nuke.news

Overriding Western objections, a 150-nation nuclear conference on Friday passed a resolution directly criticizing Israel and its atomic program for the first time in 18 years. Iran hailed the vote as a "glorious moment." The result was a setback not only for Israel but also for the United States and other backers of the Jewish state, which had lobbied for 18 years of past practice - debate on the issue without a vote. It also reflected building tensions between Israel and its backers and Islamic nations, backed by developing countries. Of delegations present at the International Atomic Energy Agency meeting Friday, 49 voted for the resolution. Forty-five were against and 16 abstained from endorsing or rejecting the document, which "expresses concern about the Israeli nuclear capabilities," and links it to "concern about the threat posed by the proliferation of nuclear weapons for the security and stability of the Middle East."

Kenya has been re-elected to the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after a 26 -year absence. This follows strong lobbying by a team led by Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka and Higher Education Minister Sally Kosgei at the 53rd IAEA congress.

The Associated Press earlier today leaked the details of what it believes is the "secret annex" to the IAEA report on Iran, which claims that the IAEA "assesses that Iran has sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable implosion nuclear device based on HEU as the fission fuel." The IAEA would not confirm the authenticity of the document, but reiterated that it has "no concrete proof that there is or has been a nuclear weapon programme in Iran."

India's status as a nuclear power has been described as a "myth" by the scientist who carried out its controversial hydrogen bomb tests in 1998. He said the device had only "fizzled". The claims by the test director K Santhanam have provoked an outcry in India which treasures its nuclear status as a symbol of its power in Asia where it has been locked in an arms race with both Pakistan and China. The Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh recently unveiled India's first nuclear submarine as a statement of its naval ambitions. But according to K. Santhanam, who directed the secret detonations of five Shakt' nuclear devices at their nuclear test site at Pokhran, in the Rajasthan desert, the true test results were covered up and falsely hailed as a success by the Hindu nationalist BJP government.

The Belarusian government's report on the possible environmental impact of its future nuclear power plant does not address key issues, Russian environmental activist Andrei Ozharovsky said in an interview with BelaPAN. "It is a sloppy, incomplete and misleading report," Mr. Ozharovsky said. "The document gives the impression that it is not the result of an unbiased assessment but just the parroting of some campaign slogans provided to the Belarusian authors by Russia`s Rosatom nuclear energy corporation." "The 130-page report does not assess the impact of nuclear waste and spent nuclear fuel management," he said. "Neither does it assess the plant's impact following its closure." The report was under discussion at a meeting held at the Belarusian environmental protection ministry on Friday. Mr. Ozharovsky, coordinator of the Moscow-based Ecozashchita (Eco Protection) group, took part in the discussion of the ministry's Public Coordination Environmental Council.

After protests, NRC agrees to reschedule hearing slated for point equidistant - and far - from Diablo Canyon and San Onofre plants Bowing to local pressure, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission has agreed to reschedule a hearing to take public comment on generic rules governing the renewal of nuclear power plant licenses. The meeting had been set for Tuesday evening in Westlake Village, a Los Angeles County town near Thousand Oaks. However, local elected officials and activists argued that San Luis Obispo County residents were unlikely to attend a meeting held about 160 miles away. The agency has agreed to postpone the hearing to an undetermined later date and location, said Roger Hannah, NRC spokesman.

Construction workers at Department of Energy nuclear sites, including Oak Ridge, had a significantly increased rate of cancer deaths, according to a study published recently in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine. Oak Ridge, in particular, had an abnormally high number of deaths attributed to non-Hodgkins lymphoma - a type of cancer sometimes linked to radiation exposure. The study, which was funded by DOE as part of a medical surveillance program, looked at death numbers and death causes among 8,976 former construction workers at four DOE sites: Oak Ridge; Hanford, near Richland, Wash.; Savannah River, near Aiken, S.C.; and Amchitka, an Alaskan island once used for nuclear weapons testing. The overall mortality rate of the study group was slightly lower than the U.S. population as a whole, but that's expected when looking at any group of steadily employed workers with access to health care, according to Dr. John Dement, the lead researcher and professor of occupational medicine at Duke University.

