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Cultivation of sunflowers in Jadugora region can save the environment as well as villagers from getting affected by uranium radiation, a Jharkhand-based environmentalist has claimed today. "The sunflowers reduce radioactive contamination of soil and groundwater by absorbing the heavy metal particles present in them. The metal particles absorbed by the root of the plant remain intact in the tissues of the plant without effecting its health," said Nitish Priyadarshi, the environmentalist. The plants are then carefully disposed to get rid the radioactive particles, he added.

Pete De La Garza knows uranium mining in his county came with tradeoffs. As Kleberg County judge, he feels it is the duty of county officials to oversee the Kingsville Dome operations of Uranium Resources Inc. and to make sure the company fulfills its obligation to restore water quality levels. "Checks and balances, that's what it's all about," said De La Garza, from Kingsville. County residents have complained about how much money has been spent to fight the uranium company, which has been in the county for more than 20 years. De La Garza admits the county spent more than $1 million.

A Montpelier firefighter lets a pedestrian into the Chittenden Bank on State Street in Montpelier on Monday while, in the foreground, a protest against Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant takes place on the sidewalk. Authorities said members of the Yankee protest made demands inside the building, then dumped a smelly substance on the floor, sparking a precautionary evacuation of part of the building. The material was determined not to be hazardous and no one was harmed. Police are investigating.

Nuclear power stations are increasingly seen as the answer to the UK's looming energy shortfall, and contractors are already looking at the construction opportunities available. Carol Millett reports.

Most of us want Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey to shut down. But most of us are not sure how to make that happen. Oyster Creek will close if we do three things: 1) Support the legal effort to close the plant. 2) Let Gov. Corzine know how we feel. 3) Join together to march in protest of the plant.

U.S. Rep. Edward Markey is using a fire last week at the Pilgrim nuclear power plant in Plymouth to turn up the heat on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Markey sent a letter to the federal agency on Friday, posing a long list of questions about the Oct. 29 fire in an outbuilding at the plant property that the plant operator says was contained to one room.

Cumbria County Council looks set to volunteer Copeland as a potential site for an underground nuclear waste repository. And it is backing proposals to build two new nuclear power stations immediately north west of Sellafield. A recent government White Paper invited local authorities to volunteer to have nuclear waste buried in return for investment in roads, schools and other public services.

Lester R. Brown, one of the world's most widely published authors and referred to by the Washington Post as "one of the world's most influential thinkers", has recently published his views via the Earth Policy Institute on the nuclear vs. wind and solar power debate; stating that nuclear power is uneconomical compared to renewable energy. Quoting from a recent analysis entitled "The Nuclear Illusion", Brown points out the cost of electricity from a new nuclear power plant costs around (USD) 14¢ per kilowatt hour compared to a wind farm's very economical 7¢ per kilowatt hour. The costings take into account capital, general operations and maintenance, transmission and distribution in relation to both options.

Russia is well underway to improve the situation in the Andreeva Bay, an official from Rosatom confirmed in a seminar yesterday. Sweden, Norway and the UK pledge continued support to the clean-up of the site, one of the world's biggest and worst protected storages for spent nuclear fuel. However, the most important question still remains to be solved: how to remove thousands of tons of spent nuclear fuel assemblies, the Bellona Foundation underlines. This week, the environmental organisation organised a seminar on the issue in Murmansk. Spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste storage facilities at Andreyeva Bay were hastily built during the Soviet era. They were meant to be used on a temporary basis to house nuclear materials, which are still being stored there at enormous risk to the environment and local community. The facilities store more than 20,000 spent nuclear fuel assemblies, Bellona.org reports.

A shipment of nuclear waste is expected to arrive at a dump in Germany despite mass protests from environmentalists. Eleven containers of treated waste were on Monday transferred from a train onto lorries in Dannenberg for the final journey to the northern Gorleben site. The train was delayed for hours after setting off from La Hague in France on Friday, as protesters clashed with police trying to block the shipment.

