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Colorado Community Says No to Nuclear Waste Antonito Mayor Michael Trujillo fears the clean waters of the San Antonio River could be at serious risk. On Monday, low-level radioactive waste from Los Alamos National Labs will be brought in and loaded onto trains right next to the river. The county intends to file an injunction to stop it. "The injunction process is basically asking the railroad to cease action and stop the unsanctioned county version of the transloading facility," said Trujillo. Energy Solutions, the company that transports the waste out to Clive, Utah, said the railroad owns the land the facility sits on and has the right of way under federal law."

"No nukes » Matheson says there is no need for new nuke tests; primary foe, GOP nominee agree. U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson said it would be "a giant step backward" to resume nuclear weapons testing and he will oppose any efforts to move down that road. Matheson was responding to recent comments from two Republican Senate candidates -- Tim Bridgewater and Mike Lee -- who told The Salt Lake Tribune last week that they supported modernization and underground testing of the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal. The Democratic congressman will get no argument from his primary opponent, Claudia Wright, nor from Republican nominee Morgan Philpot. Both oppose resumption of nuclear weapons testing. "

"Secret South African documents reveal that Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to the apartheid regime, providing the first official documentary evidence of the state's possession of nuclear weapons. The "top secret" minutes of meetings between senior officials from the two countries in 1975 show that South Africa's defence minister, PW Botha, asked for the warheads and Shimon Peres, then Israel's defence minister and now its president, responded by offering them "in three sizes"."

"Documents reveal how then-defence minister Shimon Perez tried to sell South Africa's apartheid government the bomb Israel documents: Cover page of memo revealing secret nuclear agreement with South Africa This cover page of an ISSA (ISrael-South Africa agreement) meeting in Pretoria between Israeli and South African officials on 30 June 1975 establishes the presence of General RF Armstrong, who wrote the nuclear memo. * Minutes of third ISSA meeting, 30/6/1975 Israel documents: Memo showing secret nuclear agreement with South Africa This document details the another ISSA meeting during which Botha says he needs the 'right payload' and Peres offers it in 'three sizes' (paragraph 10). "

"Nuclear power is a safer, more environmentally friendly source of electricity. So why does the US still rely on coal and oil instead?"

"Monju Restarted for the First Time in 14 Years Be they sodium leak detectors, radiation leak detectors, or temperature monitors, malfunction of the sensors that indicate that something is amiss has become routine. JAEA acts on the assumption that they are all false alarms. One is reminded of the story of the boy who cried wolf. Who will believe when the alarm is for real? Monju Restart: CNIC statement Statement issued by CNIC on May 6, 2010, the day that Monju was restarted. KK-1 Moves Closer to Restart The committee concluded that there were no problems regarding insertion of control rods and, with virtually no substantive questions from the committee members, start-up testing of KK Unit 1 was endorsed. Chugoku Electric's Unbelievable Lack of Awareness of Safety and Quality Control On March 30 Chugoku Electric Power Company announced that it had failed to carry out checks on a total of 123 pieces of equipment during past periodic inspections of Units 1 and 2 of its Shimane Nuclear Power Station, located in Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture. On April 30 it updated the number to 506 pieces of equipment. Uprating Nuclear Reactors Reduces Safety Uprating is one of many fronts on which Japan's nuclear safety is being whittled away. Others include extended operation cycles, life extensions for aging reactors and the use of MOX fuel in light water reactors. Japan to the Rescue of Sellafield MOX Plant According to NDA's web site, "Agreement has now been reached between the NDA and the Japanese Utilities on an overall framework for future fabrication of MOX fuel in SMP. 2010 Fiscal Year Electric Supply Plan Considering the past record, basing the CO2 emissions reduction plan on the Electric Supply Plan is a recipe for failure. 2010 Plutonium Utilization Plans and Plutonium Holdings Data should be published by all companies in writing in kilogram units for all separated plutonium, wherever it is held. Group Intro: Rainbow Kayak Squadron The Rainbow Kayak Squadron is a

"The radiological legacy of U.S. nuclear weapons testing in the Marshall Islands remains to this day and will persist for many years to come. The most severe impacts were visited upon the people of the Rongelap Atoll in 1954 following a very large thermonuclear explosion which deposited life-threatening quantities of radioactive fallout on their homeland. They received more than three times the estimated external dose than to the most heavily exposed people living near the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986. It took more than two days before the Rongelap people were evacuated after the explosion. Many suffered from tissue destructive effects, such as burns, and subsequently from latent radiation-induced diseases. In 1957, they were returned to their homeland even though officials and scientists working for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) determined that radiation doses would significantly exceed those allowed for citizens of the United States. The desire to study humans living in a radiation-contaminated environment appeared to be a major element of this decision. A scientist in a previously secret transcript of a meeting where they decided to return the Rongelap people to their atoll stated an island contaminated by the 1954 H-Bomb tests was " by far the most contaminated place in the world.""

