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While Oak Ridge officials and their advocates in Washington push the multi-billion-dollar UPF for all it's worth, another proposed production facility at Y-12 has been put on the back burner for the foreseeable future. The would-be Y-12 project is called the Consolidated Manufacturing Complex, and apparently it's been shunted aside because of the huge budget considerations associated with the top-priority Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12 and the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Project at Los Alamos in New Mexico. The CMC would house Y-12's lithium operations, general machining operations, depleted uranium operations and deuterium production. I haven't seen a price tag yet, but it obviously won't be cheap. According to Y-12 spokeswoman Ellen Boatner, the Oak Ridge contractor doesn't anticipate major progress on the CMC for the next couple of years.

If all goes according to plan, Florida Power & Light later this year will begin building a storage facility for nuclear waste more than two stories above ground at the Turkey Point nuclear power plant. Under the plan, the company would house in dry storage 16 cubic feet of radioactive waste-the equivalent of some 2 million pounds accumulated since the first reactor fired up in 1972. Plans for the dry cask storage facility have sparked controversy because the project has not been aired at public hearings. Instead, the project was moved along quickly and quietly, with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) granting certification on May 18, roughly six weeks after receiving FPL's application and without an opportunity for public input. Without fanfare, the approval slipped the notice of interested parties such as the Sierra Club, the Tropical Audubon Society and Clean Water Action. Miami-Dade County officials and environmentalists maintain the utility company and the regulatory agency did an end run to avoid public scrutiny.

In the article on nuclear power [''A Comeback for Nuclear Power", August 2009], there was no discussion about what to do with the nuclear waste or the actual cost to build nuclear power plants. I have heard it may be approaching $1 billion dollars. Do not forget the cost of dealing with nuclear waste (if there is a safe way). I wonder how much solar or wind power we could build for a billion dollars.

In the article on nuclear power [''A Comeback for Nuclear Power", August 2009], there was no discussion about what to do with the nuclear waste or the actual cost to build nuclear power plants. I have heard it may be approaching $1 billion dollars. Do not forget the cost of dealing with nuclear waste (if there is a safe way). I wonder how much solar or wind power we could build for a billion dollars.

Notice of Issuance of Early Site Permit and Limited Work Authorization for the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant ESP Site AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Notice of Issuance of Early Site Permit and Limited Work Authorization. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: [[Page 44880]] I. Introduction Pursuant to 10 CFR 2.106, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is providing notice of the issuance of Early Site Permit (ESP) ESP-004 to Southern Nuclear Operating Company (SNC), Georgia Power Company, Oglethorpe Power Corporation, Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia, and the City of Dalton, Georgia, an incorporated municipality in the State of Georgia acting by and through its Board of Water, Light and Sinking Fund Commissioners, for approval of a site located in Burke County, Georgia, 26 miles southeast of Augusta, Georgia for two nuclear power reactors; this action is separate from the filing of an application for a construction permit or combined license for such a facility. The NRC has found that the application for an early site permit (ESP), and accompanying limited work authorization (LWA), filed by Southern Nuclear Operating Company (SNC), on behalf of itself and the other four entities named above, complies with the applicable requirements of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, and the applicable rules and regulations of the Commission. All required notifications to other agencies or bodies have been duly made. There is reasonable assurance that the permit holders will comply with the regulations in 10 CFR Chapter I and the health and safety of the public will not be endangered. There is reasonable assurance that the site is in conformity with the provisions of the Act and the Commission's regulations. SNC is technically qualified to engage in the activities authorized. Issuance of the ESP will not be inimical to the common defense and security or to the health and safety of the public. Issuance of the LWA will provide reasonable assurance of a

Notice of Issuance of Early Site Permit and Limited Work Authorization for the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant ESP Site AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Notice of Issuance of Early Site Permit and Limited Work Authorization. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: [[Page 44880]] I. Introduction Pursuant to 10 CFR 2.106, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is providing notice of the issuance of Early Site Permit (ESP) ESP-004 to Southern Nuclear Operating Company (SNC), Georgia Power Company, Oglethorpe Power Corporation, Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia, and the City of Dalton, Georgia, an incorporated municipality in the State of Georgia acting by and through its Board of Water, Light and Sinking Fund Commissioners, for approval of a site located in Burke County, Georgia, 26 miles southeast of Augusta, Georgia for two nuclear power reactors; this action is separate from the filing of an application for a construction permit or combined license for such a facility. The NRC has found that the application for an early site permit (ESP), and accompanying limited work authorization (LWA), filed by Southern Nuclear Operating Company (SNC), on behalf of itself and the other four entities named above, complies with the applicable requirements of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, and the applicable rules and regulations of the Commission. All required notifications to other agencies or bodies have been duly made. There is reasonable assurance that the permit holders will comply with the regulations in 10 CFR Chapter I and the health and safety of the public will not be endangered. There is reasonable assurance that the site is in conformity with the provisions of the Act and the Commission's regulations. SNC is technically qualified to engage in the activities authorized. Issuance of the ESP will not be inimical to the common defense and security or to the health and safety of the public. Issuance of the LWA will provide reasonable assurance of a

With the receipt of dummy fuel from Russia, India has moved a step forward towards commissioning the first unit of 2x1,000 MW Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project in Tamil Nadu. IANS reliably learns that the dummy fuel landed in Tuticorin port Saturday and has reached Kudankulam where the Nuclear Power Corp of India Ltd (NPCIL) is putting up the project with Russian equipment. Kudankulam is in Tirunelveli district, about 600 km from Chennai. Dummy fuel is similar to real fuel in terms of weight and other features, but without uranium. It will be inserted into the reactor core to test the functioning of all systems, a process technically called status of hot operation. If the systems function as per norms, the real fuel will be loaded so that the reactor attains criticality.