Florida Power & Light must be stopped from endangering our lives, destroying our water supply and making us pay for it. FPL plans to double the number of nuclear reactors at Turkey Point and to continue storing nuclear waste on-site indefinitely. Radioactive tritium leaks reveal the existing cooling canals already push saltwater into South Dade well fields -- new reactors will hasten this process. Further, FPL intends to run above-ground 230,000 volt transmission lines through Biscayne and Everglades National Parks, then up U.S. 1 adjacent to schools, hospitals, residences, businesses and commuter lines. In study after study, cancer rates are elevated along high voltage transmission corridors. FPL's own consultant stated these cancer risks cannot be dismissed.

Warren F. "Pete" Miller, Jr. has been selected by President Barack Obama to fill two posts that oversee each end of nuclear energy-supplying it and storing its waste. First, Miller was nominated to be Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy in the Department of Energy, and about a week later, he was also chosen to serve as director of Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. Industry observers believe Miller's latter role will involve carrying out Obama's wishes to end the controversial project to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Miller was confirmed by the Senate for the first position on August 7, 2009, but his confirmation for the radioactive waste role was held up by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), who opposes the closing of Yucca Mountain. Born in Chicago on March 17, 1943, Miller is one of five children raised by Warren F. Miller, Sr., and Helen Robinson Miller. His father worked as a milkman, delivering dairy products to homes in the Chicago area, and his mother worked as a secretary at the University of Chicago. Miller attended all-black inner city schools while growing up, and during high school, he enrolled in the Reserve Officers Training Corps, becoming commander of his ROTC unit.

A nuclear power station has been sent a final warning letter after radioactive waste leaked into the sea. Around 2600 litres of low-level waste was discharged from Hunterston B into the Firth of Clyde because of a problem with a valve. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) said the leak did not cause an environmental issue, but it issued the Ayrshire power station with a final warning letter because procedures were not followed. Extracts from a letter sent by SEPA radioactive substances specialist Keith Hammond to the director of Hunterston B on July 8 emerged in the Sunday Herald. He wrote: ''SEPA is deeply concerned over this matter.

Steam-cleaning technology created by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was used to clean a Superfund site in Visalia, in California's Central Valley - and the job was finished a century earlier than first expected. Utility company Southern California Edison used the site to soak wooden utility poles in creosote and other protective chemicals for some 80 years. Those chemicals contaminated the soil and underground water in the area. By the 1970s, the chemicals had seeped down as much as 100 feet in places. The site, called the Visalia Pole Yard, was one of the first Superfund sites, part of a federal government cleanup program for very toxic places. Superfund sites are on the National Priorities List of the Environmental Protection Agency because they may seriously threaten public health.

Steam-cleaning technology created by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was used to clean a Superfund site in Visalia, in California's Central Valley - and the job was finished a century earlier than first expected. Utility company Southern California Edison used the site to soak wooden utility poles in creosote and other protective chemicals for some 80 years. Those chemicals contaminated the soil and underground water in the area. By the 1970s, the chemicals had seeped down as much as 100 feet in places. The site, called the Visalia Pole Yard, was one of the first Superfund sites, part of a federal government cleanup program for very toxic places. Superfund sites are on the National Priorities List of the Environmental Protection Agency because they may seriously threaten public health.

The first shipment of nuclear waste byproduct has been delivered to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in the southeastern corner of New Mexico. The Department of Energy said the shipment arrived safely early Friday morning. The DOE estimates that about 30-40 shipments will be sent from a facility in California to WIPP. The waste is a byproduct of the nation's nuclear defense program. It consists of tools, rags, protective clothing, sludge, soil and other materials contaminated with radioactive elements that have atomic numbers greater than uranium. The material arrives by truck in lead-lined casks certified by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

State says material 'doesn't really present that much of a hazard'; plans to truck sulfuric acid into Montrose County site MONTROSE - Opponents of a proposed uranium mill in southwestern Colorado near the Utah state line may be relieved to hear that state officials in charge of overseeing the transport of incoming ore and outgoing yellowcake don't actually consider such things "nuclear materials." Uranium yellowcake and sulfuric acid would be carted along I-70 in Colorado By state statute, uranium ore and processed yellowcake, used to make fuel rods for nuclear reactors, are considered mere hazardous materials and therefore not limited to transportation along the state's designated nuclear materials routes. "When you're dealing with yellowcake shipments, they get carried in pretty much a dump truck," said Capt. Allan Turner of the Colorado State Patrol's Hazardous Materials Transport Safety and Response (HMTSR) team.

