What a busy week. We won some and lost some. Of all the issues that was probably the most important were the waste issues. Energy Solutions won a legal battle against Utah and the North West LLW compact commission that tried to keep ES from importing n-waste from Europe. The a Texas Billionaire got a poor rural country to pay for the costs of opening what will be the LLW dump for the country by just 3 votes. A recount was done but the vote was still in favor of WCS.
Minnesota finally put the republican push down while it looks like the reactors for Victoria County Texas is now history!
Greenpeace dug out the biggest European story over Finland’s threat to shut down Areva’s star reactor project at Olkiluoto. Az’s Bingaman is holding down the latest senate push to give nuclear a blank check.
From Yucca Mt. to the uranium mining push in Virginia, there is more than a few stories to dip into. Enjoy.
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Nuclear Reactor News
Chances dim for Victoria nuclear plant, exec says | Houston Chronicle
Plans for a new nuclear power plant in Victoria are likely to be scrapped because the project isn’t expected to obtain necessary government-backed loans to help finance the facility, the CEO of the company proposing the plant said Friday.
Exelon Corp. CEO John Rowe said the Victoria plant would be canceled without the loan guarantees he called essential to putting the two-reactor operation online.
“We’ve been very clear we can’t do it without the guarantees,” Rowe told reporters after a speech at the National Press Club.
But Rowe’s company still could end up driving the development of another Texas nuclear project that’s seeking a share of $18.5 billion in federal loan guarantees designed to spur development of a new generation of nuclear power plants.
Since October, Exelon has been trying to acquire Princeton, N.J.-based NRG, the largest nuclear plant operator in the country.
New
Finnish reactor lacks ‘a proper design that meets the basic principles of nuclear safety’ | Greenpeace UK 
The OL3 European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) project, under construction at Olkiluoto, Finland, is seen by the nuclear industry as the blueprint for a new generation of reactors they’d like to see being built all
over the world.
Already well behind schedule and way over cost, serious problems were uncovered two days ago in the primary coolant pipes, only a week after documents leaked to Finnish media revealed that designs for the most vital and fundamental part
of this untried and untested nuclear reactor – the safety systems – are still not yet in place.
TMI steam generators to be replaced – PennLive.com
The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant will undergo its biggest modification ever this fall when two new steam generators are brought in to replace the originals.
The work, plus other maintenance work which will be done at the same time while the plant is shut down, will bring an extra 3,000 workers to the island for a couple of months, according to spokesman Ralph DeSantis. The workers will include pipe fitters, electricians, carpenters, ironworkers and boilermakers who will be contracted through their unions, DeSantis said.
The steam generators are each seven stories tall and weigh more than one million pounds. They are being assembled in France and will come to Three Mile Island by barge, ship, and 150-wheel trailer.
The project, which has been in the planning stages for two years, is projected to cost $280 million, DeSantis said.
URS gets contract for new Texas nuclear project | Reuters
URS Corp said on Thursday it had been chosen by Hitachi for an engineering, procurement and construction contract for a new nuclear project in Victoria County, Texas.
The project for Exelon Corp (EXC.N), the largest U.S. nuclear plant operator, includes two 1,350-megawatt reactors based on the Advanced Boiling Water Reactor design from GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy.
URS Chief Executive Martin Koffel, announcing the deal on a conference call to discuss the company’s quarterly results, said he was not in a position to provide further details.
Three Mile Island’s Unit 1 reactor could cost nearly $1 billion to shut down – PennLive.com
It could cost nearly $1 billion to shut down Three Mile Island’s Unit 1 reactor if the plant’s owner does not get its operating license renewed, according to a report prepared by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Though the report acknowledges Exelon Generation will likely receive a 20-year extension, the report detailing the shutdown cost is required every time a nuclear plant comes within five years of the end of its license. The plant’s current license expires in 2014.
The report gives several scenarios for decommissioning the plant. The most likely is a system called SAFSTOR, which basically means mothballing the unit and monitoring it for up to 60 years, according to NRC spokesman Neal Sheehan. The size of the industrial site, coupled with the need to safeguard radioactive materials, leads to the high decommissioning costs, he said.
Associated Press: Hitachi posts record $8.1 billion annual loss
For Japanese electronics makers, the last fiscal year was one they’d like to forget.
Especially Hitachi, which on Tuesday set the wrong kind of record.
It posted the biggest ever annual loss by a Japanese manufacturer, and warning of more red ink, said it doesn’t expect the global economy to recover until next year at the earliest.
The News Herald: Breaking news coverage for Southgate, MI
A federal licensing panel heard arguments last week on contentions filed by several environmental groups against DTE Energy’s proposed Fermi 3 nuclear plant.
Both sides presented their arguments to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Atomic Safety Licensing Board.
The $10 billion Fermi 3 project would be built at the same site as DTE’s Fermi 2 facility and the decommissioned Fermi 1 plant in Frenchtown Township
Ex-Yankee owner in High Court today: Times Argus Online
The Vermont Supreme Court will hear arguments today on how much money the state owes the former owner of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in interest on a tax refund stemming from contributions the former owner made to the plant’s decommissioning fund in 1992.
The issue involves the 1992 tax return filed by Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp., according to Danforth Cardozo, an attorney with the Vermont Department of Taxes.
Cardozo said that the state has already given Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. $800,000 in a tax refund in 2005, and the company is seeking interest dating back to 1992.
Spain fines Asco I nuclear plant 15.4 mln euros | Reuters
Spain’s government said on Monday it has fined the operators of the 1,000 megawatt Asco I nuclear plant 15.4 million euros ($20.95 million) for six charges of breaching safety rules over a radioactive leak in November 2007.
The fine was the highest to be made against a Spanish nuclear plant to date, the government said.
The leak at the Endesa-owned plant in the north eastern port of Tarragona occurred when radioactive water splashed a ventilation system during refueling.
Officials did not inform the nuclear watchdog (CSN) until April 4, which the watchdog said was a serious breach for “not providing the resident inspector with prompt and truthful information.”
Manila Standard Today – $1b needed to rehabilitate aging Bataan nuclear plant
THE government needs around $1 billion to rehabilitate and operate the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, an official of the National Power Corp. said over the weekend.
Napocor senior vice president Pio Benavidez, who is part of a special team on nuclear energy, said the rehabilitation alone would cost about $800 million.
“It is estimated that we could spend around $800 million maximum for the operation of the [plant], but we may need $1 billion including the transmission line. We need to build new transmission lines since the old ones are already dismantled,” Benavidez said.
Nuclear Health and Safety News
North West Evening Mail | Radioactive leak at Sellafield lasted 14 months
RADIOACTIVITY leaking from a pipe, which was first spotted on the day of the Prime Minister’s visit to Sellafield, had been escaping into the open for 14 months, it has been revealed.
The incident has been raised to level two on the International Event scale the highest at Sellafield since the major leak in Thorp four years ago.
Sellafield Ltd said: “There is no relation between the two. The amount of radioactivity involved in this incident was very low.”
The leak was discovered on January 23 the day the Prime Minister made his announcement about new reactors. The radioactivity came from an overhead ventilation duct carrying water vapour (condensate) from the Magnox reprocessing plant for dilution treatment before authorised discharge to the sea. There was a steady drip from a faulty valve flange contaminating a two metre square concrete slab. A walkway had to be cordoned off to prevent access. No workers are said to have been harmed and
no contamination was found above normal background levels.
North West Evening Mail| Report: no risk from Sellafield
A STUDY into the effects of radiation from Sellafield on fishermen operating in the Irish Sea found they are only exposed to low levels.
A report by the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland said those who are most exposed still only receive a radiation dose of less than one unit a year, out of the 4,000 units that the average Irish person is exposed to annually.
David Pollard, director of the institute’s monitoring and measurement services, said: “The levels are very low, but obviously there is particular concern because of the presence of Sellafield.”
Holes in two pipes thought to be source of tritium leaks | Tri-Town News
Engineers at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station have pinpointed the source of several tritium leaks, a plant spokesman said.
“We have narrowed it to two pipes,” spokesman David Benson said. “One pipe had a five-eighths-of-an-inch hole in an 8- inch carbon steel pipe; the other pipe had a 1-inch hole in it.”