Even as Australia reiterated its inability to sell uranium, India on Monday signed an agreement on civil nuclear cooperation with Namibia. "Among agreements that we signed today is the cooperation between us on uranium. I believe that we have the best uranium (in the world)," said Namibian president Hifikepunye Pohamba after discussions with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The pact is an umbrella agreement that includes sale of uranium to India. An MEA press release issued after signing of the agreement noted the "many opportunities for investment available in Namibia in the uranium, diamond, agriculture, energy, transportation, railways, mining, ICT and SME sectors and resolved to encourage Indian investments in these areas". Namibia's Uranium resources are about 5% of the world's known reserves.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has ruled that more work needs to be done on an environmental assessment for a produce irradiator that's proposed for a location near Honolulu International Airport. Advertisement The commission's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board issued a ruling last week saying the NRC staff needs to consider alternate technology and sites in producing the assessment. The board's decision said it expects the staff to give meaningful consideration to transportation accidents in preparing a final environmental assessment. The ruling came after almost three years of discussion at the NRC, which has been considering Pa'ina Hawaii LLC's request to build an irradiator that would use up to a million curries of cobalt-60 to treat local fruits such as papayas, vegetables and other items so they can be shipped to the Mainland insect-free.

Washington doesn't have the geology to store high-level nuclear wastes. Too much groundwater; too much risk of radioactivity spreading into aquifers and the Columbia River. Such was the verdict of the scientists and policymakers who rejected Hanford as a nuclear waste dump more than 20 years ago. But President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid are fast reversing that verdict. Their goal is to kill a planned permanent nuclear waste repository in Nevada, not create one in Washington. But it's the same difference. Hanford , the nuclear reservation in Eastern Washington, is already saddled with thousands of tons of intensely radioactive reactor-core byproducts. All of it was supposed to be buried in bone-dry caves under Nevada's Yucca Mountain. Terminate the Yucca Mountain project, and you eliminate what was supposed to be the destination of Washington's reactor wastes as well as wastes from more than 100 other reactor complexes across the United States.

The UN atomic watchdog said Thursday it has no concrete proof that there is or has been a nuclear weapons programme in Iran. The International Atomic Energy Agency rejected a US media report which claimed its experts believed Tehran had the ability to make a nuclear bomb and was on the way to developing a missile system able to carry an atomic warhead. "With respect to a recent media report, the IAEA reiterates that it has no concrete proof that there is or has been a nuclear weapon programme in Iran," a statement said.

The Department of Energy plans to start work today to excavate the historic landfills that hold day-to-day trash generated by more than 50,000 Hanford workers and their families during World War II. Unlike most other environmental cleanup at the Hanford nuclear reservation, this trash will be checked for historical significance as it is unearthed. "Information collected from the waste sites will be used to construct a social history of Hanford workers," said Tom Marceau, cultural resources supervisor for Washington Closure Hanford, a DOE cleanup contractor.

A federal appeals court has dismissed an Indian Point case arguing that regulators improperly allowed the nuclear plant's owners to loosen a fire safety equipment standard at the Buchanan site. Advertisement "This case tests the limits of our jurisdiction ... to review orders of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission," Judge John Walker Jr. of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in the 20-page decision. "Petitioners challenge only that exemption in this appeal," Walker wrote. "Because we lack jurisdiction ... we must dismiss the petition." Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, D-Greenburgh, brought the case and said yesterday that he would decide his next move soon.

Question: When is a plan not a plan? Answer: When it is Atomic Energy of Canada Limited's "cleanup" proposal for the town of Port Hope, Ontario. At a packed hearing last week, Canada's nuclear regulator, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, listened to presentations on the proposal from its staff, AECL, private citizens, and volunteer organizations - roughly 100 presentations in all, spanning 17 hours of hearing time. AECL is asking for a licence for a low level radioactive waste site. The site will house approximately 1.5 million cubic metres of nuclear and industrial waste, collected from the community over the course of the next decade. The proposal was approved in 2007, following a six-year environmental assessment. The ensuing licensing process should have been fairly straight forward - hash out a few technical details and get shovels in the ground.

