nuke.news

Interview with Jan Lovelace, widow of poisoned nuclear complex worker Harry Lovelace, details the trials both have gone through to try get help through the Energy Employee Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (EEOICPA) administered by the U.S. Dept. of Labor. Jan also describes the extreme personal difficulties of Harry's illness, attributed to his work as a fireman at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Ten-minutes, filmed by Wes Rehberg, music by Paul Page, ©2009 Wild Clearing

Interview with Jan Lovelace, widow of poisoned nuclear complex worker Harry Lovelace, details the trials both have gone through to try get help through the Energy Employee Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (EEOICPA) administered by the U.S. Dept. of Labor. Jan also describes the extreme personal difficulties of Harry's illness, attributed to his work as a fireman at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Ten-minutes, filmed by Wes Rehberg, music by Paul Page, ©2009 Wild Clearing

40,000 metric tonnes of radioactive waste is stored at sites across Canada. Anna Mehler Paperny reports on the hunt for a permanent solution

Moving to avoid a rift with Moscow, Barack Obama has "all but abandoned" plans to locate parts of a controversial US missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, a leading Polish newspaper claimed yesterday. The Warsaw daily Gazeta Wyborcza said that the Pentagon has been asked to explore switching planned interceptor rocket sites from the two east European states to Israel, Turkey, the Balkans or to mobile launchers on warships. Asked about the claim, a Pentagon spokesman last night said the missile shield plans were still being reviewed. "No final decisions have been made regarding missile defence in Europe" he said.

An Idaho company has accused Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions Inc. of cutthroat tactics, using two front groups to derail its bid to clean up a Missouri radioactive waste site. American Ecology Corp. filed a complaint Thursday with the Idaho elections office against Harold Skamser, a veteran lobbyist working for the week-old nonprofit group Citizens for a Clean Idaho. The group is headed by former Utah developer Stephen Loosli, whose new Idaho company, okosphare, is paying Skamser and "fronting for EnergySolutions," American Ecology says in its complaint. EnergySolutions and the Idahoans deny any ties with one another. But American Ecology President Steve Romano said his company's two-year effort to win approval for slightly radioactive waste has had community and political support until now.

A box of uranium ore was discovered Friday at the Anthony port of entry, according to New Mexico State Police. A Fed-Ex truck going through radiological screening set off an alarm and was found to be emanating high levels of gamma rays. The uranium ore was found in an unmarked, 8-inch by 8-inch by 8-inch box mailed by an out-of-state firefighter who travels the country teaching how to detect radiological dirty bombs, according to state police, which did not release the firefighter's name. It is legal to ship uranium ore, but it must be disclosed to the shipping company and a placarded and hazardous material-certified driver must drive the truck. Vehicles carrying low-level, naturally occurring radioactive material in things like clay floor tiles, gravel, fertilizer and propane sometimes trip alarms.

The annual meeting of the South Australian Liberal Party has supported a motion to debate the use of nuclear power technology to reduce carbon emissions. The motion was carried by a narrow majority despite strong opposition from senior state and federal Liberal MPs. Opposition Leader Isobel Redmond says though she is not worried about having the debate, she does not support the motion.

I AM an engineer working for an energy and strategy consultant in Munich, Germany. During my recent holiday in this lovely country, I noticed the ongoing debate on whether Malaysia should build nuclear energy plants or not, and read the stories in StarMag with great interest (Green or black?, Insight, Aug 16). I have the feeling that most important points are reflected correctly (maybe except Mr Robinson - Berol Robinson, president of the American branch of Environmentalist for Nuclear Energy - who obviously thinks that one part of nuclear waste which is fatal within minutes of exposure might be less harmful than one million parts of inert coal ash).

The EU has set itself the goal that by the year 2020, 20% of Europe's final energy consumption in the areas of electricity, heating, and mobility should come from renewable sources. Nuclear energy jeopardises green energy revolution A major share of this energy will have to come from regenerative electricity. In order for this sector to achieve such a dynamic growth, a reliable political framework is key. In Germany for example, the Renewable Energy Sources Act provides such a framework. Another important step is to supplement the renewable electricity generators with flexible power stations and power storage systems. By contrast, the construction of new coal-fired power stations or even nuclear power plants only hampers the expansion of the renewables sector.