The pipes run from the condensate transfer pump building to the turbine building, Benson said, noting that the pipes were replaced over the weekend of May 2-3.
Britain’s farmers still restricted by Chernobyl nuclear fallout | guardian.co.uk
Nearly 370 farms in Britain are still restricted in the way they use land and rear sheep because of radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear power station
accident 23 years ago, the government has admitted.
Environmentalists have seized on the figures as proof of the enormous dangers posed by nuclear power as the UK moves towards building a new generation of plants around the country.
Dawn Primarolo, minister for health, revealed 369 farms and 190,000 sheep were affected, but pointed out this was a tiny number compared with the immediate impact of radioactive fallout from Ukraine.
Welsh farmer talks about farming under Chernobyl restrictions |Â guardian.co.uk
Huw Alun Evans’s farm in north Wales looks no different from any other; his 400 sheep and lambs graze happily across 125 hectares. His farmland rises to 2,408ft at the summit of the extinct volcano Rhobell Fawr, in the Snowdonia national park.
His family has farmed there for three generations and he has run the Hengwrt Uchaf farm at Rhyd-y-main for 31 years.
However, for more than two decades he has lived on the southern periphery of a restricted area due to radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl power station accident in 1986. Thousands of his sheep have been scanned for radiation throughout this time.
NewsRoom Finland: Finnish nuclear watchdog stops welding at Olkiluoto site
Finland’s Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) said Tuesday it had ordered a halt on welding at the Olkiluoto nuclear power station building site.
The watchdog added that French nuclear power group Areva, the supplier of the power station, had discovered small cracks on pipes forming part of the station’s primary cooling circuit.
Fallout, Swine Flu, And A Pandemic Of Awareness By Andrew Kishner
If you haven’t thought of the possibility that epidemic influenzas such as ‘swine flu,’ or ‘H1N1 virus,’ may come about as a result of low-level radiation in the form of fallout that covers the Earth, neither did I. That was until last week when someone proposed the idea to me.
It all sounds like something out of a science fiction novel: ‘a catastrophic nuclear war in 2030 covers the Earth with toxic radioactive fallout that gives rise to mutant viruses which infect and destroy surviving clusters of humans…’ But, back in the 1950s, the so-called father of the [Soviet] hydrogen bomb’ predicted that the radioactive fallout from the ËœCold War’ could accelerate the rise of
mutant pathogens, including influenzas.
AdvisoryBoard willing to hear cancer victims – KFDA – NewsChannel 10 / Amarillo, TX
Former Pantex employees who developed cancer can state their case to a Federal
Health Board.
The Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health is in Amarillo Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss topics related to energy employees occupational illness. Although not officlally discussing Pantex, the Board will hear from the public from 7pm to 8pm Tuesday and 4pm to 5pm Wednesday at the Holiday Inn, 1911 E. I-40.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has previously recommended that there is sufficient evidence at Pantex for a “dose reconstruction”.
It’s a method to estimate how much radiation an energy employee was exposed to while working there.
$400M paid so far to Colorado nuclear workers – The Denver Post
The U.S. Department of Labor says it has paid more than $408 million to compensate Coloradans sickened by working in the atomic weapons industry, including some who worked at the former Rocky Flats weapons plant near Denver.
The money went to 5,042 Colorado claimants under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, which was created to help people suffering cancer and other illnesses caused by exposure to toxic substances, the department said Tuesday.
The act covers several facilities in Colorado including Rocky Flats, the Rulison Nuclear Explosion Site, and the Rio Blanco nuclear explosion site.
Coloradans have filed 8,713 cases under the act, but about 15 percent were ineligible for benefits, the Labor Department said. There are 929 cases awaiting a final decision.
Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., said more needs to be done to ensure people who worked at Cold War-era weapons sites receive compensation.
Coolant glitch mars restart of reactor | The Japan Times Online
The emergency cooling system of a reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture that has just been restarted experienced a temporary glitch Monday morning, but there was no hazard to the environment, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.
The glitch was reported as Tepco activated the No. 7 reactor’s core isolation cooling system as part of trial operations that started Saturday.
Tepco found the level of coolant in the pool had risen. After it was lowered, Tepco then found it was unable to shut down the cooling system, which pours coolant into the reactor in the event of an emergency, and eventually stopped it with another method.
Prairie Island broke nuclear safety rules twice last year
Operators of the Prairie Island nuclear power plant twice violated federal nuclear safety rules last fall, but the violations did not pose a safety threat to the public or plant workers.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced the violations Monday, saying that they had “low to moderate safety significance” and that they would trigger additional NRC inspections and meetings, as opposed to a fine.
Daily Kos: Nuclear Arms Workers Dying While Fighting US Govt w/video
Recently, President Obama announced his intention to rid the world of nuclear weapons. This is a very worthy goal. Almost daily, we hear about the threat of nuclear proliferation.
But little is said about the tens of thousands of US workers who are suffering and dying prematurely due to toxic exposure to radiation, heavy metals and other poisons they received while working in nuclear facilities making or cleaning up after these weapons. Over half a million people worked during the Cold War and WWII to build atomic bombs. 165,000 of them or their survivors have filed claims
with the US Government- Department of Labor. Only 1 in 4 have been compensated.
Last month, the PBS show Exposed ran a segment available here (sorry, can’t embed it). It was a follow-up to a super investigative series by Laura Frank, published by the now defunct Rocky Mountain News back in July, 2008. There is a lot of info, so I will summarize as much as possible.
NRC News
NRC: NRC to Discuss Annual Assessment for Indian Point Nuclear Plant at Public Meeting Set for May 21 in Tarrytown, N.Y.
The results of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s annual safety performance assessment for the Indian Point nuclear power plant will be the subject of a public meeting on Thursday, May 21.
The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Doubletree Hotel, at 455 South Broadway in Tarrytown, N.Y. (Directions are available at: http://doubletree1.hilton.com/en_US/dt/hotel/TERHIDT-Doubletree-Hotel-Tarrytown-New-York/directions.do.) Prior to the conclusion of the meeting, NRC staff will be available to answer questions from the public on the plant’s performance, as well as the agency’s oversight of the facility. In addition, the NRC will conduct an informational open house from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the same location that will allow members of the public to ask questions of agency staff on a one-on-one basis.
Indian Point, which is located in Buchanan (Westchester County), N.Y., is the site of two operating pressurized-water reactors. Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc., owns and runs the facility.
Overall, the Indian Point plant operated safely during 2008. At the conclusion of last year, as assessed by the NRC Reactor Oversight Process, there were no performance indicators for the plant that were other than “green” and no inspection findings that were “greater than green.” During 2009, Indian Point will receive the very detailed inspection regime used by the NRC, as well as enhanced oversight in the area of groundwater contamination. In 2008, the NRC devoted approximately 16,700 hours of inspection to Indian Point, including seven major team inspections.
White House names Gregory Jaczko US NRC chairman
President Barack Obama has named Commissioner Gregory Jaczko as chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the White House announced Wednesday. Senate confirmation is not required because Jaczko is already a member of the commission. Jaczko, a physicist who currently is the only Democrat on the presidentially appointed commission, will replace Dale Klein as chairman. Klein said early this year that he plans to serve out the remainder of his term — ending in June 2011 — as a commissioner if replaced as chairman. Before joining the commission in 2005, Jaczko was science adviser to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. Reid, a fierce opponent of the DOE high-level nuclear waste repository project at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, pushed for Jaczko’s appointment to the commission in 2005. Jaczko’s second term ends in June 2013.
FR: NRC: comment period for uranium recovery facilities
Proposed Generic Communication; Pre-Licensing Construction Activities at Proposed, Unlicensed Uranium Recovery Facilities AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Proposed generic communication: Reopening of public comment period.
SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is reopening the comment period specific to the information collection aspects of a proposed regulatory issue summary (RIS) published on March 27, 2009 (74 FR 13483), which presents the NRC’s interpretation of the regulations governing the commencement of construction found in 10 CFR 40.32(e). The comment period for this proposed RIS closed on April 27, 2009.
DATES: Comment period expires May 15, 2009. Comments submitted after this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but assurance of consideration cannot be given except for comments received on or before this date.
