The weekly Radiation Bulletin has been published since 1985 by the Abalone Alliance Clearinghouse (SF California USA). It is produced using a combination of social bookmarking and programming.

Every week there are up 1,000 nuclear articles published. The Rad Bull distills this into a digestible stew.

Click on the Green Highlighted bars to access content. To access the full story click on the Story's Title.

News Library Subjects

Best stories	Reactors	Safety	Fuel Cycle	N-Waste
Policy	Weapons	DOE	NRC	Legislation

Each of the above links will take you to the best archived stories - latest to earliest - that has been covered by the Radiation Bulletin. The library currently consists of over 13,000 articles from around the world. There are also over 1,000 other searchable tags as well. Here is the the main news library. Its based on the Web 2.0 concept of publicly shared bookmarking. For more on Social bookmarking watch this Youtube video.

Another week of fairly busy activity. Internationally, Greenpeace was quite active with protests in Sweden, a new report out of the UK on government give-aways and calls to cancel India's liabilty legislation that would allow US companies to walk away from nuclear accident. Japan released a safety report that left at least one reactor closed afterwards. UK's new government as promised will not give government loans to the private sector, canceling an 80 million pound loan in mid air. In a very intresting story out of Greece, we have a poster animal, in fact, one of the most endangered in the world being threatened by uranium! Besides the protest in Sweden, there were also two more in the UK and India. There was an international GNEP conference held in Africa. Also on a lighter side, WISE and LAKA are doing a global anti-nuclear poster book and are looking for submissions.

On the US front, the DOE finalized its loan for the new Vogtle reactors in Georgia. The NRC was fairly busy holdings a number of hearings around the country as well as releasing a DEIS on a North Carolina enrichment facility by General Electric-Hitachi.

The verdict in the Bhopal gas tragedy case has sparked renewed protests against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) by locals who are prepared to strongly oppose the installation of three more proposed units " III, IV and V " at the atomic power plant.

Street campaigns and public meetings have been organised against the new units after villagers, dismayed by the Bhopal judgement, discovered that the officials in the six districts that will be worst affected in case of a disaster at the plant have no emergency preparedness plan.

The street campaigns and three public meetings against Koodankulam in Kanyakumari district after the Bhopal verdict attracted a good audience, said National Alliance of Anti-nuclear Movements coordinator S.P. Udayakumar. "The Nadars and Pillaimars earlier kept away from the anti-nuclear and anti-Koodankulam campaigns, calling them anti-development," he noted. "But the Bhopal verdict made them realise how irresponsible our government is towards people' safety."

Russia and Ukraine have signed an intergovernmental agreement to finish the construction of Reactor Units 3 and 4 at Ukraine' Khmelnitsky Nuclear Power Plant. This means Russia will effectively foot the bill for completing a long-obsolete project developed as far back as when the two nations were still part of the Soviet Union. Andrei Ozharovsky, 09/06-2010 Andrei Ozharovsky, 17/06-2010 - Translated by Maria Kaminskaya

The agreement was signed on June 9 in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, by Ukraine' Minister of Fuel and Energy Yury Boiko and Russia' head of the state nuclear corporation Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko.

The deal sees Russia unfreezing the construction of Units 3 and 4 at Khmelnitsky Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) a site located 40 kilometres from the city of Rovno, in Ukraine' Khmelnitsky Region. The plant was built in 1981."

Japanese utility Chugoku Electric Power Co said on Thursday it would keep its sole Shimane nuclear plant shut indefinitely.

The closure is due to an extended government inspection following the discovery of extensive inadequate checks of the plant's equipment,it said.

The company shut 460-megawatt Shimane No.1 reactor for a voluntary inspection in March, with no schedule for a restart, after discovering that hundreds of pieces of equipment at the plant had not been properly inspected."

In the most "Woody Allen esque" protest I've seen in a while, 50 activists dressed as renewable energy sources (sun, wind, water) used a fire truck to get into one of the dodgiest nuclear plants in Sweden.

I'm going in!

They want their govenment to follow through on a decades old national referendum to phase out nuclear power. The Swedish parliment will vote this week on whether to stick to the nuclear power phase out, or backslide and open the door to new reactors.

Our man in Sweden says:

"The Swedish parliament is risking the country' reputation and position as a progressive leader in clean and safe energy development. All the evidence shows that nuclear power is a dangerous, expensive and dead-end distraction from the real solutions to climate protection and energy security. Reactors are standing in the way of energy efficiency and renewable energy programs."
-- Ludvig Tillman, energy campaigner for Greenpeace Nordic."

Police in Sweden arrested dozens of Greenpeace activists on Monday after they broke into the Forsmark nuclear power plant ahead of a planned vote this week on whether to replace the country's existing reactors.

The activists entered Forsmark some 115 kilometers north of Stockholm early on Monday and several gained access to a building rooftop, police said. The protestors did not enter any of the operating areas."

Nearly half of Japan's 54 commercial nuclear power reactors had problems that needed to be addressed during operations last financial year but none required operations to be suspended, a report said on Monday.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency report said 21 reactors had "significant issues" over occurrences or safety, two needed more inspections and 29 had little or no problem.

"The report is to identify problems that need to be addressed so we can prioritise inspections and use our limited resources effectively," said an official at the agency, an affiliate of the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry."

Canada's nuclear watchdog is fast-tracking a request for a hearing to consider reopening the country's aging medical isotope-producing reactor.

Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. made a request Friday for a formal hearing in hopes of restarting medical isotope production at the Ontario plant by mid-summer.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has not yet scheduled a hearing, which is expected to take one day, but it said the date would be announced quickly and normal hearing rules will be tossed aside to deal with what it calls a priority case. "

A new nuclear energy power station must not be built in the Pyhäjoki region in Finland's northern Ostrobothnia because of the rich bird population in the area, according a statement by BirdLife Finland on Friday.

According to BirdLife, the area has a diverse population of birds and is part of an important migratory path for large birds, which would suffer from the construction of a nuclear power plant.

BirdLife is also concerned about the local nature and feels that plans to build the new power station neglect the importance of wildlife.

The government has presented a new nuclear power station construction permit to Finnish utility Fennovoima, but the company has yet to decide whether to build the station in Pyhäjoki or Simo, in northern Finland."

Breaks Under Kerry-Lieberman Wipe Out Risk for Utilities Already Benefiting From Massive Loan Guarantees

Earth Track Analysis Finds That Just Two of the Subsidies Add Another $1.3 Billion to $3 Billion in Tax Breaks Per Reactor; May Make It More Likely Taxpayers Will Face Downside Risk.

Washington, DC -- The nuclear industry could end up facing no risk under massive tax break subsidies in the Kerry-Lieberman climate bill, according to an important new analysis conducted for Friends of the Earth by the research organization Earth Track. These tax breaks totaling $9.7 billion to $57.3 billion (depending on the type and number of reactors) would come on top of the Kerry-Lieberman measure's lucrative $35.5 billion addition to the more than $22.5 billion in loan guarantees already slated for nuclear power.

Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica said: "Doling out an additional $1.3-$3 billion in tax breaks per new reactor means the industry would be at the table playing almost entirely with taxpayer money. Industry will have little to lose when a reactor goes belly up. While taxpayers are bankrolling the industry's nuclear gamble they would share in none of the reactor's financial returns. In fact, all taxpayers will receive if the reactors are built is responsibility for disposing of the waste. By contrast, investors stand to make billions with no risk should their reactor gambit goes belly up and enter bankruptcy."

Southern Company Chairman, President and CEO David M. Ratcliffe today announced that the company's Georgia Power subsidiary has reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to accept terms for a conditional commitment for loan guarantees.

"This will provide Georgia Power customers significant savings," said Georgia Power President and CEO Mike Garrett.

President Obama and DOE Secretary Steven Chu announced the award of the conditional loan guarantees to Georgia Power on February 16.