A Christian cleric, Olugbenga Olu, has advised the Federal Government against embracing nuclear energy to solve the nation's energy crisis. Mr. Olu, the Bishop of the newly created Remo Central Diocese of the Methodist Church of Nigeria in Ogun State, said that the cost implication of such a venture would be too much on the nation, aside from the dearth of nuclear expertise in the country. He said he feared for nuclear accidents that could lead to serious radiation effects, which the nation was not yet disposed to handle effectively. According to him, "the harmful effect of radioactive elements on the human, among several other negative tendencies, are better imagined than experienced". The cleric said the church favoured the option of exploiting wind, coal, gas and hydro resources, as sources of power, adding that they were ``better alternatives to nuclear energy and its attendant risks."

Residents steamed that once-pristine water from Site 41 now appears tainted WYEVALE -- The red flag now being waved over Site 41 -- no longer as a warning but as a sudden downward turn of events -- was the colour of dirty dishwater. What was once some of the most pristine water in the world, coming from a natural "flow" on the edge of a farmer's cornfield no more than 500 metres from the controversial Simcoe County landfill notoriously known as Site 41, was now loaded with grey sediment. A harbinger? Or merely an aberration? Dairy farmer Art Parnell, whose permission has allowed a First Nations' protest encampment to be erected on that 80 hectares of North Simcoe land he owns across from Site 41, has never seen water coming from that "flow" that has been anything but crystal clear. But not anymore. At mid-week, it was the colour of dark silt. In fact, scrape the bottom of the steel trough where the water has flowed clean for years on end and, what was clinically pure and 100% pure no more than a week ago, has since been replaced with dark black sediment. All in only a matter of days.

During the Vietnam War, the hell that was soldiers' daily lives sometimes was complicated by their exposure to plastic explosives and their neurotoxic effects. Back home, munitions workers faced similar nightmares. Though not wandering the jungle in search of Viet Cong, workers on the front lines at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant knew that at any moment they could be injured or die in an explosion. And those who were lucky or smart enough to survive could have ended up like Mary Ludlow. Ludlow, a Wisconsin resident, worked two stints at the plant in the late-1960s, totaling about six months. Ludlow left the plant a second time, and for good, when her then-husband decided to pursue a graduate degree at Iowa State University in Ames.

During the Vietnam War, the hell that was soldiers' daily lives sometimes was complicated by their exposure to plastic explosives and their neurotoxic effects. Back home, munitions workers faced similar nightmares. Though not wandering the jungle in search of Viet Cong, workers on the front lines at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant knew that at any moment they could be injured or die in an explosion. And those who were lucky or smart enough to survive could have ended up like Mary Ludlow. Ludlow, a Wisconsin resident, worked two stints at the plant in the late-1960s, totaling about six months. Ludlow left the plant a second time, and for good, when her then-husband decided to pursue a graduate degree at Iowa State University in Ames.

During the Vietnam War, the hell that was soldiers' daily lives sometimes was complicated by their exposure to plastic explosives and their neurotoxic effects. Back home, munitions workers faced similar nightmares. Though not wandering the jungle in search of Viet Cong, workers on the front lines at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant knew that at any moment they could be injured or die in an explosion. And those who were lucky or smart enough to survive could have ended up like Mary Ludlow. Ludlow, a Wisconsin resident, worked two stints at the plant in the late-1960s, totaling about six months. Ludlow left the plant a second time, and for good, when her then-husband decided to pursue a graduate degree at Iowa State University in Ames.

North Korea keeps shooting its long range missiles now and then. These missiles do not just reach all important targets; they can also deliver a nuclear message. Its leaders, or rather leader, has effectively made the world believe that he is unpredictable, that one day he could really strike American or South Korean targets. Japan, Russia and China are all concerned, but not as badly as the other two countries. He has the gun; he seems to have the will to use it. The missing element is the excuse. (Of course, the other side of the argument is that he is already using them and reaping the benefits at least from the immediate south.) Now there are many of us who think that we are too far away or too detached to be concerned about this issue.

About 31,000 cubic yards of radioactively contaminated scrap and other waste materials are being removed from the seven-acre scrap yard at Y-12, which was used for storage since the early 1970s. Security, as with many things at the nuclear weapons plant, is a complicating factor. The plant's PIDAS (Perimeter Intrustion Detection Assessment System) runs through the middle of the scrap yard, meaning that part of the yard is inside the high-security "protected area." According to John Krueger, the project director for Recovery Act cleanup work, the cleanup managers worked with Y-12 security to construct a special fence around the area of concern, thus easing the requirements. Workers still have to be escorted to that section of the scrap yard, but it does allow for use of uncleared workers on the project, he said.