FR: NRC: ASLB established for Luminant
Luminant Generation Company, LLC; Establishment of Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Pursuant to delegation by the Commission dated December 29, 1972, published in the Federal Register, 37 FR 28,710 (1972), and the Commission’s regulations, see 10 CFR 2.104, 2.300, 2.303, 2.309, 2.311, 2.318, and 2.321, notice is hereby given that an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (Board) is being established to preside over the following proceeding:
Nuclear Fuel Cycle News
Uranium Mine Battle Set in Goliad | KIII TV3 South Texas |
One Coastal Bend county is contesting plans for a new uranium mine. Today, a court hearing was held in Goliad county for residents to voice their opinions.
The Coastal Bend is the second biggest area in the nation for uranium mining. This is the first time a Coastal Bend county is challenging a permit application.
This 1100 acres of land in Goliad County is the latest battleground over uranium mining. County leaders are challenging the Texas Commission on Environment Quality over its initial decision to approve a permit for Uranium Energy Corporation to mine here.
The county is concerned about the future of ground water in the area.
News : Mill termed “perpetual radioactive hazardous waste” facility (Montrose, CO)
– Montrose County Planning Director Steve White said Thursday that he would not postpone a May 19 Montrose County Planning Commission public hearing on the Energy Fuels Pinon Ridge uranium mill special use permit. White received a request for hearing postponement and permit denial from the Durango-based Energy Mineral Law Center (EMLC).
EMLC attorney Travis Stills, on behalf of mill-opponents Paradox Valley Sustainability Association, e-mailed White a letter on May 13 requesting the action and stated that,”in addition to the milling facility, the special use permit under consideration could allow a series of specially designed byproduct disposal impoundments for purposes of perpetual disposal and storage of hazardous radioactive wastes, a use which is explicitly prohibited in the Agricultural Zone.”
A VESSEL carrying a major shipment of recycled nuclear
fuel is expected to arrive in Japan as soon as Monday after its 70-day trip from
France, local media reported.
The convoy, which left Cherbourg in March to deliver the MOX fuel – a blend of plutonium and reprocessed uranium – is expected to arrive in the central port of Omaezaki to unload part of the shipment, Kyodo News reported.
The business daily Nikkei in a similar report said that the convoy was due to arrive at the port ‘as soon as Monday.’
The Pacific Heron, a specially adapted ship with a British police team on board to head off possible hijackers, is then expected to unload fuel at two other ports adjacent to nuclear plants in southwestern Japan, the reports said.
Craig Daily Press / State geologist highlights importance of Colorado’s gas, uranium deposits
There are a few unmistakable realities in the world.
One of them, Vince Matthews thinks, is that increasing energy demands are unstoppable.
Another is that Colorado has a wealth of mineral and energy reserves that could be vital in meeting national and global appetites.
Matthews, Colorado state geologist and director of ColoÂÂrado Geological Survey, presented his views during the first seminar Thursday morning of the Fueling Energy Summit 2009, hosted by Yampa Valley Partners at the Holiday Inn of Craig.
NRC: 2 Wyo. uranium mine proposals moving ahead – KIFI – Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Jackson WY –
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission now says two uranium mine proposals in Wyoming are going ahead as planned despite greatly weakened prices for uranium.
The NRC told the Casper Star-Tribune this week that the Strathmore Minerals Corp. Reno Creek and Gas Hills proposals in Wyoming no longer were under consideration. The Reno Creek project is near Wright and the Gas Hills project is southwest of Casper.
NRC spokesman David McIntyre says the agency “goofed” in reporting the information.
Strathmore officials say they’re making significant progress on the company’s uranium projects in Wyoming. They say the company is working with state regulators to obtain necessary permits.
Australian error reveals China uranium export plan | Reuters
Australia plans to increase uranium sales to China provided it is not used in Beijing’s expanding weapons programme, documents mistakenly made public by Australia’s foreign minister showed on Thursday.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith tabled in parliament a confidential list of treaty negotiations with other countries, revealing details of negotiations between Australia and China about lifting exports of uranium from BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam mine in South Australia.
The treaty document said Australian diplomats attended talks in Beijing in January on BHP Billiton’s proposal to send uranium-infused copper concentrate to China from Olympic Dam.
B&W and USEC Inc. to Create Centrifuge Manufacturing Company
Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services Group, Inc. (B&W TSG), a major operating unit of The Babcock & Wilcox Company (B&W), has signed a memorandum of understanding with USEC Inc. to form a joint venture that will provide integrated manufacturing and assembly of centrifuge machines for USEC’s American Centrifuge Plant. The joint venture will also provide spare parts and other maintenance support services for centrifuge machines at the American Centrifuge Plant under a long-term service agreement. The total value of the joint venture’s activities is expected to exceed $1 billion. B&W is a major operating subsidiary of McDermott International, Inc.
ksl.com – Group seeks depleted uranium disposal moratorium 
An environmental group
wants state regulators to place a moratorium on allowing any more depleted uranium to be buried in the state.
The Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah told the Utah Radiation Control Board on Tuesday that the state shouldn’t allow the material until the Nuclear Regulatory Commission develops guidelines for how large amounts of it can safely be disposed.
Depleted uranium is different from other radioactive waste because it becomes more radioactive over time.
EnergySolutions Inc.’s disposal site in Tooele County is licensed to accept only Class A waste, considered the least dangerous type of low-level radioactive waste.
The NRC recently decided to continue classifying depleted uranium as Class A waste.
Your Industry News – Nuclear boom leads to uranium claims near proposed wilderness area
A spike in uranium prices in recent years has sparked a mining-claim rush near a proposed Colorado wilderness area a situation that would be exacerbated
by a federal energy bill that may include nuclear power in a national renewable
energy standard.
Several uranium mining claims have been filed near the proposed Dolores River Canyon Wilderness Area along the high desert cliffs of a river known for its scenic rafting and kayaking from high in the San Juan Mountains to the border of Utah.
The Dolores was initially recommended as a wild river under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act in 1976 and for years has been part of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s 29,000-acre Dolores River Canyon Wilderness Study Area.
Let the Study of Uranium Mining Begin | Lynchburg News Advance
Nearly everyone agrees that an independent study of the effects of proposed uranium mining in Pittsylvania County is a good step. But not everyone agrees on the study’s framework and the order in which the various aspects of such a mining operation would be covered.
That will be decided later this month. The first step toward the study’s framework has been taken by the respected National Academy of Sciences. In recommendations announced last week, the study would range from market trends to technical practices to health risks.
Deseret News | Director of Moab disposal is tireless stickler for details
Now, like a conductor, he directs the efforts of more than 150 people at the Moab tailings project and Crescent Junction Disposal Site, and 25 more at the Department of Energy’s office in Grand Junction, Colo., where he makes his home.
The goal is overwhelmingly simple on its face the removal of 16 million tons of mining waste but deceptively complex because of the risk to workers and the community due to the waste’s radioactive nature.
Nuclear Waste News
In Our View: Waste threatens Utah – Daily Herald / Utah Valley Local News
The governmental system that is supposed to regulate the disposal of low-level radioactive waste seems to be broken. That’s ominous for Utah.
Decades ago, under federal guidelines, groups of states — compacts — were formed to make decisions about how to handle the toxic stuff. The idea behind the agreements was that regions would introduce some order into the process and spread out the dispersal of nasty garbage.
Recently, however, three East Coast states are bypassing their own waste dumps to ship their waste to the EnergySolutions disposal site in Tooele County.
Connecticut, New Jersey and South Carolina are in a compact, and they are supposed to send their waste to a facility in South Carolina. Instead they have sent 3.6 million cubic feet of low-level waste to Utah.
This is a clear violation of the original intent of the compacts. Yet it’s not clear why this happened, or what can be done to prevent it from continuing.
Deseret News | EnergySolutions wins court battle to import foreign waste
EnergySolutions Inc. has won its legal battle to import low-level radioactive waste from Italy, after a federal court ruling Friday.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart in Salt Lake City validated the Salt Lake City-based company’s arguments that its efforts to bring the waste to Utah fall outside the regulatory purview of the Northwest Compact, a regional coalition of states tasked with overseeing low-level radioactive-waste management.
