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Japan Atomic Power Co. will continue operating Japan's oldest commercial-basis light-water reactor in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, through 2016, scrapping its initial plan to suspend its operation next year, its chief said Thursday. Hiroshi Morimoto, president of Japan Atomic Power, conveyed the decision in a meeting with Fukui prefectural officials. Japan Atomic Power had intended to cease operating the boiling-water No. 1 reactor in 2010 to coincide with planned start of operations of two new reactors - No. 3 and No. 4 reactors - at the Tsuruga nuclear plant.

Two small areas of radioactive contamination have been detected during a survey of grazing land adjacent to the former nuclear research site at Dounreay. They were excavated and removed to the site for analysis. One was identified as a 'minor' particle of fast reactor fuel and the other as soil contaminated with radioactivity. The finds were 5-30cm below the surface and covered by vegetation, indicating they are most likely to be historic in origin. Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd is carrying out an investigation. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has been informed. The field where the contamination was detected forms part of a 44-hectare site zoned for the construction of a disposal facility for low-level waste from the decommissioning and closure of the site.Previously, this area was earmarked for construction of the European Demonstration Reprocessing Plant. The survey is to establish a baseline of radioactivity levels prior to the start of construction of the low level waste facility. The survey is due for completion by the end of August.

Body-snatching, poisoning and infanticide, the nuclear industry does it all. Even if the mantra - "Nuclear is Carbon Free" were true - flying pigs are still flying pigs, not angels. If nuclear power led to freedom from oil then why is France's per capita consumption of oil higher than in non-nuclear Italy, nuclear phase-out Germany or the rest of the EU? Even if nuclear was everything the Government and industry claimed regarding CO2 - that would not justify new build.

Iran accused the U.S. on Friday of using "forged documents" and relying on subterfuge to make its case that Tehran is trying to build a nuclear weapon, according to a confidential letter obtained by The Associated Press. The eight-page letter - written by Iran's chief envoy to the U.N. nuclear agency in Vienna - denounces Washington's allegations against the Islamic Republic as "fabricated, baseless and false." The letter does not specify what documents Iran is alleging were forged. It also lashes out at Britain and France for "ill will and political motivation" in their dealings on Iran.

Foreign waste » EnergySolutions could win suit, lawmaker says, so Utah should consider capturing some of the revenue. A leading state senator, warning that Utah could lose its legal fight to keep out foreign radioactive waste, is urging the state to reconsider its options, including a hefty tax on the company that runs the disposal site. Senate Majority Leader Sheldon Killpack, R-Syracuse, said Friday that the state's case is problematic -- Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has told him as much -- and it would be wise to revisit EnergySolutions' offer to share its foreign-waste profits. Earlier this year, the company proposed splitting with the state a decade's worth of earnings -- up to $3 billion -- from foreign-waste disposal if Utah dropped its objections to such imports. Then-Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. rejected the offer but has since left office to be U.S. ambassador to China.

The Nunn town board has passed a resolution opposing a planned uranium mine near the northern Colorado town. The board voted 4-2 Thursday for the measure. One trustee abstained. The resolution can't prevent Powertech Uranium Corp. from building its mine. But the mine's opponents hope it will affect state decisions on the project. The Canadian company has proposed a $20 million uranium mine about 70 miles north of Denver. It has bought mineral rights and applied for permits. Powertech plans to use a process called in-situ mining, which involves pumping treated water into uranium-laced deposits to dissolve the mineral so the uranium can be pumped to the surface.

A former Raytheon Co. worker who says she suffered beryllium poisoning while working at the defense contractor's Waltham lab has won another round in her lawsuit. A federal appeals court in Boston has remanded Suzanne Genereux's lawsuit to the district court, but it upheld an earlier ruling that removed Raytheon from the dispute.

Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei - who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to prevent Bush-Cheney-Bolton from launching a war of aggression against Iraq on the basis of false accusations about Iraq's nuclear programs, then verified by ElBaradei to be in compliance with its Safeguards Agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency - has really had it tough the past several years. ElBaradei has had to contend with a Board of Governors that has acted in blatant disregard of the governing articles of the IAEA Statute, violating Iran's inalienable rights affirmed not only in Iran's Safeguards Agreement and in the IAEA Statute, but also affirmed by the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

Some 50,000 anti-nuclear protestors demonstrated in Berlin on Saturday against Germany possibly reversing a decision to abandon atomic energy and extending the life of its nuclear power plants. The marchers, backed by 400 tractors, demanded that Germany stick to its commitment to close all nuclear plants by 2020 and also called for the closure of a radioactive dump at Gorleben in eastern Germany. The police refused to give an estimate of the crowd but organisers - ranging from the Greens to members of the Protestant church - put the figure at 50,000 people, marching from the Berlin train station to the Brandenburg Gate.

Italian power company Edison SpA is willing to spend up to 4 billion euros ($5.7 billion) on domestic nuclear plants, Chief Executive Umberto Quadrino said in an interview published on Saturday. Nuclear power is a priority for Edison and when "the first stone for the first plant is laid, we will be there", he told business daily Il Sole 24 Ore. "And, between 2015 and 2025, we are ready to commit up to 4 billion euros," he said.

The Sudanese government announced today that it signed a framework agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on developing a nuclear energy program. The Sudanese cabinet session headed by President Omer Hassan Al-Bashir was briefed on the details of the agreement from minister of science and technology, Professor Ibrahim Ahmed Omer. The spokesperson of Sudan's cabinet, Omer Mohammed Saleh said the understanding between the two sides also includes using nuclear technology to improving productivity in agricultural and livestock, enhance infrastructure to treat cancer patients, uncovering drug resistant malaria, new energy sources, a study of groundwater basins and feeding it and the production of medical isotopes.