State regulators Tuesday will weigh whether to allow Florida Power & Light Co. to keep its employees' salaries secret. The Public Service Commission meeting in Tallahassee comes one week before regulators take up FPL's request for a $1.3 billion annual increase in base rates. Florida's five major utilities, including FPL, provided detailed salary information to the commission. But FPL and Progress Energy Florida, based in St. Petersburg, have asked to keep the information private for competitive reasons. A group of 15 employees from FPL - the state's largest utility with 4.5 million customers - hired an attorney this month and said they oppose disclosing salaries for privacy reasons. The First Amendment Foundation and the Office of Public Counsel - the state's advocate for utility customers - said state law requires utilities to make the information public.

State regulators Tuesday will weigh whether to allow Florida Power & Light Co. to keep its employees' salaries secret. The Public Service Commission meeting in Tallahassee comes one week before regulators take up FPL's request for a $1.3 billion annual increase in base rates. Florida's five major utilities, including FPL, provided detailed salary information to the commission. But FPL and Progress Energy Florida, based in St. Petersburg, have asked to keep the information private for competitive reasons. A group of 15 employees from FPL - the state's largest utility with 4.5 million customers - hired an attorney this month and said they oppose disclosing salaries for privacy reasons. The First Amendment Foundation and the Office of Public Counsel - the state's advocate for utility customers - said state law requires utilities to make the information public.

The U.S. Energy Department has halted its plan to conduct an Environmental Assessment involving the proposed lease of 2,700 acres at Savannah River Site for an energy park. The assessment was to be the first step in the process of determining the suitability of allowing the SRS Community Reuse Or­gan­ization to use the land for economic development purposes that critics fear could bring additional nuclear waste to South Carolina. Jim Giusti, a DOE spokesman at the site, said halting the assessment will allow time for more dialogue and discussion before any binding decisions are made.

Uranium mining could present WA communities with a variety of health problems, from leukemia to congenital defects, according to a health expert at a recent forum. Speaking at the Public Health Association of Australia's "Uranium Mining: What are the health risks for WA?" seminar, Nobel Peace Prize nominee Dr Helen Caldicott said the public health effects on Western Australians could be disastrous if plans to begin uranium mining in the State go ahead. Dr Caldicott said miners and nearby residents could be at risk should they be exposed to harmful materials.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has accepted for formal review an application by General Electric-Hitachi Global Laser Enrichment for a license to construct and operate a uranium enrichment plant using laser technology in Wilmington, N.C. GE-Hitachi submitted the application in two stages: an environmental report, submitted on Jan. 30, and a safety report, tendered on June 26. The NRC staff has completed an initial acceptance review and determined that the application is sufficiently complete for the agency to begin its formal licensing reviews. The agency has already requested additional information from the applicant, and additional requests are possible throughout the licensing review. Acceptance of the application for review does not indicate whether the Commission will issue a license.

Treaty's Entry Into Force Makes Entire Southern Hemisphere Free of Nuclear Weapons Over the last 13 years, all 53 African nations have signed the Treaty of Pelindaba. A Treaty making Africa into a zone free of nuclear weapons entered into force on 15 July 2009, in turn expanding the nuclear-weapon free territories to cover the entire Southern hemisphere. The Treaty of Pelindaba entered into force when Burundi deposited its instrument of ratification, becoming the 28th nation to do so. Over the last 13 years, all 53 African nations have signed the Treaty of Pelindaba. The IAEA has issued the following statement:

Patna, (BiharTimes): Water-shortage is coming in the way of Bihar's first nuclear power plant at Rajauli block in Nawada district. The region is almost at the border with Jharkhand and very near to the northern extent of Chotanagpur plateau; thus faces perennial water-scarcity. As per the guidelines of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), at least 32,000 cubic metre water will be required per hour for running the proposed 4x700 MW plant. The water available at Phulwaria dam at Rajauli will fulfil only one-third of the requirement.

For more than 20 years, the government's plan to dispose of highly radioactive spent fuel piling up at U.S. nuclear power reactors has been to haul it to Yucca Mountain and entomb it in a maze of tunnels. But this year, more than a decade before the first shipment was ever expected to arrive at the mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, and years before a license could have been approved for the project, the Obama administration halted funding, saying the Nevada site was "not an option." That prompted a group of university experts on nuclear waste policy to explore another plan. That plan, they hope, will chart the course for a soon-to-be-chosen Department of Energy blue ribbon panel to follow as it sets out to develop a new national nuclear waste strategy.