"This is another step forward on the road to nuclear power playing a prominent role in America's energy future," said Ratcliffe. "Nuclear energy is vital in any effort to make meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and meet this nation's rising demand for electricity. This conditional commitment is an endorsement of the company's performance as a safe, efficient nuclear operator with strong financial integrity." "

The federal regulators that are considering granting a license for DTE Energy' proposed Fermi 3 nuclear reactor have agreed to investigate quality assurance violations associated with plans for the new reactor.

Last fall the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a notice of violation to DTE for failing to have a plan to ensure that work done by contractors met standards.

According to the NRC, quality assurance (QA) comprises all planned and systematic actions that are necessary to provide adequate confidence that a structure, system, or component will perform satisfactorily in service. Attributes of a QA program include procedures, recordkeeping, inspections, corrective actions, and audits.

In June 15 ruling the Nuclear Regulatory Commission' Atomic Safety and Licensing board responded to a petition by a coalition of environmental groups by agreeing to hold a formal hearing on the issue of quality assurance violations."

A public hearing on Duke Energy Carolinas' plan for a third cooling water pond at its proposed Lee Nuclear Station quickly devolved into pro- and anti-plant factions talking past each other.

Not that the people did not have important things to say. But in the two-hour hearing Thursday night in Gaffney, S.C., only a few of the presentations involved the proposed pond and the plant' impact on the Broad River, which will provide the cooling water.

Instead, the discussion tended to be about the pros and cons of nuclear energy.

Supporters contended Duke has a strong nuclear safety record and the plant is needed to provide power and jobs for the Carolinas."

For the past two years, operators at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant have had trouble identifying and resolving low-level safety problems.

That is one of the key findings that will be discussed at a town hall-style meeting of the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission on June 29 in San Luis Obispo.

The public will have two opportunities that day to learn about and comment on the agency' assessment of the plant' safety performance in 2009.

Conservation Law Foundation officials called for the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant to shut down, citing the recent leaks in the site' underground piping and within its main reactor building.

Calling nuclear power "last century' technology," a panel of CLF delegates criticized the Vernon plant for its recent safety record and advocated for a more sustainable energy future in New England during a Thursday evening public forum in downtown Brattleboro.

Nearly 50 people from Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts attended the event.

CLF Senior Attorney Sandy Levine said Vermont Yankee should shut down the plant because of the continuing contamination at the site and into the Connecticut River.

"The plant should not be operating while this is ongoing," she said. "And we wanted to put this in a more regional context, it' not just Vermont. What happens to Vermont Yankee matters throughout the region." "

Forty miles north of Chicago, along the shore of Lake Michigan, gun-toting guards still warily prowl the grounds of the Zion Nuclear Power Station.

Inside, the control room remains staffed by engineers who check radiation levels throughout the plant. But their numbers are far fewer than before 1998, when the two reactors went permanently dark.

"A lot of people are surprised, because they think they're going to find tumbleweeds and the place just falling apart," plant manager Ron Schuster said.

Schuster stood in the shadow of the 10-story building, its outer wall made of reinforced concrete 3 feet thick, that houses one of the dormant reactors. Workers venture inside only about twice a month now, for inspections and maintenance."

As utilities seek to build new nuclear power plants in the U.S. and around the world, the latest generation of reactors feature improvements over older technologies. But even as attention focuses on nuclear as an alternative to fossil fuels, questions remain about whether the newer reactors are sufficiently foolproof to be adopted on a large scale.

In 2007, the first application to build a new reactor in the United States in more than three decades was filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). By the end of that year, four more applications had landed at the agency. In 2008, 12 additional applications arrived, with one more filed in 2009. Nuclear backers proclaimed a "renaissance" underway.

The NRC, which over the years had lost personnel because of a shortage of work, geared up, hiring 1,000 new staffers to handle the licensing requests. Things got so crowded at the Office of New Reactors that in May the agency broke ground for a third office building in suburban Washington."

A radioactive leak occurred at a Chinese nuclear power plant last month but has just been made public.

Radio Free Asia reported that "radioactive iodine and noble gas" were in high levels around Southern China's Shenzhen's Daya Bay nuclear power station plant and that the May 23 leak had been covered up.

Hong Kong electric utility CLP has a 25 percent stake in the power plant, which is 75 percent owned by China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group. The plant, 31 miles from Hong Kong's Tsim Sha Tsui district, supplies 70 percent of its electricity to Hong Kong."

Hair samples of disabled children contains Uranium and other dangerous heavy metals

BATHINDA: The high level of Uranium and other dangerous heavy metals present in water samples from the region is responsible for retarded children, mainly from southern Malwa region. It is crippling children's brain.

This was confirmed by Germany' Microtrace Mineral Lab which revealed that hair samples taken from 80% of the neurologically disabled children, and thier drinking water contains high levels of uranium, a radioactive element.

The report also confirms the presence of dangerous heavy metals in water, questioning high use of chemicals to support state' green revolution.

The possible source of uranium is the depleted uranium used by US nuclear warheads that were deployed in its war against Iraq.

There were high level of uranium in the drinking water sources and nearly all kinds of heavy metals in the hair samples of 149 children and a few adults at the Baba Farid Centre for Special Children in Faridkot, confirms the report.

China' Daya Bay nuclear power plant had a "very small leakage" from a fuel rod last month that has been contained, CLP Holdings Ltd., Hong Kong' biggest electricity supplier, said in a statement.

A "small increase" in radioactive substances were detected in cooling water at the plant' Unit 2 on May 23, according to the statement sent today. "The reactor cooling water is sealed in completely and isolated from the external environment, thus causing no impact to the public," it said."

Confirming Punjab's worst fears and TOI reports, a document from Germany's Microtrace Mineral Lab has revealed that hair samples of 80% of 149 neurologically-disabled children, mainly from Punjab's Malwa region, have high levels of uranium. The report also establishes the presence of dangerous heavy metals in water.

The presence of the radioactive element has strengthened doubts that depleted uranium used by US tanks in Iraq and Afghanistan was travelling through air, reaching not just Punjab but Delhi as well. TOI was first to report the suspected presence of uranium traces in the hair of kids undergoing treatment at Baba Farid Centre for Special Children.

The government has no plans to bring forward the commercial operations of the fourth nuclear power plant as safety remains its top priority, Executive Yuan spokesman Johnny Chiang said.

Chiang dismissed local media reports that Premier Wu Den-yih had asked the plant's builders to move its scheduled opening from the end of next year to Oct. 10 to coincide with the country's 100th founding anniversary next year.

Chiang said the premier was briefed by officials from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Atomic Energy Council and Taiwan Power Company earlier on Friday on the plant's construction progress, and Wu instructed them to monitor its building to ensure its safety."

A Toronto businessman accused of sending devices that could be used to build nuclear weapons in Iran was concealing his crime by ripping off their labels, the Crown charged Friday.

Federal prosecutors Bradley Reitz and Jennifer Conroy made their closing arguments against Iranian-born Mahmoud "David" Yadegari, 36, who is the first Canadian to be tried under UN anti-nuclear provisions.

"Why would Yadegari remove the labels (indicating they were pressure transducers) on the equipment that he was shipping to Iran," Reitz said. "

Despite scrambling in the aftermath of a real-life tornado, Monroe County emergency response officials reacted well this week to an imaginary earthquake that led to a simulated release of radioactivity from DTE Energy' Fermi 2 nuclear plant, federal observers said.
It was part of a periodic, mandated emergency response drill that was held Tuesday meant to show that state and county officials could respond properly if there was a real disaster at the plant.
"Our findings indicate that the State of Michigan and counties of Monroe and Wayne continue to demonstrate the capabilities to protect the health and safety of their residents living within a 10-mile radius of the plant," said Dwaine Warren, exercise director for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. "

What usually comes to mind when one hears about radiation is nuclear energy or anything that is radioactive. But few realize that radiation has numerous benefits, and agriculture is one of the areas that largely gain from it.

The Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI) of the Department of Science and Technology which is the sole agency of the government that advances and regulates the safe and peaceful applications of nuclear science and technology in the country, identifies agriculture and natural resources as among its priority areas.

