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"- Japan Steel Works Ltd., maker of nuclear reactor parts for customers including Areva SA and Toshiba Corp., plans to sell components for 26 reactors in the next three years as demand expands from China and the U.S. Component sales will almost double to 11 units annually for the year ending March 2013, from an expected 6 for this fiscal year with an expansion, President Ikuo Sato said in an interview in Tokyo. Japan Steel Works is spending 80 billion yen ($879 million) on its Muroran factory, Sato said May 21. Japan Steel Works is seeking to benefit from demand for nuclear energy as a carbon-free source amid a global push to combat climate changes. Interest in nuclear power is growing at the fastest rate since the Three Mile Island accident in the U.S. in 1979 and the Chernobyl explosion in Ukraine in 1986, International Atomic Energy Agency statistics showed. "

"Experts to assess potential danger posed to one of Chile's two nuclear facilities Responding to concerns of local residents, Chile´s Commission on Nuclear Energy is beginning to investigate the risks posed by the Center for Nuclear Studies in the Santiago borough of La Reina. The San Ramón geological fault runs through the eastern part of Santiago where the Center is located. While the reactor was not damaged during February's earthquake, residents of La Reina have voiced concerns about the possibility of a future disaster. The Director of the Commission, Fernando López, explained that there was a 1969 study on the San Ramón fault, but that those results had not been updated. While the current status of the fault is unknown, it did cause an earthquake in 1647 that affected Santiago severely. "

"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission seeks public comment on proposed new regulations that would codify and expand upon recent security measures the agency has imposed for certain sensitive radioactive materials. A proposed rule, to be published soon in the Federal Register, would add a new Part 37 to NRC's regulations in Title 10 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), and make conforming changes to other parts of NRC regulations regarding radioactive materials. The proposed rule will establish security requirements for the most risk-significant radioactive materials (those in Category 1 and Category 2 of the International Atomic Energy Agency's rankings of radiation sources), as well as for shipments of small amounts of irradiated reactor fuel."

"Following the discovery of a radioactive leak coming from an underground pipe at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant on Jan. 6, both the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Yankee are being audited. The U.S. Government Accountability Office is planning a review of the NRC's requirements for and oversight of buried pipes at nuclear power plants. Yankee is being audited by the NRC to determine if its license renewal application completely and accurately represents the nature and extent of buried piping at the plant in Vernon. While the GAO's review has not yet begun, the NRC was in Vernon the week of May 24 to conduct its audit. The NRC has 90 days to issue its report. The NRC's visit to Yankee was scheduled, "In light of the recent developments related to tritium leaks found on the site and potential misinformation given to the state of Vermont by Entergy ..." "

"The Public Service Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to require Florida Power & Light Co. to refund $13.9 million, including interest, to customers for costs related to a 2008 outage that left as many as 3 million Floridians without electricity. That will offset fuel costs for customers next year by about 14 cents a month for those who use about 1,000 kilowatt hours. About 950,000 Florida homes and businesses, including 596,000 FPL customers, lost power Feb. 26, 2008. The outage lasted several hours and was blamed on an FPL engineer, whose actions accidentally triggered the blackout. The incident tripped off two nuclear units at the Turkey Point plant near Miami, as they are designed to do for safety reasons."

"* Report highlights widespread failings at Europe's biggest atomic site * Safety watchdog closes one plant and takes legal action against site's operators The government's safety watchdog is cracking down on Britain's biggest and oldest nuclear complex after a series of radioactive leaks and safety blunders, despite private sector managers receiving multimillion-pound "performance-related" payments from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has closed down a vital nuclear waste plant at Sellafield in Cumbria, and is taking legal action to force the site's operators to improve their flawed safety procedures. The HSE has also rejected a £40bn plan for cleaning up Sellafield because of proposed delays in dismantling ageing and potentially hazardous facilities."

"The Matsue District Court dismissed on Monday plaintiffs' demand that Chugoku Electric Power Co. shut down reactors at its nuclear power plant in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, over the risk of accidents posed by major earthquakes. "Chugoku Electric Power has taken measures based on state quake-resistance guidelines reflecting the newest scientific and specialist knowledge," Presiding Judge Kenichi Katayama said in the ruling. "Therefore, there is no problem with (the state's) appraisal of (the reactors') quake-resistance safety.""

"A safety breach at Australia's Lucas Heights nuclear facility on Monday has exposed management and training flaws at Australia's nuclear science agency. The breach occurred at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization's (ANSTO) radio pharmaceutical production house in August 2008, when a worker dropped a vial containing a radioactive substance within a containment cell. ANSTO chief executive Adrian Paterson told a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra that two major investigations had looked into the incident. The organization's own safety team completed their inquiries in September 2009, and the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency finished its report last January"

"The Electrical Trades Union has banned its members from working in uranium mines, nuclear power stations or any other part of the nuclear fuel cycle. The union says uranium is the new asbestos in the workplace. The ban will apply to ETU members in Queensland and the Northern Territory and breaching it could lead to expulsion, said ETU state secretary Peter Simpson. "We are sending a clear message to the industry and the wider community that vested interests in the uranium and nuclear industries are trying to hoodwink us about this dangerous product and industry," Mr Simpson said in a statement."

