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Dover scare as recovering cancer patient checks out

This made us smile today, thanks to The Daily Mail’s web pages. A cancer patient recovering from radiation therapy sparked a bomb alert as he drove off a Norfolkline ferry (right) at Dover last week .Officials checking for radioactive material stopped Peter Davies, 60, after he set off radiation detectors.They allowed him through only after he was able to produce a letter detailing the treatment he'd received for thyroid cancer. A fortnight earlier he'd been given a radioactive isotope called Iodine 131 by doctors at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London.

UK Border Agency officials told him it was the first time they'd stopped anyone under such circumstances. He was given 2.8 gigabecquerels of radioisotope at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London. The safe limit to be allowed back into the community is 800 megabecquerels, and he was down to 400 when he left hospital.

Vehicles, freight and passengers entering the UK are all screened. The equipment is designed to detect radiological emissions, and can be triggered by legitimate sources of radiation. This could include items like ceramics, cement or fertiliser which contain naturally occurring radiological materials or, as in this case, certain medical treatments.(19/7/10)

Images: John McLellan (Daily Mail) / French Duck

511 inspection failures? Not good, Chugoku...

Found on the pages of the Japan Times. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has assigned the lowest grade to the No. 1 and 2 reactors at Chugoku Electric Power Co.'s nuclear power plant in Shimane Prefecture due to the discovery of numerous inspection failures, sources said Thursday. The agency will issue a stern warning to Chugoku Electric and order the Hiroshima-based utility to include measures to prevent a recurrence of the problem in its safety regulations for nuclear power plants.

The agency has already released its evaluations on all but the two Chugoku Electric reactors that were found in March to have 511 inspection failures or devices that needed to be replaced. Agency inspectors also found more than 1,000 cases where results did not meet the levels set out in inspection plans.

The agency assigned the lowest grade of 1 only to the two reactors at Chugoku Electric's Shimane plant as they have "greatly ruined trust in nuclear power generation." Finding "unacceptable" problems at the reactors, the agency also concluded that their maintenance and management system has "grave defects," the sources said.

How can you misidentify a town with a 'fish advisory' during safety test...?

Michael Miller brings us this sorry tale via the pages of Press of Atlantic City, that should really be under Just Plain Silly...

The state misidentified a town in a public announcement during a drill at the Salem nuclear power plant, the Office of Emergency Management said Thursday.

The mistake and a delay in getting instructions out to the public mean the state will have to conduct a second drill in July. The drill tested the state's response to a nuclear disaster May 18. In a mock public notice, the state misidentified a town that was subject to a fish advisory, officials said.

The state also took 62 minutes to make all the necessary preparations to direct the public to evacuate, take shelter or consume potassium iodide pills in response to the nuclear accident. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said the directions should have been issued within 45 to 50 minutes.

Everything else in the biannual drill went smoothly, state officials said.(28/6/10)

Nuclear navy argy-bargy down Argentinia way

Our good friends at World Nuclear News are all at sea in Argentina for this one.

The Ministry of Defence in Argentina has said it is reviewing the idea of using nuclear reactors to power some of its naval vessels. Minister Nilda Garre announced the possibility, saying that the country wants to maintain its level of scientific, industrial and technological skills. She said that Argentina did not want to be left out of nuclear propulsion technology.

As well as four diesel-electric submarines, the larger ships of the Argentine navy include a command vessel with power needs of about 40 MW, a large destroyer with about 37 MW and four smaller destroyers with needs of about 27 MW each. 

One potential supplier of reactors to meet these kinds of requirements would be the nuclear technology firm Invap, which has exported several research reactors and developed the Carem power plant design. The company confirmed to World Nuclear News that the Ministry of Defense is evaluating whether the technical resources are available for Argentina to develop its own nuclear propulsion units, adding that references to any Invap involvement were speculative.(25/6/10)

U$28m on way to Brookhaven for dismantling graphite reactor

Jennifer Gustavson, reporting for the North Shore Sun, reports on the work going on at Brookhaven Reactor. Congressman Tim Bishop met with representatives of the Department Energy last Tuesday at Brookhaven National Laboratory to announce that the lab will receive an additional U$28 million in Recovery Act funding to complete the dismantling of the Brookhaven Graphite Research Reactor by this fall.

The remaining steps include the removal of a 300-foot stack at the site and a concrete shield that once surrounded the reactor's core, already removed. Also to be dismantled are concrete air ducts, equipment from an associated ventilation building and exhaust filters, and other contaminated pipes and structures.

The reactor, which was in use from 1950 to 1968, was "the world's first reactor designed and built solely for peaceful uses of atoms," according to BNL, After 18 years of service, the reactor was shut down because it "no longer provided the high neutron flux levels preferred by researchers."

Today, we're accelerating a significant milestone in the environmental restoration of Brookhaven National Laboratory," said Daniel Poneman, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday. "Thanks to Recovery Act funding designated for the Brookhaven Graphite Research Reactor decommissioning, the Department of Energy and BNL were able to accelerate and complete the most difficult part of the decommissioning process." (11/6/10)

Now this screen here is for all your on-line shopping...

Thanks to the pages of Vietnam Net for this story that may have passed you by. Ten universities and institutes will be allowed to train human resources for Vietnam’s first nuclear power plants, stated Institute for Atomic Energy of Vietnam Director Vuong Huu Tan.

According to the Ministry of Education and Training plan, seven universities and institutes will do this job, including Hanoi University of Technology, Da Lat University, Electricity University, Institute for Atomic Energy of Vietnam (under the Ministry of Science and Technology), Physics Institute (under the National Institute for Science and Technology), Hanoi and HCM City University for Natural Sciences.

 

Other universities like Hanoi Industry University, HCM City Industry University and HCM City University of Technology also asked to offer nuclear technology training, added Tan. The Russian partner will assist Vietnam to train employees for the nuclear power plants. Forty people have been sent to Russia for training and others will be trained in France, the US and Japan.

 

Vietnam will need an estimated 2400 staff who are university graduates to operate the Ninh Thuan 1 and 2 plants. Meanwhile, MoET’s survey in 2008 showed that Vietnam had only 505 experts of nuclear technology, who worked at the Vietnam Institute for Atomic Energy, the Agency for Radiation and Nuclear Safety under the Ministry of Science and Technology, Hanoi University of Technology, Da Lat University, Electricity University and Hanoi and HCM City Universities for Natural Sciences.(4/6/10)

 

It's looking a little damp at Prairie Island - best put your wellies on!

Eric Ludy, writing for the pages of the Republican Eagle, dons his wellies for a visit to Prairie Island Nuclear plant.

Prairie Island Nuclear plant operators knew of the potential for flooding in the plant's Unit 1 and Unit 2 turbine buildings, but failed to understand the implications on important safety-related equipment, according to a preliminary finding submitted to the plant Thursday by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The failure to identify and correct the potential safety issues in a timely manner is a significant human performance issue and cause for further review by the agency, according to NRC inspectors. Plant officials have 10 days to respond to the findings before the NRC decides whether to take enforcement action

The agency's preliminary findings are tied to a 2009 violation of low to moderate safety significance - called a "White finding" - involving the facility's failure to provide adequate protection of piping against natural events such as tornadoes and earthquakes. Later, when plant operators were evaluating piping in the turbine building for similar issues, they found that a rupture of piping caused by a natural event could result in the flooding of the building.

Once it receives a response, the NRC will conduct a final evaluation of the issue; at that point the agency will determine whether to flag the plant with a violation of "greater than very low safety significance," and what enforcement actions, if any, to take.(31/5/10)

Be there,or be square...

Just to prove that we at anythingradioactive are on the ball, the following notice was found on the pages of Toledo Blade, Ohio. (It’s a slow news day, too..)

Port Clinton, Ohio: A June 3 meeting has been set for the public to hear what federal regulators have learned about the premature aging of Davis-Besse’s nuclear reactor head, a massive device which had flaws detected in 24 of the 69 metal nozzles after only six years of operation. Reactor heads are expected to last decades.

The meeting will be at 6 p.m. in Building 600 of the Camp Perry Lodging & Conference Center, 1000 Lawrence Rd. The camp is west of Port Clinton and east of the plant. Those attending are subject to vehicle checks by Ohio National Guard personnel.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said a toll-free audio teleconference is being established for those who cannot attend. For details, go to www.nrc.gov or call 1-800-368-5642.(21/5/10)

You missed how many items in this inspection? 506 items missed in Chugoku check

The Manichi Daily Times reports that the Chugoku Electric Power Co. in Japan has neglected to perform regular inspections on a total of 506 items of equipment at two of the three reactors at its nuclear power plant in the western Japan city of Matsue, Shimane Prefecture.

Chugoku Electric, one of Japan's 10 regional power utility firms, filed an interim report that revealed the updated extent of the negligence with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and the Matsue municipal and Shimane prefectural governments the same day. The company initially announced in March that the number of such items was 123.

Chugoku Electric President Takashi Yamashita handed the report to Senior Vice Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Teruhiko Mashiko and offered an apology for seriously damaging public trust in nuclear power generation.

Following an instruction from the economy ministry and the ministry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency in late March, Chugoku Electric conducted full checks on about 35,000 pieces of equipment at each of the two reactors, the report said.

The checks found that the company has neglected to regularly inspect 347 items at the No. 1 reactor and 159 at the No. 2 reactor at the plant located along the Sea of Japan coast. On Friday, Chugoku Electric revised the initially reported figure of 123 to 122, which is included in the latest total of 506. In addition, the company has found 1,159 other items that would not have been properly checked had the situation about its inspection program not been improved by the time the checking deadlines elapse for these items.(5/5/10)

Images: Industcards / Life

Georgia accuses Russia in bid to crack down on uranium smuggling

Desmond Butler files this report on behalf of The Associated Press.

Georgia's president Mikhail Saakashvili said his country had seized a shipment of highly enriched uranium, blaming Russia for creating the instability that allows nuclear smugglers to operate in the region. Russia dismissed the claims Thursday and said Georgian President’s comments were "unsubstantiated" and amounted to propaganda.

Saakashvili gave few details of the seizure during an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press, saying only that the uranium was intercepted last month coming into his country in the Caucasus region of southeast Europe.

The Georgian Interior Ministry said a group of foreign nationals had been detained, and the uranium was in a secure location. The head of Georgia's nuclear safety agency, Zaal Lomatadze, said that the "organized group of people tried to smuggle in a small amount of enriched uranium with the purpose of selling it to a would-be buyer."

He said Georgia had registered such smuggling "attempts" involving Russian citizens as well as people from the breakaway Georgian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russia's Foreign Ministry rejected the Georgian claims outright.

"It's not serious to make such unsubstantiated statements," ministry spokesman Igor Lyakin-Frolov told The Associated Press in Moscow. "(Saakashvili) must be fully honest in saying where and when it happened, instead of using it for political purposes and propaganda."(26/4/10)

Victims of radioactive exposure still critical

The Hindu brings us up to date with the recent incident in New Delhi. The condition of all six persons exposed to radioactive material at a scrap market in the Capital's Mayapuri area continued to be highly critical on Saturday with doctors suspecting extensive damage to their bone marrow, making them severely susceptible to infections.

Deepak Jain, who is admitted to Indraprashtha Apollo Hospital, is reported to be “very critical” and his treatment is being managed in consultation with senior Bhabha Atomic Research Centre officials.  “Deepak is being treated for severe burns and his bone marrow is significantly suppressed. His condition is being closely monitored by a multi-disciplinary team of doctors,'' said a statement issued by the hospital.

“Deepak's body had turned black after he worked with the radioactive scrap. He lost time in having failed to identify the symptoms and take precautionary measures,'' said Dr. Kiran Walia. The police here are yet to ascertain the origin of the metal scrap containing radioactive cobalt-60 isotope that exposed at least six persons to radiation injuries.

The police are waiting to record the statement of the scrap shop owner, Deepak Jain, to find out the origin of the scrap consignment. They are also questioning other scrap dealers in Mayapuri.(12/4/10)

Bill's plan for small scale reactors revealed

Kirsten Korosec filed the following blog for BNET recently. Microsoft founder Bill Gates and TerraPower, the start-up company he’s backing, have a simple solution to our energy woes: Safe, small-scale nuclear reactors  that cut the cost of power, burn existing nuclear waste as fuel and avoid carbon dioxide and other nasty emissions.

Gates and TerraPower have been working on this idea for a while. But the start-up needs a commercial nuclear energy company to push its concept forward. The joint venture, if it materializes, will accelerate TerraPower’s plans to build the small-scale reactor.

The reactor uses a small amount of enriched uranium to kick off a chain reaction that moves slowly through a core of depleted uranium - i.e., waste from today’s nuclear plants - converting that spent fuel into plutonium that then sustains the reaction. In other words, once the reaction begins, it makes and consumes its own fuel;  theoretically for as long as 100 years, although no one’s likely to keep one on for that long. (29/3/10)

 

If you're going to Portland, Bill, just remember your pills

Laura Kitching and the Dorset Echo start taking the tablets...

A major nuclear disaster emergency plan is to be undertaken on Portland. Emergency planners will distribute specialist tablets to people that need to be taken in the event of a leak from a visiting nuclear submarine.

On Wednesday teams from the Royal Navy and Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) will exercise the distribution of potassium iodate tablets (PITs) to premises in the area around Portland Port. It is part of the Nuclear Accident Emergency Plan which is in place to react in the highly unlikely event of a nuclear accident occurring during the visit of a nuclear powered warship to the port.

Rubert Best, a former nuclear submarine captain who is a director of Portland Port, said: “It’s routine practice. There’s a system that needs to be exercised periodically and it’s perfectly normal, standard practice. The rules for these are all laid down by the nuclear safety committee – all ports have to be cleared for nuclear submarines. This process will have been cleared with Dorset County Council’s emergency planning officer.”

One important aspect of the plan is the delivery of PITs to members of the public who are within 1.5 kilometres of the port. Mr Best added: “These tablets basically give protection against one of the most common elements that sould be released in the event of a serious nuclear accident – which has never happened on any Royal Navy submarine.”(8/3/10)

What am I bid for this des res in Derbyshire?

Fancy a bit of bidding on eBay? Best be quick, though!  Thanks goes to the BBC web pages for this. A nuclear bunker and surrounding land in Derbyshire is expected to fetch up to £25,000 in an eBay auction.  The decommissioned cold war bunker, built in 1959 into a field in the Peak District, has attracted hundreds of hits.  The bunker has lighting and a phone line and can be used as living accommodation for short periods.   It is described by the seller as ‘a rare opportunity to acquire a valuable piece of Cold War History.’