Researchers from PNRI have been developing improved crop varieties through mutation, a non-conventional method of plant breeding which uses mutational agents (mutagens) such as radiation or chemicals e.g. ethyl methyl sulfonate (EMS)"

NRC News	Accident Reports	NRC Regulations	New Licenses	NRC Responsibilities
NRC Meetings	Public Comment	Radioactive Waste	ASLB	Radbull News Library

The above links will take you to the most important Nuclear Regulatory Commission activities.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission today announced the opportunity for public participation in a hearing on a Combined License (COL) application for two new reactors at the Turkey Point site near Homestead, Fla.

Florida Power & Light submitted the COL application June 30, 2009, seeking approval to build and operate two AP1000 reactors at the site, approximately 40 miles south of Miami. The Turkey Point application, minus proprietary or security-related details, is available on the NRC Web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/col/turkey-point.html.

The NRC staff has determined that the application contains sufficient information for the agency to formally "docket," or file, the application and begin its technical review. Docketing the application does not preclude additional requests for information as the review proceeds; nor does it indicate whether the Commission will issue the license. The docket numbers established for this application are 52-040 and 52-041.

The NRC has issued in the Federal Register a notice of opportunity to intervene in the proceeding on the application, and the deadline for requesting a hearing is Aug. 17. Petitions may be filed by anyone whose interest may be affected by the proposed license, who wishes to participate as a party in the proceeding, and who meets criteria set out in the NRC' regulations. Background information regarding the hearing process was provided by NRC staff to members of the public during an April 2009 meeting in Homestead."

On January 30, 2009, General Electric (GE)-Hitachi Global Laser Enrichment LLC (GLE) submitted an environmental report to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a license to construct, operate, and decommission the GLE Global Laser Enrichment Facility. The proposed GLE Facility would be located in the North-Central Sector of the existing GE property near Wilmington, North Carolina. The proposed GLE Facility, if licensed, would enrich uranium for use in commercial nuclear fuel for power reactors. Feed material would be comprised of non-enriched uranium hexafluoride (UF6). GLE would employ a laser-based enrichment process to enrich uranium to up to eight percent uranium-235 by weight, with an initial planned maximum target production of six million separative work units (SWUs) per year. GLE expects to begin preconstruction activities in 2011. If the license is approved, GLE would expect to begin facility construction in 2012, and continue some construction activities through 2017. GLE anticipates commencing initial production in 2013 and reaching peak production in 2017. Prior to license expiration in 2052, GLE would seek to renew its license to continue operating the facility, or plan for the decontamination and decommissioning of the facility per the applicable licensing conditions and NRC regulations. The proposed GLE Facility would be licensed in accordance with the provisions of the Atomic Energy Act. Specifically, an NRC license under Title 10, "Energy," of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Parts 30, 40, and 70 would be required to authorize GLE to possess and use special nuclear material, source material, and byproduct material at the proposed GLE site."

New Hampshire Rep. Paul Hodes demanded on Wednesday that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission "answer for its lack of heightened oversight of the troubled Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant."

In a letter submitted to Gregory B. Jaczko, chairman of the NRC, Hodes wrote that the NRC's "lax oversight has allowed Vermont Yankee to continue operating despite a safety record featuring frequent, repeated radioactive leaks."

He also demanded that the NRC shut down Yankee until an audit of the plant's safety has been conducted.

"Families in the emergency planning zone have lost faith in regulators that time and time again allowed Vermont Yankee inspections to miss radioactive leaks," stated Hodes, in a press release.

Less than one month ago, stated Hodes, Yankee underwent security and safety inspections as part of a scheduled reactor shutdown. "

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced today that an application for a 20-year renewal of the operating license for Seabrook Station is available for public review.

Seabrook Station is a pressurized-water nuclear reactor, located 13 miles south of Portsmouth, N.H., and the plant' current operating license expires on March 15, 2030.

The licensee, NextEra Energy Seabrook, submitted the renewal application June 1. The application is available on the NRC Web site at this address: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/applications/seabrook.html.

The NRC staff is currently conducting an initial review of the application to determine whether it contains enough information for the required formal review. If the application has sufficient information, the NRC will formally "docket," or file, the application and will announce an opportunity to request a public hearing.
For further information, contact Rick Plasse or Jeremy Susco at the Division of License Renewal, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Mail Stop O11-F1, Washington, D.C. 20555; telephone (301) 415-1427 for Rick Plasse or (301) 415-2927 for Jeremy Susco."

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has accepted for review the Early Site Permit (ESP) application for the Victoria County site near Victoria, Texas.

The applicant, Exelon Nuclear Texas Holdings, submitted the application and associated information on March 25. The application, minus proprietary and security-related details, is available on the NRC Web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/esp/victoria.html.

Exelon' ESP application seeks resolution of safety and environmental issues for the site, approximately 13 miles south of Victoria. Docketing the Victoria County application does not indicate whether the Commission will approve or reject the request. The NRC has established docket number 52-042 for this application, and the agency will subsequently publish a notice of opportunity to intervene in the required adjudicatory hearing. Petitions to intervene in a hearing may be filed within 60 days of the notice, by anyone whose interest may be affected by the proposed license and who wishes to participate as a party in the proceeding. More information on the hearing process is available on the NRC Web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/regulatory/adjudicatory/hearing.html. "

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has authorized startup of a $3 billion uranium enrichment plant in New Mexico, the first major nuclear facility to be licensed in the US in the past three decades.

NRC officials said in a news release Thursday they are satisfied the facility can begin operations.

The Louisiana Energy Services facility near Eunice will use an enrichment process that employs centrifuges to separate uranium isotopes. The enriched uranium will supply fuel for nuclear power plants in the US and overseas.

LES president and chief executive Gregory Smith calls the NRC approval "a turning point" for the nation's nuclear industry.

The technology used at the New Mexico plant has been in place in Europe for more than 30 years."

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is proposing a rule change that would allow hotter radioactive waste to be mixed with less hazardous waste so it could be disposed of in Utah.

Utah is home to the only low-level radioactive waste facility available to 36 states. But it only disposes of Class A waste, considered the least hazardous.

NRC regulators are proposing the blending of hotter Class B and C waste with Class A waste so that it can legally come to Utah.

Much of the nation's class B and C waste has had no place to go in the past two years since a South Carolina facility was closed to all but three states.

An NRC paper cites industry estimates that blended waste could slash the volume of orphaned Class B and Class C waste by two-thirds, from 12,000 cubic feet a year to about 4,000 cubic feet."

Russia and Kazakhstan are on the brink of signing a number of documents on cooperation in the nuclear sphere, the head of the Russian atomic energy company Rosatom said on Saturday.

Sergei Kiriyenko said while he was in Kazakhstan on Thursday, cooperation in the nuclear sphere was discussed between Russia and Kazakhstan.

"A wide range of documents are on the deciding stage and the 'last leg' of these documents will be finished in a short period of time," Kirieyenko said at the sidelines of the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg."

The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership Steering Group met in Accra, Ghana on June 16-17, 2010 and approved unanimously several transformative changes to reflect global developments that have occurred since the Partnership was established in 2007. The transformation includes a new name - the International Framework for Nuclear Energy Cooperation -- and the establishment of a new Statement of Mission.

Participants in this new International Framework agreed that this transformation was necessary to provide a broader scope with wider international participation to more effectively explore the most important issues underlying the use and expansion of nuclear energy worldwide.

The Steering Group addressed follow-up actions to the International Framework's Executive Committee Meeting that occurred in Beijing on October 23, 2009, including ways to further enhance its activities, such as exchanges of views on approaches to assurances of fuel supply and cradle-to-grave nuclear fuel management. Jordan formally announced that it will host the next meeting of the International Framework's Executive Committee in the fall of 2010."

Greek conservationists from the Greek NGO, Archipelagos, work to protect endangered common dolphins and monk seals and also the region's marine ecosystems from the effects of overfishing, shipping, and the military. Dr Anastasia Miliou, manager and head scientist from Archipelagos Institute of Marine and Environmental Research of the Aegean Sea, based on the Greek island of Samos in the eastern Aegean, explains about seals, uranium deposits and sonar

Monk seal An endangered monk seal. Photograph: Phil Mislinski/Getty Images

The Mediterranean monk seal is the world's rarest and most endangered marine mammal. Its population is less than 450 and one of the most important remaining populations survives in the Aegean region. We are urging fishing communities and authorities to understand that the marine biodiversity needs to be conserved, not only for the sake of productive marine ecosystems or the endangered species, but also for the benefit of human communities, whose livelihood depends on the health and productivity of the seas."