Attorneys for EnergySolutions had successfully argued in February that the compact’s authority only extended to waste generated within the compact boundaries of its member states and that it was not the intent of Congress to grant any overreaching authority beyond that.
“The law is very clear, and we are very pleased with the ruling,” said Jill Segal, a company spokeswoman. “We always believed we are not a compact facility” subject to those regulations, she said.
A spokesman with the Utah Attorney General’s Office said late Friday that a decision on whether to appeal the judge’s ruling is under review
Steven Chu On Solving The Nuclear Waste Problem
As we’ve detailed, nuclear waste is an expensive problem in the United States. The government is liable to utilities
for billions of dollars, due to a failure to produce a central, national location for storing waste.
With the closing of Yucca Mountain, we need to figure out what the plan is. MIT Technology Review interviewed DOE chief Steven Chu on the topic. He talks about reprocessing and setting up regional facilities for storage.
Technology Review: There’s some 50,000 metric tons of nuclear waste scattered among 130 sites across the country. What are you going to do with that waste now?
Whitehaven News | Village’s fury over radioactive waste plan
CONTROVERSIAL proposals to bury radioactive waste in Keekle have met with opposition from councillors.
French-owned company Sita UK plans to drill 24 exploratory boreholes at Keekle Head to see if the area is suitable for disposing of very low-level radioactive waste.
However, councillors from Frizington, which neighbours the potential site, have voiced their concerns.
“We have had enough rubbish dumped on us,” said parish council chairman Peter Connolly.
“We unanimously agree that we don’t want the proliferation of any waste, in particular low-level nuclear waste.
Whitehaven News | Discussions begin on site for low-level storage
Copeland and Allerdale councils who have both “expressed an interest” in the possibility of hosting a repository have joined the group known as the West Cumbria partnership for Managing Radioactive Waste Safely.
The partnership also includes the West Cumbria Sites (nuclear) Stakeholders Group, the Cumbria Association of Local Councils and local trades unions.
KSTP TV – Minneapolis and St. Paul – Hidden tax fee costing Minnesotans $13M annually
Lawmaker urges halt in payments to nuclear waste fund
While the legislature debates tax increases, one Minnesota congressman wants to give back money most of you have been paying in a hidden fee.
You can’t find it on your Xcel Energy electricity bill, but you’ve been paying it for decades–all for something that hasn’t even been used.
Plans introduced in Congress and here in Minnesota would scrap the fee and give you the refund.
WCS bond upheld in recount | andrews, bond, county – Odessa American Online
Andrews County reaffirmed the three-vote margin that narrowly gave the Andrews County Commissioner’s Court the green light to issue a $75 million bond to help a company build a nuclear waste disposal site, County Clerk Kendra Heckler said.
The Andrews County measure passed Saturday by three votes, 642-639, after Saturday’s balloting, and the tally was confirmed in Thursday’s recount.
The hand recount lasted from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, she said.
Andrews County Judge Richard Dolgener said, Melodye Pryor, a longtime opponent of Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists and its operation in Andrews, requested the recount. She was required to collect 25 signatures to call for the recount, Dolgener said.
Yucca Mountain is dead, long live Yucca Mountain – San Jose Mercury News
These days, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid prefers nothing so much as a one-word description for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository long planned for his state.
Dead.
And President Barack Obama has made clear he is looking elsewhere for an answer the nation’s nuclear waste problem.
But that doesn’t mean people aren’t still paying for it. Sometimes not even the president, with the Senate majority leader at his back, can easily kill a project 25 years and $13.5 billion in the making. Not quickly or cheaply, anyway.
In February, Congress allocated $288 million for the development of the site legally designated to hold the nation’s radioactive waste. That was about $100 million less than what the Bush administration requested, but still enough for a staff of several hundred people to continue work.
Last week, President Barack Obama proposed funding the Yucca Mountain repository at $196.8 million in 2010, an all-time low.
Site the target for radioactive waste – Northants ET
A landfill site could soon start taking radioactive waste if plans are approved.
Rubble and soil taken from nuclear power stations and hospitals could be taken to what was formerly known as King’s Cliffe landfill site.
The company behind the plans says the waste would only contain small amounts of low level radioactivity and there would be “insignificant” risk to the public.
Mich. to keep nuclear waste on-site as storage proposal dies | The Detroit News
A change in the national strategy for the long-term storage of nuclear waste is raising concern among environmental groups and raising legal issues for DTE’s plans for a new reactor south of Detroit.
Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada has been designated as a final resting place for nuclear waste collected throughout the United States. And for the past 20 years, utility customers across the nation have been chipping in to a fund to transform the mountain into a repository.
Despite 25 years of study the Obama administration has indicated Yucca Mountain is no longer an option. That means that for the foreseeable future, Michigan’s nuclear plants must continue to store the waste on-site, usually within a few miles of the Great Lakes.
MyWestTexas.com: Andrews County judge verifying signatures on recount petition
The Andrews County judge is verifying signatures this morning on a petition submitted late Monday requesting a recount after the bond to fund construction of a radioactive waste site passed by a three-vote margin Saturday.
County Judge Richard Dolgener said 25 signatures are required to formally request a recount and he is in the process of verifying the signatures received Monday are all from registered voters before he accepts the petition.
The request came at the prompting of Melodye and Peggy Pryor, who started the non-profit No Bonds for Billionaires, and spent the last weeks campaigning against the $75 million bond that would help Waste Control Specialists build a low-level radioactive waste site.
With 642 votes for the bond and 639 against or 50.12 percent for and 49.89 percent
against the Pryor sisters said they don’t see the win as a clear victory.
MyWestTexas: Andrews County citizens pass WCS bond by three votes
A $75 million bond meant to finance the construction of a low-level radioactive waste site was passed in Andrews County by a 3-vote margin Saturday leaving those in opposition preparing for their next step and those in favor planning for construction they say will start this summer.
As county officials wrote the voting totals on a board outside of the Andrews County Courthouse the about 30 gathered both in favor and opposition screamed at the final results 642 for and 639 against.
In early voting, 337 voted for the bond and 381 against it.
Lawmakers to decide on West Valley wastes: The Buffalo News
Cattaraugus County lawmakers will decide by June 8 whether to pass legislation supporting complete removal of all wastes from the former nuclear fuels reprocessing plant in West Valley.
In 2000 and 2004, county lawmakers adopted resolutions supporting the position that the 3,300-acre site should be released from federal control in a condition that will allow unrestricted uses of the land and that all wastes lacking a final repository should be stored in an above-ground retrievable condition until a safe disposal is possible.
They supported the conclusions of the West Valley Citizen Task Force, an advisory committee formed by the state that has been meeting since 1997 to develop recommendations for site cleanup.
State can argue 222 claims against Yucca – Las Vegas Sun
Nevada is going to be able to press 222 arguments to stop the construction of the high level nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain.
“It’s a huge victory for Nevada,” says Bruce Breslow, director of the state’s Office of Nuclear Projects.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in its 153-page decision, has allowed all but seven of Nevada’s contentions to be presented at a hearing. These claims involve mostly safety, the environment and transportation.
Nuclear Policy News
Will the nuclear cheerleader keep her job? | Power struggle | The Economist 
WillAnne Lauvergeon, the nuclear-energy industry’s most tireless cheerleader, keep her job as boss of Areva?
WHEN Anne Lauvergeon arrived in 1999 as the new boss of COGEMA, a French state-owned
uranium-mining and fuel-recycling firm, it was at a low point. Nuclear power was so unpopular that some employees would not admit to working for the company. A friend told her taking the job would be professional suicide. When she first visited its headquarters, with decor unaltered since the 1970s all chrome and dark-wood
furniture, and long corridors of orange-laminated cupboards she realised it would take a huge effort to drag the firm into the 21st century.
Going nuclear, Nuclear power, Nuclear industry, Generation IV, Careers and Recruitment, Naturejobs 
Workforce shortages could slow the growth of an industry poised
for a comeback. Quirin Schiermeier reports.