The bunker was built as a master monitoring post by the Royal Observer Corps (ROC), amid the threat of nuclear attack, but decommissioned after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

It is accessed via a metal hatch and shaft, and a 15ft (4.57m) ladder leads to two rooms - one for a chemical toilet and the other, of 15ft x 7ft 6in (4.57m x 2.28m), for the monitoring equipment. Two ventilation shafts are built in and much of the original equipment is still in place. The seller added: "The bunker can continue to be used as limited living accommodation for short periods or adventure holidays. "ROC posts rarely come on to the market, especially in such well preserved condition." The auction ends on 7 March.(1/3/10)

UAE encourages students to join new nuclear programmes

Rania Moussly reporting for Gulf News brings us this.

An increasing demand for electricity in the UAE has sparked government plans to expand into the nuclear energy field. With the first of four nuclear power plants in the country set to come online in 2017, the drive to educate a new generation of Emiratis in the nuclear field is well under way.

The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC), which is developing the country's nuclear energy programme, has set up full scholarship programmes. It has also partnered with the Khalifa University of Science Technology and Research (KUSTAR), the Institute of Applied Technology (IAT) and the UAE's Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR) to educate, train and recruit students of the finest calibre who will go on to drive this emerging industry forward.

Given the rapid growth of the UAE, and electricity demands set to increase by 9%, the UAE Government is looking into sources of clean energy to sustain the growth. The nuclear power plants are set to create jobs for engineers, technicians, operators and administrators, among others. The target is to have a workforce constituted of 60 per cent Emiratis by 2020.

"Renewable energy (wind and solar energy) will make up to 7% of UAE's energy production by 2020, while nuclear energy production will make up to 25 per cent by 2020," said a spokesman. “When the four nuclear power plants are completed they will provide up to 2,300 jobs," he added. (17/2/10)

Tritium found in groundwater in Vermont - you might want to fix that..

Anika Clark writing for the Sentinel Source in New Hampshire tries to find an elusive leak in Vermont. Much ado has been made about tritium lately, since Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant officials announced that the radioactive form of hydrogen has contaminated groundwater at its Vernon campus.

But several nuclear engineering professors contacted by The Sentinel said the levels reported at Vermont Yankee aren’t dangerous. The problem, some said, is that it’s leaking at all.

“Personally I wouldn’t panic over this,” said Howard L. Hall, a professor of nuclear engineering at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. But, “clearly there’s something leaking that’s not supposed to leak. ... You still want to go fix that.”

According to a fact sheet from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, "Exposure to very small amounts of ionizing radiation is thought to minimally increase the risk of developing cancer, and the risk increases as exposure increases.”

Vermont Yankee officials don’t yet know the source of the tritium leak or how much water was contaminated.  What they do know is this: In early January, groundwater contaminated with tritium was discovered at a monitoring well about 30 feet from the Connecticut River.

The tritium level was measured at 17,000 picocuries (units of radioactivity) per liter, or 3,000 picocuries below the drinking water limit set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
(3/2/10)

Possible 8 new reactors for West Bengal

This comes from the pages of ZeeNews in India. Russia hopes to build up to 8 nuclear reactors in West Bengal awarded to it to meet India's growing energy demands, a top atomic energy official said.

"The Government of India has taken a decision and has awarded us the new site at Haripur in West Bengal”, Chief of the State Nuclear Corporation - RosAtom Sergei Kiriyenko said.

RosAtom is currently building two nuclear power units at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu with the total capacity of 2000 MWe and is to build four more VVER-1000 reactor units under an agreement signed during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Moscow visit in December last.

According to earlier reports Moscow and New Delhi are keen to sign the deal for the additional nuclear power units during Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's visit in mid-March.
(27/1/10)

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How can you lose a nuclear gauge? Just ask the folks in Pennsylvania

The Post-Gazette in Pittsburgh has this for us. State police in Pennsylvania are searching for a missing nuclear gauge that officials caution could pose a threat if anyone tampers with the device and the radioactive material inside is released.

Jeff Zell Consultants Inc. has informed the state Department of Environmental Protection's Bureau of Radiation Protection that a nuclear density gauge is unaccounted for at its site in Coraopolis.

The nuclear gauge has a radioactive symbol on it. According to the DEP, any attempt to tamper with the device could subject the handler to potentially harmful levels of radiation exposure. The company that owns the gauge is offering a $1,000 reward to anyone with information that leads to its immediate return.

State police and authorities with DEP are searching for the gauge, which is about the size of a shoe box, with electronic controls and a metal rod extending from the top surface. It is a Humboldt Model 5001 EZ122 with the serial number 5375. Normally, the gauge is stored in a locked yellow transportation container when not in use at construction sites.

DEP investigators are inspecting the facility where it is usually stored and interviewing management and employees.(22/1/10)

Armed hunters shut-down Pantex Plant - don't worry, they are just after some ducks

Chris Baltimore, writing for Reuters, reports from Houston for this somewhat non-story – but it made us smile..

Officials at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, which maintains the safety, security and reliability of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, ordered a lock-down at about 8 a.m. CST, plant officials said in a statement.

The plant is operated by Babcock and Wilcox for the U.S. Department of Energy, which oversees the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. Its nuclear stockpile was in no danger and the lock-down was purely precautionary, a state safety official said.

"There was not a threat to the Pantex plant assets, workers, or the public, and the plant is now returning to normal operations," the company said in a statement.

According to Carson County Sheriff Tam Terry, the plant was locked down because armed hunters were spotted on property adjacent to it." Somebody saw some armed individuals dressed in camouflage clothing exiting the vicinity of the plant.”

Sheriffs found a pair of hunters setting out duck decoys and building a blind on property near the plant, Terry said."They were very cooperative and compliant: We identified them. We checked their criminal history."(18/1/10)

Turn on and tune in for some official waffle from Vermont

This was picked up by John Dillon and heard on Vermont Public Radio last week.

(Host) A problem cropping up at nuclear plants around the country has occurred at Vermont Yankee. Plant technicians have discovered a radioactive isotope called tritium in a monitoring well on the Vernon reactor site.

Yankee spokesman Robert Williams says the plant is taking part in an industry-wide program to check for the isotope of hydrogen. Williams says the level is about half the amount that would be required to be reported to federal authorities. He says officials do not yet know where the radioactive isotope came from.

(Williams) This is an extremely low-level amount of tritium but since it's on our plant site we have established a technical team to identify the source of it. I don't have a timetable on that. But certainly the levels we're looking at are in no way a cause for concern for the health and safety of the public. (15/1/10)

Official notification concerning 'hot' money

This is from the official website of the US NRC and came to us via a roundabout route, so we pass this on to you in its entirity. 

OFFSITE NOTIFICATION DUE TO THE DISCOVERY OF CONTAMINATED DOLLAR BILLS

An individual entered the plant access and alarmed [the] portal radiation monitor. Upon investigation the individual's wallet contained three contaminated one dollar bills. The individual had processed out of similar monitors the previous day without indication of contamination. The three one dollar bills were surveyed and it was determined that they contained only I-131. The individual was interviewed and it was determined that the contaminated money was likely obtained at a local merchant. The individual is not aware of anyone undergoing iodine therapy. I-131 is used for therapy and diagnostic medical practices. The Corporate Health Physicist called the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, Radiological Health Division about the incident and location. The bills are contaminated above levels acceptable for the plant. The conclusion is that someone not associated with the power plant had iodine treatment, contaminated the bills, used them at the store and the individual received those bills as change.

"There is no reason to believe that contamination has any connection to the operation of power plant."

The licensee has notified the NRC Resident Inspector.
(11/1/10)

You're going to have to save up your cash for this to happen!

Indian Point and federal regulators have reached an agreement that will allow a reactor to sit dormant  - under monitoring - for as long as 50 years while its parent company accrues enough money to safely tear it down.

The agreement comes eight months after the Nuclear Regulatory Commission discovered a $38.6 million shortfall in the decommissioning trust fund for Indian Point's Unit 2.

Federal laws require Entergy, Indian Point's parent company, to show it would have enough money to shut down and dismantle the unit by the end of its life. Unit 2 is licensed until 2013, but Entergy is seeking a 20-year renewal.

Entergy's investment fund for decommissioning had fallen behind because of the slumping economy, company spokesman Jerry Nappi said. "Like any long-term investment, over the last year or 18 months the fund took a significant hit," Nappi said. He noted that the fund has rebounded over the past few months as the economy improves.

On Monday, the NRC announced it will allow Entergy to put Unit 2 in "safe storage" mode until 2063 while the company accumulates more money to safely tear it down, remove any contaminants and reclaim the land.(6/1/10)

Blame for leaked documents ranges far and wide

Back in the summer we ran a nugget concerning the leaking of sensitive documents regarding civilian nuclear sites. The Washington Post and Ed O’Keefe bring us the conclusion to this.

Five government agencies, the National Security Council and two congressional offices all share blame for the inadvertent publication of sensitive information regarding hundreds of civilian nuclear sites, government watchdogs concluded Wednesday.

Though the release of the information does not appear to have jeopardized national security, government officials agree that it should not have been published in June on the Web site of the Government Printing Office, the Government Accountability Office reported.

The draft declaration of U.S. nuclear facilities (which included locations for those that store enriched uranium and other materials for use in nuclear weapons) was meant to be seen by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) only, but it appeared for about a day on the GPO Web site. Reporters' inquiries prompted its removal, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered the Government Accountability Office to investigate.

The GAO report lays out in detail the mistakes made by the departments of Commerce, Energy and State, the GPO, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the National Security Council, and the House of Representatives' parliamentarian and clerk's office.

Mandy sites South Yorkshire as new nuke site for Rolls Royce

Thanks to the Yorkshire Post for this one. South Yorkshire will be the site of a new Rolls-Royce civil nuclear factory, the government announced recently in a move expected to generate significant numbers of new jobs.  Business Secretary Lord Mandelson outlined the package of measures he said would provide "real help", including a new research centre in Sheffield and a multi-million pound upgrade of nuclear laboratories.

He also announced an additional £8 million to upgrade nuclear laboratories at Manchester University's Dalton Nuclear Institute as well as the creation of a nuclear low carbon economic area in the North West and Yorkshire.

He went on: "We know that we have to make the transition to a low carbon future, and the Government is determined to ensure that British businesses get the support they need to seize the business opportunities that transition creates. The civil nuclear sector is one of the key low carbon industries where the UK has the potential for job creation, economic growth and engineering and manufacturing excellence.”

The minister said the creation of a low carbon economic area would give a focus to investment, developments and skills support he believed would benefit companies across the UK. Tom Riordan, chief executive of Yorkshire Forward said: "The UK's nuclear programme is expected to create over 4,500 engineering jobs over the next 25 years and more than a £1bn a year to the industry.

Geiger Counter for your pillow, sir?

Our thanks to Terry Macalister and The Guardian for this little gem that made us smile here at anythingradioactive.

“Welcome to the Dounreay hotel, madam. You are booked into the Fast Breeder suite and breakfast will be served in the Radioactive Room."

An unlikely vision for an "atomic chic" hotel on the northern shores of Scotland? Probably. But it is one of a number of suggestions from the public about how the former atomic research station at Dounreay could be used. Others include a recreation centre and a tourist attraction although the company that runs it believes it might just end up as a heritage site.

"This has been such a major part of life for people in this part of the community that we have gone out to consultation to hear what locals might like to see happen here," said a spokeswoman for Dounreay Site Restoration, which is charged with dismantling it on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. "I cannot see Hilton hotels knocking on our door because much of the ground is contaminated and low level waste will be stored here in vaults."

The current management reports that further amounts of uranium have recently been found in "nooks and crannies" of inaccessible pipe-work. Any hotelier might need to leave a geiger counter on the pillow next to the chocolate.

Oz misses opportunity to sell uranium to India

This may have passed you by last week, so thanks to the Press Trust of India News site for this.

Back from India, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd faced flak from the opposition which said not selling uranium to New Delhi was a "colossal missed opportunity."

"We are the country with the largest reserve of uranium in the world and when we were in government we agreed in principal to sell uranium to India, subjecting very stringent safeguard," said the deputy opposition leader Julie Bishop.

"We were confident that Australian uranium would be used for peaceful purposes in India, particularly to expand their nuclear power generation programme," she added.

In an interview to a TV channel she said that Australia's loss would be Canada's gain as Ottawa appeared ready to fulfil the Indian demand for nuclear fuel.

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Vegas visitors authority not happy with planned nuke simulation

Alan Maimon, reporting for the Las Vegas Review Journal heads out into the desert for this one.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is urging federal homeland security officials to scrap plans to simulate a nuclear explosion in Las Vegas next May. Authority President and Chief Executive Officer Rossi Ralenkotter said the premise of an upcoming emergency preparedness drill would generate undue anxiety about visiting or conducting business in Las Vegas.

FEMA has been planning its 2010 “national level exercise” since last year. The simulation, which is designed to test the capabilities of first responders to catastrophic events, involves the response to a mock nuclear blast in Clark County. Nearly 10,000 local, state, and federal agents are expected to participate in the exercise.

“Our destination already receives a disproportionate amount of attention when the Department of Homeland Security releases even the most routine bulletin,” Ralenkotter said. “This exercise has the potential to escalate that attention and potentially harm our economy.”

Caithness workers could help out with new nuclear builds in UK

Thanks to the John O’Groat Journal for this. Caithness workers could benefit from the UK Government's plan to build 10 new nuclear power stations. Although none of these will be built in Scotland because Holyrood is against new nuclear builds, Far North Labour candidate John MacKay maintains that the skills in Caithness could be utilised in the manufacture, assembling, testing and refurbishment of components for this new civil nuclear market.

Ed Miliband, the energy and climate secretary, announced the plan last week and described nuclear energy as a "proven, reliable source of low-carbon energy". Up to 40 per cent of new energy provision could come from nuclear by 2025. He also reaffirmed the Government's target of 30 per cent of electricity generation from renewables by 2020.

How long did you say that fence will be? Don't tell me you can't see 12,000 feet of fence...

Do you fancy putting up a bit of fence? Before you answer that, perhaps you should read the following brought to us by Bob Audette and the Reformer. To further protect the reactor at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant from those with hostile intent, a pair of 6,000-foot-long fences will be installed before the end of March 2010.

The new fences are a requirement of the NRC and will replace concrete blocks located about midway between the site boundary fence and a fence that surrounds the reactor building itself.

The new fence line will consist of an outer fence, an inner fence and a "dead man’s zone" in between the two. "The fences won’t be visible to our neighbours," said Larry Smith, Yankee’s director of communications.

Last week Vermont’s Public Service Board issued a CPG approving the new fences. The PSB concluded that the fence installation should not adversely affect river corridors, scenic highways and roads, scenic views or other scenic resources; although a number of trees will need to be cut down to make room for the new fences.

In 2000, Yankee received a yellow finding for a security problem: an anonymous source told the Reformer that Yankee received the finding because the concrete security barrier wasn’t adequate.

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US military uranium pollution makes Saudi nuke waste disposal difficult

Wael Mahdi, reporting recently for The National in The UAE, brings us this from Saudi Arabia.