A New Mexico-based uranium producer plans to move forward with a mining operation in the western part of the state after that a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that its land is not part of Indian Country.

The full 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver ruled in a 6-5 decision that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency erred when it determined that a parcel of land near the Navajo community of Church Rock was Indian land.

The decision means that Hydro Resources Inc. can seek an underground injection control permit from the state of New Mexico rather than the EPA, which has permitting authority on tribal lands."

Throughout a long public process concerning the approval of what could be the nation' first new uranium mill constructed in nearly three decades, project supporters have largely rejected arguments made by opponents as being overly emotional and lacking in sound, scientific substance.

But that criticism may have lost some of its sting last week when scientists hired by local environmental group Sheep Mountain Alliance to examine parts of a 15-volume radioactive materials license application submitted to state regulators last fall by Energy Fuels Resources Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Toronto-based Energy Fuels Inc., presented their findings during two public meetings held in Telluride and Ophir."

US Department of Energy officials on Tuesday voiced their support for a wide range of energy-related bills in the Senate, but were at a loss to explain why a bill that would give the agency authority to sell uranium is needed. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee considered six bills that would encourage solar panel use (S. 3460), increase natural-gas-turbine research and development (S. 2900), improve energy efficiency at federal buildings (S. 3251), expand best practices for supply-chain efficiency (S. 3396), increase research and development of heavy-duty plug-in-hybrid trucks (S. 679) and a measure introduced by Wyoming Republican Senator John Barrasso (S. 3233) that would give authority to DOE to barter, sell or transfer surplus uranium. But Shane Johnson, the chief operating officer of DOE's office of nuclear energy said that the agency already has such authority and he does not believe the legislation is necessary. "

Here in the West, uranium mining continues its wobbly resurgence. In recent years, it has sputtered through the peaks and valleys of pricing to once again climb in importance and output. The graph-line of this revival seems to correspond with the vicissitudes of our love-hate relationship with fossil fuels.

In 2003, a time of cheap oil, there were only 321 uranium miners working in the West, producing 779 tons of uranium that year. In 2008, there were over 1,500, who produced about 1,500 tons. In 2006, the Pandora mine south of Moab, where I live, reopened with just 10 employees. This year, it has 57. Recently, however, it lost one. Hunter Diehl, a 28-year-old Moab man, died in the mine this May, crushed by rock falling from the mine's ceiling. It was the first uranium mining death in the country since 1998, and the first since uranium's fickle resurgence."

Hanford's massive vitrification plant is at a pivotal point, Daniel Poneman, deputy secretary of energy, said Monday during his second visit to Hanford.

With design 80 percent complete, work is approaching the transition from the design and construction phase to the construction and commissioning phase, he said.

Poneman's visit highlights the high priority the Department of Energy has assigned to the $12.2 billion Waste Treatment Plant and the attention being given to the project by DOE all the way up to Energy Secretary Steven Chu. "

Grandey, chief executive of Cameco Corp, admits to being an anti-nuclear activist in his youth. His company is now among the leading foreign investors in Kazakhstan's fast-growing uranium sector.

Kazakhstan surpassed Canada last year as the world's largest uranium miner. With more than 15 percent of global reserves, the Central Asian state is poised to become the primary supplier of the metal to a new generation of nuclear reactors worldwide.

"The uranium potential of Kazakhstan is remarkable," said Gregory Vojack, an Almaty-based attorney at Bracewell & Giuliani LLP who advised state nuclear firm Kazatomprom on a $500 million Eurobond last month. The issue was eight times oversubscribed.

Global uranium consumption is forecast by the World Nuclear Association to reach 91,537 tonnes by 2020 and 106,128 tonnes by 2030, increases of 33 percent and 55 percent respectively from the 68,646 tonnes forecast for this year."

The owners of a closed uranium mine near Golden have been ordered by the state health department to stop discharging polluted water into a creek that flows into a Denver-area reservoir.

The state health department is taking action because Cotter Corp. has been discharging pollution without a permit and uranium levels in the water are significantly exceeding the safety standard, Steve Gunderson, director of the state water quality control division, said Thursday.

The agency sent the notice earlier this month. The Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety has sent a separate notice to Cotter saying it believes the company is violation of several state laws.

Cotter could face fines of up to $10,000 if found in violation. The Denver-based company didn't immediately return a call seeking comment."

Russian state-controlled miner ARMZ wants to become one of the world's top 3 uranium producers after buying a controlling stake in Canada's Uranium One , General Director Vadim Zhivov said.

"We view Uranium One as a company to ensure global growth for ARMZ and therefore as a platform for mergers and acquisitions," he told reporters on Wednesday.

ARMZ added it had no plans to further increase its stake in Uranium One after closing the transaction, which will see the Russian firm own at least a 51 percent share."

The development of the Olympic site in east London after the Games have finished could be in jeopardy because of radioactive waste buried beneath the site, experts have warned.

According to a Guardian investigation, any development of the site risks unearthing a hundred tonnes of radioactive waste dumped at the former landfill site decades ago. Documents obtained under Freedom of Information (FOI) rules reveal that, contrary to government guidelines, waste from thorium and radium has been mixed with very low-level waste and buried in a so-called disposal cell under, or close, to the Olympic stadium."

Moscow Uses Infamous Ship to Move Spent Nuclear Fuel Even as It Announces Plans to Build More Nuclear Power Plants Abroad

Russia' Atomic Energy Corporation is using a refitted ship that became "infamous for dumping liquid radioactive waste from the Soviet ice-breaker fleet in the Barents Sea," Barents Observer reports today, even as Moscow announces plans to dramatically expand its involvement in the construction of atomic power plants abroad.

The "Serebryanka," the news agency reports, has picked up "the first load of spent nuclear fuel from the run-down storage facility" near the Norwegian border without Russian officials informing Oslo in advance as they had pledged to do (www.barentsobserver.com/first-shipment-of-highly-radioactive-waste-from-border-area.4793260-116320.html)

Eldri Holo, an official at the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority, told the news portal that "we expect to be informed about the dates for shipment of spent nuclear fuel." But she added that the first she had heard about this move was from the news agency rather than from the Russians. "

An expert hearing was held at the European Parliament earlier this month regarding the forthcoming EU Directive on Nuclear Waste. Different approaches to nuclear waste management policies by EU member states were discussed in order to shed light on what a strong and comprehensive directive should contain. Veronica Webster, 15/06-2010

The attendees heard that an all-encompassing definition of nuclear waste must be included in the forthcoming directive, as well as some of the necessary characteristics of acceptable geological repositories for nuclear waste.

The hearing was co-hosted by Anni Podimata, a Greek socialist and Rebecca Harms, a German green member of the European Parliament. The hearing was also held in cooperation with green NGO Friends of the Earth Europe. "

Far more sewage has been spilled in Canadian urban centres over the last six years than any other harmful contaminant, newly released figures show.

An analysis by The Canadian Press reveals hundreds of millions of litres of sewage, as well as many other dangerous liquids, have been dumped right under Canadians' noses."

The company leading the decommissioning of Dounreay has awarded contracts totalling more than £12m to three firms for the next stage of the project.

NDSL, Nuvia and Morson International will supply 70 staff to dismantle plant and machinery in some of the most hazardous areas of the Caithness site.

They will wear special suits as protection against radiation.

Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL) said the contracts should help it save millions of pounds. "

The cost to remove radioactive dirt and debris from the nuclear waste dump along Route 66 in Parks has skyrocketed from $76 million to $170 million.

The increase adds to a growing tally of expenses related to the production of nuclear fuel at the former Nuclear Material and Equipment Corp. in Apollo and Parks from 1957 to the mid-1980s.

