nuke.news

"According to a report by researchers at the Oak Ridge Insitute for Science and Education, undergraduate degrees in health physics (the science of radiation protection) increased slightly in 2009 -- cotninuing a recent trend -- but the number of doctorate degrees awarded hit a 40-year low. The report, "Health Physics Enrollments and Degrees Survey, 2009 Data," surveyed 24 academic programs -- including the University of Tennessee -- with students majoring in health physcis or in "an option program equivalent to a major." ORISE reported that a total of 154 degrees in health physics -- B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. -- were awarded in 2009, but only nine of those were Ph.D.s."

"The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) today announced that it has removed contaminated excess machine tools at Sandia National Laboratories in California under a low-cost plan that saved taxpayers millions by forging an innovative partnership with an outside vendor. "After overcoming several disposition challenges, we successfully executed a strategy that resulted in significant savings to NNSA and American taxpayers," said Randal S. Scott, Deputy Associate Administrator for Infrastructure and Environment. "The removal of the contaminated tools at Sandia California is another example of NNSA's commitment to turning a Cold War-era nuclear weapons complex into a 21st century nuclear security enterprise." Sandia California's Building 979 housed machine tools that had been used to support a wide array of research and development projects since the early 1990s. That work was completed in recent years, resulting in a determination that the tools were no longer needed by the Department of Energy and NNSA and could be disposed of as excess. "

"Moscow Uses 'Infamous' Ship to Move Spent Nuclear Fuel Even as It Announces Plans to Build More Nuclear Power Plants Abroad Paul Goble Staunton, June 15 - Russia's Atomic Energy Corporation is using a refitted ship that became "infamous for dumping liquid radioactive waste from the Soviet ice-breaker fleet in the Barents Sea," Barents Observer reports today, even as Moscow announces plans to dramatically expand its involvement in the construction of atomic power plants abroad. The "Serebryanka," the news agency reports, has picked up "the first load of spent nuclear fuel from the run-down storage facility" near the Norwegian border without Russian officials informing Oslo in advance as they had pledged to do (www.barentsobserver.com/first-shipment-of-highly-radioactive-waste-from-border-area.4793260-116320.html) Eldri Holo, an official at the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority, told the news portal that "we expect to be informed about the dates for shipment of spent nuclear fuel." But she added that the first she had heard about this move was from the news agency rather than from the Russians. "

Greek conservationists from the Greek NGO, Archipelagos, work to protect endangered common dolphins and monk seals and also the region's marine ecosystems from the effects of overfishing, shipping, and the military. Dr Anastasia Miliou, manager and head scientist from Archipelagos Institute of Marine and Environmental Research of the Aegean Sea, based on the Greek island of Samos in the eastern Aegean, explains about seals, uranium deposits and sonar * Digg it * Buzz up * Share on facebook (6) * Tweet this (14) * Guardian Weekly, Friday 30 October 2009 09.00 GMT * Article history Monk seal An endangered monk seal. Photograph: Phil Mislinski/Getty Images The Mediterranean monk seal is the world's rarest and most endangered marine mammal. Its population is less than 450 and one of the most important remaining populations survives in the Aegean region. We are urging fishing communities and authorities to understand that the marine biodiversity needs to be conserved, not only for the sake of productive marine ecosystems or the endangered species, but also for the benefit of human communities, whose livelihood depends on the health and productivity of the seas."

"Easter 1958: some 10,000 people marched from London to the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) in Aldermaston to protest against Britain's first hydrogen bomb tests. Fast forward to the Easter weekend this year and people have come together from across Britain - some of whom protested in the original march - to participate in the 50th anniversary event. Rowenna Davis, interested to find out whether anti-nuclear campaigners are 'noble or naive', went along for the ride The snow didn't stop them coming. Half a century since the first march to Aldermaston in 1958, members of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament were going back to the base to protest against the government's plans to renew Trident, the UK's nuclear weapons system. And this time I was going with them. As a general rule, anti-nuclear protesters are considered to be the most unrealistic of all campaigners - and I wanted to see for myself whether they were noble or naive. "

Government will ease the way for extra plants but not provide subsidies, energy minister Charles Hendry to tell industry chiefs Energy minister Charles Hendry will today set out the government's support for new nuclear power, in the face of opposition from the Tories' coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats. Hendry will tell the Nuclear Industry Forum that there is a role for new nuclear plants, provided they do not require public subsidies."