Francois Perchet, an electrical engineer by training, has seen the ebb and flow of the nuclear power industry in the course of his long career. He spent more
than 30 years with the French electricity company EDF, which operates the country’s 58 nuclear reactors, and knew most of the 19 nuclear plant sites in France. He worked in operations management, then in maintenance and repair, and later in probability-based safety studies. But last December, he crossed the English Channel
for a two-year assignment as programme coordinator with the World Nuclear University (WNU) in London, where he helps promote nuclear training and education throughout the world.
Consumers needs to return another $36 mil to customers: Michigan
Michigan regulators on Tuesday ordered Consumers Energy to return an additional $36 million from the sale of its Palisades nuclear plant to customers to help offset utility plans to implement a $179 million electric rate hike. The CMS Energy subsidiary asked the Michigan Public Service Commission last November for a nearly $215 million annual rate hike, citing “substantial investments” it is making to serve its 1.8 million electric customers. The state’s new comprehensive energy law, which the Legislature passed last year, includes a “file and use” provision allowing utilities to implement rate cases if the PSC has not acted within 180 days of a filing. That deadline for Consumers falls on Thursday and the utility intends to implement the hike, subject to refund. Consumers can implement the entire rate request if the PSC fails to issue a final order by November 14.
Weekly Standard: Dems Budget For Just 3 New Reactors; Still Funding Yucca
A bipartisan group of Senators led by Kay Bailey Hutchison has signed a letter to Senators Dorgan and Bennett, the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, urging them to increase funding for a 2005 program that would provide loan guarantees for companies seeking to build nuclear power plants. According to the letter, there are currently 26 applications pending for new reactors in 15 states. But the current energy bill has allocated $18.5 billion for loan guarantees, enough for only three reactors according to signatories Hutchison, Burr, Landrieu, Lugar, Bill Nelson, Graham, Cornyn, Martinez, Sessions, Wicker, Risch, and Vitter.
But it’s not all bad news. Even though Obama campaign against the use of Yucca mountain as the nation’s nuclear waste repository, and even though his secretary of energy says that Yucca mountain is no longer an option, the Obama administration still proposed $200 million for Yucca in FY2010. Even the projects Obama kills still get funding, so maybe Congress will be convinced to throw a few billion more toward the only non-carbon emitting power source that actually works.
The full letter after the jump…
UAE nuclear deal may stall as U.S. condemns torture | Reuters
The United States said on Wednesday it was very concerned by video of a member of the ruling family of Abu Dhabi allegedly torturing an Afghan man, footage that could stall a civilian nuclear deal with the United Arab Emirates.
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the department was consulting with Congress about the agreement, which could be blocked if an outcry over the video grows. The deal could be worth billions of dollars to U.S. energy companies that build and operate nuclear power plants.
Legislators pass energy bill that keeps ban on nuclear power – TwinCities.com
The Minnesota Senate voted 50-16 today to pass a compromise energy policy package that declines to lift a moratorium on new nuclear power in Minnesota.
The Senate had adopted that position, but the House took the opposite view, and a conference committee opted to maintain the 15-year-old ban.
Several Republican senators, however, registered their disappointment that the Senate position didn’t prevail.
The bill also contains a host of measures aimed at strengthening the state’s commitment to renewable and sustainable energy development.
Hearings set on electric rates, nuclear recovery fee
Area residents will have a chance to speak out on Progress Energy Florida electric rates and a controversial electricity charge at public forums to be held this summer.
Nine hearings are planned, according to the state’s Office of Public Counsel, which represents consumers before the Florida Public Service Commission.
The main focus will concern Progress Energy base rates that would go into effect in 2010, a Progress Energy spokesman, Tim Leljedal, said today.
Nader on Energy, CO2 and Sustainability – Green Inc. Blog – NYT
Green Inc. caught up with Mr. Nader recently to ask him about some of the most pressing environmental questions of the day from carbon taxes and cap-and-trade programs to renewable energy and nuclear power as well as his impressions of the Obama administration’s approach to these issues in its first 100 days.
Excerpts from that conversation follow:
US FERC chairman says markets will decide fate of coal, nuclear
Addressing controversial statements he made last month, US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Jon Wellinghoff on Tuesday clarified that he believes electricity markets will decide the future of new coal and nuclear power generation. During a press conference in Washington April 22, Wellinghoff said he believes renewable energy resources coupled with demand-side management might eliminate the need for new conventional power plants. “Ultimately, I was talking about a scenario” involving demand response and other technologies “where there may be a point where it would be feasible to utilize what are thought of as variable resources to really meet peak loads in a very reliable way,” Wellinghoff said Tuesday at a Washington press event. “Reliability is the key.
OpEdNews»
Newsom for a Nuclear California 
Governor Greenwash I, and. . . II?
What do California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, and the Pacific Gas’n Electric Corporation (PG&E) have in common?
All three are large, very large, and all three favor large, very large, corporate power, including PG&E and nuclear power.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mr. Olympia, Pumping Iron champion, Terminator, and now, Governor, stands 6’2″ tall, and, during his body-building heyday, seems to have weighed in at 260 pounds off season, 235 pounds on.
AFP: Centrica, EDF to sign deal on nuclear power
British Gas owner Centrica and France’s state-owned EDF announced on Monday a long-awaited joint venture aimed at relaunching nuclear energy in Britain.
EDF, the world’s biggest nuclear energy producer, also said it would buy 51 percent of the Belgian electricity company SPE from Centrica for 1.3 billion euros (1.16 billion pounds), the companies said in a joint statement.
The deal with Centrica will enable the leading British generator “to take part in the re-launch of nuclear energy in the United Kingdom,” said Pierre Gadonneix, chairman and chief executive of EDF.
Nuclear Weapons News
Thoughts on the H-Bomb 
This article appeared in the November 29, 1952 edition of The Nation.
Now that the US has exploded its first hydrogen bomb, a negotiated peace with the Soviet Union is more important than ever.
Hiroshima, a month after the first atomic bomb was dropped by the US to hasten Japan’s surrender.
Hiroshima, a month after the first atomic bomb was dropped by the US to hasten Japan’s surrender.
The announcement that the atomic age has now given birth to the H-bomb, said to be a thousand times more destructive than the 1945 A-bomb, must be considered in the light of several major realizations. On October 26, 1952, John Foster Dulles,
President-elect Eisenhower’s new Secretary of State, and Dr. Arthur H. Compton, in interviews with Richard G. Baumhoff of the St. Louis Port-Dispatch, agreed that it is now too late to outlaw or abandon the use of atomic weapons.
Jeffrey St. Clair: The Case of the Missing H-Bomb
When We Almost Nuked Savannah
Things go missing. It’s to be expected. Even at the Pentagon. Last October, the Pentagon’s inspector general reported that the military’s accountants had misplaced a destroyer, several tanks and armored personnel carriers, hundreds of machine guns, rounds of ammo, grenade launchers and some surface-to-air missiles. In all, nearly $8 billion in weapons were AWOL.
Those anomalies are bad enough. But what’s truly chilling is the fact that the Pentagon has lost track of the mother of all weapons, a hydrogen bomb. The thermonuclear weapon, designed to incinerate Moscow, has been sitting somewhere off the coast of Savannah, Georgia for the past 40 years. The Air Force has gone to greater lengths to conceal the mishap than to locate the bomb and secure it.
On the night of February 5, 1958 a B-47 Stratojet bomber carrying a hydrogen bomb on a night training flight off the Georgia coast collided with an F-86 Saberjet fighter at 36,000 feet. The collision destroyed the fighter and severely damaged a wing of the bomber, leaving one of its engines partially dislodged. The bomber’s pilot, Maj. Howard Richardson, was instructed to jettison the H-bomb before attempting a landing. Richardson dropped the bomb into the shallow waters of Wassaw Slough, near the mouth of the Savannah River, a few miles from the city of Tybee Island, where he believed the bomb would be swiftly recovered.
The Pentagon recorded the incident in a top secret memo to the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. The memo has been partially declassified: “A B-47 aircraft with a [word redacted] nuclear weapon aboard was damaged in a collision with an F-86 aircraft near Sylvania, Georgia, on February 5, 1958. The B-47 aircraft attempted three times unsuccessfully to land with the weapon. The weapon was then jettisoned visually over water off the mouth of the Savannah River. No detonation was observed.”