The Energy Department will tell Congress in the coming weeks it should begin looking for a second permanent site to bury nuclear waste, or approve a large expansion of the proposed waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The Yucca Mountain area of Nevada is the proposed site of the nuclear waste repository for the United States. The Yucca Mountain area of Nevada is the proposed site of the nuclear waste repository for the United States. Edward Sproat, head of the department's civilian nuclear waste program, said Thursday the 77,000-ton limit Congress put on the capacity of the proposed Yucca waste dump will fall far short of what will be needed and has to be expanded, or another dump built elsewhere in the country. The future of the Yucca Mountain project is anything but certain. President-elect Barack Obama has said he doesn't believe the desert site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas is suitable for keeping highly radioactive used reactor fuel up to a million years and believes other options should be explored.

A study will be undertaken to determine whether uranium can be safely mined in Virginia. The Virginia Commission on Coal and Energy voted unanimously Thursday to proceed with the study. Delegate Danny Marshall, R-Danville, said he attended the meeting and asked the commission to broaden the study to include the health, economic and social impact such mining would have in Southside. "It's about more than just digging a hole and getting uranium out," Marshall said after the meeting. "What happens to real estate values? What impact will it have on Chatham Hall and Hargrave enrollment? What impact will it have on health now, 30 years from now, 300 years from now - here and downstream?"

As the world seeks low-carbon forms of energy production to reduce the emissions blamed for global warming, the champions of nuclear power have been re-branding the industry as one of the world's greenest. Last month, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency said "nuclear energy is virtually carbon-free" across its life cycle and "the only carbon-mitigating technology with a proven track record on the scale required."

Few people know that convoys carrying nuclear warheads regularly travel along our roads, past our homes and schools. Containing plutonium and other deadly radioactive material, they are transported between submarine bases in Scotland and Berkshire's repair and maintenance facilities at Aldermaston and Burghfield. An accident involving and explosion or fire could cause a partial nuclear blast and result in lethal radiation contaminating the surrounding area.

Hundreds of German students protest the dumping of reprocessed nuclear waste at a storage center in the town of Gorleben. Germany annually sends the spent fuel of its nuclear power plants to France and Britain for reprocessing and later the waste is returned to Germany for dumping at nuclear storage centers. A train carrying the toxic remains was to leave France on Friday, and arrive at a storage facility in the town of Gorleben on Monday. The Friday protest took place in the nearby town of Luechow.

Thousands of anti-nuclear demonstrators were trying to obstruct a tightly guarded convoy of spent nuclear fuel on its way to a German storage facility. Near the warehouse in Gorleben in northern German, where many tons of radioactive waste are stored, more than 6,000 protesters thronged roads on Saturday, Nov. 8, just before a protest rally.

At least 20 people have died in an accident on a Russian nuclear submarine when a fire extinguishing system was activated by mistake. Russian Pacific Fleet spokesman Igor Dygalo said both sailors and shipyard workers died in the accident, which occurred during sea trials. The dead were suffocated by freon gas, which is used to put out fires as it removes oxygen from the air.

One rainy night eight years ago, in Watertown, Massachusetts, a man was taking his dog for a walk. On the curb, in front of a neighbor's house, he spotted a pile of trash: old mattresses, cardboard boxes, a few broken lamps. Amidst the garbage he caught sight of a battered suitcase. He bent down, turned the case on its side and popped the clasps. He was surprised to discover that the suitcase was full of black-and-white photographs. He was even more astonished by their subject matter: devastated buildings, twisted girders, broken bridges - snapshots from an annihilated city. He quickly closed the case and made his way back home.

Imagine powering your home with a mini nuclear plant. Imagine that's it's not just a pipe dream. Scientists at Los Alamos in New Mexico say the plants will be on sale within five years. Hyperion Power Generation, based in New Mexico, said it's already taking orders and will start mass production of its Hyperion Power Module within the same time frame.

A crowd of 16 000 people demonstrated against the Castor transport in Gorleben today, marching through the town and eventually settling just outside of it, near to the gates of the "Zwischenlager" - the temporary nuclear waste disposal site (also located in Gorleben) - to listen to speeches and music. Madsen, a very popular band, ended the event to a very lively and dance-happy crowd. The protesters were accompanied by at least 400 tractors - a powerful testament to the sense of solidarity that exists around the issue of nuclear power and nuclear waste in this region.