Lawsuits for personal injury and contamination, the razing and cleanup of two nuclear fuel plants and government payments to contaminated workers have topped $267 million over the last two decades.

The Army Corps of Engineers in Pittsburgh, the federal agency charged by Congress to excavate and remove the radiological materials, revised its cost estimates as officials hammer out the details to start digging up the site next year."

Safely disposing of low-level radioactive waste is serious business and should lead to serious policy discussions. Unfortunately, The Salt Lake Tribune is less interested in getting its facts straight than using its Opinion page to take cheap shots at EnergySolutions. I do appreciate The Tribune 's willingness to let me set the record straight in response to its editorial of June 8.

Anyone reading The Tribune editorial could conclude that EnergySolutions and the Department of Energy are in discussions about a DOE takeover of the company's Clive waste disposal site, which is simply not factual or even possible. "

A competition between nuclear waste dumps has pulled the Nuclear Regulatory Commission into an unusual reconsideration of its rules to allow moderately radioactive materials to be diluted into a milder category that is easier to bury.

At issue is whether a site in Utah that is licensed to accept only the mildest category of radioactive waste, called Class A, could accept far more potent materials, known as Class B and C wastes, by blending the three together.

Even low-level radioactive waste is a growing problem, with few licensed repositories to dispose of it. The problem dates from the early 1980s, when Congress said that the federal government would take care of high-level waste, like spent fuel from nuclear power plants, but that the states would have to find sites for low-level material, like the radiation sources used in cancer treatments and industrial X-rays, and filters used in nuclear plants."

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) today announced that it has removed contaminated excess machine tools at Sandia National Laboratories in California under a low-cost plan that saved taxpayers millions by forging an innovative partnership with an outside vendor.

"After overcoming several disposition challenges, we successfully executed a strategy that resulted in significant savings to NNSA and American taxpayers," said Randal S. Scott, Deputy Associate Administrator for Infrastructure and Environment. "The removal of the contaminated tools at Sandia California is another example of NNSA' commitment to turning a Cold War-era nuclear weapons complex into a 21st century nuclear security enterprise."

Sandia California' Building 979 housed machine tools that had been used to support a wide array of research and development projects since the early 1990s. That work was completed in recent years, resulting in a determination that the tools were no longer needed by the Department of Energy and NNSA and could be disposed of as excess. "

A commission overseeing low-level radioactive waste disposal in Texas has withdrawn and will revise proposed rules that could allow 36 other states to send nuclear waste for burial near the New Mexico line.

Bob Gregory of the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission said Monday the panel voted unanimously Saturday to pull the proposed rules as initially published and repost them with some amendments and revisions.

A representative from the Texas Attorney General's Office told the commission during a Saturday meeting it could not change the rules then because there was nothing on the agenda to allow it, said Chuck McDonald, spokesman for Waste Control Specialists, the company that operates the waste site about 30 miles west of Andrews in West Texas."

AFTER MORE than 20 years, four administrations and billions of dollars spent, Yucca Mountain is the one place in America that a new Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future cannot look to put this country's nuclear waste. Created by the Obama administration after it jettisoned the Nevada project, the commission, which will meet for the third time in July, is to make its recommendations two years from now -- rendering any action unlikely until after the 2012 elections.

We must wait two years -- for what, exactly? "

Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown and GOP Sen. George V. Voinovich are locking arms politically to go after federal cash to help fund the cleanup of the site of a closed uranium-enrichment plant in southern Ohio.

Ohio's U.S. senators asked key members of the Senate Appropriations Committee last week to come up with all the money President Barack Obama asked for in his proposed 2011 budget for cleanup and related efforts at the Piketon site: $479million total, including $416million for direct decontamination and cleanup efforts. Voinovich is a member of the appropriations committee.

This is separate from ongoing work by USEC, a private company, to try to build a commercial enrichment plant on the site. Commercial uranium-enrichment plants produce fuel for nuclear-power plants. The old Piketon plant produced fuel for nuclear-power plants before it closed in 2001, but in the Cold War, it also made weapons-grade uranium for the country's atomic-weapons program.

Congress allocated $303million for the cleanup in the 2010 budget, and the Piketon cleanup got an additional $118 million from the stimulus package."

At first, the Fernald Preserve inspires jokes.

"Let's come back and go hiking -- in 500 years," I say, checking out trails marked with radiation monitors.

My mom and stepdad make cracks about fish with three eyes and birds with six wings, ha ha. Still, we're a little nervous.

Fernald Preserve used to be the site of the factory where uranium was processed for nuclear bombs.

From 1951 to 1989, it was known as the Fernald Feed Materials Production Center, a secretive facility in the middle of farm country in southwest Ohio. It produced nearly 70% of all uranium used in America's nuclear weapons"

'They will have to dump it over my dead body,' says state senator

State Sen. Roy Herron on Friday blasted a proposal under consideration by weapons manufacturer American Ordnance that would convert the Milan Army Ammunition Plant into a storage facility for depleted uranium.

Herron issued a news release Friday saying that he will do whatever he can to fight the proposal.

"If they want nuclear waste in West Tennessee, they will have to dump it over my dead body," Herron stated in the release. "I was born for this fight. My deep roots here, experience as an attorney and work as a state legislator have prepared me for this battle.""

Residents worried about environmental damage from nuclear waste and those eager for a way to bring jobs to the region spoke Saturday to a commission considering a plan to bury nuclear material from 36 other states in West Texas.

Rose Gardner, who lives just over the state line in Eunice, N.M., told the commission she found the plan "very scary." Gardner lives about 5 miles from where material from nuclear power plants, hospitals, universities and research labs could be buried. She told the commission she worried about her water well and pointed to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as the kind of disaster that could happen.

"We all know it's the human error" that can't be predicted, said Gardner, 52. "I want you to remember, I'm just across the state line.""

The cleanup isn't finished yet at the former Velsicol Chemical radioactive waste dump site in Bethany Township, but the project has uncovered no surprises.

And no surprises is what everyone wants.

When it comes to the contamination in St. Louis, the news is almost always of the worst case kind, but not this time.

There is not a speck of any other type of contamination - only the low-level radiation, said Scott Cornelius, representative of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment"

Environmental campaigners have accused the Government of preparing to allow a multi-million pound "handout" to firms building nuclear reactors.

Greenpeace said the move went against assurances given by ministers that the nuclear industry would not receive handouts to help build new nuclear power stations.

A study commissioned by the group claimed that firms would not be liable for dealing with the waste from new reactors, leaving the taxpayer with bills running into billions. The report, written by Ian Jackson, an associate fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, said dealing with waste from each new reactor will cost around £1.5bn, but under current plans being considered by the Government, energy companies would "walk away", having contributed as little as £500 million.

Ben Ayliffe, senior energy campaigner for Greenpeace, said: "The Government has said there will be no public money for new nuclear power, but the unique financial model developed for this report shows that billions of pounds of public money could be spent to subsidise the nuclear industry, even though the Government is warning of painful cuts ahead for the country in key areas like education and health."

A recent operational abnormality at the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant triggered public concern, even though management assured there were no safety implications.

Increasing nuclear power use is now the central government's official policy. To meet its emission reduction targets, China Light & Power has to purchase more nuclear power.

The difficult part is maintaining public confidence in the safety of nuclear power while achieving environmental objectives.

The Daya Bay power plant, located in Guangdong province about 50 kilometers from Hong Kong, was built in 1985 amid a cacophony of objections. Some even chose to emigrate because of the project.

Fortunately, the plant has operated since 1993 without incident until recently, when an increase in radioactive levels was reported in the cooling system."

Even the toughest possible version of a nuclear liability bill to provide compensation to people for nuclear damage is unlikely to impose any direct liability on the suppliers, experts have said amid calls for stronger legislation.

India expects to accelerate the growth of its nuclear power programme through imports of large 1,000MW-class reactors from French and US companies. But experts say direct liability on suppliers would block nuclear trade.

"This is a non-negotiable point," said an expert who has in the past advised the government on nuclear and strategic issues. "With liability on suppliers, none of them would be willing to supply. We just won’t get reactors."