Mohamed ElBaradei warns of new nuclear age | The Guardian
The number of potential nuclear weapons states could more than double in a few years unless the major powers take radical steps towards disarmament, the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog has warned.
In a Guardian interview, Mohamed ElBaradei said the threat of proliferation was particularly grave in the Middle East, a region he described as a “ticking bomb”.
Mohamed ElBaradei talks to Julian Borger Link to this audio
ElBaradei, the outgoing director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said the current international regime limiting the spread of nuclear weapons was in danger of falling apart under its own inequity. “Any regime has to have a sense of fairness and equity and it is not there,” he said in an interview at his offices in Vienna.
Candidates set woo votes in murky IAEA election | Reuters
Five contenders to succeed Mohamed ElBaradei as head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog will present their credentials to member states on May 26 in a drawn-out election race without a clear favorite.
The leadership of the International Atomic Energy Agency is a sensitive, high-profile post since the IAEA aims to prevent the spread of nuclear arms, with Iran’s disputed atomic program under investigation, and promote peaceful uses of the atom.
Most past director-generals, including ElBaradei, held the job for more than a decade and the 35 nations on the IAEA’s Board of Governors want a strong consensus candidate bridging divisions between industrialized and developing nations.
U.S. warhead disposal in 15-year backlog – USATODAY.com
President Obama plans deep new cuts in the U.S. nuclear arsenal at a time when the government faces a 15-year backlog of warheads already waiting to be dismantled and a need for billions of dollars in new facilities to store and dispose of the weapons’ plutonium.
The logjam of thousands of retired warheads will grow considerably based on a promise made in April by Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to get their stockpiles far below levels set by current disarmament pacts.
Yet much of the infrastructure needed to dispose of those weapons don’t exist yet, according to federal audits and other records reviewed by USA TODAY.
Dismantling the retired warheads not counting the additional weapons that Obama wants to eliminate will take until 2024, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration, which runs the weapons program. The schedule for disposing of the plutonium cores from those weapons runs past 2030.
Building the necessary plants and storage facilities “is expensive (and) is going to take a long time,” says Linton Brooks, a former arms negotiator who headed the nuclear security administration from 2002 to 2007. “That doesn’t stop the president from taking more warheads off missiles and bombers and (adding to) to the backlog. It means the queue gets a lot longer.”
Nuclear Bailout: The Costs and Consequences of Renovating the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex
Despite President Obama’s recent pledge to seek a world free of nuclear weapons, the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is proposing a major upgrade to the nation’s nuclear weapons complex. If the United States invests in a state-of-the-art nuclear weapons complex capable of producing
thousands of new warheads over time, it will undermine confidence in any U.S. policy aimed at dramatically reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons.
Joint Committee To Consider Lifting Nuclear Ban – wcco.com 
House and Senate members will begin working out their differences on an energy bill this week, and that’s expected to include another discussion on nuclear power.
The Senate voted to lift Minnesota’s current ban on new nuclear power plants, but the House defeated the measure by 12 votes.
The failed House vote hurts the measure’s chances, but environmentalists who oppose expanding nuclear power have said they will be watching closely as the energy conference committee meets. Its first meeting is set for Monday.
ABC: Maralinga women tell their story
The tragic legacy of Britain’s nuclear testing at Maralinga in the South Australian outback is now a well-documented chapter in the nation’s history. But for the Aboriginal people whose land was used for the tests, there is a feeling that their voice has not been heard. Now a group of women from remote communities in South Australia’s far west coast have written and illustrated their story for the first time.
Transcript
KERRY O’BRIEN, PRESENTER: Thanks to the efforts of a Royal Commission, the tragic legacy of Britain’s nuclear testing at Maralinga in the South Australian outback is now a well documented chapter in the nation’s history.
Department of Energy News
Associated Press: DOE chief announces billions for clean coal
Energy Secretary Steven Chu says he will provide $2.4 billion from the economic recovery package to speed up development of technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and factories that burn coal.
Chu told a meeting of the National Coal Council on Friday that it’s essential that ways are found to capture carbon dioxide from coal-burning power plants and industrial sources. Carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels is the leading greenhouse gas blamed for global warming.
Audit criticizes DOE Hanford contractor oversight | Tri-City Herald
The Department of Energy needs to improve oversight after a contractor at Hanford was allowed to approve federal funding on behalf of DOE for its own contract, according to an audit by the Department of Energy Office of Inspector General.
The audit also said that in some cases the contractor was allowed to prepare statements of work, which established DOE’s requirement for work to be performed under its contract.
The DOE Hanford Office of River Protection, or ORP, already has made some changes after recognizing that oversight of Project Assistance Corp. was weak before the Office of Inspector General began its investigation.
DOE issued a blanket purchase agreement to Project Assistance Corp. in 2003 for project management, risk assessment, program assessment, quality assurance, safety, cost and schedule estimating, budgeting and finance, and engineering.
Annual costs of the contract have increased from $4.7 million in 2005 to $9.2 million in 2008.
Technology Review: Q & A: Steven Chu
In his first 112 days as the U.S. Energy Secretary, Steven Chu has presided over unprecedented changes at the Department of Energy (DOE). The stimulus bill signed into law in February provided $39 billion to the agency–a sum that Chu acknowledges is straining the agency as it attempts to
sort through proposals for distributing this money. The money is in addition to
the agency’s yearly budget of about $25 billion. Most recently, President Obama’s
proposed 2010 budget upped DOE’s budget by $400 million and called for increased spending on climate science and nuclear security, as well as support for many alternative-energy projects.
DOE Budget Favors Renewables, Makes Cuts to Coal, Nuclear Programs :: POWER Magazine
President Obama’s $26.4 billion Department of Energy (DOE) budget request for fiscal year (FY) 2010 substantially increases new cash for the development of renewable energies, energy efficiency, and for measures to curb carbon dioxide emissions, but it cuts funding to coal and nuclear programsâ€â€fuels that produce 70% of the nation’s electricity.
The proposed FY 2010 budget, which would take effect on October 1 if approved by Congress, complements $38.7 billion the DOE will invest as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Energy Secretary Steven Chu last week detailed the budget request, highlighting major funding changes from FY 2009. He stressed that while the budget makes important investments in energy independence and job creation, it also cuts back on programs that don’t work as well or are no longer needed.
Favoring Renewables
Among the major increases were to the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). Its budget of $2.3 billion an increase of 6% over FY 2009 builds on the Recovery Act funding of $16.8 billion. Solar energy got the biggest boost, gaining $320 million, an 83% increase from FY 2009. Wind received $75 million (a 36% increase from FY 2009), geothermal got $50 million (14% increase), while biomass and biorefinery systems research and development gained $235 million (8% increase).
Hanford News: Lockheed Martin gets DOE go-ahead on Hanford contract
The Department of Energy has given a team led by Lockheed Martin notice to proceed as the Hanford mission support contractor.
The notice to proceed indicates that no protest will be filed on the contract award made late in April to the Lockheed team, Mission Support Alliance.
The losing bidder for the contract, Computer Sciences Corp., or CSC, has reached an agreement with the Mission Support Alliance to become a major subcontractor on the team and will not protest the award.
“We’re still working the details out,” said Joe Wagovich, spokesman for Lockheed Martin.
The transition from outgoing contractor Fluor Hanford to Mission Support Alliance is expected to begin before the end of the month, although the start date has not been set. The transition will last 90 days and then Mission Support Alliance, led by Frank Figueroa, will take charge of support services at Hanford.
Mission Support Alliance was first awarded the contract valued at $3 billion over 10 years in September, but CSC, which had teamed with Battelle, protested the award to the Government Accountability Office.
POGO: POGO Responds to NIF’s Award: Over Budget, Behind Schedule, Undeserving
Last week, POGO sent a letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu challenging the decision to bestow upon the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) an award for “Project Management Excellence” for the performance of what is ironically one of its most poorly managed projects, the National Ignition Facility (NIF).
Hanford News: ‘Nuclear Wastelands’ recognized for honor
A Washington State University Press book by former Hanford regulator Max S. Power has been chosen one of the “Best of the Best from the University Presses” by the American Library Association.
America’s Nuclear Wastelands: Politics, Accountability, and Cleanup, looks at the legacy of waste left at Hanford and other nuclear sites from decades of nuclear weapons production.