"An expert hearing was held at the European Parliament earlier this month regarding the forthcoming EU Directive on Nuclear Waste. Different approaches to nuclear waste management policies by EU member states were discussed in order to shed light on what a strong and comprehensive directive should contain. Veronica Webster, 15/06-2010 The attendees heard that an all-encompassing definition of nuclear waste must be included in the forthcoming directive, as well as some of the necessary characteristics of acceptable geological repositories for nuclear waste. The hearing was co-hosted by Anni Podimata, a Greek socialist and Rebecca Harms, a German green member of the European Parliament. The hearing was also held in cooperation with green NGO Friends of the Earth Europe. "

"A radioactive leak occurred at a Chinese nuclear power plant last month but has just been made public. Radio Free Asia reported that "radioactive iodine and noble gas" were in high levels around Southern China's Shenzhen's Daya Bay nuclear power station plant and that the May 23 leak had been covered up. Hong Kong electric utility CLP has a 25 percent stake in the power plant, which is 75 percent owned by China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group. The plant, 31 miles from Hong Kong's Tsim Sha Tsui district, supplies 70 percent of its electricity to Hong Kong."

"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced today that an application for a 20-year renewal of the operating license for Seabrook Station is available for public review. Seabrook Station is a pressurized-water nuclear reactor, located 13 miles south of Portsmouth, N.H., and the plant's current operating license expires on March 15, 2030. The licensee, NextEra Energy Seabrook, submitted the renewal application June 1. The application is available on the NRC Web site at this address: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/applications/seabrook.html. The NRC staff is currently conducting an initial review of the application to determine whether it contains enough information for the required formal review. If the application has sufficient information, the NRC will formally "docket," or file, the application and will announce an opportunity to request a public hearing. For further information, contact Rick Plasse or Jeremy Susco at the Division of License Renewal, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Mail Stop O11-F1, Washington, D.C. 20555; telephone (301) 415-1427 for Rick Plasse or (301) 415-2927 for Jeremy Susco."

"The Obama Administration is attempting to get $9 billion more in loans for new nuclear reactor construction. They're trying to sneak this money on to an emergency supplemental funding bill intended to provide funds for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and to provide additional disaster relief money. But there is no emergency requiring new nuclear loans! The Department of Energy is playing sleazy politics by asking for this money on an emergency basis. To try to appease clean energy advocates, the administration is tying the nuclear loans to an equal amount of loans for renewable energy projects--but renewable energy projects have barely begun to tap their existing loan authority. Unlike for nuclear projects, which are extraordinarily expensive, there is currently plenty of money available for renewables loans. The House Appropriations Committee was scheduled to meet on May 27 to consider this bill but postponed the meeting at the last moment. It now isn't clear when or if the meeting will be rescheduled. One possibility is that the House will simply take up a similar Senate emergency funding bill--one that does not include taxpayer loans for dirty new nuclear reactors. Your actions can stop this unnecessary nuclear bailout: Tell your Representative to pass a "clean" emergency funding bill--one that provides funding only for actual emergencies, not for unnecessary and polluting nuclear reactors."

"BP's apocalyptic Gulf gusher has put our ability to survive in serious doubt. We have no reason to believe an end to the crisis is near---or even in sight. Nor can we begin to calculate the damage to our Mother Earth…to her oceans, to the core of her being…and to each of us as individual organisms. Only one thing IS clear: we cannot ultimately survive without a rapid conversion to a Solartopian economy that is totally green-powered. That transformation will be forced by biological imperatives, not money or markets. The powers that be studiously avoid the core reality that this disaster stems from the ability of large corporations to make all of us pay for their irresponsible greed. The black poisons killing our global body gush from a system that grants corporations human rights but does not demand human responsibility. It is suicidal to allow corporations to deploy technologies they cannot mange or insure and then make us pay for their greed. "

"Roughly a quarter of global electricity could be generated by nuclear power by 2050, requiring a tripling in nuclear generating capacity but making a major contribution to reduced CO2 emissions, a report said Wednesday. A study by the International Energy Agency, which seeks to coordinate energy policies in industrialised nations, and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development described such a target as "ambitious but achievable." "Nuclear is already one of the main sources of low-carbon energy today," said Luis Echavarri of the OECD's Nuclear Energy Agency."

"A New Mexico-based uranium producer plans to move forward with a mining operation in the western part of the state after that a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that its land is not part of Indian Country. The full 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver ruled in a 6-5 decision that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency erred when it determined that a parcel of land near the Navajo community of Church Rock was Indian land. The decision means that Hydro Resources Inc. can seek an underground injection control permit from the state of New Mexico rather than the EPA, which has permitting authority on tribal lands."