"Vindication does not happen often, but yesterday the head of Australia's Lucas Heights nuclear facility said a whistleblower was "absolutely correct" to raise serious safety concerns at the site. The comments from ANSTO chief Dr Adrian Paterson contrast with the treatment that 55-year-old reactor operator David Reid has received at the hands of management over the past 12 months. Mr Reid has been employed by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) at the south Sydney facility for the past 28 years. "

"The latest generation of proposed multibillion-dollar Canadian nuclear plants could be up to 158 times more hazardous than their predecessors, opening the door to massive cost overruns and possibly forcing taxpayers to pick up the tab, warns a report released today. The report, The Hazards of Generation III Reactor Fuel Wastes, says the risk is primarily due to uncertainty about what will happen to radioactive uranium fuel after it is used. "Canada's present generation of nuclear plants was built with no prior plan as to how to manage the radioactive wastes it would produce," said the report, prepared by independent consulting firm Radioactive Waste Management Associates. "Canada is arguably on the cusp of repeating this mistake.""

"It didn't end in failure. That was perhaps the best the U.S. government could boast about a month-long conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which ended Friday in New York. President Obama has made a priority of strengthening the treaty, which is in danger of unraveling after decades of curtailing the spread of nuclear weapons. Much of his ambitious nuclear agenda has been undertaken with an eye toward demonstrating U.S. compliance with the pact. The United States got few of the specific goals it sought at the conference, such as penalties for nations that secretly develop nuclear weapons, then quit the pact (think North Korea). Language calling on countries to allow tougher nuclear inspections was greatly watered down. "

"Some of the world's biggest energy companies are stockpiling the nuclear fuel used to power reactors as they try to capitalise on rock-bottom uranium prices. An oversupply of nuclear fuel on international commodity markets has followed five successive years of rapid growth in uranium ore production in Kazakhstan, which has nearly quadrupled its output since 2004. Raw uranium prices have tumbled to around $40 per pound - almost one quarter of the levels of $140 in 2007."

"The Disaster Hazard Mitigation Project for the Kyrgyz Republic aims to: (a) minimize the exposure of humans, livestock, and riverine flora and fauna to radionuclides associated with abandoned uranium mine tailings and waste rock dumps in the Mailuu-Suu area; (b) improve the effectiveness of emergency management and response by national and sub-national authorities and local communities to disaster situations; and (c) reduce the loss of life and property in key landslide areas of the country. There are three project components. Component 1, Uranium Mining Wastes Isolation and Protection, finances interventions in the Mailuu-Suu area to increase the condition of abandoned uranium tailings and waste dumps, and decrease the instability of large landslide areas. Component 2, Disaster Preparedness and Monitoring, (1) carries out a program of capacity building to improve the national system for disaster management, preparedness and response that can be administered effectively by national and sub-national authorities, as well as local communities; (2) establishes real-time monitoring and warning systems at about major landslides areas to detect and warn against active landslide movements and establish seismic stations and sensors to detect and warn against seismic events in key hazard areas; and establish a comprehensive monitoring system in Mailuu-Suu. Component 3 supports project management."

"The NPT News in Review is a daily publication produced by Reaching Critical Will during nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty preparatory committees and review conferences. It is designed to circulate civil society perspectives to governmental delegates and to provide daily updates to those unable to attend the conferences."

Video: Former workers of the Rocky Flats Nuclear plant are dying at an alarming rate. This video is about this coverup and scandal.

"Congressman Sestak submitted language directing a study on the use of thorium-liquid fueled nuclear reactors for naval power, an important assessment of an energy source that has shown great potential to be more efficient for our military. As a result, the House Armed Services Committee included funding in the bill for research and development of a nuclear-powered destroyer reactor utilizing thorium energy. While our nuclear Navy has thrived with a continuing record of zero reactor accidents, thorium may be more efficient than uranium as a fuel source. Massive fuel rods would not have to be utilized, and it produces only 1/2000th the waste of uranium. In domestic applications, waste can even be stored on-site, eliminating the necessity of facilities such as Yucca Mountain. Large deposits of thorium can be mined domestically in States such as Idaho, and we already have 160,000 tons in reserve."

"Thirty-six states could start shipping loads of radioactive waste through Texas for more than a decade _ likely crisscrossing the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex on major highways and train tracks _ if they get approval this summer to send their contaminated materials to a West Texas disposal site. The proposal to allow the states to send low-level waste to a site in Andrews County has prompted concern from some state lawmakers, who worry about the safety of communities along travel routes _ including the Interstate 20 corridor through North Texas _ and from environmentalists, who worry about radioactive leakage and contamination at the site. An eight-member commission is expected to take up the issue in coming weeks, considering rules that would govern what materials are accepted and whether dozens of states should be allowed to send radioactive waste to the Waste Control Specialists' Texas site owned by Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons. "

"The Department of Energy is proposing that it close and cover two landfills at Hanford using federal economic stimulus money to start the project. Both landfills lie east of the Rattlesnake Barrier on Army Loop Road in the 600 Area about nine miles from the Columbia River. Although neither was used for waste with radioactive contamination, containers of hazardous chemicals were disposed of in one, the Nonradioactive Dangerous Waste Landfill. DOE considered digging up portions or all of the waste in the landfills but concluded that closing and covering them with a barrier would comply with state regulations. "

"Clinical examination for six French workers exposed to radiation during a mission was underway, so was the inquiry into the accident, the French Nuclear Security Authority (ASN) confirmed to Xinhua on Friday. The incident occurred Wednesday when the six workers were repairing a machine containing radioactive cobalt but unfortunately encountered a radiation leak during their operation at Feursmetal, a forge at the western French town of Feurs. "Clinical examination is currently conducted in order to record and evaluate the threats to their health. Furthermore, the 'Procureur de la Republique' (public prosecutor) is conducting an inquiry into this incident that will provide further information," ASN told Xinhua in an email statement."