As Saudi Arabia moves ahead with its civilian nuclear plan, concerns are rising in the Saudi parliament, the Shoura Council, over the ability of the country to dispose of nuclear waste: a recent report showed that up to 600 locations might already be polluted by depleted uranium used by the US military.

Members of the kingdom’s consultative council argued that the kingdom needs to allocate more funds to survey potential waste sites before embarking on its ambitious nuclear plan, which is designed to meet an increasing demand for electricity.

30 per cent of the 600 possibly US-polluted locations have been deemed polluted and the remainder still need to be surveyed. The US military disposed of nuclear waste in these locations during the Gulf War in 1990, the governmental report says. It also called for allocation of more funds to build a large fence to quarantine the polluted areas and to block off those parts of the kingdom where US forces were present and which still need to be surveyed – this survey would cost around 2.5 billion riyals (Dh2.45bn).

19 months with two mis-aligned switches? Okay, own up, who can't see straight??

Robert McDonald, reporting for the pages of the New Times in San Luis Obispo, CA, brings us this worrying report from Diablo Canyon.

Two switches had been misaligned for 19 months at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, tests revealed last week. The error could have made it difficult for operators to cool the reactor had there had been a reactor emergency, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission official said.

Workers would have been forced to switch on the pump manually, a step that would have delayed the operation of the cooling pump during an emergency. The misaligned switches could have diminished the ability of the critical backup cooling system to replace coolant during a breach of the reactor vessel.

Emily Christensen Archer, plant spokesperson, said: “We take this issue very seriously and are currently working to determine the exact cause, as well as evaluate whether there are other issues associated with this incident.”

Officials say there are five other pumps available to cool the reactor during an emergency. Nuclear reactors must have a fully working coolant system to operate. If coolant lost during a reactor breach isn’t replaced, the radioactive core would overheat and melt down.

Rogue decorator at Seabrook causes level 4 violation alert - yes, really

Angeljean Chiaramida, writing for the The Daily News/Newburyport web pages, brings us this security alert story.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a Severity Level IV violation to the owners of the Seabrook nuclear power plant (NH) because a contract employee deliberately failed to report an arrest to his employer, violating the plant's physical security plan requirements.

According to NRC Public Affairs Officer Neil Sheehan, the individual in question was a painter with unescorted access privileges at the plant while working for Williams Plant Services, which is under contract with NextEra Energy Seabrook nuclear power plant. Williams is a general labour contractor, providing the plant with craftsmen.

The NRC Enforcement Policy describes a Severity Level IV violation as one that involves non-compliance with NRC requirements that are not considered significant based on risk. The NRC's violation scale goes from Level I through IV, with IV being the lowest level. The NRC considers the event one of low significance since the employee was not a supervisor, and the violation appears to be an isolated incident.

"This didn't compromise plant security," Sheehan said. "But NextEra bears ultimate responsibility for the operation of its plant and all employees there, whether they're contracted or directly employed by NextEra. That's why we issued the violation."

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New sirens? Great - just remember to buy the batteries!!

Evan Brandt, reporting for Springford’s Reporter, dons his ear defenders for this one. Sirens warning of danger at Chester County’s (PA) only nuclear power plant will soon have a battery backup.

Exelon Nuclear announced recently that it will begin a project within the next 60 days to replace all 165 emergency sirens in the 10 miles surrounding the Limerick Generating Station. Installation of the sirens will begin in 2010 and will cost $3.8 million.

“The battery backup will add an additional layer of confidence in our emergency preparedness system,” Chris Mudrick, Limerick’s site vice president, said recently. “While we are confident in our current siren system, the model we currently use is nearing the end of its service life and it is time to proactively replace all of the sirens with the best available technology.”

Limerick is not the only state to be receiving this upgrade. According to the release, the project is part of an upgrade to emergency sirens at all sites in the mid-Atlantic, including Three-Mile Island and Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania and Oyster Creek Generating Station in New Jersey.

If you're going to scan for radiation, at least use a bigger geiger counter!

Our thanks to Steve Shay and the West Seattle Herald for this. More than 300 maritime law enforcement and first responder personnel from 23 federal, state, local and tribal agencies participated in an operational maritime exercise in Puget Sound last week.

They were simulating attempts by small boats to smuggle nuclear weapons into the area, particularly Elliott Bay and the Canadian Border because of it being a possible target during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

A serious game of cat and mouse played out. The small vessels, those under 300 gross tons, were loaded with safe, low-level radioactive materials. Law enforcement craft were armed with radiation detectors at lines drawn in the water, or “choke points” set up at Admiralty Inlet, Bellingham Bay and North Skagit Bay.

The boats carrying radiation attempted to breach the choke points. Four on-shore back-up, three temporary shore-based hazmet centres, in La Conner, Bellingham and Port Townsend were operated by members of the Washington State Patrol bomb squad, the Federal Bureau of Investigation bomb technicians, and the 10th Civil Support Team, a National Guard Unit.

Law enforcement representatives announced the exercise was a success at a press conference and harbour tour at the Seattle Coast Guard facility across Elliot Bay from Alki Thursday, Sept. 24. The exercise was part of a pilot demonstration funded by the Department of Homeland Security Domestic Nuclear Detection Office to evaluate radiation detector sensors and operational protocols for the small vessels.

UN security group to keep an eye on nuclear testing

Edith Lederer, writing for the Associated Press reports from the UN. Iran, Israel and the five permanent Security Council members that have nuclear weapons are part of a network to detect signs of testing of a new atomic bomb, a positive sign of cooperation in the bid to halt the spread of such weapons, the head of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty organization said Friday.

The monitoring network has not been widely reported nor have its participants, including Iran, which the West believes is pursuing nuclear weapons, and Israel, which is widely believed to possess a nuclear arsenal but won't say as much.

Tibor Toth told a news conference that a system to verify atomic blasts that was started in 2000 now has 270 monitoring facilities and expects to increase the number to 340. He called the verification system an important step to address concerns of nuclear and non-nuclear states, and noted that it monitored North Korea's nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 "very well."

Toth spoke to reporters ahead of a high-level meeting on Sept. 24-25 on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting to press North Korea, India and Pakistan to first sign and then ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and to press the other six countries that have signed it to ratify it.

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Mafia scuttles nuke waste ships - barrels at the bottom of Italian sea

Thanks goes to Duncan Kennedy and the BBC for this little gem. A shipwreck apparently containing toxic waste is being investigated by authorities in Italy amid claims that it was deliberately sunk by the mafia. An informant from the Calabrian mafia said the ship was one of a number he blew up as part of an illegal operation to bypass laws on toxic waste disposal.

The sunken vessel has been found 30km (18 miles) off the south-west coast of Italy. The informant said it contained "nuclear" material. Officials said it would be tested for radioactivity. Murky pictures taken by a robot camera show the vessel intact and alongside it are a number of yellow barrels. Labels on them say the contents are toxic.

The informant said the mafia had muscled in on the lucrative business of radioactive waste disposal. But he said that instead of getting rid of the material safely, he blew up the vessel out at sea, off the Calabrian coast. He also says he was responsible for sinking two other ships containing toxic waste.

Experts are now examining samples taken from the wreck.

Church leader speaks out against Nigeria's nuclear plans

We found this little article on the pages of 234Next, based in Timbuktu, Malia.  

A Christian cleric, Olugbenga Olu, has advised the Federal Government against embracing nuclear energy to solve the nation's energy crisis.

 

Mr. Olu, the Bishop of the newly created Remo Central Diocese of the Methodist Church of Nigeria in Ogun State, said that the cost implication of such a venture would be too much on the nation, aside from the dearth of nuclear expertise in the country.

 

He said he feared for nuclear accidents that could lead to serious radiation effects, which the nation was not yet disposed to handle effectively.

According to him, "the harmful effect of radioactive elements on the human, among several other negative tendencies, are better imagined than experienced"

.

The cleric said the church favoured the option of exploiting wind, coal, gas and hydro resources, as sources of power, adding that they were ``better alternatives to nuclear energy and its attendant risks."

Palisades staff seek out suspect Tritium leaks in K-a-l-a-m-a-z-o-o (gedditt?)

Rod Smith reporting for M.Live’s web pages goes to Kalamazoo for this ‘leak’.

A second radioactive leak at the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan has been fixed. "I'm happy to say we have found the source of the leak," said Mark Savage, the public-affairs and communications director for Palisades, "and have repaired that."

The new leak was at a turn in a pipe and was because of the failure of a weld, Savage said. The pipes and welds are stainless steel. "We think it was during original construction," Savage said.

In June, Savage told the Van Buren County Board of Commissioners that tritium levels were rising in monitoring wells. Last year the company found a leak in one of the pipes feeding the storage tanks. It was drained and fixed. Tritium levels diminished after those repairs.

In 2007, Palisades found a level of 22,000 picoCuries per litre of water, 2,000 above the reportable level for drinking water, although none of the monitoring wells are used for drinking water. At 22,000 picoCuries, Palisades had not been required to report the tritium to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission but did so anyway.

Is nuclear power Vietnam's solution for achieving energy security goal? (Answers on a postcard, to..)

John Ruwitch and Nguyen Nhat Lam, reporting recently for Reuters take us to Vietnam for this.

Vietnam plans to start building its first nuclear power plant in five years and plug it into the grid by 2020 as demand for power continues to grow at a rate of about 15 percent per year, the country's top atomic official said.

After that initial step, planned for Ninh Thuan province, some 250 kilometres (155 miles) northeast of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam wants to expand to 15,000 megawatts of nuclear power by 2030, or 10 percent of total electricity capacity, said Vuong Huu Tan, chairman of the Vietnam Atomic Energy Commission, recently. "Nuclear power is a solution for the country to achieve its energy security goal."

At present, about 60 percent of Vietnam's energy comes from coal and gas-fired plants and 40 percent from hydropower turbines, but demand outstrips supply and blackouts are common. Demand for power will remain robust with growth seen at 14-15 percent per year.

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To nuclear, or not to nuclear - Canada re-thinks expansion

We travel to Canada today thanks to this report from Kathryn Blaze Carlson, reporting for the National Post web pages.

The world's relationship with nuclear has long been unstable, but the quest to quash climate change coupled with a hunger for energy security, have helped resuscitate nuclear power. The industry built better, more reliable reactors, and governments gave nuclear a starring role in their long-term energy plans.

Recent events, however, have put nuclear back on the defensive, bringing into question the future of the industry in Canada and beyond.

Onlookers from both camps are keeping a close eye on Ontario after it recently suspended plans for two nuclear reactors at its Darlington station, citing the reported C$26-billion cost and the murky outlook of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.

The Point Lepreau station in New Brunswick - Atlantic Canada's only nuclear facility and the first CANDU-6 reactor to undergo a complete rebuild - has been under refurbishment since March 2008 and is now seven months behind schedule. The province is on the hook for roughly C$150-million in additional replacement fuel costs, and will rack up another C$20 million for every month the project is delayed.

$10,000 for a radiation meter? We could have sold them one for much less than that..

Kevin Walters, writing for The Tennessean’s web pages, brings us this.

The discovery of radioactive material in a Franklin trash truck is prompting city staff to buy the city’s first-ever radiation meter. Aldermen will vote on spending $10,680 to buy a radiation detector to check Franklin’s trucks for any possible future radiation.

Recently, “a high radiation reading” was detected on a Franklin trash truck at the Middle Point Landfill in Murfreesboro, according to a memo to city aldermen about the purchase.

"The elevated reading indicated a type of radiation used post-chemotherapy or radiation treatment for cancer," said Milissa Reierson, city spokeswoman in a prepared statement. "However we’ve learned this type of radiation can also be found in decaying wood or old electronics." Low-level radioactive materials had been disposed at the landfill until the site’s owner, Allied Waste Services, formerly BFI, agreed to stop dumping radiation in the landfill.

Apparently this is the first time an incident like this has occurred.

Denver's most toxic site could soon be redeveloped into a hospital, houses and businesses

Heidi Hemmat, reporting on the pages of Fox 31 KDVR’s web pages brings us this worrying redevelopment report.

It is home to Colorado's only Nuclear reactor, radioactive waste was buried there, the groundwater is toxic, and the soil is contaminated with Arsenic, Uranium, Beryllium, Asbestos and explosives. But the Denver Federal Centre site won't be fenced off for long. It will soon be heavily used by the public.

The site, near 6th and Kipling, bordered by Alameda and Union, is being redeveloped into a new hospital, a Light Rail centre and eventually homes and businesses are planned for the area. Environmental Hazards Researcher, Adrienne Anderson says that is "grounds for concern. This area was a former toxic waste site."

Anderson (who has been digging though public health records as part of an investigation into whether the construction workers or the general public is being put at risk by the contaminated land) said: "As all this material is being dug up, moved around, in some cases going into the air, there's rightful concern as to whether there is a risk of exposure to the surrounding community."

According to Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment records, there is a nuclear reactor on site at the Denver Federal Centre, built in the 1960s, which is still used today for research purposes. The radioactive waste it produced was buried on site for years. The explosives and other toxins date back to an ammunition plant that was built there in 1940's. The asbestos was left behind when old buildings were demolished and buried on site.

Leaks, breakdowns and 'other events' - what next for UK's nuke palnts?

Terry Macalister and Rob Edwards, writing for The Observer recently, bring us this. The scale of safety problems inside Britain's nuclear power stations has been revealed for the first time in a secret report obtained by the Observer that shows more than 1,750 leaks, breakdowns or other "events" over the past seven years. The document, written by the government's chief nuclear inspector, Mike Weightman, and released under the Freedom of Information Act, raises serious questions about the dangers of expanding the industry with a new generation of atomic plants. And it came as the managers of the UK's biggest plant, Sellafield, admitted they had finally halted a radioactive leak many believe has been going on for 50 years.

 

The report discloses that between 2001-08 there were 1,767 safety incidents across Britain's nuclear plants. About half were subsequently judged by inspectors as serious enough "to have had the potential to challenge a nuclear safety system". They were "across all areas of existing nuclear plant", including Sellafield in Cumbria and Aldermaston and Burghfield in Berkshire, says Weightman, chief inspector of the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII).

 

In May 2007 a manhole at Dounreay in northern Scotland was found to be contaminated with plutonium. A series of other incidents occurred at Sellafield, including a fault with a trap door meant to provide protection from highly radioactive waste in September 2008, and the contamination of five workers at a plutonium fuel plant in January 2007.

A spokesman for Sellafield confirmed it had successfully halted the seeping of liquid from a crack in one of four waste tanks that used to process effluent before it was discharged into the Irish Sea. Some local residents say it started half a century ago.

 

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Palm Springs residents get twitchy over reactor lid

Denise Goolsby, reporting for The Desert Sun in Palm Springs brings us this. This was reported last Sunday but, having just found it, we thought we’d run it anyway in its entirety.

