent nuclear fuel and nuclear waste. "

"EnergySolutions says it no longer aspires to import the world's nuclear waste to Utah. Instead, it wants to export its expertise to the world, and help other nations dispose of their own radioactive waste. After the company doggedly pursued a license to import waste from Italy in the face of overwhelming opposition, the shift in strategy announced this week seems a welcome turn of events. This page has long advocated that the company grow its business by exporting landfills instead of importing waste. So, arrivederci, foreign waste. The world will have to find another sap. EnergySolutions' low-level radioactive waste disposal facility in Tooele County is not the solution to the planet's radioactive waste disposal needs."

"Conservationists are challenging a federal court decision that denied their request to halt uranium mining north of the Grand Canyon. Three conservation groups and two American Indian tribes filed an appeal last week to the June 17 decision. Denison Mines Corp. operates a uranium mine 6 miles north of Grand Canyon National Park on U.S. Bureau of Land Management land. Environmentalists sued the BLM last year, alleging Denison's mine plan and environmental analyses are outdated. They filed for a preliminary injunction earlier this year to stop the mining operation until the lawsuit is heard. "

"China is interested in cooperating on nuclear power plant construction with Pakistan, a country that not only armed itself with nuclear weapons without joining the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NTP) but also has suspected ties to the world's "black nuclear market." Should China go ahead with this cooperation, it will further strain the already frayed seams of the NTP. To contain India's growing presence in Asia as an emergent powerhouse, China has been supplying neighboring Pakistan with weapons and other forms of aid while deepening its ties with Sri Lanka and Myanmar (Burma) through port construction and other joint projects. "

"A statewide energy group is criticizing the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for shutting them out of today's talks regarding the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. The Vermont Energy Partnership has sent a letter to NRC Chairman Gregory B. Jaczko expressing its disappointment they were denied participation in today's roundtable discussions. VTEP President Brad Ferland said his organization has repeatedly sought an audience with Jaczko during his visit to the Green Mountain State, but has been denied time to speak with NRC staff. Jaczko will meet with groups seeking to close Vermont Yankee once the current license expires in March 2012, disheartening news to business and labor leaders wishing to gauge the chairman with their viewpoints. "

"The nation's top nuclear industry regulator has gotten an earful from residents concerned that the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant is seeking to extend its operating permit. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko (YAZ-coh) held a 90-minute round-table discussion with residents Wednesday in Brattleboro. Several gave reasons they believe the plant should be closed. Representatives of some organizations criticized the commission at the meeting for not cracking down on the plant after radioactive tritium was found earlier this year to have leaked into soil around the plant. Opponents also are concerned about safety at the plant during the next 20 months, when its license is scheduled to expire. Vermont Yankee wants permission to continue operating."

"SEAWAY CARGO: Canadian plant awaits OK for its shipping plan By JAEGUN LEE TIMES STAFF WRITER WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 2010 ARTICLE OPTIONS A A A print this article e-mail this article A Canadian nuclear power station is planning to ship 16 decommissioned radioactive steam generators through the St. Lawrence Seaway this September. And although the company's application is pending the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission's approval, the idea of having nuclear waste traveling on Lake Huron, through the Welland Canal and the St. Lawrence Seaway is raising concerns among the region's environmental groups. "Do we have the capability to handle a nuclear accident? I'm not sure if we're prepared for it," said Jennifer J. Caddick, executive director of Save the River, Clayton. "But the bigger issue here is transparency. There are a ton of questions that need to be answered.""

"Despite its new international business strategy that halts plans to import foreign waste for burial, EnergySolutions will continue processing radioactive waste from other countries at its Bear Creek facility in Oak Ridge, a spokesman confirmed today. "Currently we process waste in Oak Ridge and then send all the waste back to the country of origin and will continue to do so," Mark Walker of EnergySolutions said by e-mail. I'm seeking clarification on Walker's comments about sending all of the waste back to the country of origin, because it was my understanding that much of the radioactively contaminated metals that EnergySolutions processed at Oak Ridge was smelted and formed into blocks used for shielding at nuclear facilities -- such as the Spallation Neutron Source at ORNL."