A parliamentary committee is examining proposed legislation that sets a maximum liability of $460 million on the nuclear operators for each nuclear incident. India' operators today are the public sector enterprises Nuclear Power Corporation and Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam (Bhavini)."

Yesterday's decision by the UK government to withdraw its proposed loan of £80m to Sheffield Forgemasters is extraordinary. No other move could have had quite so much effect on the plans for nuclear power. Forgemasters wanted the money to buy a 15,000 tonne press, a necessary piece of equipment to make the pressure vessel at the centre of a power plant. Without the money, it says it will not proceed with its expansion into the nuclear market."

Sweden is to build new nuclear power stations in defiance of a 1980 referendum when Swedes voted to phase out atomic power.

After a debate in which Sweden's need for climate friendly, low carbon energy clashed with environmental concerns over atomic energy, Swedish MPs narrowly voted to build new nuclear reactor on Thursday night.

"A few months ago, the climate threat dominated the environmental debate. Now it is the oil disaster in the Mexican Gulf that is sparking the world's interest and horror," said Andreas Carlgren, the Swedish environment minister during a heated debate.

"Both are really two sides of the same coin, namely, we must leave the dependency on oil and fossil energy behind."

Construction will begin next year to replace the 10 ageing reactors that still produce 40 per cent of Sweden's electricity.

But Sweden's centre-Left opposition, currently running neck and neck with the government in opinion polls ahead of elections is September, have vowed to reinstate the ban. "

AN £80m loan to support the civil nuclear supply chain has been cancelled as part of spending cuts announced by the government.

The loan to Sheffield Forgemasters was announced by the former Labour government before the election, but has fallen victim to the review of spending decisions taken since January.

Copeland MP Jamie Reed said: "This is a very serious blow for the UK nuclear industry and begs the question does the new government actually know what its doing and does it want nuclear ?

"The signs are not good, confusing at best."

Government will ease the way for extra plants but not provide subsidies, energy minister Charles Hendry to tell industry chiefs

Energy minister Charles Hendry will today set out the government's support for new nuclear power, in the face of opposition from the Tories' coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats.

Hendry will tell the Nuclear Industry Forum that there is a role for new nuclear plants, provided they do not require public subsidies."

Roughly a quarter of global electricity could be generated by nuclear power by 2050, requiring a tripling in nuclear generating capacity but making a major contribution to reduced CO2 emissions, a report said Wednesday.

A study by the International Energy Agency, which seeks to coordinate energy policies in industrialised nations, and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development described such a target as "ambitious but achievable."

"Nuclear is already one of the main sources of low-carbon energy today," said Luis Echavarri of the OECD's Nuclear Energy Agency."

Ten years have passed since Alexander Nikitin was acquitted charges of treason and espionage by the Russian Supreme Court, which could have landed him in a jail cell for 20 years if not earned him the death penalty. But for the confusion of those years in Russia, Nikitin believes that he would not have been acquitted of the same charges, however innocent he was, in Russia today. Nikitin here tells of the events that took four years, eleven months and eight days. Alexander Nikitin, 14/06-2010 - Translated by Charles Digges

I was arrested very early on the morning of February 6th 1996. It read like a page from Stalin's Russia. Someone rang the door and ordered me to come to an interrogation by the FSB, the Russian intelligence service (and the successor to the KGB). They said that I not need to take anything with me and my family should not worry because I would soon come home again.

But I did not come home. Instead I found myself in a jail cell. The FSB' accusations against me turned out to be very serious: high treason and espionage. I was at risk for the death penalty. "

Nuclear power can play a key role in the U.K.' future energy mix, Minister Charles Hendry told executives from Electricite de France SA, Centrica Plc and other utilities.

While the new coalition government won’t subsidize the industry, it will remove regulatory barriers and encourage nuclear power by establishing a minimum price for carbon, the energy minister said at the Nuclear Industry Forum in London.

Britain, needing 200 billion pounds ($300 billion) to renew aging power plants in the next two decades, will have to tap international investors for the first time, according to the Department of Energy and Climate Change. "

As many as 30 Greenpeace activists broke into a Swedish nuclear plant Monday, demanding that parliament this week vote against allowing new nuclear facilities to be built, the group and police said.

"There are now Greenpeace activists on the premises" of the Forsmark nuclear power plant near Uppsala, north of Stockholm, police spokesman Christer Nordstroem told AFP.

He said it remained unclear how many Greenpeace activists had managed to get into the plant, but the environmental group itself sent out a statement earlier saying around 30 would enter the facility to conduct a peaceful protest against nuclear power use."

Not Wales, or Scotland.they want renewables

The Welsh Assembly Government' new Energy Policy Statement A Low Carbon Revolution sets out an approach to accelerating the transition to a low carbon energy economy in Wales, focusing on efficiency measures and the use of indigenous renewable forms of energy such as marine, wind, solar and biomass. It claims that by 2025 around 40% of electricity in Wales could come from marine sources and a third from wind.

In addition to local community-level micro-generation projects, it proposes the use of offshore wind around the coast of Wales in order to deliver a 15 kWh/d/p (per day per person) of capacity by 2015/16 and to capture at least 10% (8 kWh/d/p) of the potential tidal stream and wave energy off the Welsh coastline by 2025, and it wants onshore wind to deliver 4.5 kWh/d/p of installed onshore wind generation capacity by 2015/2017. It will back small-scale hydro and geothermal schemes, where they are environmentally acceptable, in order to generate at least 1 kWh/d/p, and wants bioenergy/waste to deliver up to 6 kWh/d/p of electricity by 2020- 50% indigenous/50% imported- also offering an additional heat potential of 2-2.5 kWh/d/p."

Greenpeace is collecting signatures to force the government to review the nuclear liability bill which it says allows foreign corporations to get away by paying a meagre compensation in case of a nuclear accident.
With already over 1.8 lakh signatures online, the petition will be forwarded to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, requesting him to stop the bill in its current form and review it.
"The proposed nuclear liability bill appeases foreign corporations by allowing them to get away by paying a meagre compensatory amount in case of a nuclear accident, which is not fair," reads the petition.
It alleged that the government was only considering cosmetic changes in the bill.
Drawing a parallel with the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984, the petition said: "The Bhopal judgment highlights the manner in which an American corporation has been so easily let off after causing the deaths of over 25,000 people and affecting thousands more."
"India must hold a public consultation before changing the liability rules for any nuclear accidents caused by US corporations." A Bhopal court on June 07 sentenced seven former employees of Union Carbide Indian Ltd to two years imprisonment for culpability in the tragedy and quickly bailed them. The ruling has triggered a furore. "

China and Kazakhstan agreed on Saturday to build and finance a gas pipeline and deepen atomic energy ties, extending Beijing's influence in a region where it has used its financial might to access natural resources.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev presided over the deals between state companies that give Beijing greater access to resources and allow Kazakhstan, Central Asia's biggest economy, to diversify its energy exports. "

Bulgaria has suspended construction of its Belene nuclear power plant, Bulgarian News Agency BGNES quoted the country's Prime Minister Boiko Borisov as saying on Friday.

Borisov said the construction of the plant, which was being carried out by Russia's Atomstroyexport, had been frozen as investors had not been found.

Atomstroyexport, the export arm of Rosatom, won a tender in 2006 for the construction of the plant. A $4 billion-contract was signed in 2008."

By most accounts, Brad Duguid is more committed to nuclear power than his predecessor as Ontario' energy minister. But, because of circumstances that mostly predate his time on the job, Mr. Duguid may wind up presiding over the continued decline of the nuclear industry in his province.

That industry revolves around Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., the troubled Crown corporation that the federal government is desperately trying to unload. Under the right circumstances, the sale of its Candu division could mean the revitalization of a sector with room for growth and job creation particularly in Mississauga, Ont., where much of its operations are centred. But by most insider accounts, the circumstances really couldn't be much worse. "

India's opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday asked the government to withdraw the nuclear liability bill in the wake of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy verdict which only gave light penalty to the accused, reported the Indo-Asian News Service.