A 150-ton piece of equipment that will cap off a nuclear reactor is on its way to Palm Springs this evening, California Highway Patrol officials said.

The large load left Banning just before 8 p.m., the agency reported. The estimate is that it will pass through the area in the early Wednesday morning hours. The load is only transported at night, Perez said.

"The driver can only drive 4-5 mph for a maximum of 10 hours," CHP public information officer Ramon Perez said Tuesday. "I'd say by the end of his shift, he'll be parking it somewhere north of Palm Springs," said Perez.

The load will leave the Palm Springs area and continue on its journey to Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, 50 miles west of Phoenix.

The equipment (similar to that shown) which was made in South Korea, is 19 feet tall, said Andrew Wierda, spokesman for Bigge Crane and Rigging, the company in charge of transporting it. It will be used as a lid for one of three nuclear reactors at the Palo Verde power plant about 50 miles west of Phoenix, said Betty Dayyo, spokeswoman for Arizona Public Service, one of seven co-owners of the plant.

Dayyo said the piece of metal equipment is neither radioactive nor harmful.

 Belgium bans all things Uranium

Here is part of a press release courtesy of the Depleted Uranium Education Team in New Zealand, found on the Scoop NZ web pages, that may be of interest to you.  On Sunday 21 June, Belgium’s 2007 decision to ban the use, sale, manufacture, testing and transit of Uranium in all conventional munitions and armour came into force.

The historic and courageous decision by Belgium’s Parliament to lead on this issue came after its members unanimously accepted that a growing body of evidence linking Uranium with potential health problems supported a precautionary approach to the use of such weapons.

Depleted Uranium (DU) is waste from production of “enriched” natural Uranium used in nuclear weapons or fuelling of nuclear reactors. It is an extremely heavy and makes very effective armour-piercing munitions. On impact DU ignites, burning at a very high temperature, forming Uranium Oxide, and creating a fume of fine dust like smoke which can pass through gas masks and into the body. This dust causes both heavy-metal and radiation poisoning.

In February last year, when the NZ Government hosted an international conference in Wellington to finalise a treaty banning cluster bombs, DUET launched a petition asking the NZ Parliament to “emulate the Belgian Parliament’s decision of 22 March 2007 by prohibiting in New Zealand the manufacture, use, storage, sale, acquisition, supply and transit of inert munitions and armour that contain depleted uranium [DU] or any other industrially manufactured uranium.”

 Manhattan, you have a problem - FBI & NYPD test city's attack readiness

Our thanks to Tom Hays and the Associated Press for this little gem.  Agents had intercepted information about a possible terrorist attack in Manhattan, including a diagram showing a mysterious device. The raw intelligence was relayed to experts in Washington, who offered a daunting diagnosis: "You have a problem."

As chilling as that sounded, the situation wasn't real. But authorities say it could be, and what followed over the next two days was an ambitious stress test of the city's line of defence against a radiological or nuclear terrorist attack.

The exercise involved hundreds of New York Police Department officers and FBI agents trained at detecting threats, along with an elite unit of federal weapons experts expected (with the approval of the U.S. attorney general) to swoop in by plane and defuse them.

There have been no specific threats against New York City. But since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, law enforcement officials have repeatedly warned that the city remains atop terrorists' hit lists — and that a radiological or nuclear device could be in their arsenal. "It's something we're very concerned about," said Joseph Demarest, head of the FBI's New York office.

Authorities say a small nuclear bomb could cause widespread devastation. Failing to intercept it before it's detonated is not an option. "Hopefully, we'll never have to do this," Don Alway, an FBI counter-terrorism supervisor, said of the deployment. "But if we do, we have to do it right the first time."

Much of the drill played out behind the scenes and only select specifics were made public.

Whadya mean we're down to 6?? US Military are running out of refurbished warheads

Ralph Vartabedian reporting for the Hartford Courant brings us up to date with the problems facing the US Military.

A decade-long effort to refurbish thousands of aging nuclear warheads has run into serious technical problems that have forced delays and exacerbated concerns about the Energy Department's ability to maintain the United States' strategic deterrent.

The program involves a type of warhead known as the W76, which is used on the Navy's Trident missile system and makes up more than half of the deployed warheads in the U.S. stockpile. The refurbishment program is aimed at replacing thousands of parts that have aged since the bombs left the factory 20 to 30 years ago.

The $200 million-a-year program is a cornerstone of America's nuclear deterrent strategy, and the Energy Department has been under growing pressure from the military and Congress to meet tough deadlines to get the weapons ready.

In February, the department's National Nuclear Security Administration announced that the "first refurbished W76 nuclear warhead had been accepted into the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile by the Navy."

But no delivery was ever made. The warhead is now in pieces inside a production cell at the Energy Department's Pantex plant in Amarillo, Texas, according to an engineer at the facility.

 

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 North a bit, west a bit, east a bit - oops!: SWAT officers hit Calvert Cliffs plant

Just when you think that it’s all a bit too quiet out there, something comes along that makes it all worthwhile. So grateful thanks to Aaron C. Davis and Matt Zapotosky, reporting for the Washington Post  yesterday (Sun).

A state-wide SWAT team exercise at a firing range on the secured grounds of a nuclear power plant in Southern Maryland was halted this month after stray bullets shattered glass and struck a command centre near the plant's reactors, officials said.

Reactor safety at the Calvert Cliffs plant in Lusby was never compromised, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Constellation Energy Group, which operates the facility. But Constellation closed the range, a popular training site for local law enforcement agencies, pending investigations by plant security and the Calvert County Sheriff's Office, which hosted the exercise.

At least five bullets escaped the firing range and travelled more than a half-mile before striking buildings and a vehicle near the reactors. One struck the plant's "outage control centre," which is used as a command area to orchestrate refuelling efforts. Another hit an employee's sport-utility vehicle in the parking lot. Three others struck an office facility: Two of them hit the roof, and one shattered the outer pane of a first-floor window.

Typically, officers shoot southward, away from the plant, while on the firing range, but during the exercise, officers somehow fired eastward. The rounds cleared an almost 30-foot-high berm and flew about 3,400 feet before striking the two office buildings and the door of the parked SUV.

Concerns that new Oak Ridge Command Centre won't be built

Thanks to Frank Munger, writing for the Knox News web site for this.  When developers Lawler-Wood were selected last year to develop a new high-tech Command and Control Centre at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant at Oak Ridge it was hardly time to declare victory.

The challenges were just beginning. The Knoxville developer still has to arrange private financing for the U$50 million project, which would never be an easy task but is doubly difficult in the current economic climate. He also has to hope the project survives the scrutiny of federal officials in Washington and doesn't get stretched out or scrapped entirely by the debate about the future size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

The company needs to construct the facility on time and within budget in order to collect its development fee and set the stage for a long-term leasing arrangement with Y-12's federal contractor. "We're optimistic, but we're not naive," Wayne Roquemore, president of Lawler-Wood, said in a telephone interview last week.

Areva's gone 'fission' in France

Katherine Ling, reporting for the New York Times, travels to France for this story.

Visitors to the spent nuclear fuel reprocessing facility at La Hague in France are likely to see a ballet of industrial-strength robots. Old nuclear fuel assemblies - highly radioactive, elongated packages of metal rods that once energized some of France's 58 nuclear power plants - are hoisted by cranes and placed on belts while the machinery works to prepare the assemblies to be lowered into four giant pools.

There they will sit, with about 13 feet of demineralised water above them for about three years. Then more machines will lift them out, chop them up and put the pieces to be dissolved in vats of nitric acid. The fissioning of the fuel in the power plant (or the splitting of uranium atoms to release energy) has created a large family of elements, called fission products. The goal of this process is to find and recycle the ones that still contain more energy - the plutonium and uranium

This facility is part of France's answer to the question pressing nuclear power plant owners in nearly every part of the world: What do you do with spent nuclear fuel? Areva regard this plant as the "crown jewel" of its technology.

Obama proposes deep cuts in nuke stockpiles: Pantex on stand-by

Jeffrey Lewis and Meri Lugo, writing for The Foreign Policy (in conjunction with those nice people at the CIA) bring us this useful information should you need to dispose of some nuclear warheads one day. (I know, but you might..)

Speaking in Prague recently, U.S. President Barack Obama called the thousands of nuclear weapons sitting in world arsenals "the most dangerous legacy of the Cold War." He proposed deep cuts in U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles. But when policymakers talk about nuclear reductions, what do they mean in practice?

The first answer is, nothing much. Retiring a weapon is accomplished through paperwork. If the weapon is in storage, it continues to sit there. Eventually, small steps begin to indicate its fate on the nuclear weapons equivalent of death row. Workers come along to remove the batteries and other so-called "limited-life components" that have to be regularly changed in active nuclear weapons.

At some point - perhaps years later - the Energy Department ships the weapon to Pantex, the central U.S. nuclear weapons factory near Amarillo, Texas. The warheads now undergoing dismantlement were not designed to come apart (other than very rapidly, over the Soviet Union). Because nuclear weapons contain explosives and other hazardous materials, workers must take care to minimize health risks.

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Mysteries of Area 51: former employees speak out

We go all X-Files now, with a report by Annie Jacobsen, writing for the LA Times recently. Area 51. It's the most famous military institution in the world that doesn't officially exist. If it did, it would be found about 100 miles outside Las Vegas in Nevada's high desert, tucked between an Air Force base and an abandoned nuclear testing ground. Then again, maybe not - the U.S. government refuses to say. You can't drive anywhere close to it, and until recently, the airspace overhead was restricted - all the way to outer space.

It has become the holy grail for conspiracy theorists, with UFOlogists positing that the Pentagon reverse engineers flying saucers and keeps extraterrestrial beings stored in freezers. Millions of X-Files fans believe the truth may be "out there," but more likely it's concealed inside Area 51's Strangelove-esque hangars - buildings that, though confirmed by Google Earth, the government refuses to acknowledge.

The problem is the myths of Area 51 are hard to dispute if no one can speak on the record about what actually happened there. Well, now, for the first time, someone is ready to talk - in fact, five men are, and their stories rival the most outrageous of rumours. Colonel Hugh "Slip" Slater, 87, was commander of the Area 51 base in the 1960s. Edward Lovick, 90, spent three decades radar testing some of the world's most famous aircraft (including the U-2, the A-12 OXCART and the F-117). Kenneth Collins, 80, a CIA experimental test pilot, was given the Silver Star. Thornton "T.D." Barnes, 72, was an Area 51 special-projects engineer. And Harry Martin, 77, was one of the men in charge of the base's half-million-gallon monthly supply of spy-plane fuels.

US Government finally pays atomic veterans

David Clouston, reporting for the Salina Journal in Kansas, brings us this. The cheque stub and a notification letter rest in a file stuffed with Salina resident James Trepoy's military paperwork. The sum (a whopping U$75,000) initially made Trepoy afraid to cash the cheque.

The letter accompanying the cheque looked official enough, on letterhead from the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division, in Washington, D.C. "This is to inform you that your claim for compensation under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Program has been approved," the letter read.

 

Trepoy, 88, is among an estimated group of more than 200,000 former soldiers who witnessed above-ground and undersea atomic tests conducted between 1945 and 1963. Nicknamed "atomic veterans," the soldiers were part of the testing because various governments wanted to see whether troops could operate on battlefields contaminated by radiation from nuclear bombs.

 

Retired veterans Larry Halloran of Mulvane and Gary Thornton of Leon have made it a mission to track down atomic veterans in Kansas (particularly older vets such as Trepoy ) to make them aware of their eligibility for financial compensation from the government. In 1990, Congress passed the Act, offering veterans who took part in the tests a payment of U$75,000 each.

There's a shed-load of uranium in Ireland

Tim O’Brien, correspondent for the Irish Times, has been rooting around the garden shed.

A lead box containing a compound of radioactive uranium, and nuclear material stored in a garden shed in Co Meath, are among a number of radioactive finds in Ireland in recent years, the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland has said.

Responding to EU concerns at more than 1,300 finds of radioactive material worldwide since 1993 – 16 of which constituted weapons grade nuclear material – the institute said finds in the Republic have tended to be “orphan sources”, mislaid or inadvertently dumped by industry and hospitals.

It said such finds amount to less than one per year, but it has repeatedly expressed concern that Ireland has no centralised storage facilities for waste or unwanted equipment from the 1,600 licensed users of radioactive substances. Unwanted or “orphan source” radioactive materials are held at 80 locations.

In its 2007 annual report the institute said the legal responsibility for industrial radioactive materials rested with the owners but such storage represented “an accident waiting to happen”. The institute was critical of successive governments’ failure to provide a central, secure storage facility for nuclear waste.

We're not going to mention 'Duck & Cover': safety exercise due Wednesday

It’s a slow news day, so we thought we’d be public-spirited and bring you the following.

The Daily Journal, based in Kankakee, Illinois, brings us this public announcement. An exercise to test emergency response plans for the region surrounding Dresden Nuclear Power Station will be conducted 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday by personnel from the state, the counties of Will, Grundy and Kendall and the plant's owner, Exelon.

State and local organizations will conduct a reception centre demonstration at 9 a.m. Thursday at Kankakee Community College to demonstrate their ability to register, monitor, decontaminate and provide mass care for "mock evacuees."

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will evaluate the exercise and reception center demonstration at 2 p.m. Friday at the Grundy County Emergency Operations Centre, 1320 Union St., Morris. The evaluation is open to the public. The exercise for Braidwood station was held about six months ago. Another will be held in about 18 months.

Russian K3's sad anniversary

Barents News reminds us that it’s an important anniversary for Russia’s first nuclear powered submarine.

The first Soviet nuclear powered submarine, the “K-3”, later named “Leninsky Komsomol”, was delivered to the Soviet navy December 17 1958.

Building of the first soviet nuclear submarine started at the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk, in 1955. It was put on water in August 1957 and the nuclear reactor was launched in 1957. The submarine was taken into service in the Northern Fleet in March 1959, and in 1962 she got the name “Leninski Komsomol”, Sevmash Shipyard said in a recent press release.

Leninski Komsomol played a crucial role in the peace keeping process, General Director at Sevmash, Nikolay Kalistratov, said to Pravda Severa. “The USA already had nuclear powered submarines, and K-3 made the two superpowers’ chances more even.”

39 of the crew were killed in a fire aboard Leninsky Komsomol in the Norwegian Sea in September 1967. The submarine was taken out of duty in 1991, and is waiting to be made into a museum. In order to build K-3, a new department had to be opened at Sevmash and was, until recently, one of the most secret departments in the Soviet Union.

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Recent plutonium find at Hanford has half-life of 24,110 years (who counts this?)

Paul Rincon, reporting for the BBC’s web pages, brings us this interesting find.  A bottle discarded at the Hanford nuclear waste site in the US contains the oldest sample of bomb-grade plutonium made in a nuclear reactor, scientists say. The sample dates to 1944 and is a relic from the infancy of the US nuclear weapons programme.

