nuke.news

What better way to take your mind off the huge hole the American economy is stuck in these days than to visit the biggest hole in the nation? President Obama and his family will take a trip the Grand Canyon Sunday, just days ahead of a congressional junket to the site led by Obama's GOP opponent for the White House last year, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. McCain will be joined by current Colorado Sen. Mark Udall and former Colorado senator and now Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, both Democrats, in the tour next week. Salazar recently called a timeout on new uranium mining claims on public lands near Grand Canyon National Park while the administration weighs withdrawing up to 1 million acres of national forest from potential uranium mining and Congress considers revamping the 1872 mining law to provide hard-rock mining royalties and create a fund for mine pollution cleanups.

A workshop to discuss a proposed 2,700-acre energy park at Savannah River Site will be held next week and was scheduled after an environmental group's complaint that more public involvement was needed in the planning process. In a June 21 letter dated to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Friends of the Earth asked that the department halt development of an environmental assessment that could lead to the land's lease to the SRS Community Reuse Organization for an energy park. The group's primary concern is that the park could become another place that handles or processes nuclear waste, rather than a research center for alternative energy fuels, said Tom Clements, the group's Southeastern nuclear campaign coordinator.

U.S. Sen. Jim Risch would back doubling federal loan guarantees for U.S. uranium enrichment projects to $4 billion and awarding half to a proposed new Ohio plant, if that's what it takes to help a competing proposal in Idaho that the first-term Republican fears could fall victim to politics. Risch told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday the political clout of lawmakers in Ohio, an important battleground state in presidential politics, could wind up hurting efforts by French-owned Areva Inc. to secure the $2 billion the Department of Energy currently has set aside for loan guarantees to uranium enrichment projects. USEC Inc. was told by the DOE in late July it wouldn't get the guarantees because its partially built plant near Cincinnati wasn't ready to go forward. Just a week later, however, the agency offered the Bethesda, Md.-based-company another six months before doing a final review of the loan application.

The concrete-and-steel "dry casks" used at the Vermont Yankee plant to store spent nuclear fuel were not tested as completely as they should have been, according to federal regulators. But the decision by Holtec International, the New Jersey company that built the casks, to omit one set of tests does not pose a safety risk, Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials said Wednesday. That's because there were other kinds of inspections done on those casks, and the waste stored in the casks is not as hot as allowed, meaning they are safe even though they were not tested with pressurized helium as required under a federal licensing agreement. About 109 of the casks that were not completely tested are in use nationwide, including five at Vermont Yankee, regulators say. "The violation is a concern" because the canister "is relied upon to prevent the release of radioactive material," according to a letter from the NRC to Holtec. "It is also relied upon to maintain an inert environment and sufficient helium pressure to keep cladding temperatures below the acceptable limit."

People apparently opposed to nuclear power in Alberta have depicted their views on at least one billboard that touts the controversial technology. Bruce Power, an Ontario company exploring nuclear development in the province, has put up billboards pitching the power source as a clean energy alternative in four Alberta communities. But one of the company's ads recently was painted over with a glowing, dead cow with a nuclear symbol branded on its rump and the slogan "A New Brand of AB Beef." There was also a radioactive symbol painted in the "o" in Bruce Power's name. Albert Cooper, a spokesman with Bruce Power, shrugged off the graffiti. "It's not a big deal," he said. "We simply replaced the board and moved on." Still, photos of the billboard were circulated among anti-nuclear advocates.

The much-heralded nuclear "renaissance" appears to have stalled this summer, at least temporarily -- not because of unsettled questions over the disposal of radioactive waste, or fear of nuclear accidents, but because the costs of building new reactors is proving prohibitive. That, at least, was Premier Dalton McGuinty's explanation for his government's recent decision not to proceed with two new reactors for Ontario's Darlington facility. They were expected to cost $6 billion; the final tally from Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, the winning bidder, was rumoured to be closer to $26 billion.