The book also covers the current institutional and political environment as it affects waste cleanup and the critical role of public involvement in making decisions about cleanup.
Hanford News: Demolition being considered rather than sealing Hanford nuclear reactor sites
The Department of Energy is considering tearing down Hanford’s K Reactors that stand on the banks of the Columbia River rather than sealing them up for 75 years.
If the plan goes forward, it could lead to tearing down eight of the nine plutonium production reactors along the river instead of leaving them “cocooned.” Only B Reactor, which is expected to be preserved as a museum, would remain standing.
Demolishing the reactors now instead of waiting 75 years to dispose of them could “save a ton of money” in long-term costs, said Dave Brockman, manager of the DOE Hanford Richland Operations Office.
Other Energy News
Global Wind Installations Up 29% in 2008 – Renewable Energy World
Global wind capacity increased an estimated 27,051 megawatts in 2008, with cumulative installations up almost 29 percent. The United States led in new installations, surpassing Germany to rank first in wind energy cumulative capacity and electricity generation.
Nearly 400,000 people are employed by the wind industry worldwide, though this number could slide in the near term due to project financing difficulties, particularly in the United States.
A new snapshot of wind energy trends from Worldwatch Institute analyzes data since 1980 and reveals that for the first time last year, wind power represented Europe’s leading source of new electric capacity (with 8,877 megawatts added), well ahead of natural gas at 6,939 MW and coal at 763 MW.
UK’s London Array Given Green Light – Renewable Energy World
DONG Energy, E.ON and Masdar have announced that they will invest EUR 2.2 billion (US $3 billion) in building the first 630-megawatt (MW) phase of the London Array offshore wind farm in England’s Thames Estuary. The wind farm is set to be build the world’s largest offshore wind farm.
The consortium hopes the first phase of 630 MW will be completed and generating in 2012. The first phase will consist of 175 turbines.
The announcement comes after the UK Government’s recent proposal to increase its support for offshore wind power. The partners are satisfied that the project is now financially viable and are now keen to push ahead with construction and to produce the first renewable power in 2012. Onshore work is now due to start in
the summer, with offshore work due to start in early 2011.
The Cost of Energy » Document alert: Green Cities Report
A new report released today called Green Cities is one of the first assessments of exactly how 40 of the country’s largest cities are trying to limit their carbon footprints and take the steps needed to raise these efforts to the next level. The report was initiated
and conducted by Living Cities, a long-standing collaboration of 21 of the world’s largest foundations and financial institutions.
Peak Energy: Largest Solar Plant in the World Coming to Arizona ?
TreeHugger has a post on a solar thermal power plant planned for Arizona (Which isn’t the largest announced, but how many of these get built in the short term remains to be seen) – Largest Solar Plant in the World Coming to Arizona ?.
Could be–details are still emerging and sketchy, but it looks like one of the world’s biggest solar projects will find its home in Arizona. The proposed 340 megawatt system would use advanced parabolic trough technology, and would cost over $2 billion–and yes, it would take advantage of stimulus funding. Looks like Arizona’s becoming a hotbed for solar power indeed–this would be the fourth solar plant in Mohave County, AZ alone. Here are the whispered details:
Mohave Sun Power and Albiasa Solar are the companies behind the ambitious installation, and they’ll be using the same technology as another recently proposed massive solar project:
Could a Clean Energy Bank Save the US Economy and Improve its Future Prospects? Yes!
Reliable, accessible and affordable energy has been one of the primary pillars of American prosperity since the dawning of the Industrial Age. Unfortunately, many of the energy sources that we have always used have been seriously depleted or produce a dangerous build up of waste products in our common environment. As the people’s representatives, Congress wants to help change that pattern by enabling and encouraging entrepreneurs, established corporations and private investors to make the long term investments that will be required to change a pattern of energy use that has been developing for almost 200 years.
One attempt at making that possible was the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which established a program where the federal government would back loans for carefully selected projects whose payback profile did not exactly match the demands of the short term thinkers on Wall Street. Unfortunately, that bill put the burden of developing the program onto the Department of Energy, an organization that remains ill equipped for the task. Part of the reason is that the DOE is dominated by other considerations (protection of the nuclear weapons stockpile) and by the established energy industry that has no desire or incentive to make a big change in the current market.
Municipal Solar Financing: The Biggest Revolution that You’ve Never Heard Of : Red, Green, and Blue 
The whole thing is happening without flashy ad campaigns, so it’s
not surprising if you’ve never heard of municipal solar financing. But the financing program, also known as property tax financing, is a veritable underground solar
revolution.
It all started in Berkeley, CA with the Berkeley FIRST Program, which allows homeowners to pay for solar panels through property tax bills over a 20 year period. The bills carry a fixed interest rate and stay with the house, so there’s no need to worry about paying for panels on a house you don’t live in anymore. The Berkeley
program was so popular that California passed the AB811 bill to let any interested city in the state launch a similar program.
PG&E Buys Enough Future Solar Energy for 530,000 Homes
Large-scale solar power is beginning to take on the job of meeting the demands made by California’s air conditioners for electricity.
Pacific Gas & Electric and Brightsource Energy today announced they have expanded a series of solar power contracts for a total of 1,310 megawatts of electricity enough to power 530,000 California homes during peak hours with energy from the Sun.
Completion of the first project will nearly double the amount of solar thermal electricity produced in the United States.
Giant Turbine Offers 20% Efficiency Boost : TreeHugger 
Officially grid-connected
and set to work this week in Germany is a new wind tower from ATS. The novel tower
construction allows very high hub heights that may increase a turbine’s yield by 20% or more. With its hub height of 133 meters (436 feet), the system has an
overall height of 180 meters (590 feet).
“This is a great day for wind energy.” said Frans Brughuis, Managing Director of the tower construction specialist Advanced Tower Systems (ATS). “Now the pilot project can demonstrate the high cost-effectiveness and efficiency of the ATS concept,” The system, one of the largest wind energy systems with hybrid tower in the world, is installed at Germany’s Windtest test field at Grevenbroich,
near Cologne.
Ten Years of Progress in Environmental Remediation 
Approach to Uranium Legacy
in Central Asia to Be Reviewed at IAEA-Led Conference
In the past, many industries, such as uranium mining, were often developed without consideration for environmental safety issues, in a context that often lacked appropriate or effective environmental laws and regulations.
As a result, contaminated sites have been created worldwide by other nuclear activities such as defence programs operations, as well as nuclear and radiological accidents such as Chernobyl and Goinia.
An IAEA-led international conference on environmental remediation to be held next week in Astana, Kazakhstan, will address these issues.
Public Citizen – Public Citizen Tells Congress Effective Federal Whistleblower Protections Depend on Full Access to Courts, Urges Obama to Fulfill Campaign Promise
Federal employees and contractors are in a unique position to contribute valuable information and save taxpayers huge sums of money, Angela Canterbury, director of advocacy for Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division, told lawmakers today. At a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Canterbury testified in support of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2009 (H.R. 1507), to restore and modernize the law that protects federal whistleblowers.
“Not only is it a national disgrace that speaking out about wrongdoing in government is still such a risky endeavor, it also is unsustainable. Federal spending is at unprecedented levels, and the need for strict accountability and oversight has never been more urgent,” Canterbury said. “Whether the issue is stimulus spending, fraud at a Wall Street firm, prescription drug safety, environmental protection or national defense, federal workers must be empowered to safeguard the public trust.”
In 2007, the Ethics Resource Center found that more than half the federal workforce observed misconduct on the job, but only one-quarter of those reported wrongdoing because the rest feared retaliation. More than one in 10 who did report experienced retaliation.
Bush team still haunts environmentals – Erika Lovley – POLITICO.com 
Environmentalists who see this year as their best hope for a major global warming bill can’t seem
to escape a familiar foe: former Bush administration officials they fought year after year on energy and climate issues.
As the House Energy and ommerce Committee debates its ambitious cap-and-trade bill, environmentalists will find James Connaughton, President George W. Bush’s top environmental adviser, advocating for Constellation Energy. Karen Harbert,
a top Bush Energy Department official, is now heading the energy practice at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce a leading critic of Democratic climate change proposals.