A team from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory used nuclear forensic techniques to date the sample and track down its origins. The researchers have described their study as "nuclear archaeology".

The type of plutonium in the bottle - known as Pu-239 - is a so-called alpha emitter. These alpha particles are too bulky to penetrate skin or paper, but they can cause poisoning if swallowed or inhaled. It has a half-life (the time it takes for half the radioactive nuclei in a sample to decay) of 24,110 years.

Hope for new jobs in Tennessee.

In the worst economic slump in decades, manufacturers of nuclear power equipment gathered in Chattanooga last week to talk about how to expand their production and hire more workers to supply an expected revival in nuclear power.

The Nuclear Energy Institute estimates at least 20,000 construction jobs will be added to eight plants the industry expects will begin construction by 2011. If all 26 of the reactors proposed to be built in the United States move forward, NEI projects at least 62,000 construction jobs will be created in the next decade, including several thousand by the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield told industry leaders that Chattanooga is ready to answer the call and could be at the centre of the industry revival.

“This is a nuclear-friendly city,” Mr. Littlefield said. “We are a city that has an industrial past and a manufacturing future which, to a great extent, will be built on energy.”

Diablo Canyon waits for controversial delivery

April Charlton, reporting for the Santa Maria Times’ web site, keeps us up to speed with events at Diablo Canyon.

The first transfer of spent radioactive fuel rods into dry-cask containers at Diablo Canyon Power Plant is set to begin in June. During this summer’s planned transfer, eight dry-cask canisters will be loaded with spent fuel rods from one of two nuclear reactors at Diablo Canyon. Each cask is expected to take 10 days to load, according to a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. spokeswoman.

An additional eight canisters — one canister can hold up to 32 spent fuel assemblies — will be loaded at the nuclear power plant in spring 2010.

During the loading campaign, a transfer cask will be taken into the power plant and submerged into one of Diablo’s two 40-foot-deep storage pools, where spent fuel assemblies will be transferred to the dry-cask canisters. A transfer cask will then be lowered into a steel cask, which does all the work of keeping the spent rods’ radiation inside, that will be welded shut and then stored at the site indefinitely.

Canadian bio-solids are "not radioactive"

Here’s an environmental tale, courtesy of Michael Peeling, reporting for the Standard Freeholder, based in Cornwall, Ontario.

The general manager of a Canadian farm fertilizer distributor in South Dundas said residents living nearby need not worry about the so-called "radioactive waste" being stored there.

 

Dean Swerdfeger of Third High Farms Ltd. in Iroquois, Ont. said two loads of waste shipped from the R. O. Pickard Environmental Centre (ROPEC) in Ottawa currently being stored at the facility he manages is "absolutely not radioactive waste."

 

U. S. officials denied two out of three loads from ROPEC passage across the Canada-U. S. border on Jan. 29 when they tested positive for radioactive material.  "They are just loads of bio-solids that registered a very low reading of radioactivity at the border," Swerdfeger said.

 

Swerdfeger also said the cause of the low reading is still unknown, but added that it no longer registered on follow-up tests. "The bio-solids in question are not an environmental issue or a health and safety issue."

 

Two more loads from ROPEC tested positive, but City of Ottawa deputy manager Nancy Schepers said the material was sent back to the centre for further testing. A hazardous materials team was "not able to detect radiation above background levels in the two loads of biosolids quarantined at the Pickard Centre."

 

We don't want foreign nuke waste - we have enough of our own, thank you..

The following is taken from an online blog featured on the pages of the Tennessean newspaper.

Two US politicians, Bart Gordon (Democrat) and Lamar Alexander (Republican) have teamed on legislation that would ban foreign nuclear waste. The legislation follows efforts by a Utah company, Energy Solutions, to import up to 20,000 tons of nuclear waste from Italy that would go through ports at Charleston, S.C., or New Orleans, and through Tennessee on its way to the Energy Solutions site in Utah.

Gordon and Alexander emphasize the need for the U.S. to handle its own waste before taking on the responsibility of handling that of other countries. In the current anti-coal political climate, authorities are pushing harder and harder for more nuclear power generation. One of the greatest challenges of nuclear power is how to handle nuclear waste.

The fact is no one is in position to guarantee the safety of domestic nuclear energy, and no amount of trouble from coal-fired power plants completely erases nuclear concerns.

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Christmas Island tests compensation row continues

Our thanks go to the Chorley Guardian for this story. A war veteran is taking his case to the High Court this month after being exposed to atomic bomb tests during the 1950s.

George Harrison, 73, (like many veterans)  isn't well enough to travel to London to fight his legal battle against the Ministry of Defence in person but he hopes the case – part of one of largest compensation claims against the MoD from hundreds of servicemen – will reach a positive conclusion after more than half a century.

The father-of-one, of Hoghton, worked as an engine fitter for the Royal Engineers and was stationed on Christmas Island, off the coast of Australia, when he witnessed three test explosions – one atomic and two hydrogen bombs.

Just over a decade ago, Mr Harrison developed a mysterious skin complaint and is currently being treated by three specialists for a number of health problems.

London-based solicitors Rosenblatt will argue that the government was aware of health risks at the time of the tests. However, the MoD refuses to accept any liability or that there is a link between the veterans' health and their atomic experiments.

Plymouth's new warning system: 'alert' texts via mobile phones

This came to us in a round about way from a chap called Fred Dawson and is very similar to a recent American report we featured as one of our Nuclear Nuggets.

People in one of Britain's most "hazard-rich" cities better keep their mobiles on because nuclear alerts are to be sent by text. The "emergency notification system" will replace a warning siren that sounds in Plymouth in the event of a crisis.

The text messages will alert 20,000 families living within 2km of the city's nuclear facilities to an imminent disaster or toxic leak. Plymouth is deemed "hazard rich" due to the dockyard's nuclear facilities, its Royal Navy weapons depot, a large petrol terminal, a fuel depot and a gas pipeline.

The Informer system will send messages to mobile phones and landlines, giving information and advice on what to do.

The city council's Giles Perritt said: "Informer will be a warning not just of radiological threats but anything in that part of the city. The dockyard siren does not do the trick in terms of letting people know quickly."

 

UAE looks to Japan for nuclear development ideas

The following comes courtesy of Bloomberg and Megumi Yamanaka. The United Arab Emirates will hold talks with the Japanese government and reactor makers such as Hitachi Inc. and Toshiba Corp. as it seeks Japan’s help to develop nuclear power plants.

Japan, the world’s third-biggest atomic generator, may help the U.A.E. by offering services to develop legal frameworks and educate workers on atomic power, said government officials who declined to be named as negotiations haven’t been completed.

A delegation headed by Mohammed al-Hammadi, president of Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp., arrived for a week- long visit to hold talks with government officials on areas of cooperation. The U.A.E., holder of almost 8 percent of the world’s crude reserves, wants to develop nuclear energy as an alternative source of electricity.

Japan is poised to become the fourth country to sign atomic- power pacts with the emirates after France, the U.S. and the U.K. inked agreements this year.

You want another 20 years on your nuke licence? Just ask in Iowa

Today we travel to Iowa with this report from Dave Dewitte, reporting for the pages of The Cedar Rapids Gazette.  In its first 33 years of operation, Iowa's only nuclear power plant has generated more electricity than excitement.

After some operational issues that brought heightened scrutiny in the early 1980s, the Duane Arnold Energy Centre north of Palo has received passing marks from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in recent years and has been upgraded from its original output of 535 megawatts to 613 megawatts.
 
Now, federal regulators are trying to figure out if the plant will be good for another 20 years. FPL Energy, which took over as the plant's majority owner in January 2006, filed an application on Sept. 30 to renew its operating license, slated to expire in 2014, until 2034. The application began a license renewal process that is expected to take 22 months, require public input and cost its owners U$20 million.

The intense scrutiny by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, involving about 24,000 inspection hours by the agency, is intended to answer many questions - the largest of them being: "Can this plant go another 20 years safely?" The answer is an emphatic "yes" from Rich Anderson, site vice president of Duane Arnold Energy Centre for FPL Energy.

 

Tennessee builds second reactor at Watts Bar

Dave Flessner, writing for the Chattanooga Times Free Press, brings us this tale from the Tennessee Valley. 

Bechtel Corp. and its subcontractors have hired 1,425 workers in East Tennessee this year to resume construction of what is expected to be the first new nuclear reactor completed in America in more than 15 years.

Nuclear proponents in Chattanooga said those hired to work on a second reactor at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant could represent the first of thousands of new jobs created in the Tennessee Valley from a renaissance of nuclear power.

“I believe that East Tennessee has a historic opportunity to play a major role in the resurgence of nuclear power,” said Sherrell R. Greene, director of nuclear technology programs at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Mr. Greene also said rising energy demand and concerns over global warming could create a need for the United States to triple the number of nuclear plants by 2050 at a cost of more than $900 billion.

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Things that go bang in the night (or not) back in May...

Just to prove that we are definitely on the ball here, we found this little gem. Our thanks go to Dan Elliott, reporting for the Associated Press. A fire caused U$1 million worth of damage at an unmanned underground nuclear launch site near Cheyenne, Wyoming, last spring, but the Air Force didn't find out about it until five days later, an Air Force official said.

The May 23 fire burned itself out after an hour or two, and multiple safety systems prevented any threat of an accidental launch of the Minuteman III missile. Maj. Laurie Arellano said she was not allowed to say whether the missile was armed with a nuclear warhead at the time of the fire.

Arellano also said the Air Force didn't know a fire had occurred until May 28, when a repair crew went to the launch site because a trouble signal indicated a wiring problem. She said the flames never entered the launch tube where the missile stood and there was no danger of a radiation release.

Cheyenne Mayor Jack Spiker, who said he learned of the incident when contacted by a reporter said the fire doesn't undermine his confidence in the safety of the missile operations. "It's rare that they have an accident, and the accidents have never really, that I know of, amounted to much because of the safety devices that are built into the system.”

Chances of planes crashing into Dungeness - 1 : 689,229

Our thanks goes to Chris Price, reporting for Kent Online for this environmental tale. The risk of a nuclear disaster is still as high as initially predicted should an aircraft from Lydd Airport crash into the Dungeness power station.

After reviewing Lydd Airport’s second round of environmental information Lydd Airport Action Group’s (LAAG’s) nuclear safety advisor still thinks the risk is substantial. John Large of consulting engineers Large and Associates found no reason to change his conclusion the proposed expansion of Lydd Airport means a risk of an aircraft crashing into Dungeness stands at one in 689,229 each year.

His findings were initially set out in his report in March last year and based on the proposed expansion to 500,000 per year. Should Lydd Airport expand to two million passengers a year then the risk increases to odds of one in 409,691 in each year.

Mr Large said: "There is nothing in the new supplementary information which could change my mind. I consider the risk to have increased if anything because the airport seems to be committed to increasing the aircraft levels at a time when there are firm proposals to develop the nuclear power plant.”

Aging administration's last - ditch chance at  US nuclear weapons policy update

Thanks to Walter Pincus for this little gem, found on the Washington Post web pages. Continued study and development of a new generation of nuclear weapons and modernization of the aging manufacturing infrastructure needed to build them are necessary to maintain "the ultimate deterrent capability that supports U.S. national security."

That is the conclusion of a nuclear policy paper released quietly last month by Defence Secretary Robert M. Gates and Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman.

The secretaries warn that without the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) program, which Congress has delayed, the United States will have to keep an inventory of older, non-deployed nuclear warheads. That would be in addition to the 1,700 to 2,200 Cold War-era warheads -- many whose useful life has been extended 20 years under the stockpile stewardship program.

The Gates-Bodman paper (a last attempt by the Bush administration to have an impact on future US nuclear weapons policy) warns, in the strongest terms yet, that the stockpile stewardship program will soon have to modernize so many components and materials that the weapons may no longer be reliable.

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Sirens? What sirens? Seabrook nuke plant to run siren test Oct 25th

We thought we’d do a public service today for the people on America’s eastern seaboard, especially those living in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Thanks goes to Susan Morse for her article on the Seacoastline web pages.

On Saturday, Oct. 25, at 12:30 p.m., all 121 Seabrook nuclear power plant emergency sirens will sound in an audible demonstration of the system. The local authorities ask that people don’t call the local police when this happens. A spokesman said: You’re not supposed to call 911, you’re supposed to turn your radio on."

FPL Energy Seabrook Station, in conjunction with the state Division of Homeland Security and Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, are setting off the sirens so people will know what they sound like and what to do when they hear them.

What people should do when they hear the siren is to tune to their local emergency radio station. In New Hampshire, this is WOKQ at 97.5 FM. In Massachusetts, it’s WBZ at 1030 AM, 1450 AM, 93.7 FM and 92.5 FM.

The 121 sirens are located within a ten-mile radius of the nuclear power plant. There are 94 sirens in 17 towns in New Hampshire, including Portsmouth and 27 are within 6 towns in Massachusetts.

China needs to come clean over nuke capability

With the media spotlight leaving China after the Olympics, here’s something that may make you pause and think, courtesy of Bill Gertz reporting for The Washington Times web pages.

China continues to resist disclosing details of its strategic nuclear weapons programs despite exchanges and discussions with the US during the past two years, defence officials say.

One indicator of the problems has been that Gen. Jing Zhiyan, commander of China's nuclear forces, has not visited the U.S. Strategic Command or the United States despite a promise in 2006 from Chinese President Hu Jintao to President Bush that the general would lead a delegation for talks.

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said, however, that though the nuclear discussions are going slowly, they are making progress. So, no worries there, then…

Rumours of ZZ Top sighting at Sellafield denied

As we disappear off on our annual hols (and not a moment too soon, apparently !) we thought we’d leave you with this little gem sent to us recently.

A group of contractors were sent home from Sellafield nuclear power plant recently, after being told their stubble breached health and safety laws. The 15 men, who were removing asbestos, were sent home because their chin fluff stopped their mouth masks from sealing against their faces.

The contractors were working at the plant in Cumbria, but two days into the job, they were ordered to go home and shave. A spokesman said: 'It is essential that workers are clean-shaven to ensure safety masks seal on the face. Failure to be is a clear breach of health and safety. Why they attended the site without being clean shaven is a question for themselves.' Any references to ZZ Top will be studiously ignored…


"Hot tub" reactors? Pull the other one!

The following could bring a whole new meaning to the “Not in My Back Yard” argument, according to Nick Loris writing on the Heritage Foundation’s blog pages recently.

 Hyperion Power Generation, Inc. is looking to commercialise small, nuclear reactors for remote locations as soon as 2013. The reactors, developed at the reputable Los Alamos National Laboratory, are the size of a hot tub and buried under ground; it is impossible for them to melt down or be broken down into weapons. Furthermore, the amount of nuclear waste one of these reactors produces after about 5 years is so small it could be reprocessed for more energy.