Protesters gathered in Helsinki and Tampere on Thursday to lend support to residents of Ranua, in Finnish Lapland, who oppose plans for uranium mining in the area. The French energy group Areva has filed an application with the Ministry Employment and the Economy for a uranium mining claim at Ranua, just south of Rovaniemi. If granted, the claim would allow Areva to carrying out prospecting in the area. According to a local activisit, Kaisa Kaikkonen, granting the claim could force residents of the area to live for decades in fear of the start-up of uranium mining.

If a picture's worth a thousand words, the Vermont Public Interest Research Group's photo mosaic of about 5,000 mini-portraits is something like 5 million words. And those words all say Vermont Yankee should be decommissioned. Advertisement VPIRG unveiled the mosaic Thursday on Elizabeth Hunt's freshly cut lawn in South Burlington. The mosaic's miniature portraits, taken of people at their homes throughout Vermont, put together and tinted slightly, become a pixilated picture roughly the size of a Publishers Clearing House check, of Hunt; her husband, Jesse Moore; and their 1-year-old son, Sam Moore. Members of the research group said they assembled the photo petition to personalize the state's general opinion of the 650-megawatt nuclear power plant. "You can tell a lot more by a person's face than their signature," said Anika James, 21, of Shelburne, who knocked on doors for VPIRG.

If a picture's worth a thousand words, the Vermont Public Interest Research Group's photo mosaic of about 5,000 mini-portraits is something like 5 million words. And those words all say Vermont Yankee should be decommissioned. Advertisement VPIRG unveiled the mosaic Thursday on Elizabeth Hunt's freshly cut lawn in South Burlington. The mosaic's miniature portraits, taken of people at their homes throughout Vermont, put together and tinted slightly, become a pixilated picture roughly the size of a Publishers Clearing House check, of Hunt; her husband, Jesse Moore; and their 1-year-old son, Sam Moore. Members of the research group said they assembled the photo petition to personalize the state's general opinion of the 650-megawatt nuclear power plant. "You can tell a lot more by a person's face than their signature," said Anika James, 21, of Shelburne, who knocked on doors for VPIRG.

If a picture's worth a thousand words, the Vermont Public Interest Research Group's photo mosaic of about 5,000 mini-portraits is something like 5 million words. And those words all say Vermont Yankee should be decommissioned. Advertisement VPIRG unveiled the mosaic Thursday on Elizabeth Hunt's freshly cut lawn in South Burlington. The mosaic's miniature portraits, taken of people at their homes throughout Vermont, put together and tinted slightly, become a pixilated picture roughly the size of a Publishers Clearing House check, of Hunt; her husband, Jesse Moore; and their 1-year-old son, Sam Moore. Members of the research group said they assembled the photo petition to personalize the state's general opinion of the 650-megawatt nuclear power plant. "You can tell a lot more by a person's face than their signature," said Anika James, 21, of Shelburne, who knocked on doors for VPIRG.

Chubu Electric Power Co. may burn more fossil fuels to keep lights on and machinery running in Nagoya, Japan's third-largest metropolitan area, as the utility finds more earthquake damage to its Hamaoka nuclear plant. Both functioning reactors at Hamaoka shut down after a 6.5- magnitude quake on Aug. 11 and as of today Chubu found 39 problems, including neutron monitor and auxiliary transformer malfunctions. There's no estimate when the reactors will resume operation, spokesman Toshimitsu Shibata said by phone. A monthlong closure at Hamaoka, which generated 16 percent of the Nagoya-based utility's electric power last year, would increase costs by about 10 billion yen ($105 million), according Reiji Ogino, an analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co. For a company with annual sales of more than 2 trillion yen, there wouldn't be any serious affect on Chubu's share price, he said.