"Throughout a long public process concerning the approval of what could be the nation's first new uranium mill constructed in nearly three decades, project supporters have largely rejected arguments made by opponents as being overly emotional and lacking in sound, scientific substance. But that criticism may have lost some of its sting last week when scientists hired by local environmental group Sheep Mountain Alliance to examine parts of a 15-volume radioactive materials license application submitted to state regulators last fall by Energy Fuels Resources Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Toronto-based Energy Fuels Inc., presented their findings during two public meetings held in Telluride and Ophir."

"Ten years have passed since Alexander Nikitin was acquitted charges of treason and espionage by the Russian Supreme Court, which could have landed him in a jail cell for 20 years if not earned him the death penalty. But for the confusion of those years in Russia, Nikitin believes that he would not have been acquitted of the same charges, however innocent he was, in Russia today. Nikitin here tells of the events that took four years, eleven months and eight days. Alexander Nikitin, 14/06-2010 - Translated by Charles Digges I was arrested very early on the morning of February 6th 1996. It read like a page from Stalin's Russia. Someone rang the door and ordered me to come to an interrogation by the FSB, the Russian intelligence service (and the successor to the KGB). They said that I not need to take anything with me and my family should not worry because I would soon come home again. But I did not come home. Instead I found myself in a jail cell. The FSB's accusations against me turned out to be very serious: high treason and espionage. I was at risk for the death penalty. "

"our article on the costs associated with nuclear reactors addresses a fundamental question about how we de-carbonise our energy supply, and who pays (Nuclear waste offer 'has hidden subsidy', 3 June). But the suggestion that EDF Energy was engaged in "behind-the scenes lobbying" to gain a "hidden subsidy" is wrong. We were responding to an open pre-consultation by government. This invited views from all parties, including ourselves and NGOs, on the price for radioactive waste disposal. We work hard to be part of the debate and recently set out our commitment to transparency. We have always been open that we expect to pay the full costs of decommissioning and our full share of the waste management and disposal costs from our new-build programme."

"Nuclear power can play a key role in the U.K.'s future energy mix, Minister Charles Hendry told executives from Electricite de France SA, Centrica Plc and other utilities. While the new coalition government won't subsidize the industry, it will remove regulatory barriers and encourage nuclear power by establishing a minimum price for carbon, the energy minister said at the Nuclear Industry Forum in London. Britain, needing 200 billion pounds ($300 billion) to renew aging power plants in the next two decades, will have to tap international investors for the first time, according to the Department of Energy and Climate Change. "

"French Polynesia's nuclear test veterans organisation is dismayed at the final shape of the French compensation law, saying it fears that it is too restrictive. The head of Moruroa e tatou, Roland Oldham, says too few cancers are being linked to the tests and the zone recognised for radiation-related poor health is too small. Mr Oldham says the provisions as outlined in the decree released last weekend fail to address the impact of the tests and will be challenged. "We can put another court case, probably in the European Court of Human Rights, and theother hand we do think that the Polynesian people are motivated to keep struggling.""

"US Department of Energy officials on Tuesday voiced their support for a wide range of energy-related bills in the Senate, but were at a loss to explain why a bill that would give the agency authority to sell uranium is needed. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee considered six bills that would encourage solar panel use (S. 3460), increase natural-gas-turbine research and development (S. 2900), improve energy efficiency at federal buildings (S. 3251), expand best practices for supply-chain efficiency (S. 3396), increase research and development of heavy-duty plug-in-hybrid trucks (S. 679) and a measure introduced by Wyoming Republican Senator John Barrasso (S. 3233) that would give authority to DOE to barter, sell or transfer surplus uranium. But Shane Johnson, the chief operating officer of DOE's office of nuclear energy said that the agency already has such authority and he does not believe the legislation is necessary. "

"Here in the West, uranium mining continues its wobbly resurgence. In recent years, it has sputtered through the peaks and valleys of pricing to once again climb in importance and output. The graph-line of this revival seems to correspond with the vicissitudes of our love-hate relationship with fossil fuels. In 2003, a time of cheap oil, there were only 321 uranium miners working in the West, producing 779 tons of uranium that year. In 2008, there were over 1,500, who produced about 1,500 tons. In 2006, the Pandora mine south of Moab, where I live, reopened with just 10 employees. This year, it has 57. Recently, however, it lost one. Hunter Diehl, a 28-year-old Moab man, died in the mine this May, crushed by rock falling from the mine's ceiling. It was the first uranium mining death in the country since 1998, and the first since uranium's fickle resurgence."