These ‘hot tubs’ pump out enough electricity to power around 20,000 average – sized homes.

Toshiba has some stake in this game, as well. They’ve been working on a 20 feet by 6 feet reactor that would produce electricity at about half the price of regular grid electricity.

Ohio waste recycling centre 'on hold' but not off list

The following was found on the pages of the Chillicothe Gazette’s web pages and filed by Malia Rulon.

The federal government's plans to bring a so-called nuclear waste recycling facility to the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio, appear to be put on hold, possibly for good.

Last month the US department of energy announced it would not select a site for the planned reprocessing facility, as expected. In a notice published July 10, the department said it had received 14,000 comments on the controversial Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, called GNEP, a Bush administration plan to deal with the nation's spent nuclear power plant fuel.

Angela Hill, a spokeswoman for DOE, said the change of course doesn't mean Piketon is off the list of 11 possible locations for the GNEP project, it just means that the list has been set aside. "What we're looking at is the larger, broader picture," she said.

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'Houston', we have a leak: Japanese concerns over US submarine 'La Jolla' visit

Here’s something that passed us all by (probably) thanks to the English pages of China View.

A U.S. nuclear-powered submarine arrived at the U.S. naval base in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture on Monday. The submarine "La Jolla", with a displacement of 6,080 tons, came amid widespread concerns in Japan over radioactive leakage by another Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine "Houston" when it called at the port in March.

Dozens of local people rallied near the base, demanding that the nuclear submarine should not be allowed into the port until its safety was confirmed. "La Jolla, go away," they chorused.

On Saturday, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said in a press interview that they were informed that Houston began leaking radioactive substances when it travelled to Sasebo in March during its tour around the Pacific. The interview came after a CNN report, which had been confirmed by the U.S. Navy, revealed Friday that Houston was found leaking traces with radioactivity during a regular check up in Hawaii in July.

 

Who threw away those uranium hexaflouride cannisters?

Here’s a cautionary tale about the importance of looking what you’re doing (especially when working with uranium) from South Carolina brought to you by Andrew Shain writing for The State web pages. Westinghouse’s nuclear fuel plant in Columbia could face nearly U$100,000 in fines from federal regulators because a worker accidentally threw away vials of low-grade uranium.

 

Plant workers discovered in February that 16 sample vials containing a total of 4½ ounces of uranium hexafluoride were missing. The vials with the gel-like material are shipped inside cushioned, six-gallon steel containers. Lab technicians then remove the vials from the canisters to test the uranium.

 

An employee threw away the canisters, believing they were empty, said Jackie McCoy, spokeswoman for the plant, which annually produces enough nuclear fuel to provide 10% of the USA’s electricity.

 

Company officials using radiation detectors searched the plant, a scrap metal recycling facility, a metal shredding facility in Spartanburg and a landfill in Elgin. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission also searched, but nothing was found.

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Barnwell (SC) closes doors to out of state nuke waste

With thanks to Rory Sweeney, reporting for North Eastern Pennsylvania’s Times Leader web pages for this information. The only facility available for disposing certain levels of radioactive waste in Barnwell, South Carolina, closed its doors to Pennsylvania and 36 other states on July 1, meaning  waste producers will have to hold onto their waste until a new site is found.

Currently there are three disposal facilities in America for low-level radioactive waste, but one site is open only to a coalition of 11 western states. A second in Utah accepts only the lowest level of waste. The third (Barnwell) accepted the other two levels of low-level waste, but now does so only from the states in its coalition – Connecticut, New Jersey and South Carolina.

That leaves the 36 states with no place to send their B- and C-level wastes, which include medical wastes, certain material from nuclear reactors, both research and commercial, and some sensing equipment that includes radioactive components.

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US military misplaces nuke missile components

Here’s a tale of military incompetence, brought to you by Demetri Sevastopulo, reporting for the FT’s web pages.

The US military cannot locate hundreds of sensitive nuclear missile components, according to government officials familiar with a Pentagon report on nuclear safeguards. One official said the number of missing components was more than 1,000.

Robert Gates, US defence secretary, recently fired both the chief of staff and secretary after an investigation blamed the Air Force for the inadvertent shipment of nuclear missile nose cones to Taiwan. Mr Gates added that the Pentagon was evaluating the results of an inventory of all nuclear-related materials that had been conducted to re-establish "positive control" of such components.

This incident has raised concerns about US nuclear safeguards as Washington presses other countries to bolster counter-proliferation measures.

 

 

 

Atel puts in application for Swiss nuclear power plant

Thanks to World Nuclear News for this one. Swiss energy company Atel has submitted an application for framework approval of a new nuclear power plant to Switzerland’s Federal Office of Energy.

The Niederamt plant would be built alongside the Gösgen nuclear power plant, in which Atel owns a 40% stake, but would be independent of the existing plant. No reactor design is specified in the application, other than a "third generation light water reactor" that would use a virtually vapour-free "hybrid" cooling tower.

 Kernkraftwerk Niederamt AG (KKN), a 100% Atel-owned subsidiary, has been set up with responsibility for planning, building and operating the new and for obtaining the necessary approvals. Atel says it is looking for partners in the project and is currently talking to "various interested parties," including the operators of Switzerland's nuclear power plants. KKN envisages that the new plant could start up in 2021-2023.

 

Arnie's state aims for 30 new nuke plants by 2015

Our thanks to Glenn Gilbert, reporting for the Oakland Press. It has taken $4-per-gallon gasoline to get to this point, but the issue appears headed for some serious debate.

Mike Rogers, a Brighton Republican whose district includes much of northern Oakland County, California, aims to have 30 new nuclear plants online as part of his energy independence plan for the United States to attain energy independence by July 4, 2015. He says that will save 150,000 barrels of oil per day.

The climate-change movement is helping to fuel what amounts to a renaissance for nuclear power. Fossil fuels such as coal are considered harmful to the environment.

A spokesman was quoted as saying that nuclear power "is a great carbon footprint solution. Nuclear is a really good fit with the environmental climate."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Titanic search cover-up for nuke sub inspection

Seeing as there has been quite a few stories about submarines doing the rounds lately, here’s a very interesting story for you and one that made us think ‘Hello….’ thanks to Lewis Smith writing for the Times On-Line pages. Bob Ballard, the man who located the wreck of the Titanic in 1985, has revealed that the discovery was a cover story to camouflage the real (top secret) mission of inspecting the wrecks of two Cold War nuclear submarines – the USS Thresher and USS Scorpion. “We handed the data to the experts. They never told us what they concluded – our job was to collect the data. I can only talk about it now because it has been declassified.”

Both of the United States Navy vessels sank during the 1960s, killing more than 200 men and giving rise to fears that at least one of them, Scorpion, had been sunk by the USSR.

He was told that the military were not willing to spend a fortune on locating the Titanic, but they did want to know what had happened to their submarines. The military were anxious to know how the nuclear reactors had been affected by being submerged for so long.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Security breakdown at 3 Mile Island 'not serious'

This typical American non-story comes to you thanks to Garry Lenton, reporting for the Patriot News web pages. A breakdown in security procedures at Three Mile Island last summer was of moderate to serious significance, federal regulators concluded. Public safety was not jeopardized by the incident, which was first reported to the agency by plant operator AmerGen Energy.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will increase inspections at the plant for at least a year to ensure that corrections have been made, said Neil Sheehan, agency spokesman.  Beyond that, the NRC is saying little about the incident, except that it did not involve inattentive or sleeping security officers. Now, where have we heard that before I wonder?

The NRC rates such incidents by colour coding ranging from green to red: apparently, in this case, it rated ‘greater than green…’ well no worries there then.

 

 

 

 

Raccoon causes stoppage at Mississippi plant

With grateful thanks to those nice people at Reuters for the following.  Entergy Corp's 1,266-megawatt Grand Gulf nuclear power station in Mississippi returned to full power yesterday (Thursday) after having reduced the unit to 48% on Wednesday.  Power was lost after a raccoon crawled into one of the switchgears at the plant!  Only in America, people…

The Grand Gulf station, which entered service in 1985, is located in Port Gibson in Claiborne County, about 130 miles north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

On a more serious note: In February 2007, Entergy filed with the NRC through NuStart Energy Development LLC for permission to build one of General Electric Hitachi's 1,550 MW Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactors (ESBWR) at Grand Gulf. The company however has not yet decided whether it will build the new reactor.

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Opponents want cost details from Duke Energy

With thanks to John Murawski, writing for The Charlotte Observer’s web pages for this one.

Nuclear opponents are trying to force Duke Energy of Charlotte to disclose the projected cost of a proposed nuclear plant in Cherokee County, S.C., that would serve the Carolinas. The groups have asked officials in both states to require that Duke disclose the estimate. Regulators for both South and North Carolina are expected to rule on the request soon – although by the time you read this, they may have done so already.

Duke Energy will have to reveal the project cost when it seeks a permit in South Carolina, but such a disclosure may be a year away. Nuclear opponents say the public shouldn't have to wait that long for vital information about such an important decision.

Cost estimates are available to state regulators, public officials and lawyers who sign confidentiality agreements. North Carolina's Public Staff agrees with Duke that the cost estimate qualifies as a trade secret under N.C. law.

 

North East could become major force in nuke power industry

Thanks goes to Owen McAteer, writing in the Northern Echo. The North East could become a major force in the nuclear power industry, the way it was for coal, the former head of British Nuclear Group believes. Lawrie Haynes put the case in favour of nuclear power at a debate in Yarm, near Stockton, organised by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE).

He said it was "inevitable" that nuclear power would become a major source of the UK's energy and that the North East could become a key hub.

In January, British Energy, owners of Hartlepool power station, revealed plans to build a replacement reactor that would safeguard 700 jobs. The announcement followed the Government's support for a new generation of nuclear power plants. Mr Haynes later said: "Nuclear power could provide us with the opportunity to develop a nuclear supply industry that could position an area as a keen contributor to the world market. I think there is a real opportunity for the North-East to step in and fill that vacuum."

 

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Iodine 129 found in cow's milk

The following comes under the ‘We don’t want to worry you, but…’ category found thanks to the Whitehaven news web pages, courtesy of Alan Irving.

Milk on a local farm in the Sellafield area has been contaminated by higher levels of radioactivity which has entered the food chain. Abnormal concentrations of iodine-129 have been detected and sampling is taking place at other farms in the area to see if there are any traces of the same contamination.

The Environment Agency has given an assurance that there has been no health risk from the radioactive iodine but how the increased amounts have got into the milk is still a mystery. Iodine 129 is said to be present already in local milk but in very low concentrations, sometimes undetectable. The higher levels have since gone down on the farm concerned.

The contamination was picked up by Sellafield’s own monitoring team, which routinely samples milk around local farms.

 

Californians against new weapons complex

This was filed by Danielle MacMurchy for the Tracey Press web site. The public was invited to speak out for or against a new nuclear weapons complex proposed by the National Nuclear Security Administration at a public hearing held in California yesterday (Tuesday.)

During the first informal hour, people had a chance to check out booths set up by the U.S. Department of Energy and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and hear the opposing perspective from Tri-Valley C.A.R.E.s, an anti-nuclear Lab watchdog. Afterward, each person who signed was allowed to speak for less than five minutes during the public comment portion.

Ted Wykadocument manager for the nuclear weapons complex’s environmental impact statement,  was due to give a half-hour presentation on the administration’s plans to modernize the nuclear weapons complex.  Lauren Martinez, spokeswoman for NASA’s Livermore site office, added: “This is important for the public to know how we want to achieve a smaller, safer, more secure and less expensive nuclear weapons complex.”

 

 

 

 

Arnie thinks nuclear power has great future

With thanks to Keith Johnson writing for the Wall Street Journal. “I think nuclear power has a great future, and we should look at it again:” so said California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger when closing The Wall Street Journal’s “ECO:nomics” recent conference. While he understands some people might still be afraid of the nuclear option, most Three Mile Island analogies are “environmentalist scare tactics. The technology has advanced so much,” he said.

That was the message from the nuclear industry at the same conference, grappling with a question beguiling policy makers—and plenty of Environmental Capital readers: If coal is out of the question, and renewables are too small, how will America get its power if it keeps ignoring the nuclear elephant?

“The U.S. is far behind the rest of the world,” said Tom Christopher, a top executive at France’s Areva, which builds nuclear reactors. He chalks that up to bad nuclear economics a generation ago, a dwindling of home-grown tech, and a “dysfunctional licensing process” in the U.S.

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Russia wants to build nuke power station in Armenia

Russia has indicated that it will bid in a tender to build a nuclear power station in Armenia to replace an ageing Chernobyl-style plant that has provoked safety concerns, according to a recent Reuters report.

Armenia, which imports most of its energy, has said it will close down its Soviet-built Metzamor nuclear reactor only when it can add new generating capacity. The government said last year it would hold a tender to build a new 1,000 megawatt reactor at the site near Yerevan, which could be ready by 2016.

"The Armenian government will hold a tender for a new atomic station," Sergei Kiriyenko, the general director of Russia's Rosatom state nuclear holding company, said on a visit to Yerevan. "We will take part and we have good chances of winning."

 

 

 

 

 

St Lucie files lowest-level incident report

Here is an almost non-story from the pages of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, filed by Gabriel Margasak. The St. Lucie nuclear power plant on Hutchinson Island, Florida, declared the lowest-level type of unusual event emergency recently after a hydrogen gas leak. No one was hurt and there were no radiation leaks or danger to the public, officials said.

The incident at the St. Lucie Plant was the last of three unrelated leaks of different sorts there since August of last year, but none resulted in injuries or contamination outside the plant, federal and FPL officials said. Director of nuclear communications, April Schilpp, said, "None presented any danger to the public."

Roger Hannah, a public affairs officer for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission added: "We're not concerned about St. Lucie's ability to operate the plant safely."

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Areva & Total want to build in Abu Dhabi

The following was found thanks to AFP & Yahoo.  French nuclear giant Areva, oil company Total and utility group Suez have reached agreement on plans to build two next generation nuclear power plants in Abu Dhabi.  The two plants would be based on the third-generation system developed by Areva, the world's largest nuclear power group.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy went on a three-nation tour of Gulf Arab states, having offered to share France's expertise in civilian nuclear technology with the Islamic world.

France and the United Arab Emirates are to sign a framework accord for cooperation in developing civilian nuclear energy, a source close to talks between the two governments said earlier.

Amid concerns over Iran's nuclear ambitions, the six Arab monarchies of the Gulf decided to develop a joint nuclear technology programme for peaceful uses.

 

 

British wanted to build reactors in Tehran in '77

The following item comes to light, thanks to the ’30 year rule’ regarding the UK Government’s wheeling and dealing in the past and, of course, Iran’s Press TV web pages.  The 1977 British government records show London was secretly negotiating with Tehran to build 20 nuclear reactors for the Shah of Iran.