Chubu Electric Power Co. may burn more fossil fuels to keep lights on and machinery running in Nagoya, Japan's third-largest metropolitan area, as the utility finds more earthquake damage to its Hamaoka nuclear plant. Both functioning reactors at Hamaoka shut down after a 6.5- magnitude quake on Aug. 11 and as of today Chubu found 39 problems, including neutron monitor and auxiliary transformer malfunctions. There's no estimate when the reactors will resume operation, spokesman Toshimitsu Shibata said by phone. A monthlong closure at Hamaoka, which generated 16 percent of the Nagoya-based utility's electric power last year, would increase costs by about 10 billion yen ($105 million), according Reiji Ogino, an analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co. For a company with annual sales of more than 2 trillion yen, there wouldn't be any serious affect on Chubu's share price, he said.

I am a Middle East Consultant living in the UK and would like all people living in or near areas of conflict to understand the High Tech Weaponry used by many military establishments worldwide, especially the US (the manufacturers) and other NATO forces. The reason for pointing this out to you is as a response to my research on the terrible rise in cancer related deaths. This is not only confined to military personnel in the battle zone but also the indiscriminate contamination of civilians, field crops and water supplies in the immediate area as well as the adjacent areas/countries. Below is my report: Concerns regarding radiation contamination by the use of Depleted Uranium (DU) weaponry in the Balkans, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Eastern Mediterranean Countries. The majority of high tech weapons today contain Depleted Uranium and or other Heavy Metals. Some are coated in DU and others have both DU and Heavy Metal in their warheads. DU is also used to act as a counterweight.

Exactly how did Entergy get away with not monitoring the radiation emitted by spent fuel stored in dry casks at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon? To answer that question, the Public Service Board is opening an investigation today in Montpelier. During the investigation, the PSB will also determine if penalties should be assessed against Entergy for any failure on its part to comply with board orders. In April 2006, the PSB issued a certificate of public good allowing Entergy to store spent fuel in dry casks on a concrete pad just north of the reactor building. At this time, there are five casks with 68 fuel assemblies each on the pad. As part of that certificate, Entergy was required to continuously monitor the temperature of the dry casks. It was also required to conduct monthly "radiation surveillance" of the casks. "The Department of Public Service and (Entergy), in consultation with the Department of Health, will develop a protocol for reporting the results of such monitoring and surveillance to the DPS and the Department of Health," stated the certificate of public good. But on July 31, Entergy filed a letter with the PSB reporting that though it had been monitoring the temperature of the casks, it had not initiated the required monthly radiation checks.

No matter what we're led to believe, the world's worst polluter is not your cousin who refuses to recycle or that co-worker who drives a gas guzzler or the guy down the block who simply will not try CFL bulbs. "The U.S. Department of Defense is the largest polluter in the world, producing more hazardous waste than the five largest U.S. chemical companies combined," explains Lucinda Marshall, founder of the Feminist Peace Network. Pesticides, defoliants like Agent Orange, solvents, petroleum, lead, mercury, and depleted uranium are among the many deadly substances used by the military. What does this mean for us? To start with, it can help illustrate how to best foment a green revolution. As Derrick Jensen reminds us: "Even if every single person in the United States were to change all their light-bulbs to fluorescent, cut the amount they drive in half, recycle half of their household waste, inflate their tire pressure to increase gas mileage, use low flow shower heads and wash clothes in lower temperature water, adjusts their thermostats two degrees up or down depending on the season, and plant a tree, it would result in a one time, 21% reduction in carbon emissions."

Well, you were probably happy to learn Susan Burk - now President Obama's Special Representative for Nuclear NonProliferation and former head of President Clinton's delegation to the 1995 Review Conference of the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons - told the folks at the Geneva Center for Security Policy last week, on the eve of the September meeting of the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, that the world now has a real opportunity to "strengthen" the NPT-IAEA associated nuclear-weapons proliferation-prevention regime and that the Obama-Biden administration was determined to make an ambitious effort to do so. According to Burk, there is a perception that, as result of certain actions in recent years, the NPT-IAEA regime is doomed to collapse and "that is a view that is wrong and must be refuted."