"Few people see nuclear power as a cheap option. The capital cost is high, and the ultimate cost, if something goes seriously wrong, could be very large. The UK's nuclear liability law is based on the Paris and Brussels Convention on Nuclear Third Party Liability, which has been in operation since the 1960s. The operator is required to take out the necessary financial security to cover its liabilities and in the UK this is currently set at £140m. Recent amendments, which are not yet in force, are aimed at ensuring that greater compensation is available to a larger number of victims in respect of a broader range of nuclear damage. In particular, it will be possible to claim compensation for certain kinds of loss other than personal injury and property damage, including loss relating to impairment of the environment. The period of operators' liability for personal injury has been increased from 10 to 30 years and, more generally, the limit on operators' liability has been increased to €700 m. That's the situation as summarised recently by Lord Hunt, then energy Minister. However if the worst comes, then even €700m is unlikely to be enough. The cost of just upgrading the emergency containment shelter at Chernobyl in 1997 was $758 m. Quite apart from the loss of life, with estimates of early deaths ranging up to several thousand and beyond, and also lifelong illnesses (e.g. related to immune system damage) for some of those exposed, the total economic costs of the Chernobyl disaster were much larger: e.g. Belarus has estimated its losses over 30 years at US $235 bn, with government spending on Chernobyl amounting to 22.3% of the national budget in 1991, declining gradually to 6.1% in 2002. And 5-7% of government spending in the Ukraine still goes to Chernobyl-related benefits and programmes. www.greenfacts.org/en/chernobyl"

"About 50 people gathered outside a World War II radioactive waste dump in the Town of Lewiston on Saturday morning as part of an ongoing protest against the federal government's failure to clean up the site. Organized by the Niagara Watershed Alliance, the protesters rallied at the Niagara Falls Storage site, which began as the Army's 7,500-acre Lake Ontario Ordnance Works and was the site of Manhattan Project research during World War II. The idea was to call attention to the lack of action by the federal government and to call on authorities to seek local input on an eventual cleanup plan, said Vincent Agnello, Alliance secretary. "

"The U.S. Department of Energy is proposing changes to the Rocky Flats site and is seeking public comment on the plan. During the Cold War, the U.S. government built nuclear weapons at the plant on Colo. 93, and the materials led to some radioactive contamination. The weapons plant was closed in 2005 and the site went through an extensive cleanup. The factory was demolished, and most of the site became a wildlife refuge. The DOE wants to demolish several dams on the site that hold surface water in retention ponds. Breaching the dams will allow water to flow and restore the wetlands and riparian habitat. Local communities, including Broomfield, oppose the plan. The dr"

"The Department of Labor (DOL) Site Exposure Matrices (SEM) Website is a repository of information gathered from a variety of sources regarding toxic substances present at Department of Energy (DOE) and Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) facilities covered under Part E of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA). In putting together SEM, DOL held round table meetings with workers from DOE facilities all over the country and gathered their input on the hazards at these sites. DOL also obtained copies of thousands of documents from DOE regarding toxic substances at those facilities. In addition to toxic substance information, the SEM Website also contains information regarding scientifically established links between toxic substances and illnesses. Displayed links for diagnosed illnesses show how these correlate to toxic substance exposures. The relationship between toxic substances and diagnosed illnesses shown in SEM is derived from records of research by recognized medical authorities maintained by the National Library of Medicine (NLM). DOL continually updates these relationships as new disease associations are recognized by NLM. The causal links provided by NLM do not represent an exclusive list of the pathways necessary for an affirmative Part E causation determination. Every case is evaluated on its own evidentiary merits. (Please note, however that SEM does not address the relationship between radiation and cancer. For purposes of EEOICPA, the relationship between radiation and cancer is evaluated by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH))."