Following talks with the head of Iran's atomic energy program at the time, senior UK civil servants predicted Tehran would obtain the technology to build nuclear weapons - from Britain - by the end of the 20th century. In a note to Prime Minister James Callaghan, Britain's energy secretary Tony Benn said Iran would invest millions of pounds in pressurized water reactor technology in return for Britain's agreement to supply the reactors.
 
The project was postponed when the Shah fled Iran in 1979.

 

Russia looks for Uruguay cooperation in nuclear energy field

Russia is looking for cooperation with Uruguay in the field of nuclear energy, Sergei Koshkin (the Russian ambassador to the Latin American state) said recently. 'Our countries could maintain cooperation in the sphere of nuclear energy although Uruguay's legislation bans the use of nuclear energy.'

The diplomat said Uruguayan officials had also shown interest in a floating nuclear power plant. As we mentioned last year, Russia is currently building the world’s first floating nuclear power plant which should be ready to roll in 2011.

Koshkin said Uruguay's legislation would not have to be amended as Russian specialists could tow a plant to its coast and build a power line so that Uruguay could buy electricity. Russia could also undertake to provide maintenance of the plant and its subsequent disposal, he added

 

Turkey plans first nuclear plant by 2012

Due to a projected lack of balance between supply and demand in energy production in 2008, Turkey is planning to open its first nuclear power plant by 2012 in Sinop province of the Black Sea region and two more by 2020. In conjunction with this Russia has expressed interest in purchasing the waste to be produced by the nuclear plants, rendering the waste problem a moot point for Turkey.

The Turkish Atomic Energy Agency (TAEK) has presented a report on nuclear power plants which includes appropriate locations for constructing nuclear plants in Turkey. The years-long search has shown that the Sinop Inceburun Peninsula is a prime spot, far from the seismic belt and devoid of the problem of cooling water. The peninsula is located outside of settled areas, and the Black Sea would provide the necessary cooling, the report suggests.

Global giants of the nuclear sector, such as Westinghouse and Mitsubishi, began keeping their eye on Turkey following the government's announcement that it would launch bids for nuclear power plants in 2008

 

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Possible expansion at Yucca Mountain

The Bush administration has asked Congress for permission to expand the nuclear facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, as the planned facility would not be able to store all the spent waste safely.  If this was not approved the Energy Department would probably ask Congress’s permission next year for a second site to be built at Yucca. 

Nevadans and environmental groups believe that Yucca would not be able to store waste there safely for 1,000 years.

 

 

 

 

 

Bush approves significant weapon reduction

This little gem was found on the web pages of the International Herald Tribune. President Bush has approved "a significant reduction" in the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, cutting it to less than one-quarter its size at the end of the Cold War, the White House said recently. At the same time, the Energy Department announced plans to consolidate the nuclear weapons complex that maintains warheads and dismantle those no longer needed. 

White House press secretary Dana Perino said: ‘We are reducing our nuclear weapons stockpile to the lowest level consistent with America's national security and our commitments to friends and allies. A credible deterrent remains an essential part of U.S. national security, and nuclear forces remain key to meeting emerging security challenges.’

For you number - crunchers out there: there are believed to be nearly 6,000 warheads that either are deployed or in reserve and, under terms of a 2002 arms control treaty with Russia, the U.S. is committed to reducing the number of deployed warheads to between 1,700 and 2,200 by 2012. Well, no worries there, then

 

Sleeping guard found at White Plains site

The following nugget is the kind of thing that makes my job worthwhile, thanks to the First Coast News web site: White  Plains,  N.Y.  A federal inspector found an armed guard asleep at a gate inside the Indian Point nuclear power plants but officials said there was no security breach.

The inspector spent two minutes trying to rouse the unnamed guard before he "stood up and opened his eyes," said Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The five-year veteran was alone on the second of three security rings around the two plants in Buchanan, about 35 miles north of New York City, but all other security measures at the gate remained operational.
  Tapes showed there was no breach but Sheehan later said “that doesn’t make it any less serious..”

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US State Port Authority:'We don't handle nuclear waste'

Found on the Tennessean web pages: An American company that disposes of radioactive nuclear waste by burying it wants to ship 20,000 tons of the material from overseas through ports in Charleston and New Orleans. Energy Solutions Inc. wants to ship about 200,000 cubic feet of waste into the United States, process it in Tennessee before burying it at a site in Clive, Utah, where the company is based.

A spokesperson for Energy Solutions said that it is a leader in the safe handling and disposal of radioactive solutions.

However, there is a stumbling block to overcome: Byron Miller, spokesman for the State Ports Authority said: ‘We don’t handle any radioactive materials.

 

Train carrying waste jumps tracks

Found recently on the pages of The Charlotte Observer:  Two cars on a train carrying spent radioactive nuclear fuel jumped the tracks at the Shearon Harris nuclear plant about 25 miles southwest of Raleigh, North Carolina, Progress Energy said recently.

No one was injured in the accident, and the waste -- transported in 75-ton reinforced concrete casks -- was undamaged. Human error has been cited as the cause of the accident; a spokesman for the nuclear plant said: "It was a miscommunication about whether or not the preparations on the actual track had been made in order to move the train."

 

In case you were wondering, the train remained upright as it was only travelling at around 4 mph

 

More inspections due at Peach Bottom

This tale comes with thanks to Matthew Santoni writing for the Examiner web pages: Federal investigators plan more inspections at Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, because of continuing concerns emerging from an investigation into guards caught sleeping on the job (what is it with US security guards?  This is the second story we’ve run on this subject this year).

Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors will visit the nuclear power plant over the coming year to ensure that operator Exelon Nuclear has taken adequate steps to deal with the sleeping guards and the supervisors who never reported them.

One guard at the plant secretly videotaped others sleeping on the job last summer after his complaints to supervisors went unheeded, then released the tapes to a New York TV station.

 

Three hospitalised in Bahrain Airport scare

Officials recently scrutinised the handling of a radiation scare at Bahrain International Airport, which put three men in hospital, according to a recent report in the Gulf Daily News. Three Nepalese porters were transferring radioactive material from one Gulf Air flight to another when it was thought one of the containers had leaked.

They were taken to Salmaniya Medical Complex (via a Bahrain Airport Services vehicle!) and were isolated until tests showed them free from any radioactive contamination. Authorities said later that wetness on one of the containers of radioactive medical waste turned out to be harmless condensation and that taking the men to hospital was just a precaution.

Interior Ministry officials said they had not been informed about the incident by airport authorities and that the first they heard of it was from the SMC Accident and Emergency Department doctors

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Mafia trafficks illegal nuclear waste

This little gem may have passed you by, so here’s a report filed by Richard Owen on the Times online web pages. Anti-Mafia police in Italy are investigating eight former directors of the country’s energy agency for alleged illegal trafficking in nuclear waste and “clandestine production of plutonium”.

Francesco Basentini, head of anti-Mafia police at Potenza, in southern Italy, said that the former managers in the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment were accused of connivance with the Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian Mafia, and the ’Ndrangheta, the Calabrian Mafia. The accusation came after a 12-year inquiry into Mafia involvement in nuclear waste disposal.

 

Australia in path of Indonesia's proposed nuke station

Found on the Sydney Morning Herald website: Northern Australia would be at risk of nuclear fallout if Indonesia's proposed nuclear power station suffered a major failure, environmentalists said.

The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) said a university study 13 years ago - when Indonesia last raised the prospect of a nuclear power station - found the north of Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland "would be at substantial risk of receiving radioactive fallout" in the event of a major reactor failure.

Indonesia's government is expected to make a final decision soon on whether it will pursue nuclear energy, as it grapples with surging energy needs and is looking at building up to 4 power plants on Central Java’s Muria Peninsular.

 

Toyota & EdF to co-operate on new hybrid car

Electricite de France (EdF), the world's biggest nuclear power generator has joined with Toyota, the world's biggest car company, to advance plug-in hybrid vehicle technology.

EdF will run a fleet of four Toyota Prius hybrid cars
  which have been adapted to draw electric power from mains supply. The public road trial, which will involve the every-day driving of EdF staff, will begin this autumn in France and could be expanded to other European countries in future.

Experience gained from the project should help the pair develop Toyota's existing prototype technology to expand the use of electricity in transportation.

Current hybrid vehicles are primarily fuelled by traditional petrol or diesel available at filling stations.
However, the ability to plug a parked hybrid vehicle into mains supply for battery charges would mean that most short trips could be undertaken solely on electric power. Furthermore, using grid electricity would mean a car could be partly powered by low-carbon technologies like hydro, nuclear power or wind

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UK must keep ageing power stations

Found on the Reuters UK site with thanks to Pete Harrison.  Britain must keep its ageing nuclear power stations running as long as possible if it is to avoid a damaging shortage of power in five to seven years' time, British Energy Chief Executive Bill Coley said recently.

The nuclear power firm is assessing the economics of extending the lives of its Hinkley Point plant in southwest England and Hunterston plant in Scotland, both due to close in 2011.

Mr. Coley told Reuters: "What is critically important for the country is to operate all these units as long as we can.”  "When I take the company view of long-term power prices ... prices would support life extensions."

Britain is close to deciding whether to back a new generation of nuclear plants, which would boost the global industry as it recovers from the 1986 explosion at Chernobyl.

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Deep in the woods with 'son of star wars'

Picked up from the Sky news site: A former nuclear weapons base deep in a Czech forest is at the heart of a new Cold War-style row between Russia and the United States.

Paired with 10 missiles in Poland it will form a 'son of star wars' missile defence shield. The perceived threat is so-called rogue states like Iran or North Korea. The trouble is the Russians see the base, right on their doorstep, as a potential threat to them.

Nuclear expert Joseph Cirincione thinks they have a point. "Putin isn't making it up," he said. "Those radars could also track a Russian missile, and those interceptors could be tipped with nuclear weapons and be used for a pre-emptive attack on Russia."

 

 

US Energy Dept audit finds bomb components "misplaced"

This comes from a report filed recently through Reuters: A recent US Energy Department audit found that some facilities that handle the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile misplaced classified bomb components under their care.

The department's Inspector General also found there was confusion at the facilities over who was responsible for keeping track of weapons parts and recommended changes in how to better safeguard the parts. However, John Broehm, a spokesman for the department's National Nuclear Security Administration that oversees the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal, said his agency disagreed with the recommendations.

He said the parts, which he declined to identify, were later found

 

Support for nuke plants deteriorating

The following comes thanks to Elizabeth Souder’s article on the Dallas Morning News web site: Support for new nuclear power plants deteriorated slightly during the past two years among people living close to existing reactors, according to a recent survey by the Nuclear Energy Institute.

The institute said that 82 % of people living near nuclear power plants favour nuclear energy, and 71 percent are willing to see a new reactor in the neighbourhood.

Since the last survey, taken in 2005, nuclear power companies have announced plans to build nearly 24 more reactors across the U.S. and the government is streamlining the licensing process and offering loan guarantees to kick-start the industry. Of course the ‘X’ factor in all this is whether Americans will protest about having new plants in their back yards…

 

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Chickens to 'run' nuclear landmines

This little gem is rather old news, but there are things we just can’t pass by without a mention. According to the folks at the National Archive it was revealed back in 2004 that there was once a secret plan to build a nuclear landmine 'run' by live chickens.

Conceived during the Cold War, the seven tonne device was the size of small truck and was designed to be buried (or submerged) by a British Army retreating from Soviet forces.

Scientists working on the project realised that the bomb could fail in winter if vital components become too cold, so they explored ways of keeping the inner workings warm. One proposal put forward consisted of filling the casing of the nuke with live chickens, who would give off sufficient heat, prior to suffocating or starving to death, to keep the delicate explosive mechanism from freezing.

 

Top five nuclear countries own enough weapons to obliterate world

The five established nuclear powers - the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain - possess enough nuclear warheads to obliterate the world many times over.

Yet it is more than 30 years since they signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which includes a commitment to dismantle these weapons.

In the intervening period, the Cold War has ended but new nuclear threats have emerged. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, signed in 1970, is the most widely accepted arms control agreement.  Back in 2000 a total of 187 states had signed up to the agreement, the exceptions at that time being Cuba, Israel, India, and Pakistan.

The treaty obliges the nuclear powers never to transfer their nuclear technology to other countries, and forbids other countries from acquiring nuclear capability.  In turn, the nuclear powers are supposed to work towards the elimination of their stockpiles.

 

Test explosions at Sellafield 'a success'

Just in case you weren’t paying attention, here’s a bit of news from the BBC’s web site: Test explosions on giant cooling towers at the Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria have been declared a success.

Controlled blasts on four towers took place recently as a prelude to their demolition later this year. Experts detonated a charge on a small part of each of the 290ft (88m) high towers' shells. The demolition of the towers is part of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority's (NDA) plan to dismantle ageing facilities throughout the UK.

Jack Williamson, the cooling towers project superintendent, said: "The test was a real-time dry run of all the safety, engineering and communications systems that will be used on demolition day. It was an essential and valuable part of our preparatory work and I'm pleased to report that it was a success."

 

 

Peru waste sent back to Dounreay

Radioactive waste exported to Peru from Scotland almost 10 years ago has been returned to the Dounreay nuclear plant in Caithness. It was originally exported to Peru to be used for gas mantles, but as Peru has no specialist treatment or disposal facilities, moves began last year to return the material to Scotland.

It has emerged that 2.9 tonnes of thorium nitrate arrived safely at the site after a marathon sea and road trip from South America in an operation thought to cost £1.7m. A 12-strong team from Caithness travelled to Lima to prepare the waste for its month-long return journey.

The waste was originally produced at the Caithness nuclear plant as a by-product of reprocessing.

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Trouble at Georgian border

Never let it be said that we don’t get around! Georgian Border Police reported that it had detected radioactive emissions from scrap metal in a truck on the Georgian-Azerbaijani border on June 15. A Tbilisi-based TV station reported on June 19 that the Georgian Border Police had detected nuclear materials – a mixture of plutonium and beryllium – in a truck coming from Azerbaijan. The truck was sent back to Azerbaijan.

The Border Police, however, stressed in a statement that only very small traces had been detected on the scrap metal during a routine customs check. The truck was carrying different types of scrap metal and there was a trace of radiation found on one of the pipes. Relevant agencies were informed and the decision was made to send the truck and its cargo back to Azerbaijan.

 

Olkiluoto to receive new steam turbines

Sweden: Olkiluoto units 1 and 2 will receive new low-pressure steam turbines under a Eur100 million ($135 million) deal signed by owner Teollisuuden Voima Oy (TVO) and Alstom. Unit 1 will also receive a new generator.

TVO said that the work is part of its long-term development plan for the units, which are boiling water reactors built by Sweden's ABB Atom at the end of the 1970s. Originally rated at 690 MWe each, the power plants have undergone several technical improvements over the years to reach outputs of 870 MWe each, and increase their operational periods to 60 years. Between them they provide about 12% of Finland's electricity.