In 1946, just after the first anniversary of the destruction of Hiroshima, "The New Yorker" magazine's Aug. 31 issue published the complete text of John Hersey's portrait of the atom bomb and its effects on the Japanese city. At the end of the war, in 1945, Hersey was in Japan writing about the reconstruction of the devastated country when he happened across an account written by a Jesuit priest who had survived the Hiroshima destruction. It was he who introduced the reporter to other survivors. From these, Hersey chose six individuals: two doctors, a minister, a widowed seamstress, a young woman who worked in a factory, and the priest himself. These became the principal characters in an account that melded nonfiction reportage with the stylistic devices of the novel, all expressed through the plainest of styles.

Taxpayers may be forced to subsidise Britain's nuclear renaissance through a levy tacked on to household fuel bills under plans being developed by the energy industry. Utility executives have told ministers that their pledge not to use public aid to fund the the £40 billion rollout of new nuclear power stations is no longer realistic. The levy is one of several proposals tabled. Talks about how to structure an aid mechanism are at an early stage, but there is a consensus in the industry that without help the new power plants will not be built.

Early 1960s: The federal government proposes a nuclear reactor alongside Town Lake. The City Council rejects the proposal, which contracting giant Brown and Root had advised the city would have major cost overruns. 1971: Houston Lighting & Power announces a feasibility study of building a nuclear power plant to be shared by Austin, San Antonio and Corpus Christi. September 1972: Austin voters reject a $289 million bond referendum proposed by then-mayor Roy Butler for nuclear power, 52 percent to 48 percent. It would have funded Austin's involvement in the South Texas Nuclear Project, which Brown and Root was going to build. November 1973: Voters approve a $161 million bond referendum for nuclear power, 51 percent to 49 percent. 1976: The first concrete for the project is laid. With University of Texas students out, Austin voters reject a referendum in August requiring Austin to sell its share of the South Texas Nuclear Project, 75 percent to 25 percent.

A new era has begun at the Savannah River Site, as we face the challenge of safely and aggressively dispositioning radioactive liquid waste. Years from now, we'll remember this as the time SRS aggressively began using state-of-the-art technology to rid the site of its legacy high-level liquid radioactive waste at a pace unimaginable just a few years ago. Time will show how accelerating tank closure produced real progress, to the safety and benefit of local citizens and taxpayers. My company, Savannah River Remediation, officially took over the liquid waste contract at SRS on July 1. The U.S. Department of Energy awarded the contract late last year, replacing Washington Savannah River Company. We know the challenge. Our employees have safely and efficiently dispositioned radioactive waste, setting industry standards. Now, we're going to step that performance up a notch. Here's just a sampling of what we'll be doing:

Finnish officials have rejected claims that a missing Russian-manned freighter was carrying a 'secret nuclear cargo', as mystery surrounding the Arctic Sea's disappearance continues. Russia and NATO joined forces on Sunday in an international hunt for the ship that vanished from the radar after crossing the English Channel in late July. Jukka Laaksonen, Head of the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, confirmed reports that firefighters had conducted radiation tests on the Arctic Sea before its departure from Finland.

Workers at the nuclear reactor facility in Dimona were made to volunteer to drink uranium in 1998 as part of an experiment, according to a lawsuit filed four months ago in the Be'er Sheva Labor Tribunal by a former worker at the facility. The experiment was allegedly carried out without obtaining written consent from the workers or warning them of risks or side effects, as required by the Declaration of Helsinki on human experimentation. The Israel Atomic Energy Commission said in a statement that the Dimona facility "has the safety and health of its workers as its highest priority."

Finnish authorities dismissed talk Sunday that the Arctic Sea was bearing a cargo of nuclear material, as Russia and NATO joined forces in an international hunt for the missing vessel. Jukka Laaksonen, head of the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, said firefighters conducted radiation tests on the ship -- last reported off Cape Verde -- at a port in Finland before it began a voyage full of intrigue.