Weapons Complex Monitor reports that the Dept. of Energy is investigating an ethics complaint filed against Cynthia Anderson, who heads the Recovery Act efforts for DOE's Office of Environmental Management. The newsletter's Mike Nartker reported that the investigation was prompted by an anonymous complaint, which alleged improper acts in hiring-related activities at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and other issues. The newsletter received a copy of the complaint, which also was reportedly sent to U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., the House Majority Whip, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and others. In a statement, DOE spokeswoman Shari Taylor Davenport told the newsletter, "The Department of Energy takes allegations of unethical behavior seriously and is looking into the matter."

While the state has given approval to construct two nuclear power plants nearby in Levy County, some local officials did not have any safety concerns about having a nuclear power plant so close. In fact, the only concern raised about building the plants centered on the financial impact they would have. "You don't really hear of any accidents involving nuclear reactors on Navy ships," Alachua City Commissioner Jean Calderwood said. "Looking back on the history of nuclear power plants, I would say we are standing on pretty solid ground." High Springs Mayor Jim Gabriel, who said he doesn't have much background knowledge of the proposed Levy plants, said he is generally in favor of a nuclear power plant.

Whenever I read anything in the newspaper about the proposed purchase by Electricite de France of 49.99% of Constellation Energy's nuclear business, I cringe. The French company wants to build a double-size third nuclear reactor at Calvert Cliffs. The mere existence of any nuclear reactor causes unimaginable harm to the public and environment every-single-day. Plutonium is considered weapons-grade when it contains 93 percent Pu-239. The plutonium that would be used in the new reactor is 94 percent Pu-239. A single speck of Pu-239 in the lung will cause lung cancer. Pu-239 has a half life of a bit over 24,000 years. This is a major health risk.

Sibel Edmonds, former contract-FBI translator/whistleblower and "most gagged person in U.S. history" has finally told all - to Antiwar.com's Philip Giraldi. It's all in the cover story for November's issue of The American Conservative magazine, "Who's Afraid of Sibel Edmonds?" which hits the stands (and Website) on Tuesday. Last month, Edmonds was deposed in a civil lawsuit for 6 hours (video and transcript here), and told as much of her story as she ever has, and all together in one place. Now, however, she has gone much further and apparently told Giraldi everything, less sources and methods.

It will be the biggest radioactive waste cleanup in Canadian history. An estimated 1.2 million cubic metres of soil contaminated with historic low-level radioactive waste and industrial toxins -- enough to fill almost 500 Olympic-size pools -- will be dug up in this town east of Toronto and trucked to a new storage facility north of town, where it will be sealed for centuries. Approval for the monumental $260-million-plus task, expected within weeks, will mark a major milestone in a decades-long fight to eradicate a dark stain on the town. Starting in the 1930s, the waterfront Cameco refinery, formerly Eldorado Nuclear Ltd., refined radium used for treating cancer and uranium that helped the Manhattan Project develop the first atomic bombs. Until a cleanup in the mid-1970s, low-level radioactive by-products and other toxins entered the environment through use of contaminated fill, and to some extent through sloppy transport and water and wind erosion in storage areas.

Prime Minister John Key will use his first speech to the United Nations to underscore his Government's commitment to a nuclear-free New Zealand. In the first speech by a National prime minister to the UN General Assembly in nearly 15 years, Key will reaffirm New Zealand's anti-nuclear credentials and emphasise its determination to keep an independent foreign policy. It is significant that he is making the speech while on his first official visit to the United States, which has been a fault line in foreign policy between Labour and National for most of the past two decades. The issue flared again when Labour opposed the Iraq war while National was still in Opposition. But Key drew a line in the sand before the last election by promising his commitment to a nuclear-free New Zealand and an independent foreign policy. He will use his speech to the General Assembly on Saturday to stress the new bipartisan approach.

Turkey's plans to buy missile systems from the US should not be interpreted as a willingness to host missile defence shield components on its territory, Turkish daily Today's Zaman said on September 21. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has denied media reports that Turkey is buying missile interceptors against a threat posed by Iran, the daily said. Iran was the main target of the missile defence shield initiative of former US president George W Bush, to be deployed in Poland and the Czech Republic, scrapped by Barack Obama on September 17. Having rebuffed the Bush administration on the plans to put missiles on its soil, Turkey re-inforced its stance that it would host Nato equipment, but not join US initiatives outside the alliance's framework. With reports in the US saying that the department of defence notified congre