"ACE believes taxpayer funding should go to residents and small businesses for solar and wind energy installations, instead of the wealthy nuclear industry. With solar and wind there's no perpetual astronomical waste costs, no security force, no government subsidized catastrophic insurance and no need for evacuation plans. In his April 30 letter, Ross Brady used meaningless calculations to support giving our tax dollars to the wealthy nuclear industry. Brady can defend dangerous, polluting, and costly nuclear power and attack ACE, but he can't silence ACE or make us move. I lived here over 40 years before Limerick Nuclear Plant started operating. I won't stop trying to prevent harm to our community's children and their children from Limerick's operations. ACE members care deeply about others. We don't believe anyone should have to leave their community for a safer life."

"Texas was all set to be part of an agreement with Vermont to dump nuclear waste in a remote region of the Lone Star state, and for the most part people living near the site were OK with it. Now, though, that compact could mushroom to include waste from 36 other states, reinvigorating those who oppose the project to fight harder. Environmentalists, geologists, the Texas League of Women Voters and others say the huge dumping ground will pollute groundwater and otherwise wreak havoc with the environment. The company that runs the site contends it'll be safe and many local residents applaud any expansion as a way to bring more jobs and prosperity to the West Texas scrubland. "

"Tim Bridgewater and Mike Lee, the Republican candidates for Bob Bennett's U.S. Senate seat, say they support the resumption of underground nuclear testing in Nevada, either to verify the reliability of the existing arsenal or to develop new weapons. But Utah's deadly history as a downwind victim of fallout from previous nuclear tests argues for a much more cautious approach to any resumption of testing. First, it is not necessary to resume test explosions to verify the safety, security and reliability of existing nuclear weapons. That was the conclusion of a panel of the National Academy of Sciences in 2002. It has since been confirmed by the JASON group of independent scientific advisers that consults with the U.S. government on defense issues. "

"The maximum radiation dose that might have been received by a child due to a leak of tritiated water at Vermont Yankee was .000072 percent of the average annual dose received from natural sources, according to a document submitted by Entergy, which owns and operates the nuclear power plant in Vernon, to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. According to the report, consumption over a one-year period of fish from the Connecticut River or vegetables, beef and milk raised with river water would have resulted in a one-year dose of .00026 millirems. The average daily dose to humans from natural sources is 360 millirems. Entergy's dose calculations have been verified to be accurate and are "a small fraction of the regulatory requirement of 3 mrem per year," according to a Ground Water Monitoring Inspection Report released by the NRC on Thursday. "

"The story of Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson sounds like a film, and now it is Cannes, from what I have seen from afar, has always seemed like the epicentre of surreality. Up close it is, if anything, even more surreal. We arrived on Sunday in a charming seaside town thronged with sightseers, journalists, aspiring actresses scarcely out of their teens, and white guys in linen blazers with tans and mobile phones. But daily this small, easygoing place is transformed, as the pressure of tens of thousands of people buying, selling, watching and writing about fantasy - with some documentary thrown in - grows. Every day the crowds grow thicker, the energy level higher and the fashion sense on the Croisette, the elegant sweep of palm-fringed pedestrian walkway by the sea, more extreme and startling. "

"Antinuclear activists from Japan, South Korea, Europe and the United States called on delegates at the Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference on Friday to pressure Tokyo to end its troubled Monju fast-breeder reactor program, saying it sets a bad example for the rest of the world and dramatically increases proliferation risks. "On May 6, Japan's Monju fast-breeder reactor was restarted, after being shut down for over 14 years due to an accident involving a sodium leak and fire. It's a great irony that a plutonium-fueled fast-breeder reactor was restarted at a time when unprecedented international attention is being given to nuclear disarmament, nonproliferation and security," the letter, endorsed by 29 antinuclear groups, reads."

"Arjun Makhijani, Head of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, explains the problems in dealing with nuclear waste and dangers related to reprocessing. Share this More from Arjun Makhijani Reprocessing Waste Nuclear Energy: Irrelevant? Nuclear Deterrence Nuclear Waste: French Style"

"Tests on soil samples taken at Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant in Vernon now confirm the presence of a new - and more serious - form of radioactivity in the ground outside the reactor building. Yankee spokesman Larry Smith released a statement late Friday afternoon confirming the presence of strontium 90 -- a "hard to detect" isotope found 15 feet below ground in soils excavated during the search for a broken pipe leaking tritium last March."

"U. S. panel advises $150,000 payments Former Bethlehem Steel workers and their families got the good news Thursday for which they had been waiting for years. A federal advisory panel recommended that former Bethlehem workers-or their surviving family members - be compensated for diseases that might have resulted from their work on the company's Cold War-era nuclear programs. The recommendation by the 16- member Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health places the Bethlehem workers in a "special exposure cohort" that makes them eligible for federal payments of $150,000. "