New technology is providing information on how contaminated ground water from the Hanford nuclear reservation may be entering the Columbia River. A study for the Department of Energy of where ground water seeps into the river and what contaminants it contains won't be completed until the end of the year. But already there is evidence showing ground water enters the Columbia River in upwellings away from its shores, said Larry Hulstrom, Washington Closure Hanford project lead for the Columbia River investigation. It's generally been assumed that ground water enters the river in seeps and springs within the first 6 feet of its banks. But some of the ground water may become trapped below a hard layer in the ground and only seeps into deep areas of the river, rather than at its shores. "We've never had the technology available to determine if it was upwelling further beyond 6 feet," Hulstrom said.

"Prepare to meet thy God," reads the small black-and-white sign in the yard at the end of this dusty county road in Karnes County. I'm looking for a string of open-pit uranium mines, now filled with water, where some locals fish, swim, and practice their water skiing. A San Antonio mechanic and Karnes County resident lost his 30-some acre lake (and former uranium mine) last year when the Texas Railroad Commission pumped out more than 122 million gallons, transferred about 70 foot-long big mouth bass to a nearby stock tank, and left him with a dry graded pit.

The ground rippled when a nuclear blast shattered the earth beneath Doghead Mountain south of Rulison 40 years ago, witnesses remember. "It was an ocean wave that came across the valley, and you could see it coming at you clear as a bell," said Cristy Koeneke, who was a college freshman watching the detonation of Project Rulison from an observation tent set up several miles away, across the Colorado River. The Project Rulison experiment was conducted Sept. 10, 1969. The federal government and private companies were trying to free natural gas from underground sandstone formations. The experiment continues to cause reverberations today because of the nuclear contamination it left behind. The gas Project Rulison produced was less than anticipated and too radioactive to use. But hydraulic fracturing subsequently has unlocked the enormous gas reserves in the Rulison area and elsewhere in the Piceance Basin

A proposed nuclear reactor that would power mining operations in Quebec's remote regions carries more risks than benefits, according to an environmental group. Western Troy is a mining company that plans to open up a copper mine in Lake McLeod, about 200 kilometres north of Chibougamau. The company has begun a feasibility study to investigate using a mini-nuclear reactor that could provide inexpensive power to the mine. Western Troy will need to provide at least 10 megawatts of electricity to power the operation, said Rex Loesby, company president. The nuclear reactor under study is a promising option, even though it poses certain problems, he told CBC News

Pius Henry fears his adopted government will kill him, that the United States won't live up to a health care obligation to people from Pacific islands where it tested nuclear bombs. Henry, a diabetic from the Marshall Islands, has received free dialysis treatments three times a week for years, but the cash-strapped state of Hawaii has threatened to cut off him and others to save money. Like thousands of legal migrants to Hawaii from independent Pacific nations, Henry believes the United States has a responsibility to provide health care to compensate for the radioactive fallout of 67 nuclear weapons tests from 1946 to 1958. "I don't have any option. I'm asking the government to help us," Henry said. "They say we're like U.S. citizens, but then they don't treat us the same. It's really unfair."

On a snowy day in December 1993, just months after Andy Weber began his diplomatic job at the U.S. Embassy in Almaty, Kazakhstan, he met with a tall, bullet-headed man he knew only as Col. Korbator. "Andy, let's take a walk," the colonel said. As they strolled through a dim apartment courtyard, Korbator handed Weber a piece of paper. Weber unfolded it. On the paper was written:

The Salt Lake City-based journalist was working on a manuscript for a nonfiction book about the nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site and the downwinders who attribute various health problems to those tests. During the research she told an actress about her own personal battle against thyroid cancer. It is one of the diseases eligible for compensation under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990 for people who lived in certain geographic areas during the Cold War-era above ground testing. Dickson's sister, Ann, also passed away from complications of lupus. Some downwinders and doctors believe there may be a connection between the testing and autoimmune diseases like lupus but there is no proof.

The question of a controversial law's constitutionality could halt new nuclear reactors in Georgia, such as the proposed Plant Vogtle. A group opposed to reactors on environmental grounds is using a legal challenge to the financing mechanism granted to Georgia Power during the last legislative session as a way to prevent what it considers to be an ecological mistake. Senate Bill 31 violates the state and federal constitutions on several points, argue lawyers for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. The group, which is based in Tennessee but has members and offices in Georgia, has often spoken out against nuclear power and in favor of solar and wind power. Sara Barczak, of the group's Savannah office, relied on environmental arguments in December when she testified against the plant before the Public Service Commission. "Downstream communities should be concerned about project water consumption at the proposed Vogtle site because consumptive water loss, especially during low river flows, can pose significant negative impacts to water quality and aquatic resources," she said.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued mid-cycle assessment letters to the nation's 104 operating commercial nuclear power plants. The agency's most recent assessments show that all plants continue to operate safely. "We ensure nuclear power plants are safe, inspecting them and rating their performance regularly, as part of our mission to protect people and the environment," said Bruce A. Boger, associate director for operating reactor oversight and licensing in the NRC's Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. For this assessment period, all 104 plants are in the two highest performance categories. There are five levels of plant performance based on a detailed assessment of performance indicators (e.g. safety system availability and reliability, control of radiation exposure and unplanned shutdowns) and inspection findings. Levels range from "meeting all safety cornerstone objectives" (highest level) to "unacceptable performance" (lowest level). Additional information on the Reactor Oversight Process is available at : http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr1649/r4/.