"An evaporation pond and land farm adjacent to the uranium mill tailings disposal site south of Whitewater won preliminary approval Tuesday from the Mesa County Commission. The commissioners voted unanimously in favor of the proposed 160-acre Indian Mesa solid-waste disposal facility that commissioners said was in a nearly perfect location. Residents of Bean Ranch Road, about two miles away, begged to differ. "I am concerned that Whitewater is being perceived as a dumping ground," Bean Ranch Road resident Doris Janowski said, citing the proximity of the Mesa County Landfill, a mill-tailings site, Mesa State College's body farm and the Indian Mesa solid-waste disposal facility. "As a landowner, I don't think that bodes well for me.""

"The Yakama Nation has filed a lawsuit challenging the state of Washington's actions to start construction of a cover over closed portions of private company US Ecology's waste disposal trenches at Hanford. Heart of America Northwest Research Center has joined the Yakamas in the lawsuit filed in Yakima County Superior Court. The state believes it has acted properly and that the Yakama Nation does not have a valid case, according to the Washington State Office of the Attorney General. The state has a lease from the federal government for 100 acres on the Hanford nuclear reservation subleased to US Ecology for the disposal of low-level radioactive waste from organizations such as universities, hospitals, biotech firms and electric utilities in western states. The plaintiffs maintain that the landfill contains at least 220 pounds of plutonium 239 plus irradiated fuel segments and other spent nuclear fuel. It also may contain two high-level radioactive fuel rods disposed of at the site around 2003, the plaintiffs said."

"The Hanford nuclear reservation is already the most contaminated U.S. nuclear site, and federal efforts to find a permanent place for all of the nation's radioactive waste shouldn't impede plans to clean it up, people from various backgrounds told a federal commission Wednesday. The panel, appointed by President Barack Obama to examine U.S. nuclear waste policies, toured the Hanford site, heard from local advocacy groups and Northwest American Indian tribes about the need for cleanup. The visit to south-central Washington was one of several planned around the country by the 15-member Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future. The group is charged with reviewing U.S. treatment, transportation and disposal of radioactive waste."

"Sweet-shop metaphors were being tossed around like ammunition in a food fight Tuesday at a meeting of the state Radiation Control Board. Some likened the blending of low-level radioactive waste to concocting a sugar cookie, others to baking a layer cake. But board members preferred less-creative analogies when considering the serious issue of various types of nuclear- reactor rubbish that EnergySolutions and others want to stir together to be buried forever at the company's disposal site in Utah. The Radiation Control Board a few months ago approved a position paper that said even though blended waste is not significantly more hazardous than the Class A waste allowed in Utah, the state doesn't want any radioactive waste that is blended just to change its classification so that it can be legally buried at the EnergySolutions site."

"Is it akin to a chocolate chip cookie, a pot of Earl Grey tea or a sugar cookie? On the issue of radioactive "waste blending," members of the Utah Radiation Control Board were presented Tuesday with a smorgasbord of food analogies to help them as they grapple with the question of imposing stricter disposal guidelines on the material. EnergySolutions senior vice president Tom Magette told the board that so-called blended waste represents the uniformity of a sugar cookie, not a chocolate chip cookie peppered with higher radioactive waste resins."

"EnergySolutions Inc. said Wednesday it is abandoning its plans to dispose of nuclear waste from Italy in Utah's west desert and instead will try to help open a disposal facility in that country. The Salt Lake City-based company had been seeking to import up to 20,000 tons of low-level radioactive waste from Italy's shuttered nuclear power program. After processing in Tennessee, about 1,600 tons would have been buried in Utah. The proposal drew opposition from two Republican Utah governors and led the U.S. House to pass a bill banning the importation of foreign nuclear waste. The measure has languished in the Senate."