A spokesman for the BJP said the Congress-led government should withdraw the nuclear liability bill as "the aim of the bill is to please Americans".

The BJP had earlier demanded a revision of the civil nuclear liability legislation in the light of the Bhopal gas disaster, in which a gas leak from the U.S.-based Union Carbide killed at least 20,000 people 25 years ago in the central Indian city."

While our government is demanding that BP pay up for the oil disaster in the Gulf, it is offering up billions of Americans’ hard earned money to another high risk energy player " the wealthy nuclear power industry to build costly new nuclear reactors. Will this be another disaster waiting to happen?

Today the utility giant Southern Company agreed to the terms of its portion of the $8.3 billion conditional loan guarantee awarded by the Obama Administration back in February for the proposed two new reactors it wants to build along with its utility partners at Plant Vogtle in Georgia. So now U.S. taxpayers are officially on the hook if the project goes belly up. Which given the nuclear industry' past track record, is a likely scenario. Many of the problems with these nuclear loan guarantees are in the aptly titled report, "

According to a report by researchers at the Oak Ridge Insitute for Science and Education, undergraduate degrees in health physics (the science of radiation protection) increased slightly in 2009 -- cotninuing a recent trend -- but the number of doctorate degrees awarded hit a 40-year low.

The report, "Health Physics Enrollments and Degrees Survey, 2009 Data," surveyed 24 academic programs -- including the University of Tennessee -- with students majoring in health physcis or in "an option program equivalent to a major."

ORISE reported that a total of 154 degrees in health physics -- B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. -- were awarded in 2009, but only nine of those were Ph.D.s."

The Obama Administration is attempting to get $9 billion more in loans for new nuclear reactor construction. They're trying to sneak this money on to an emergency supplemental funding bill intended to provide funds for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and to provide additional disaster relief money.

But there is no emergency requiring new nuclear loans! The Department of Energy is playing sleazy politics by asking for this money on an emergency basis. To try to appease clean energy advocates, the administration is tying the nuclear loans to an equal amount of loans for renewable energy projects--but renewable energy projects have barely begun to tap their existing loan authority. Unlike for nuclear projects, which are extraordinarily expensive, there is currently plenty of money available for renewables loans.

The House Appropriations Committee was scheduled to meet on May 27 to consider this bill but postponed the meeting at the last moment. It now isn't clear when or if the meeting will be rescheduled. One possibility is that the House will simply take up a similar Senate emergency funding bill--one that does not include taxpayer loans for dirty new nuclear reactors. Your actions can stop this unnecessary nuclear bailout: Tell your Representative to pass a "clean" emergency funding bill--one that provides funding only for actual emergencies, not for unnecessary and polluting nuclear reactors."

Obama and the Nuclear Rocket

The Obama administration is seeking to renew the use of nuclear power in space. It is calling for revived production by the U.S. of plutonium-238 for use in space devices"despite solar energy having become a substitute for plutonium power in space.

And the Obama administration appears to also want to revive the decades-old and long-discredited scheme of nuclear-powered rockets"despite strides made in new ways of propelling spacecraft. Last month, Japan launched what it called its "space yacht" which is now heading to Venus propelled by solar sails utilizing ionized particles emitted by the Sun. "Because of the frictionless environment, such a craft should be able to speed up until it is traveling many times faster than a conventional rocket-powered craft," wrote Agence France-Presse about this spacecraft launched May 21.

But the Obama administration would return to using nuclear power in space"despite its enormous dangers.

The Oswego County Legislature has approved a one-year tax agreement with Constellation Energy Nuclear Group for the Nine Mile Point Unit I plant.

The tax agreement nearly triples the amount of taxes the company would pay Oswego County, the town of Scriba and the Oswego school district. The company this year paid $4 million through its payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, and would pay $11 million in 2011 with the tax agreement.

The county receives $1,489,000 this year and would receive $4,096,400 under the tax agreement."

Amnesty International has accused the Israeli authorities of subjecting jailed nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment by holding him in solitary confinement.

The 56-year-old, who spent 18 years in prison for revealing details of the country's nuclear arsenal to a UK newspaper in 1986, was sent back to jail for three months on 23 May on charges of contact with a foreign national, and almost immediately placed in solitary confinement."

India successfully test-fired on Friday a nuclear-capable, short range ballistic missile, the Prithvi-II, state television reported, citing defense officials.

The surface-to-surface Prithvi-II, India's first domestically produced ballistic missile, with a range of 350 km and payload capacity of 500 kg, was blasted off from the Chandipur firing range in the eastern state of Orissa.

India conducted the previous test of the Prithvi-II missile from the same base on March 27."

Easter 1958: some 10,000 people marched from London to the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) in Aldermaston to protest against Britain's first hydrogen bomb tests. Fast forward to the Easter weekend this year and people have come together from across Britain some of whom protested in the original march to participate in the 50th anniversary event. Rowenna Davis, interested to find out whether anti-nuclear campaigners are 'noble or naive', went along for the ride

The snow didn't stop them coming. Half a century since the first march to Aldermaston in 1958, members of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament were going back to the base to protest against the government's plans to renew Trident, the UK's nuclear weapons system. And this time I was going with them.

As a general rule, anti-nuclear protesters are considered to be the most unrealistic of all campaigners and I wanted to see for myself whether they were noble or naive. "

French Polynesia' nuclear test veterans organisation is dismayed at the final shape of the French compensation law, saying it fears that it is too restrictive.

The head of Moruroa e tatou, Roland Oldham, says too few cancers are being linked to the tests and the zone recognised for radiation-related poor health is too small.

Mr Oldham says the provisions as outlined in the decree released last weekend fail to address the impact of the tests and will be challenged.

"We can put another court case, probably in the European Court of Human Rights, and theother hand we do think that the Polynesian people are motivated to keep struggling.""

A Foreign Ministry investigation into a secret Japan-U.S. pact on U.S. nuclear-armed ships' port calls has ended together with the administration of former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

In closing the investigation, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada commented, "To lose diplomatic documents is to lose history."

Normally this would be regarded as a wise saying, but in light of the Foreign Ministry's investigation into the secret pact, it is a stray comment. The reason is that the secret pact is not yet "past history"; it is Japan's nuclear strategy today."

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told lawmakers Thursday that the United States continues to encourage Russia to join a European missile-defense system intended to counter the threat posed by Iranian missiles. He also sought to reassure Republicans that the United States would not agree to Russian efforts to limit the U.S. missile-defense capability.

"Whatever talks are going on are simply about trying to elicit their [Russian] willingness to partner with us, along with the Europeans, in terms of a regional missile defense," Gates said, appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee to support ratification of the recently signed U.S.-Russian Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. "But there is nothing in the approaches that have been made to the Russians that in any way, shape or form would impose any limits whatsoever on our plans." "

The United States must cut military spending dramatically to allow the government to fund other necessary programs, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said Friday.

Frank released a report by a panel he created that recommends almost $1 trillion in cuts during the next 10 years, The Hill reported. The Sustainable Defense Task Force includes members from left-liberal groups and from libertarian ones like the Cato Institute.

Frank heads the House Financial Services Committee. He acknowledged many of the task force proposals will have trouble passing Congress, especially weapons systems that provide jobs for constituents."

The right wing revolt in the Utah Republican Party that denied renomination to incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Robert Bennett has now produced an issue affecting Nevada.

The two Republicans contending in the primary election to replace Bennett have both talked about reviving nuclear testing in Nevada.

"We need to always have our eye on the ball for developing new weapons systems, and that is going to require new testing," candidate Mike Lee told the Salt Lake Tribune.

His opponent Tim Bridgewater agreed. "I would support that," he said. "I would prefer that we don’t have to move down that road, but … we shouldn’t give up our strong position in the world because more nations are becoming nuclear powers, and the greater the deterrent, the less likely we ever have to use them.""

Radioactive waste was being readied for isolation plant

A Savannah River Site worker is being evaluated for internal radioactive contamination after an accident in which his finger was punctured by waste materials.