 

 

Australia may get uranium enriching facility

News from Down Under: Nuclear Fuel Australia Ltd will submit a preliminary feasibility study on building a facility to enrich domestically-sourced uranium. An advance briefing has already been submitted to John Howard's government.

The move comes shortly after the Australian Labour Party (ALP) voted to end its restrictive uranium mining policy and allow individual states to decide on new mines. The Uranium Mining, Processing and Nuclear Energy Review commissioned by the government said that nuclear power was prospective for Australia if significant costs were put on carbon emissions.

Future plans envisage a 3 million separative work unit (SWU) per year plant using Urenco 6th-generation centrifuge technology.

 

Uranium rods stored at Columbia Generating Station

Due to the US government’s refusal to reprocess spent uranium, unlike Europe and Japan, there are some worrying results when it comes to storing the uranium rods at various plants throughout the country.  Take for instance a story we found thanks to the Hanford News web site regarding storage at the Columbia Generating Station in the Pacific North-West (pictured).

When it was recently shut down in order to refuel its uranium rods the old ones were encased in special steel cylinders and concrete cases.  These were then ringed with razor wire fences and monitored by security cameras.  Apparently this scenario is common at dozens of other plants in up to 31 states, before they are shipped to Nevada (yep, you guessed it - Yucca)  along with other by-products, such as plutonium, to sit in the hot desert sun whilst they decide what to do with it all. 

 

Nuclear engineer accused of espionage

Mohammad Alavi, a former nuclear engineer, was accused of taking software back to Iran recently.  He told FBI agents that he left his job at the nation's largest nuclear power plant and moved to Iran to be closer to relatives. He took the software with him so he could show off to his family and friends there.

Alavi, who lived in the U.S. as a naturalized citizen for 30 years and worked at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station west of Pheonix, Arizona, for 16 years, is charged with violating a trade embargo with Iran, which carries a maximum penalty of 21 months in prison. Trial is set for July 3. The software he downloaded onto his personal laptop was part of an emergency-training package containing details of the plant's control rooms, reactors and designs. It is not classified, has no links to actual plant workings and can't be used to affect operations.

 

Germany should reconsider phasing out nuclear power

Found, courtesy of ReutersGermany should reconsider a plan to phase out nuclear energy or it will undermine the security of its power supply and make it harder to tackle global warming, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said.

If the plan to phase out atomic power by the early 2020s goes ahead, Germany is likely to be increasingly reliant on Russian natural gas, and burn more fossil fuels. As Chancellor Angela Merkel hosts a summit of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations  she will press for more concerted action on combating global warming, although dropping nuclear power would make this much harder. "While the phase-out threatens to result in higher overall emissions of carbon dioxide than today, it will certainly prevent Germany from reaching its full potential over the long term," the IEA said. "We strongly encourage the government to reconsider the decision to phase out nuclear power."

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Rosatom to undertake nuke plant feasability study

Rosatom (Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency) and United Company Rusal, the world's largest aluminium and aluminium oxide producer, made joint statements recently, explaining that they will undertake a feasibility study on an "energy metallurgical company comprising a nuclear power plant and an aluminium plant."

A working group is currently preparing a feasibility report which will specify the parameters of the nuclear power plant and the aluminium plant. Once that report is complete, at the end of the year, Rusal and Rosatom would prepare a schedule for the project which would be financed as a public-private partnership. The new plant is likely to be built in Siberia where Rusal already has other plants in operation including one in Krasnoyarsk

 

Finnish power companies launch EIA processes

Two Finnish power companies have launched environmental impact assessment (EIA) processes for the possible future construction of new nuclear power plants at the Loviisa and Olkiluoto sites.

Fortum, owner of the two-unit Loviisa plant, started the EIA process in April 2007, with completion expected in the third quarter of 2008. “With the EIA process, Fortum raises its preparedness to build a new nuclear power unit in Loviisa,” according to the company's senior Vice President Tapio Kuula.

 

Nuclear nations' arsenals contain 21,000 weapons

The nuclear nations' operational arsenals contain over 21,000 nuclear weapons and their militaries still retain hundreds of nuclear-armed launchers and nuclear-capable military units. The threat of a serious nuclear weapons accident has not disappeared; this is particularly the case where the arms race remains the most active. At sea where nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines still go on regular patrols at levels that have not changed much if at all from the height of the Cold War.  Here are just a couple of examples found by Greenpeace: 6 October 1986: The K-219, a Soviet Yankee class (Project 667A) nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine armed with 16 SS-N-6 missiles (two warheads each) and probably also two nuclear torpedoes, sank 600 miles northeast of Bermuda. It was powered by two nuclear reactors and 34 nuclear warheads were estimated to be on board.

 

Fire at Little Rock silo launches warhead

Meanwhile, back on land: 19 September 1980: A fire and explosion in a U.S. Titan II missile silo near Little Rock, Arkansas, blew off the silo door and catapulted the missile's 9 megaton yield warhead into the air. It landed over a 1,000 feet from the silo, but it was only slightly damaged

New warning sticker launched

.With radiating waves, a skull and crossbones and a running person, a new ionising radiation warning symbol is being introduced to supplement the traditional international symbol for radiation, the three cornered trefoil.  The new symbol, launched by the IAEA and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), is intended for IAEA Category 1, 2 and 3 sources defined as dangerous sources capable of death or serious injury, including food irradiators and industrial radiography units. The symbol is to be placed on the device housing the source, as a warning not to dismantle the device or to get any closer. It will not be visible under normal use, only if someone attempts to disassemble the device.

 

UK policy published for handling waste

A new UK policy for managing solid low level radioactive waste has been published setting out priorities for managing existing and future wastes from the nuclear energy industry and other sources. In creating a UK-wide strategy for managing low level nuclear industry waste, the government requires a plan for the optimal use of the country's existing LLW repository near Drigg, Cumbria.

The policy, published by the UK Government, follows a public consultation in 2006, and puts proving public safety at the forefront, while setting out a flexible approach to low level waste (LLW) management. The policy's key aim is not to be prescriptive but "to provide a high level framework within which individual LLW management decisions can be taken flexibly to ensure appropriate safe, environmentally-acceptable and cost-effective management solutions."

 

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EU nations to decide whether to go nuclear

Here’s one that may have passed you by, courtesy of those nice people at World Nuclear News: The European Council reached agreement on a plan that requires greenhouse gas emissions to be cut by at least 20% from 1990 levels by 2020.  The role of nuclear energy was one of the main debating points, with most countries supporting the role of nuclear power as a means of moving away from fossil fuels. The official conclusions were that each EU nation should decide whether to use nuclear power as opposed to fossil fuels: although it was noted that a recent European commission report said that nuclear energy could, indeed, contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions!

 

Pacific Heron launched in Japan

The Pacific Heron, Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd's (PNTL's) newest ship, has been launched at the Tamano shipyard in Japan where it is currently being built by Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding.

The launch of the 4500 t ship on 10 May took place in front of a number of senior European and Japanese nuclear industry representatives. The $60 million vessel has now been towed to an outfitting berth where its construction will be completed. The Pacific Heron is expected to be delivered to PNTL in November 2007 and to arrive at its home port of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, UK, in early 2008.

Just in case you were interested, the Pacific Heron is an INF 3 certified vessel under the INF Code of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). The INF Code regulates shipments by sea of used nuclear fuel, plutonium and high-level radioactive waste. PNTL's ships have cargo compartments protected by a reinforced double hull together with back-up availability of all essential systems to ensure the safety of shipments of radioactive materials.

 

 

Grave robbing at Sellafield

The government is to investigate union claims that nuclear workers who died in the 1960s and 70s may have had body parts removed without consent. The GMB said that samples were taken from up to 70 former employees at Sellafield in Cumbria. British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), which owns Sellafield, confirmed autopsy material had been used for "legally correct" purposes such as inquests. The firm said it can prove instruction or consent for 61 out of 65 cases.

A government spokesman said Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling would appoint a leading QC to lead a "full, proper and independent investigation" into the matter.

 

Shifting into nuclear in Canada

The following story comes from the Toronto Sun web pages. Whitecourt, Alberta: The city council, together with an un-named oil company are hoping to introduce nuclear power to run the province’s oilsands production by 2016.  This notion was the result of a Calgary company teaming up with Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd and Energy Alberta is expected to file a site application to build a nuclear plant in either Whitecourt, or the town of Peace River further north.  This will cost an estimated $3 billion. This shift into nuclear power marks a renewed interest throughout Canada.

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US DoE launches GNEP initiative

The US Department of Energy (DoE) has announced a new strategic plan for Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) initiatives, including preparation of an environmental impact statement.

GNEP involves fresh fuel supply and used fuel take-back by the USA, as well as by Japan and Russia. Other likely candidates include France and the UK. The plan also involves developing and deploying advanced proliferation-resistant power reactors appropriate for the grids of developing countries, and enhanced safeguards to prevent misuse of nuclear materials.

 

What if a plane lands on a nuclear plant? Find out here

WASHINGTON - What if an airplane were to crash into a nuclear plant? How long would it take terrorists to penetrate security barriers outside nuclear facilities? What are the most vulnerable parts of a nuclear plant to attack in order to inflict maximum damage? Click to find out just how easy it was to find these things out…

The Monticello nuclear power plant in Minnesota remains shut down indefinitely, as an investigation continues into why a large metal component broke loose inside the plant, federal officials said recently. A 35,000-pound control box fell off a steel beam inside the plant, triggering safety systems that shut down the nuclear reactor automatically.

 

The incident was outside the reactor, and no radiation was released, federal and company officials said

 

Bush & Kerry agree on nuclear threat

Dateline: USA, 2004 - In a rare moment of agreement, George Bush and John Kerry both declared nuclear proliferation as the single most serious threat facing the United States. Their bipartisan concern followed revelations that the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb - A. Q. Khan - had sold nuclear secrets to Libya, Iran, and North Korea.

 

Toshiba go north to Alaska

Back in 2003, the Japanese corporation Toshiba wanted to thrust the Alaskan community of Galena into the international limelight by donating a new, unconventional electricity-generating plant that would light and heat the Yukon River village pollution-free for 30 years.  The catch?  It was a nuclear reactor!  The question? Was it ever built??

 

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Sustainable talks go on at UN

Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Canada, India and Russia were among countries who flagged up the role of nuclear in sustainable development during intergovernmental talks.

The Intergovernmental Preparatory Meeting took place prior to the 15th session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-15) which will be held at UN Headquarters in New York between 30 April and 11 May. In its statement to the session on Energy for Sustainable Development, Canada reiterated its commitment to the development of innovative energy technologies, including its role in developing Generation-IV reactors.

 

 

 

 

 

Yakama lawsuit rejected by US DoE

From the Baltimore Sun: The Department of Energy is asking a federal judge to dismiss some claims in a lawsuit brought by the Yakama Nation for natural resource damage at the Hanford, Washington, nuclear reservation. The Yakama Nation is alleging that the federal government has failed to adequately assess the harm to natural resources caused by nuclear contamination from the past production of plutonium

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World needs 20-fold nuke energy expansion

The world needs a 20-fold expansion in nuclear energy in order to prevent dangerous climate change, the head of the World Nuclear Association said at a conference in Sydney. He also said nuclear power was the only way to fuel fast-developing nations without big rises in greenhouse gases, and that nuclear weapons are an unrelated issue. His comments were condemned by environmental groups.

 

Nuclear engineer pleads guilty

Pittsburgh –Mark Kaushansky, a former nuclear engineer accused of helping a former Russian official steal more than $9 million earmarked for improving the safety of that country's Chernobyl-style reactors pleaded guilty recently to conspiracy and tax evasion.

 

Disaster in Iran could force mass evacuation

Here’s a thought for a Monday: a nuclear disaster in Bushehr, Iran, could force a mass evacuation of Bharain and make the country - along with coastal areas of the Gulf- uninhabitable, according to an expert.

 

Bush administration 'focused on Iran'

The Bush administration is very focused these days on Iran's nuclear program. This focus has only sharpened in the aftermath of the IAEA’s recent report that Iran continues to enrich uranium in defiance of a UN Security Council demand. "A nuclear-armed Iran is not a very pleasant prospect for anybody to think about," Vice President Dick Cheney told ABC News. Asked if the administration would continue to pursue diplomacy, the vice president said that the President had  made it clear that they hadn’t  taken any options off the table (In White House speak – read  ‘military action’).

As oil, coal, and gas become increasingly expensive, energy utilities are taking another look at nuclear power. The nuclear reactor builders are jostling for business as more than 26 plants may be ordered or constructed over the next five years.

 

Oz cabinet's lack of enquiry 'daft'

News from Down Under – June ’06:Cabinet’s failure to consider whether a nuclear reactor would be a terrorist target before ordering an inquiry into nuclear energy was "daft", the Australian Greens said. Justice Minister Chris Ellison said cabinet did not take terrorism into account when deciding to set up the inquiry because it was looking into energy sources.

 

Suicide at Russian facility

Russian conscript Ivan Shinkaryov flipped the safety catch on his rifle and shot himself dead. It was sad but unremarkable: what made the suicide stand out was the fact that Shinkaryov was part of a unit guarding a facility that produces weapons-grade plutonium and stores tons of radioactive waste.

 

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Nuke power stations very robust

Just in case you were worried: Nuclear power stations are amongst the most robust civil structures in the world and have a multi-layered defence against possible terrorist attacks. They are also subject to rigorous security arrangements

Brown's Ferry returns to service

Browns Ferry 1, a boiling water reactor that first supplied 1100 MWe to the grid in 1974, will return to service in 2007 uprated and refurbished to generate 1155 MWe. The chance is "better than 50/50" that the plant's owners would finish constructing one of three other reactors.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the change to Browns Ferry 1's rating on 6 March, after considering changes to the nuclear steam supply systems, instrumentation & control and electrical systems, and accident evaluations among other things

 

 

 

Nuclear bunker up for sale in Essex

Better late than never: Not convinced that the Cold War is over? Still worried that the 'Evil Empire' might yet strike back??   Well, get yourself down to Mistley in Essex, where a nuclear bunker has just come up for sale....

 

Reward offered for missing radioactive device

May 2005: an unidentified company offered a $500 "no questions asked" reward for a low-level radioactive portable moisture-density device stolen off a truck in South Carolina.  According to a spokesman, 'these only posed a threat if tampered with...'

 

Try this little quiz

If you have nothing better to do with your day, why not go to the World Nuclear Organisation web site (yes, them again) and have a go at their Nuclear Quiz – test your knowledge against the experts!

 

Nine reactors shut down during power out in US

August 14, 2003  was an historic day for the nuclear power industry, as nine nuclear reactors at seven power plants in New York, Ohio, Michigan, and New Jersey were forced to shut down during largest and most severe electricity blackout in U.S. history. 

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