And F. Chase Hutto III, Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy and environment adviser, has formed ClearView Energy Partners, aimed at helping businesses navigate climate change legislation.
GOP plans 450 climate bill changes – Lisa Lerer – POLITICO.com 
Republicans in the House Energy and Commerce committee are considering introducing about 450
amendments during the mark-up of climate change legislation next week, according to a working list obtained by POLITICO. Many of the potential amendments would
lower the environmental standards set forth in the bill, or could make it more difficult for Democrats to vote to support it.
The committee is scheduled to spend all next week marking-up the climate and energy bill sponsored by Reps. Henry Waxman, (D-Calif.) and Ed Markey, (D-Mass.)
Waxman, the chairman of the committee, has spent months negotiating a deal with southern and Midwestern Democrats who fear the new regulations capping greenhouse gases could hurt businesses and consumers at homes. On Thursday, Virginia Rep.
Rich Boucher who’s acted as a lead negotiator for skeptical Democrats endorsed the bill, a signal that it could have enough support to pass the committee.
Jeremy Rifkind, thinking big about distributed energy resources
I’m not generally a fan of Jeremy Rifkind’s work. But, as a commenter is quoted as saying at the end of this BBC News report on Rifkind’s latest ideas for energy policy, “The world has room for visionaries.”
At a Prague conference, Rifkind outlined a grand scheme for solving economic and energy problems by rapidly moving Europe to distributed renewable energy resources integrated with smart grid systems. If you strip out the seemingly-obligatory-in-public-pronouncements-these-days promise of millions of “green jobs,” it is a vision of what a smart grid system can do for distributed energy. Sure, too ambitious by half, but that is part of what makes it a vision and not a program for immediate action.
Although, I’ll have to say, there is an odd bit of centralization in a distributed energy proposal in which at “any one time the system will know what every washing machine is doing in Europe” and in the case of “peak demand, [with] not enough supply, software can say to two million washing machines forget the extra rinse’.”
(Though Rifkind notes his system is entirely voluntary and participants would be paid for their contributions.)
Builders angry at rules on energy efficiency – BostonHerald.com
Home and commercial builders are furious at a new energy-efficiency rule that could tack an extra $10,000 or more to the cost of new houses and office complexes.
The state’s Board of Building Regulations and Standards yesterday approved the so-called “stretch energy code” that allows tougher testing to make sure new structures comply with enhanced energy-efficiency requirements.
Power Industry Executives Call for More Realism, Less Creativity in U.S. Energy Policy, an Industrial Info News Alert
In remarks delivered Tuesday at the 11th annual Electric Power Conference & Exhibition in Rosemont, Illinois, power industry executives called for more realism and integrity in the Obama administration’s energy and environmental initiatives. While praising the creativity and commitment of the administration’s energy team, panelists said that what is needed right now is less creativity and more practicality around energy and environmental issues.
Peak Energy: Cheaper Solar Concentrators
Technology Review has an article on making solar power cheaper using concentrators combined with PV panels – Cheaper Solar Concentrators.
Skyline Solar, a startup that today announced its existence to the world, has developed a cheaper way to harvest energy from the sun. The company’s solar panels concentrate sunlight onto a small area, reducing the amount of expensive semiconductor material needed to generate electricity.
The technology will bring the cost of solar power in line with the average cost of electricity, at least in sunny areas, says Ben Eiref, Skyline Solar’s director of product management. Currently, solar power can be far more expensive than electricity from conventional sources; many governments have resorted to subsidies to increase its use.
Peak Energy: A Skyscraper Farm for Vancouver
Green building of the week from Inhabitat is this vertical farm proposed for Vancouver – Amazing Skyscraper Farm for Vancouver. I’ll believe vertical farms work when I see it, but I’d like to see one tried, purely for the sake of showing how successful they can (or can’t) be.
Vertical farms are one of our favorite future-forward concepts for creating sustainable cities. Providing locally-grown produce and food will not only help us reduce our carbon emissions significantly, but also help us become healthier. Romses Architects recently came up with an amazing concept for a vertical farm in Vancouver as part of the City’s 2030 Challenge. Complete with a tower for growing fruits and vegetables, a livestock grazing plane, a boutique dairy farm, commercial space, transit lines, renewable energy and more, the Harvest Green Tower has the potential to be a food growing, energy producing, living, breathing sustainable transit hub.
5 Feasible Renewable Energy Sources
President Barack Obama has made no secret of his desire to develop a “green economy” that includes renewable energy projects meant to benefit the environment. He has said that part of the economic recovery in the U.S. will come from money for, and jobs created by, renewable energy projects. Around the world, politicians, businesses and scientists are developing the technology that could improve the cost-efficiency of renewable energy. One would expect that — over time — the costs associated with renewable energy would go down. With fossil fuels, costs can only go up as the un-renewable sources dwindle and become more scarce even as demand rises. Here are 5 feasible renewable energy sources that could be developed to help meet world energy needs:
Nuclear Editorial and Opinions
Corbett: No new nuclear waste for South Carolina – Editorial Columns – The State
With the failure of the nation’s nuclear spent fuel repository at Yucca Mountain to open and $1.6 billion in federal stimulus funds in the offing, some legislative officials are offering up our state to become the nation’s dumping ground for the more than 55,000 tons of deadly radioactive waste generated by nuclear reactors, even suggesting a revival of the reprocessing debacle.
Nuclear reprocessing produces the sort of high-level waste that is sitting in leaking tanks at the Savannah River Site, considered by many, even DHEC, to be the most significant environmental hazard threatening South Carolina.
Why are some of our legislators actively pursuing what many consider the most risky, dirty and dangerous nuclear activity? U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and Reps. James Clyburn and Joe Wilson are openly calling for reprocessing, although they admit our state has a dismal record of ever getting rid of any radioactive waste dumped here. Reprocessing would mean the whole nation would transport its high-level waste to our state. We would become Yucca Mountain.
Nuclear power unsafe, unnecessary’: speaker – Fairview Post – Alberta, CA
The Peace River Environmental Society arranged for a series of talks on earthquake risks surrounding the construction of a nuclear power plant near Peace River, one in Fairview at the Legion May 6. The speaker was J.R. (Jack) Century, a petroleum
geologist, who suggested that building a nuclear power plant in the Peace country is both unsafe and unnecessary.
Century has made a study of seismicity, vibration in the earth’s crust, especially as caused by injecting or flooding liquid into and withdrawing liquid from the earth as is done for tarsands and heavy oil recovery where steam is injected to heat heavy oil to make it flow.
Century says that underground fractures that help to trap oil and gas underground as well as making it possible to recover them more easily, can be both a blessing and a curse, the latter especially in a limestone structure such as underlies much of the Peace. He believes that injecting into the ground, whether it is steam to recover bitumen or carbon dioxide for storage purposes can alter the “pressure regimen” down below which can lead to increased seismic activity, which in turn could lead to collapses of underground limestone structures and/or possibly catastrophic earthquakes.
He pointed to a CBC news story about Japan’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant being damaged by a large earthquake. The damage included fires, water and oil leaks and pipes knocked out of place by the tremors. He implied that the same thing could happen in the Peace. He showed a map of the Peace detailing fault lines and both the original proposed location for the Bruce Power plant at Lac
Cardinal and the more recent site are quite close to a fault lines.
Relicensing Oyster Creek nuclear plant was a mistake | Tri-Town News
It has been a crisis month for Exelon since federal regulators jumped the gun and relicensed the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Lacey until 2029.
Failure of a main transformer led to the shutdown of the reactor. That followed the recent discovery of high levels of radioactive tritium contamination at the site.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff have tracked the tritium leak to two burst pipes, a concrete vault and a monitoring well. Concentrations of radioactive tritium are 300 times the allowable levels in four test wells at the site.
This raises alarm about the plant’s aging management program, which was the basis of the relicensing that is supposed to prevent this sort of dangerous mishap.
Despite assurances from Oyster Creek spokespeople that tritium has not traveled off company grounds, it has entered the water table. Water flows, and at Oyster Creek it will eventually empty into Barnegat Bay, where the state announced this week a huge reseeding program of the oyster beds.
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