The incident occurred Monday in the site's F-Area, where employees hired by Savannah River Nuclear Solutions were conducting transuranic waste remediation work, said Jim Giusti, a U.S. Energy Department spokesman at the site.

"His finger was punctured by something in the waste, and the waste is contaminated with radionuclides," he said. "It got into his skin and potentially into his blood. So we have a series of protocols we have to go through.""

Accelerated clean-up work at the Department of Energy's Piketon site is moving along well, officials said, following a $118.2 million infusion in federal stimulus money designed to speed up the process of decontamination and decommissioning, environmental remediation and waste management of the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant.

The removal of contaminated groundwater from a plume on the east side of the plant is moving along better than planned, DOE Project Manager Bill Murphie said at a public open house Thursday evening.

"We've seen a cost savings there, and because of that, we've been able to do more groundwater removal than we initially thought with the (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) money," Murphie said."

Based on updated information and scientific assessments, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, and Chair of the National Incident Command's Flow Rate Technical Group (FRTG) Dr. Marcia McNutt (Director of the U.S. Geological Survey) today announced an improved estimate of how much oil is flowing from the leaking BP well.

Secretary Chu, Secretary Salazar, and Dr. McNutt convened a group of federal and independent scientists on Monday to discuss new analyses and data points obtained over the weekend to produce updated flow rate estimates. Working together, U.S. government and independent scientists estimate that the most likely flow rate of oil today is between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels per day. The improved estimate is based on more and better data that is now available and that helps increase the scientific confidence in the accuracy of the estimate.

At the direction of the federal government, BP is implementing multiple strategies to significantly expand the leak containment capabilities at the sea floor even beyond the upper level of today's improved estimate. The Lower Marine Riser Package (LMRP) cap that is currently in place can capture up to 18,000 barrels of oil per day. At the direction of the federal government, BP is deploying today a second containment option, called the Q4000, which could expand total leak containment capacity to 20,000-28,000 barrels per day. Overall, the leak containment strategy that BP was required to develop projects containment capacity expanding to 40,000-53,000 barrels per day by the end of June and 60,000-80,000 barrels per day by mid-July."

Washington Closure Hanford has stopped work at 27 buildings at Hanford as it makes sure they have no beryllium contamination.

The 27 buildings are among a couple of hundred under the contractor's control and have not been sampled for beryllium, in some cases because they are new structures.

An independent inspection released by the Department of Energy Office of Health, Safety and Security on June 2 found a new sitewide program to prevent chronic beryllium disease at Hanford had shortcomings.

As it became clear during the inspection this spring that improvements were needed, DOE Hanford officials instructed the site's environmental cleanup contractors to take actions, such as completing sampling for beryllium at any facility where it is required."

Although the contents of the two documents are not yet revealed, the US Department of Energy and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) have retrieved data on the Huntington Pilot Plant (HPP) from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory vault.

The US Department of Energy operated the Huntington Pilot Plant on the same ground as International Nickel (INCO) in Huntington from the mid-50s until the early 60s performing various activities in conjunction with one or more of the DOE' gaseous diffusion plants in Portsmouth (Ohio), Oak Ridge (Tennessee) and Pad (Ky). After remaining in a state of readiness until 1978, the DOE ordered that the plant be demolished. By 1979, all but the ground floor of the plant (now used as a Waste Water Treatment facility by INCO' successor, Special Metals), were demolished and buried in a classified and secret ditch at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio, including even the railroad cars and trucks used to transport the debris.

Based on their exposure to such radioactive contaminants as uranium, nickel, plutonium and other metals, workers at the former DOE plant are eligible for compensation. "

Environmental regulators have approved another expansion of DOE's CERCLA landfill in Oak Ridge, which will push the disposal capacity to 2.2 million cubic yards and apparently be the final addition to the facility that opened in 2002.

Cell 5, which brought the capacity to 1.7 million cubic yards (the previous cap under the original Record of Decision) was completed in May. Bechtel Jacobs Co., DOE's environmental manager in Oak Ridge, said work is already underway on Cell 6, which will be constructed by Avisco -- the same woman-owned company that built Cell 5."

President Barack Obama has vowed the Gulf of Mexico spill would speed the end of US dependence on fossil fuels, but experts doubt reality can match his rhetoric.

"The tragedy unfolding on our coast is the most painful and powerful reminder yet that the time to embrace a clean energy future is now," Obama said in a primetime televised address from the Oval Office.

Amid the worst environmental disaster in US history, supporters of renewable energy had hoped images of sullied coasts and dramatic engineering failings would spark just such a revolution: the beginning of the end for fossil fuels."

THE POLITICIANS responsible for deciding on nuclear power have been tricked, according to one policy analyst. With the help of Finland' Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK), nuclear power companies have propagated a misleading image of emission-free, or at least low-emission, nuclear power.

"Nuclear power companies employ a strategy familiar from the tobacco industry. There is always some argument against damaging claims, problems are downplayed and critics demonised. A sort of Finlandisation prevails with regard to the nuclear sector," argues Mika Flöjt, an environmental and energy policy analyst at the University of Lapland. Flöjt works in a unit linked to the university' Arctic Centre.

According to Flöjt, the claim of emission-free power has been touted by nuclear power companies, STUK and the Ministry of Employment and the Economy, and accepted without scrutiny."

Paul Spence says the nuclear industry expects to pay the full cost of decommissioning a new generation of nuclear power stations (Response, 15 June). But his words about "our full share of waste management and disposal costs" were carefully chosen. The consultation document reveals that EDF considers their full share of these costs to be around 20% of the total. As our report Nuclear Power? No Point! highlighted last year, nuclear is only responsible for 4% of the energy consumed in the UK. More energy can be saved by energy conservation measures in homes and businesses. Focusing on the nuclear industry takes resources away from building new renewable capacity, which, given sufficient political will, could provide more than enough electricity for the UK.

Darren Johnson

Green party spokesperson on Trade and Industry

*EDF's claim that they "have not asked for subsidy for new nuclear" is not all that it seems. The nuclear industry, owned by British Energy (in turn owned by EDF), will be receiving huge sums of windfall profits under government proposals for a floor price on carbon emission allowances. British Energy will greatly expand its profits for no increase in nuclear power production, all subsidised by electricity consumers."

BP's apocalyptic Gulf gusher has put our ability to survive in serious doubt.

We have no reason to believe an end to the crisis is near---or even in sight. Nor can we begin to calculate the damage to our Mother Earth to her oceans, to the core of her being and to each of us as individual organisms.

Only one thing IS clear: we cannot ultimately survive without a rapid conversion to a Solartopian economy that is totally green-powered. That transformation will be forced by biological imperatives, not money or markets.

The powers that be studiously avoid the core reality that this disaster stems from the ability of large corporations to make all of us pay for their irresponsible greed.

The black poisons killing our global body gush from a system that grants corporations human rights but does not demand human responsibility.

It is suicidal to allow corporations to deploy technologies they cannot mange or insure and then make us pay for their greed.

our article on the costs associated with nuclear reactors addresses a fundamental question about how we de-carbonise our energy supply, and who pays (Nuclear waste offer 'has hidden subsidy', 3 June). But the suggestion that EDF Energy was engaged in "behind-the scenes lobbying" to gain a "hidden subsidy" is wrong.

We were responding to an open pre-consultation by government. This invited views from all parties, including ourselves and NGOs, on the price for radioactive waste disposal. We work hard to be part of the debate and recently set out our commitment to transparency. We have always been open that we expect to pay the full costs of decommissioning and our full share of the waste management and disposal costs from our new-build programme."

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will consider whether to allow for the first time nuclear waste processors to "blend" higher level radioactive waste with the lowest level radioactive waste at a hearing on June 17. Low-level radioactive waste is generated by universities, hospitals, and commercial nuclear power plants, and is classified as Class A, B. or C depending on the concentration of the waste's radioactivity (with Class A having the lowest concentration). The proposal before the Commission would allow Class A waste to be mixed with more radioactive Class B and C waste and still be classified as Class A. If the proposal goes through, "blending" would allow utilities, processors, and waste disposal sites to avoid existing environmental and safety requirements for how they dispose of the hotter waste."