Question: When is a plan not a plan? Answer: When it is Atomic Energy of Canada Limited's "cleanup" proposal for the town of Port Hope, Ontario. At a packed hearing last week, Canada's nuclear regulator, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, listened to presentations on the proposal from its staff, AECL, private citizens, and volunteer organizations - roughly 100 presentations in all, spanning 17 hours of hearing time. AECL is asking for a licence for a low level radioactive waste site. The site will house approximately 1.5 million cubic metres of nuclear and industrial waste, collected from the community over the course of the next decade. The proposal was approved in 2007, following a six-year environmental assessment. The ensuing licensing process should have been fairly straight forward - hash out a few technical details and get shovels in the ground.

Question: When is a plan not a plan? Answer: When it is Atomic Energy of Canada Limited's "cleanup" proposal for the town of Port Hope, Ontario. At a packed hearing last week, Canada's nuclear regulator, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, listened to presentations on the proposal from its staff, AECL, private citizens, and volunteer organizations - roughly 100 presentations in all, spanning 17 hours of hearing time. AECL is asking for a licence for a low level radioactive waste site. The site will house approximately 1.5 million cubic metres of nuclear and industrial waste, collected from the community over the course of the next decade. The proposal was approved in 2007, following a six-year environmental assessment. The ensuing licensing process should have been fairly straight forward - hash out a few technical details and get shovels in the ground.

A REPORT into whether atomic experiments by a Nobel scientist led to the deaths of Manchester University staff will be published this month. Ernest Rutherford carried out Nobel prize-winning nuclear research at the university between 1907 and 1919. His laboratories were later used as offices for staff at the university's psychology department. Deaths Campaigners believe harmful materials used by Rutherford have contaminated the rooms and may have led to the deaths of six former members of staff.

Domestic political squabbles, funding woes and other hurdles threaten a number of nuclear power plant projects in central and southeast Europe but they will not derail the future of atomic energy in the region. Analysts say the global economic crisis has made banks reluctant to provide loans for nuclear plants, which cost around 3 billion euros ($4.30 billion) per 1,000 megawatt reactor, for a pay-off that takes decades.

A number of countries in central, eastern and southeastern Europe plan to build new nuclear power reactors or extend the life of existing ones to meet growing domestic demand and replace ageing power capacity. Following are key facts on major projects:

Inspectors in Japan have detected "weld defects" inside two massive steam generators being built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for installation at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. Gil Alexander, a spokesman for plant owner Southern California Edison, said in a statement Wednesday that similar defects have not been found in two similar generators already delivered to San Onofre and scheduled for installation inside its Unit 2 containment dome this fall. "The deficiency, which is being corrected, was caused by a manufacturing process that was not used on the Unit 2 steam generators," Alexander said.

Uranium mining could resume within the year at a site north of the Grand Canyon after state officials signed off on the last permit needed to restart operations. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality issued an air-quality permit Tuesday to Denison Mines for the Arizona 1 mine, about 35 miles south of Fredonia. The permit clears the way for Denison to extract uranium from the region for the first time in almost two decades. Denison officials have said they could restart Arizona 1 within a year after the final permit is issued. The prospect of new uranium mines on public lands near the national park has stirred opposition among conservation groups and Indian tribes, who say extracting the ore could contaminate groundwater and the Colorado River, which serves millions of people downstream.

Former Hanford construction workers have an increased risk of death from a blood cancer linked to radiation and another cancer linked to asbestos, according to a new study. The study published in the September issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine drew on data collected in the Building Trades National Medical Screening Program for Hanford and three other Department of Energy sites. "While several studies have investigated mortality risks among (Department of Energy) production workers, little data exist concerning mortality among construction and trade workers ...," the study said. It looked at 8,976 workers who had participated in the building trades screening program at the four sites and had an initial screening interview from 1998 through 2004. Those interviews were compared to the National Death Index, which had information only through 2004 when the study began.

When visitors traipse through the two nuclear power plants at Bay City, the spent fuel pool is as sure a stop as the Alamo is on the Gray Line Tour. A ladder emerges, and visitors are encouraged to climb it. And so they ascend, one by one, and peer into a 26 x 52-foot pool. The pool - less than a third the dimensions of an Olympic-sized swimming pool, although it's deeper - contains used, radioactive uranium rods, stored beneath 20 feet of water. You can't see much from the top of the ladder, but the message is clear enough: See how small it is? In doing so, however, visitors peer into one of the deepest issues surrounding nuclear expansion - what to do with material that will stay extremely hazardous, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, for tens of thousands of years. It's a challenge the plant's operators, and those who want to build two new nuclear plants there, say has been settled to their satisfaction. "We're in a very good position down there to manage the waste at the site," David Crane, CEO of NRG Energy, one of the partners in the proposed South Texas Project expansion, said this week. NRG would continue to store spent fuel in the pool, then convert it to dry storage. That involves encasing it in concrete on-site. Adding two plants would increase the amount stored, but plant officials say they can do it safely.

David Brockman's recent In Focus column lauding Fluor Hanford's 13-years' worth of accomplishments at the nuclear reservation was a puzzler. The praise heaped on the outgoing contractor by the Hanford operations manager was certainly justified. Indeed, Fluor's record -- as an environmental cleanup contractor and a generous corporate neighbor -- is commendable. But the list of accomplishments outlined in Brockman's column leads to an inescapable question.